Half-Life: Alyx is looking to be a fascinating project, and not just because it spells a return for the legendary franchise with its first major new instalment in years, or because it’s a VR exclusive. Among many other interesting pieces of information that have popped up about the shooter in recent days, the latest makes it clear that it’s going to be a completely single player experience, and that Valve isn’t currently planning any multiplayer modes for it.
Speaking with The Verge, Half-Life: Alyx programmer Robin Walker confirmed that Valve are designing the game as a traditional single player Half-Life experience. Fans should thus expect “a hand-crafted, meticulously designed path.” Though the game will often offer up branching paths and multiple ways to progress forward, at the end of the day the experience will still be a guided one, and all about forward momentum.
“We’re not planning on supporting any multiplayer modes at this point,” Walker said. “This is a traditional Half-Life experience, so it’s fundamentally a one-way journey. Half-Life has always been about experiencing a hand-crafted, meticulously designed path, where every space is the result of a team of people thinking about what’s in it and why it’s interesting.
“Some of those spaces afford multiple ways to navigate through them, but you’re always moving forward overall.”
Half-Life: Alyx – which fans can expect to be about as long as Half-Life 2 – launches exclusively for SteamVR compatible PC-based VR headsets in March 2020. Valve has also suggested that though it isn’t part of their launch plans, the PSVR might also get the shooter eventually.
