Good grief, they're gonna be so disappointed.
This isn't a game that had VR slapped on. The only reason Alyx exists is because Valve wanted to make a VR game. Without VR, there would be no Alyx. There is no standard/pancake HL being withheld from gamers. People just don't seem to get it.
Making this game into pancake mode is an interesting project but it's not gonna be anything like the same game without a total re-work of combat, enem...
You're right and I would also add that all enemies (they're too slow and too few for pancake mode) and combat situations would need to be re-worked too. Let's face it, it means making another game pretty much.
It's a fantastic game but you'd be sorely disappointed in standard format. Enemy movement, numbers and variety, most of the exploration and some of the puzzles would all have to be re-worked just to make it a 7/10 game.
Seriously, you're better off playing through HL2 and Ep1&2 again.
Agreed.
They also need to realise that Alyx only exists because of VR.
Some of these people seem to think it's a normal game shut away from them behind an arbitrary VR barrier slapped on top but they only made it because they wanted to show off VR's potential and create something amazing.
This is an important point you make, a point that people just don't seem to grasp. So many seem to think that Valve went and made a proper HL game and then stuck VR on as some kind of barrier to force people to buy Vives.
No, they did it to make a true VR experience, a VR game from the ground up, because the HL devs are interested in pushing the envelope and creating new experiences.
I'm not sure they're getting exposed.
One of the devs said he was actually hoping people would mod it soon so they can see that Valve were right all along, that without VR it's not much of a game. 'Butchered' was the word he used I believe.
I think you'd find the game underwhelming without VR. I know I would.
@jjb1981
I'm loving it too and agree with your viewpoint about Alyx.
I would be shocked if they made a standard HL3 at this point. The whole reason they didn't make it was because they were waiting for an innovative/revolutionary 'hook' to hang the game on.
VR is that hook, it is that tech. Alyx is the prototype and if HL3 gets made, I think it's highly likely it'll be VR like Alyx. Like you, I'd be fine w...
I'm not having a go at you here Fox, you're ok by me.
TL;DR = I know I'm just another random on the net but, for what little it's worth, just trust me. I'm half-way through and it feels amazing because, and only because, of VR.
Longer version = This game really doesn't have much going for it without of VR. In standard format it's, at best, a mildly amusing fps game and a short one at that. All you'll get is some HL at...
I think this Alyx developer from the actual article sums it up here.
"As a result, what I’m confident will happen is that when people get that butchered version, and they’ll have lost all the things that we’ll have got from moving to VR, they will then understand very clearly why we made that choice. There’s a part of me that’s eager for people to be able to have that experience and realise, ‘oh, now I get it. Now I see everything we lost in that transition back to non...
I like to think HL Alyx was their HL3 prototype.
It's fantastic and has gotten great reviews so hopefully that means they'll take this as the green light. We'll just have to see how commercially viable it ends up for them. Not that they need the money...
I just hope they'll make it conclude the story (they can always do spin offs) and that it'll be a 20 hour game or thereabouts.
"A mod will make the campaign playable, minus what makes it great."
Perfect way to sum it up in one sentence.
Some people seem to think VR is just/only a perspective change that puts you in the world, but the truth is that the entire feel of the experience and gameplay is built around it - from gunplay to puzzles to exploration to interaction, pretty much everything.
Precisely.
Some people seem to think it's a HL game being selfishly withheld from them for no good reason but it needs VR in order to be anything special. That's not a criticism btw, I've played it and think it's brilliant.
Yep, I agree with this completely.
I think people who feel they are missing out have got the wrong idea. This isn't a HL game like the others that's somehow being withheld from them behind a VR barrier.
Most of the elements in this game feel great precisely because it's VR. Combat, puzzles, exploration etc,.
Take that away and you've got a subpar game (by today's standards) that people will say is too easy and simp...
Well, if they manage it (hope they can), they'll also have to change more than the perspective. It'll need proper gameplay changes too.
I played yesterday for a couple of hours (it's fantastic - amazing attention to detail, incredible atmosphere and intuitive with easy, smooth controls) and enemies, particularly melee types, are very slow. It's understandable since you can't race around like you can with keyboard and mouse.
So yeah, ...
You're right. It would require Valve to be brave enough to release a game knowing there would be huge expectation and a group of people who would never be satisfied.
It's a shame because no-one was expecting them to be groundbreaking for Episode 3, they just wanted to get past that cliffhanger. As long as the level design was great and the story satisfying, it would have been gold.
@Sciurus_vulgaris
Yeah, that's an accurate way of putting it!
Heh, Valve did have a voice of their own and that voice said Ep3 would arrive a couple of years after Ep2 :) Fans weren't trying to decide anything for Valve, just listening to what they said would happen and then looking forward to it ;)
TL;DR All I'm saying is that if they really changed their minds and wanted the entire saga to finish on new hardware, with new tech, then they could have re-adjusted the overall story-arc and released Ep3 with a suitable segway, t...
I think the weight of their own ambitions just made Episode 3 seem impossible unless it was a full blown sequel and that in turn just seemed like too mammoth a task after HL2.
I agree.
People were happy with the way things were going. Many said Episode 2 was better than 1. They could have taken 2-3 years to make episode 3 and the public would have been happy, as long as the standards were kept high and the story was great.
In fact, I thought that was the whole point of going episodic, so that people didn't expect them to re-invent the wheel every time and that would take the pressure off.
Most VR games do when you're just watching, I've noticed that myself.
Honestly, you only really get what the game is like once you play, it's just the nature of VR. Arizona Sunshine and Gorn look boring as f&%k, but once I was playing I had a blast.
It's because you're 'in' the game and your body is, to a degree, the controller. It's weird but it just works somehow.