Join Brando and two new guests, “Jman” Jackson and Dan, as they discuss one of VR's killer apps and best games of all time, Half-Life: Alyx. This postmortem discussion broadly covers many of the elements of the game, including the complete narrative and gameplay mechanics. The game is reviewed and recommended in this episode, and plenty of interesting facts about the development of the game (from Geoff Keighley's Final Hours of Half-Life: Alyx) are shared. Plenty of jokes and laughs abound in this one. It's a great one, I hope you enjoy it! Jackson's Twitch Dan's LinkedIn
Show Outline
Intro
New guest introductions (welcome welcome)
Have we all played the half life games? I haven’t played uh the first ones expansions like blue shift or opposing force or whatever
Game introduction
Was developed and published by Valve
Had inclusions from two of their very distinguished writers, Jay Pinkerton (Who co-wrote Portal 2), and Erik Wolpaw (who helped cowrite Portal 2, and helped write Portal & Half-Life 2). These two RETURNED to Valve to help REwrite the story after internal feedback on the story they had in place from a new writer at Valve.
Music composed by Mike Morasky who has also done work on Team Fortress 2, the Left 4 Dead series, Portal 2, Counter Strike: G.O. and more
Wanted to bring up these prominant figures specifically to showcase that it is remarkable that “OLD BLOOD” aka people who helped with some of Valves defining titles worked on this game... Especially when it comes to an IP that’s existed since practically the dawn of PC gaming, and one that has lain dormant since 2007. Which is freaking insane to me. It captures all the essence of old valve because it IS old Valve.
Awards
At the 17th British Academy Games Awards, it was nominated for “Best Game”, “Game Direction”, “Audio Achievement”, and “Artistic Achievement”.[92]
Half-Life: Alyx won “Game of the Year” at the 2020 VR Awards.
At The Game Awards 2020, it was nominated for “Best Game Direction”, “Best Audio Design”, and “Best Action”, and won for “Best VR/AR” game.[90][91]
Development cycle? Might talk about this
Brandon considering bringing final hours of Half life ALYX facts (praise the Geoff)
Spitfire opinions/ recommendations off the cuff
Think of if there’s a subset of players that wouldn’t like it?
Story pt.1 (& supporting HL lore?)
uhhh maybe surmise plot of half life games in like 5 min or less?
Game is set 5 years before Half-life 2
Milquetoast synopsis from wikipedia
Earth has been conquered by the alien Combine, who have implemented a brutal police state. In City 17, Alyx and her father Eli are arrested by Combine forces as part of a crackdown on the Resistance. Their fellow Resistance member Russell rescues Alyx and warns her that the Combine are planning to transport Eli to Nova Prospekt for interrogation.
basically chapter 1
get “the russels” and a pistol
Russel is a good fellow v. funny
half life 1 & 2 start with a train ride - alyx also has one (it’s just at the end of the intro)
Alyx ventures into the city’s quarantine zone, where she meets a vortigaunt named Gary. He asks her to save his fellow vortigaunts and foresees that Eli will die. Alyx derails the train carrying Eli, who is rescued from the wreckage by Gary. While in Combine custody, Eli learned that they were storing a superweapon in a vault inside the quarantine zone. He instructs Alyx to find the vault and retrieve its contents.
Chapter 2
GARY - implies ELI will die and says to follow The NORTHERN STAR
first interaction with headcrab zombie in quarantine zone
Chapter 3
get the flashlight and go through spooky dark tunnels (terrifying)
Eli saved by GARY (kinda genius moment in VR)
learn about combine superweapon in vault - follow NORTHERN STAR
first encounter with combine soldiers
Chapter 4
Northern star is a hotel lol
can see the vault in this chapter
Chapter 5
lightning dog (spicy headcrab electric boys)
northern star infested with xen stuff
Chapter 6
make your way to distillery
first encounter with manhacks
defuse the room full of trip mines
Deep cut of gameplay & game loop & game mechanics, etc.
Best telekinesis of any VR game period (IMO)
collect the ore pucks get the upgrade bucks (resin)
guns
pistol
Reflex Sight A display that will highlight target weak spots 10 Burst Fire Adds a three-shot burst mode 20 Bullet Reservoir Get 10 additional bullets before reload 30 Laser Sight Adds a laser sight that improves precision 35
combine smg
Reflex Sight A display that will highlight target weak spots 15 Laser Sight Adds a laser for improved accuracy 25 Extended Magazine Load multiple power cells at once. 30
shotty
Laser Sight Improves accuracy with a laser 10 Double Shot Fire a second shot right after the first 25 Autoloader Adds a shell feeder that allows for quick reloads 30 Grenade Launcher Send grenades flying toward enemies 40
uh grenades and xen grenades?
Brief aside on da graphics (and performance?)
What absolute wizards designed the bottle shaders???
Optimized enough that it works pretty flawlessly on my crap rig on low?? But looks GOD-TIER and real? Wizardry.
Story pt.2
Milquetoast summary from wikipedia again
Alyx fights past Combine forces and shuts down the power station keeping the vault aloft. She discovers that each station is powered by an enslaved vortigaunt. She rescues the station’s vortigaunt, who promises that his fellow vortigaunts will take down the remaining power stations. Eli contacts Alyx and warns her that the vault is not a superweapon but instead a prison built to contain something discovered by the Combine. Reasoning that the prison holds Gordon Freeman, Alyx crashes the vault to the ground. However, instead of finding Freeman inside, she releases the G-Man.
Chapter 7
LARRY warns you about JEFF
then JEFF
Scary and also terrified and also rip
jemf dies in trash compactor riparoni
this chapter was in development for 3 out of the 4 years of the development cycle. Originally had more combine in it but were cut to make room for the pure horror. More enemies added in the final chapter to balance that.
Chapter 8
first encounter with antlions(?)
ZOOO
learn the vault is actually a prison
Chapter 9
vortigaunts destroy the last power station keeping the vault floating
but it is kept floating by a backup generator
Characters theorize the vault is holding gordan freeman because of combine conversation about the individual suriving the black mesa incident
Chapter 10
alyx shuts down tractor beam and the vault comes crashing to earth
fight through lots of combine, including a strider
enters the vault after an interrupted warning from ELI
all weapons are taken
As a reward for freeing him, the G-Man offers his services to Alyx. She demands the removal of the Combine from Earth, but the G-Man says this would not be in the interests of his other “employers”. He instead teleports her five years into the future, and offers her the chance to change the outcome of Eli’s death at the hands of a Combine Advisor at the White Forest rocket facility. Alyx complies, killing the Advisor and saving her father. The G-Man informs Alyx that she has proven herself capable of replacing Freeman, with whom he has grown dissatisfied. He suspends her in stasis and leaves. Freeman regains consciousness at White Forest, and is reunited with Eli. Realizing that the G-Man has Alyx, Eli declares his intention to kill him and hands Freeman his crowbar.
Chapter 11 FINALE
Floating mcSilverware section
reality has gone wonky
Green hand balls of de-existence (vortigaunt ENERGY)
uh oh, not gordon freeman, but G MAN
gman offers a wish (but not world peace)
lets her go 5 years into the future to stop ELI from dying in HALF LIFE 2
G Man replaces gordon freeman with her
Gordon and Eli presume alyx has been captured by the combine/gman and join forces for what we all hope is the inevitable half life 3
Final Thoughts
What does this mean for the greater half life lore at large?
theories for half life 3? and/or the next half life VR game?
any final thoughts about game?
Small segment on Mods? Probably should talk about mods (source 2) if we haven’t mentioned it already
Conclusion
Overall recommendations with previous conversations in mind
worth buying VR for? was supposed to be VR’s “Killer App”. Did it accomplish that goal?
What kind of players do you recommend it to? What players do you not recommend it to?
Plug your socials and stuff
End of the episode
