If you’ve been impressed by Half-Life: Alyx and wanted the same experience in a Half-Life 2 VR environment, you’re in luck. A new mod for the game, which has been in development for months, is set to launch in a little over two weeks’ time.
The Half-Life 2 VR mod essentially brings a Half-Life: Alyx experience to the 2004 FPS puzzler, giving an 18 year old video game a revival no one expected, and features the following enhancements:
- Full room-scale VR with tracked motion controls. Physically walk around, pick up objects and climb ladders the way that only Virtual Reality allows.
- Intuitive and realistic weapon interactions, with quick and easy weapon switching via a radial menu, ammo storage over your shoulder, functional iron-sights, two-handed weapons, and manual reloading.
- Control options including; full left-handed support, a laser sight, and arcade style “quick reload”.
- Comfort features like motion vignette and 3rd person vehicle camera. (Note: there is currently no teleport movement option.)
- Playable on any VR headset which is supported by SteamVR.
There is no word yet on a similar mod for Half-Life 2: Episode 1 and Episode 2, however.
But the big question is, will you be heading back to City 17 to play it?
I have a good reason for asking. A few weeks ago, I holidayed at Legoland Windsor Resort and queued most of the morning to experience the Flight of the Sky Lion ride.
Within seconds of “taking off” I wanted to get off. After a minute, I wanted to throw up. A similar thing occured a few years ago with the Star Wars Battle Pod arcade unit.
This is obviously a bit of a blow. I read that as we get older, the liquid in our inner ear begins to thicken, resulting in a slower correction of balance. Consequently, motion sickness is more likely to occur, and last for longer.
I’m someone who has never been wholly enthralled by the idea of virtual reality, certainly not in a “complete environment” way. The existence of Half-Life: Alyx has tempted me, but the idea of spending the best part of £1000 to throw up in my living room isn’t really selling itself.
As such, I will be – regrettably – skipping Half-Life 2 VR. I’m looking forward to finding out what everyone else thinks of it, though.
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