After almost 13 years since the last Half-Life game, Valve has officially confirmed a new title for the series – Half-Life: Alyx. The new game will release for VR, and according to Valve Software’s Twitter account, we’ll see a full reveal of the game on Thursday, November 22 at 10:00 AM Pacific Time.
‘HLVR‘, which many presumed to be an abbreviation of ‘Half-Life VR‘ has been leaked, rumoured and discussed amongst the community since 2016. However, we now have an official name for the game. Most of this was covered by Valve News Network.
Rumours of Half-Life: Alyx originated earlier today when an interview transcript between video-game journalist Geoff Keighley and Valve developers leaked. The nature of the interview supposedly revealed that a new Half-Life game was in the works. However, the rumour was generating attention due to Valve’s announcement back in 2017 that they’d been working on three VR games.
So one of the questions you might ask us is ‘Why in the world are we making hardware? So right now, we’re building 3 VR games. And what we can do now is to be designing hardware are the same that we’re designing software
Gabe Newell
The title of the game ‘Alyx‘ may sound familiar to fans of the series, being that it’s the name of the character Alyx Vance. She was first introduced in Half-Life 2. However, a VR game may not have been what fans had been asking for years, but it fits with Valve’s motif.
The series has always been about pushing the boundaries of tech, whether it be Half-Life’s 3D story-rich world or Half-Life 2‘s brand new physics. Locking the third game behind VR would definitely upset fans and so a spin-off is a fitting move. This also isn’t their first spin-off, as we’ve had Decay, Opposing Force and Blue Shift in the past, with the latter letting you play as Barney, who also appeared in Half-Life 2.
Currently, we’re unsure when Half-Life: Alyx will take place in the Half-Life timeline but leaks that have, so far come true, seem to suggest that it will be a prequel set during the 7-hour-war. However, we won’t have to wait for much longer as all sorts of information will be revealed on Thursday. Stay tuned for updates.
Let us know down in the comments if you’re excited for a new Half-Life game, and if a VR Half-Life game is something you’re interested in!
