Following 12 long years of speculation and waiting, Valve are finally announcing an addition to the popular Half Life franchise called Half Life: Alyx. While this is not exactly a Half Life 3, it is still pretty exciting to that Valve have not yet given up on the franchise.
The new Half Life game will bring with it a new dynamic of gameplay never seen before in the industry. The game is now going to be playable on VR only, but any popular VR headset should be supported by the game. At the moment, we have an indication that the game will only be released on PC, with no mention of a console release yet.
Valve’s biggest undertaking yet
The release of Half Life: Alyx would mark Valve’s biggest undertaking on a single multi-player game, incorporating the work of the largest group of people Valve has ever assigned to a single player game. Furthermore, the game appears to have been in development for a very long time. Valve has promised that the new Half Life will have world exploration, puzzle solving, good combat dynamics and an amazing story.
The return of City 17
Set between the events of Half Life and Half Life 2, Alyx and Eli have been secretly mounting resistance to the Combine, which have occupied Earth. The game is again set in City 17 where Alyx will have to fight the Combine to save the future of humanity.
Various screenshots have been released, showing the Combine stronghold, the Citadel, under construction, with hunter-choppers carrying large metal panels toward it and proto-Combine Metrocops pointing their guns at Alyx while a city scanner, one of the photo-taking robots from Half-Life 2, hovers behind them.
Release Date
Half Life: Alyx will be released some time during March 2020, with no definitive date being announced yet. Like past experience, expect this date to be possibly moved further in order for the studio to iron out as much bugs as possible before launch. You can pre-order the game today for around €45 from Steam. However, if you own a Valve Index headset, you can get the game for free.
Minimum PC Requirements
The minimum recommended specifications required to run this game show just how much resources virtual reality games demand out of a PC. This is particularly evident with the least amount of RAM required to run this game. Furthermore, although a GTX 1060 is the minimum required, we reckon that a GTX 2080Ti will be required to play the game on its highest graphics settings.
OS: Windows 10
Processor: Core i5-7500 / Ryzen 5 1600
Memory: 12 GB RAM
Graphics: GTX 1060 / RX 580 – 6GB VRAM