Half-Life Alyx promised to take some of that experience even further by strapping it directly to your face, and as Chris noted in his glowing review, it succeeded." The barnacles dangle their sticky tongues, spitting the human remains directly over me as they expire. The walls of my apartment are covered with pulsing vines and toothed alien flowers that snap with a gibbering sound with my fingertips if I get too close," Chris wrote. When I insert a glass cylinder filled with live alien maggots into a wall-mounted health station, I watch as the maggots are pulverized to a bile-like liquid just inches from my face. Yum.
But perhaps surprisingly, we know that Valve has toned down the horror of Alyx in order to keep players from leaving the experience entirely.
"It was definitely scarier at first," level designer Dario Casali told GameSpot.
"And I was scared," level designer Dario Casali told GameSpot, "because I was afraid that the game would be too scary.
That's also why you don't see fast headcrabs or fast zombies rushing at you in Half-Life: Alix: "The shock of having that guy come around the corner and get at you before you even know what's going on was too much," Casali said. Casali says.
The desire not to overload the player with sensory overload was also reflected in the speed of the basic game mechanics. We deliberately adjusted the pace at which we introduced elements that could be overwhelming or unsettling, like "the first time an enemy approaches you, the first time you fire your gun and reload it. You have a gun in your hand and ammunition in your hand before you feel threatened." We really recognized from the beginning that we didn't want to overwhelm people."
Valve is not the only studio concerned about the growing influence of horror in VR; four years ago, Rebellion CEO Jason Kingsley warned CNBC that VR horror games risk being too intense.
"The problem is that it gets more intense. You're surrounded by it, immersed in it. Suddenly, instead of becoming abstract, they become more real. Horror movies can be very scary, very cathartic, very frightening, but horror VR goes beyond that."
The challenge for Valve was even trickier: because "Half-Life: Alyx" is not the kind of game that people play specifically for the horror experience, like "Outlast" or "Soma," for example. It's a mainstream shooter, which means that while a little creepiness may not bother you, you can't turn away people who aren't interested in total friction.
Jump scares can be very effective if used sparingly: I still remember the near-death moment in the "Robbing the Cradle" level of Thief: Thief: Deadly Shadows. But being trapped in VR doesn't seem like much fun: jumping out of a chair is one thing, but falling backwards off a coffee table into a large fish tank while throwing a thousand-dollar VR headset against the wall, just because you want it away from your actual face, That's a whole other issue.
Today is a big day for Half Life: if you've already read our 92/100 review, you know how "City 17" took things to the next level, found the intro fun and funny, and (speaking of horror) the sweaty giant bald guy with a faucet protruding from his skull and see James in a nightmare of existential dread at the sight of him.
If you're making the leap to VR for Half-Life, read about the best GPUs and VR headsets for Half-Life: Alyx.
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