Strictly speaking, Half-Life: Alyx is a VR shooter. Thanks to a mod, however, the Valve title can also be played in real reality and not in virtual reality.
Half-Life: Alyx is a milestone for VR games, but also for shooters. But in order to play the game at all, appropriate hardware is necessary. This means that the player base for Valve”s title remains relatively limited – fans are changing that with the help of their own specially developed mods.
Half-Life: Alyx – but without VR constraints
The project of the GB_2 Development Team makes Half-Life: Alyx completely playable without VR. The prerequisite for using the free mod is, of course, owning the main game on Steam. If you don”t want or can”t afford expensive VR hardware or have problems with playing in Virtual Reality, the mod could be interesting for you – you can download it here (Download on Moddb).
You can find out exactly what this looks like in the following gameplay video from GB_2:
Shooter fans should of course take note: Half-Life: Alyx is of course meant to be played in VR. In terms of gameplay or atmosphere, you will have to be prepared to make sacrifices or at least compromises.
In addition, VR is indispensable for earning all Achievements and you cannot use an existing save game. So if you want to try Half-Life: Alyx without a Virtual Reality headset, you will have to create a new savegame.
Not the first non-VR project for Alyx
No, the idea is of course not completely new. Shortly after the release of Half-Life: Alyx, other shooter fans tried to make the VR game playable without VR. For example, we reported on comparable mod projects three years ago.
What is particularly exciting about GB_2”s project, however, is that the mod is completely usable without cheats or NoClip tricks and the developers continue to work on it. Although Half-Life: Alyx can be played from start to finish without a VR headset thanks to the mod, the team behind it is not yet completely satisfied with this.
Bugs or minor problems can still occur, which the modders want to fix in the future. In the future, they want to rework the HUD, improve the animations and iron out any game bugs.
By the way: You can find out how Half-Life will (hopefully) continue after Alyx and what else is happening at Valve in the articles linked above. Who knows: Maybe there will be a real Half-Life 3 at some point?
What do you think of the mod to make Half-Life: Alyx playable without a virtual reality headset? Have you already tried the shooter – maybe even with or without VR? Let us know in the comments!
