Thirith on 28/3/2020 at 08:52
Arm-swinging locomotion with Natural Locomotion works reasonably well, but for a game where you use your hands a lot it's not ideal. (It's perfectly fine with something like Skyrim VR, where you spend a lot of time just walking/running.) I'm hoping that the NatLoc guys will find a way of using data from the Kat Loco devices, because then I could just walk by walking in place; Kat Loco delivers sound data on leg movement and positioning, but the software is shit.
Obviously Half-Life: Alyx works fine with the movement options in the game, but when it works I really like VR locomotion by walking in place, especially in a game where movement doesn't need to be ultra-fast.
Shoshin on 28/3/2020 at 20:36
I am on chapter three now, just got the flashlight. I am very much enjoying this game. It's clear valve spent a ton of time on this, getting all the vr interactions right. Objects seem like they have some weight when you pick them up, the guns feel right when loading, I like that they don't just clip your hands when they hit objects or walls. The amount of polish is truly impressive. Oh, and the game is pretty tense and scary in spots. I do have to use blink or whatever they call it for locomotion.
I wish there were more shotgun shells around. Especially for the poison headcrabs. Hate those things.
Malf on 28/3/2020 at 22:10
Just got done with Jeff, so am going to give it a break for tonight. That was intense.
Starker on 29/3/2020 at 04:11
Hah, yeah, I've been having a lot of fun reading comments how VR should have been "optional" and that KB&Mouse should have been the main mode of playing. Apparently, quite a few people still don't understand that it's a game built for VR and meant to be experienced in VR and playing it in any other way would be like sitting on an unmoving themepark ride and going, "Whee!".
Starker on 29/3/2020 at 05:30
This is different. You cannot emulate a VR experience (that was built for VR) on a PC in a way that would do it justice.
Sulphur on 29/3/2020 at 13:44
It's designed from the ground up to be experienced and interacted with in VR. That makes sense for two reasons: a) from a progression/technical achievement point of view for the franchise (each main title always had a big-ticket reason for existing - HL1's first person storytelling and setpiece design, HL2's physics, Alyx's VR interaction capabilities), and b) a non-VR version would be watered down and fundamentally incompatible with the vision it was based upon.
Choice is good, but it's also a developer's choice to ensure their vision is available where they intended it to be. If Alyx was going to be available in a non-VR format, it would have to be redesigned and rescoped with the traditional experience in mind - I bet most people would be underwhelmed playing it as it currently is without VR.
Having said that, I won't be playing it any time soon. I'm about as interested in shoving my head into a VR headset as I am shoving my head into a roomba.
Starker on 29/3/2020 at 13:49
Exactly. It's a game about manipulating your environments in VR and where the environments are built to be manipulated in VR. They can't give you a choice, because VR is not optional to this game, it's essential.
henke on 30/3/2020 at 15:55
OH MY GOD THE PART WITH JEFF :D
If they ever do a proper Thief VR game, this is the template.
So, I'm in the old vodka distillery, right? And I run into this big hulking guy who is completely blind, has great hearing, and vomits acid blood on you if he catches you. His name is Jeff. What follows is some of the most innovative, thrilling and tense stealth gameplay I've encountered in a long while. Whereas Thief was very much focused on what you do with - and the sound generated by - your feet, this is all about your hands. Like when you see a fine, shiny piece of loot in the back of a shelf of vodka bottles, and caaaaarefully reach your hand between the bottles to grab it, knowing that if you accidentally knock one over, Jeff in the next room is gonna come running. Or when you spy a piece of resin under an overturned crate, and then carefully have to lift it with one hand, while reaching your other grubby mit in to get the shiny nugget without knocking over any of the junk on top of the crate. Perhaps the best moment was when I opened a cupboard and a bottle inside wobbled, fell over, and started rolling towards me. I reacted in the nick of time, shooting my hand out and grabbing it right as it came rolling over the edge, then breathed a long exhale of relief.
I've seen traces of this kinda gameplay before. In Unknightly you have to pickpocket guards by physically reaching over to their waist and plucking the key from their belts, but HL: Alyx, in one short 30 min segment, introduces so many new ideas for stealth in VR. God, I hope someone from Squeenix/Eidos is playing this and getting inspired.
Volitions Advocate on 30/3/2020 at 19:49
Agreed on all points. You actually get an achievement for that little moment I think. (the bottle)
I would love to see this exact treatment given to Deus Ex and Thief, and I would probably ruin myself playing an Alien Isolation style game with these types of mechanics. That whole sequence I kept thinking about how awesome playing an Alien game like Alyx would be.
VorpX and Mother VR are not the same thing as built-for-VR. None of those mechanics works when you're just playing a classic FPS with an HMD.
henke on 31/3/2020 at 05:46
Yeah I got the bottle achievement, and another one at the end of the level. I let Jeff live.