The just-released Half-Life: Alyx SteamVR Home environments are only really designed to offer a small chunk of the game’s settings to have a poke around in ahead of the VR game’s arrival March 23, but one player has gone out-of-bounds and discovered something really cool – you can climb the Citadel.
One of the two environments is “an outdoor space taken from City 17 in the shadow of the under-construction Citadel”, which YouTuber (and impressive boundary-pusher) 2kliksphilip has discovered can be climbed, as evidenced in his video below. Using OpenVR, a Valve-created software development kit, he says you “pull yourself through the air” by double-tapping the home button. While it “takes some getting used to”, it does let you access places in-game that might otherwise be out of reach.
Using this nifty technique he explores the surrounding areas of City 17 until he discovers swinging his arms around means he can ascend far above the map. Naturally, he heads into the 3D skybox – “the world beyond the world” – and manages to scale that ominous, looming Citadel.
Take a look at 2kliksphilip’s achievement below:
While the environment understandably starts to exhibit some holes, lower-detail visuals, and quirks as he pushes further and further beyond its limits, the views from the Citadel on his way up to the summit are worth seeing. Sure, the city below is a wash of patchy, low-res pixels, but the structure itself remains largely intact, and you do get a sense of its immense size.
If you’re keen to see more, the intrepid YouTuber has also posted a video exploring City 17 at ground level, which you can check out here.
Ahead of the Half-Life: Alyx release date on March 23, we’ve also taken a look at the Half-Life: Alyx VR design, breaking down the key moments of its gameplay videos.