Half-Life Alyx has just been revealed in full and there are already heaps of details for fans of the long-dormant series to pore over from screenshots and gameplay videos to a documentary with the developers. We even have news about Half-Life: Alyx mods and a Half-Life: Alyx release date, and it’s just around the corner.
However, one of the biggest surprises of the Half-Life: Alyx announcement is that this is not a small-scale demo type experience in the same vein as the Portal Aperture Hand Labs. Nope, instead Valve is billing Half-Life: Alyx as a full-length VR game. VR games over several hours are already a rarity, so the fact that the new Half-Life is being marketed as a complete boxed game (with a price point to match) is certainly promising considering how long PC veterans have been waiting for the next chapter in the Half-Life series.
Thanks to Geoff Keighly, who has already played the entire game, we now know just what Valve means when it says that Half-Life: Alyx is a full-length game.
How long is Half-Life: Alyx?
Bear in mind it’s still in development, but according to Geoff Keighly Half-Life: Alyx is 15 hours long. Compare that the estimated campaign completion time of Half-Life 2 and it’s actually a little longer than Valve’s classic.
I’ve played through HL: Alyx (it took me over 15 hours) and seen it in multiple stages of development. This is a full-blown Half-Life experience, with a rich, vibrant world, immersive combat, great storytelling, and innovative game design. pic.twitter.com/FLKtXusyQc
— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) November 21, 2019
So there you have it. It’s still not quite Half-Life 3, and the fact it’s exclusive to VR will mean lots of Half-Life fans won’t be able to experience it at launch, but it is a fully-fledged new Half-Life game.