Half-Life: Alyx without a VR headset? It’s now possible

A team of modders has come up with a way around the need for a VR headset to play Half-life: AlyxValve’s PC VR Exclusive Game (via PC gamer). The early access modcreated by GB_2 Development Team, let you play the whole engaging game half-life 2 prequel with a mouse and keyboard, the input method preferred by many fans of the franchise.

You still have one copy of the game on Steam, as well as a relatively powerful gaming desktop or laptop to run it on. But it’s great news for anyone who can’t tolerate VR, can’t play in VR for accessibility reasons, or simply can’t justify buying an expensive VR headset to play the game on.

I think it’s important to acknowledge how cool this is before criticizing it. It’s both polished enough to try and easy to install (it’s an easy drag and drop of files). However, given the game’s VR-made controls and tactile hand-based interactivity, it’s not the one-to-one translation you might be hoping for – and probably never will be. Yep, that means the game’s fantastic liquid shaders are still the most compelling in VR.

Valve’s Robin Walker predicted a mod change in 2020 Half-life: Alyx in a “standard” non-VR version of the game would eventually appear, but it would mainly serve to “[…] show people clearly why we did this in VR.”

In a way, he’s still right. Some core components of the VR game, such as using Alyx’s gravity gloves to pick up or interact with objects with a satisfying wrist flick, as well as the game’s sense of scale and atmosphere, are lost. In the mod’s current state, you can’t gain 9 of the game’s 42 Steam Achievements, which mostly rely on interacting with objects in the world with your hands.

Still, it’s not bad as you might fear. After getting past a flickering main menu (and starting a new game; it doesn’t work with in-progress saves), the motion and shooting controls work well, and it’s great to see this game’s luscious graphics on screens that not an inch from my eyes. If you’re just interested in seeing the beats of the story Half-life: Alyxcould this be a good way to play (side note: kudos if you managed to stay spoiler-free about the game’s killer, controversial ending).

The mod team is working on more tweaks to the game’s interface, animations, and more to make it feel more like a standard PC FPS, and less like a game tied heavily to its VR roots. Before installing the mod on your PC, the developers recommend reading it FAQwhich describes the controls and essential launch commands for use in Steam, and provides some troubleshooting.

Let us know in the comments if you plan to give this a shot.