This is genuinely one of my favorite games of all time. When I first heard about it I got excited to see a new Half-Life game from Valve. Then, I played through all of the other Half-Life games to enjoy this one. The story is great beginning to end and leaves you immersed in these hyper-realistic environments that are better than any other game I've ever seen before, while running great! Sure there's some things they could've done with the graphics but I have not seen another VR game get close to the level of realism in every part of the environment. The gameplay is great too and leaves a lot of room to master your gunplay against the enemies.

However, that's not where my 700+ hours comes from in this game. Valve released the modding tools necessary and a workshop to create whatever you wanted using the amazing assets and mechanics from this game. There are so many amazing maps and enhancements in the workshop, some even being full campaigns on a similar length to the base game. This is not only a modding platform (that I wish more would return to) but also an amazing game from beginning to end. Of course it's best experienced on the Valve Index with the Knuckles controllers but I haven't seen a VR headset yet that doesn't do this game justice.

If you're looking to buy this game and play without VR, you're probably going to be disappointed. The game was designed from beginning to end with exploration and sticking your head into cabinets and leaning around corners. You also have to improve your own aim with a gun and make sure you do your reloads properly! These environments are super detailed, and will feel small with not much to do once you translate that to a flatscreen display. This doesn't mean the game is inherently flawed, it's just designed specifically with VR in mind and nothing else.

The accessibility is great, and a lot of other games should learn from it. You can play seated, you can play standing. You can use a teleport mode that will fade to black to ease teleporting around if you get motion sick easily. You can also use a teleport mode that will guide you to the next platform quickly if you're less worried about the motion sickness but can't handle the slow walking. Then there's the slow walking, which immerses me the most, but maybe isn't for everybody. Also, you can play left handed or right handed, it even accommodates playing one handed which is unheard of in a VR game. You can have the game move you using the left controller or right controller, whatever is most comfortable. Basically, as long as you can wear a headset and have an arm you can play with, this game is meant for you.

Just give the game a try, it goes on great sales during any of the steam sales, so wait for that. If you finish the game and want more, try any of the amazing maps out there. There's so many great ways to play this game that despite the fact that most of my hours come from modding, you could actually get 700 hours in this game by just playing maps. I wish more VR games existed like this.

This is genuinely one of my favorite games of all time. When I first heard about it I got excited to see a new Half-Life game from Valve. Then, I played through all of the other Half-Life games to enjoy this one. The story is great beginning to end and leaves you immersed in these hyper-realistic environments that are better than any other game I've ever seen before, while running great! Sure there's some things they could've done with the graphics but I have not seen another VR game get close to the level of realism in every part of the environment. The gameplay is great too and leaves a lot of room to master your gunplay against the enemies. However, that's not where my 700+ hours comes from in this game. Valve released the modding tools necessary and a workshop to create whatever you wanted using the amazing assets and mechanics from this game. There are so many amazing maps and enhancements in the workshop, some even being full campaigns on a similar length to the base game. This is not only a modding platform (that I wish more would return to) but also an amazing game from beginning to end. Of course it's best experienced on the Valve Index with the Knuckles controllers but I haven't seen a VR headset yet that doesn't do this game justice. If you're looking to buy this game and play without VR, you're probably going to be disappointed. The game was designed from beginning to end with exploration and sticking your head into cabinets and leaning around corners. You also have to improve your own aim with a gun and make sure you do your reloads properly! These environments are super detailed, and will feel small with not much to do once you translate that to a flatscreen display. This doesn't mean the game is inherently flawed, it's just designed specifically with VR in mind and nothing else. The accessibility is great, and a lot of other games should learn from it. You can play seated, you can play standing. You can use a teleport mode that will fade to black to ease teleporting around if you get motion sick easily. You can also use a teleport mode that will guide you to the next platform quickly if you're less worried about the motion sickness but can't handle the slow walking. Then there's the slow walking, which immerses me the most, but maybe isn't for everybody. Also, you can play left handed or right handed, it even accommodates playing one handed which is unheard of in a VR game. You can have the game move you using the left controller or right controller, whatever is most comfortable. Basically, as long as you can wear a headset and have an arm you can play with, this game is meant for you. Just give the game a try, it goes on great sales during any of the steam sales, so wait for that. If you finish the game and want more, try any of the amazing maps out there. There's so many great ways to play this game that despite the fact that most of my hours come from modding, you could actually get 700 hours in this game by just playing maps. I wish more VR games existed like this.