This is an incredible VR game. Played through whole story in about 6 hours with the PSVR2 adapter on PC, with an RTX 3090ti. Looked and played beautifully. Very little technical issues encountered on launch day (which seems to be a pretty high bar for most developers these days). I do not believe I have played a game with this much passion, atmospheric world building, excellent art design, and amazing charm since Media Molecule's Tearaway on the PS Vita.

In my opinion, the VR experience, the music, art direction, atmosphere, and masterful story telling on display elevate the limited game-play experience and the shorter completion time much, much, much higher than I think it would if this was a 2D game only.

Game takes place in a Tim Burtonesque world made entirely of clay. Developers literally 3D scanned clay models made in meat space for the game. Character animations are done in the style of claymation. The love and care put into all the models in the game is so incredibly present, you can see the artists' fingerprints in the textures throughout the game. I don't know how much clearer you could show off the blood, sweat, and tears of an entire art team in a video game. It is a tour de force of mastery over several different art forms on display in one game.

This game absolutely oozes atmosphere and personality out of every pore of its being. The music is incredible, the writing clever and engaging. The voice acting is top notch. The character animations were fantastic, making me yelp out in surprise several times while playing, or laughing at the absurd comedy instilled into the characters. The nobodies, the moonbird, potboy's dances after feeding him were all highlights for me.

Game play is fairly linear, unfolding in chapters that take you through several short stories that build on the lore of the world, as your character and companion journey to bring light and hope to a dead/dying dark world. There are horror elements in the game, and short horror sequences, but it is not overly scary, or primarily a horror game. It is more Gothic in its atmosphere and use of horror elements. The game play loop consists of standard fare exploration and nug collecting, with some light environmental puzzles, and some stealth sections. There is a "close your eyes" mechanic that is pressing a button to get a context action, that I wish had been a little more creative in its utilization as a game play mechanic.

The use of 3D audio is really well done in this game, it gave directional sound in a way that very few games do, utilizing all channels on my surround setup, including perfect positional management of my constant VR headset turning in relation to the speakers. The music is appropriately under toned and moody in the right moments, but also manages sneak in emotional swells perfectly in tune with what is happening on the screen, without ever drowning out character dialogue, or audiotapes playing. The sound mixing/context cues was seamless, couldn't tell any hard coded transitions to swelling pivotal pieces of the music were taking place due to context spots in the game. I haven't seen a game do music this well since DOOM (2016). The developers also knew when to let the music go silent and let the ambient soundscape of the area take over to build emotion/atmosphere.

The one fault of the game I have is that it does a little bit too much hand holding, with a guide light pulling you along the entire game. The puzzles are simplistic, and not very engaging. I do wish that if developers are going to make puzzles their core game play loop, that they would allow for scaling of difficulty of puzzles, and/or give players, at a minimum, the ability to turn off hints and guide markers. Would allow for multiple playthroughs of the game, or a more fleshed out experience for folks that like to scratch the puzzled brain itch.

Otherwise, fantastic game. Much recommended!

A must play VR title. About 15 hours long for the base game, played this on 3090Ti with PSVR2 headset. This is a pinnacle stone of VR gaming. The level of polish on the characters, environments, the interactivity with items is top notch. The gun-play is fantastic, the way the game runs and controls is an incredible feat of engineering. The gravity gloves feel so good.... to the point where if you play any other vr game without them, you get a little angry. This is a must play VR game, and for good reason is still one of the top 10 best, if not THE best VR game on many peoples lists, even 5 years later in 2025.

There are experiences in this game that should not be missed by anyone with a VR headset.
I don't think it would hold up very well as a flat-screen game.

Additionally, there are a metric crapton of extremely high quality community made steam workshop mods that are worth checking out after the main game.

Also, if you own Half-life 2, the Half-Life 2 VR mod is free, and easy to add to your library and install on steam. I think playing through the Half-life 2 and episode 1 and 2 was as enjoyable or more enjoyable than Alyx! (I think HL2 is the better game of the two, and Alyx is the better experience).

After my gripes below, I have copypasta'd a reddit post that gives a pretty good rundown on some of the strongest half-life alyx mods, and the links to another steam reviewer who has meticulously reviewed and ranked almost 1,000 mod campagins.

My only gripes for this game are:
1. The movement speed for locomotion is far too slow and a lot of jumping, and more active movements are limited to teleportation (likely for nausea reasons).
2. The gunfights are kind of uninspired. Throughout most of the games, the gun encounters are basically a square box area, with 2-3 enemies, then another round of 2-3 enemies. The enemy AI is not super mobile or challenging either, there's no real complex coordination, flanking, repositioning, like something like Uncharted or F.E.A.R., and the areas with gunfights have limited verticality.
3. The environmental usage/puzzles that Half-life 2 was known for is lacking in this one.
4. The enemy variety is pretty limited as well. If you have played a Half-Life game.... all the same enemies are here.
5. The gun selection is really limited. But..... the guns they give you, and their upgrades, are gloriously good.
6. The story is kind of weak, the ending is a classic half-life troll.

Additionally, this is also the ultimate half-life alyx mod guide
There is easily 50+ hours of AAA campaigns here:
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2443128935
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HefptbgP2pwxDCVITIH5ax8bJ0LFxn6NTVcoM8e6SQ4/edit?gid=0#gid=0

For some of the highlights, a Reddit copy pasta (someone else's words):
Half-Life Alyx has an incredibly dedicated community of artists and designers creating DLC sized chunks of content for an already incredible game. In this post I will offer recommendations on which mods are the most worth the average VR player's time.

Loco-Motive (1 Hour) - Developed by Maarten Frooninckx of Ubisoft Berlin. Set in an Antlion infested trainyard, This level plays like an extra chapter cut from Half-Life Alyx itself. With custom VO and exhilirating combat scenerios, you would be forgiven for mistaking this for a Valve-designed level.

Post-Human (1 1/2 Hours) - Designed by Abraham Lee with the assistance of many members of the community, this mod takes place in a long abandoned apartment block. The moody atmosphere and exceptional gameplay design left me wanting more after the credits had rolled.

Re-Education (45 Minutes) - Designed by Nate Grove of Annapurna Interactive (Me). I developed this mod as a portfolio piece and pulled out all the stops. Set in an abandoned and Xen-infested school it is complete with custom VO, custom props and materials and developed over the course of a year. Re-Education is meant to feel as polished as a short piece of DLC for Half-Life Alyx.

Storm Drain (1 1/2 Hours) - Developed by Rostik Fomich. You must make your way through a Combine-controlled section of City 17's decaying infrastructure. Some exceptional design skill showcased here, and it recently received an update to make it more polished.

The Undertow (1 Hour) - Developed by Dormin and Higgue, this mod probably strays furthest from Half-Life's atmosphere. Set in a psychedelic Combine-themed night club, the design of the level is pretty standard for Half-Life: Alyx, but the visuals and narrative will throw you.

Incursion (45 Minutes) - Developed by Nate Grove and Maarten Frooninckx. This mod was made to be more challenging than anything in the main campaign, and made to use as many of the combat systems as possible. What resulted was a highly polished combat arena with unlockable guns and scavengable resources. If you're inexperienced with Alyx, try this one last.

All together, this list will provide you with at least 5 hours of extra content at a near Valve-quality standard. There are many more experiences on the Workshop not listed above. Here are some shoutouts for experiences still worth your time, but with a bit less polish -

Levitation (make sure to play after campaign)
Cityscape
Cornered
Overcharge
Goon Squad
From Here to There