“The pistol that you have is eventually going to become Alyx's Gun from Half-Life 2 through upgrades - and that model was originally built for Half-Life: Episode 3 in… whenever that was,” Reidford explains. They explain to me that, when it comes to the past decade of mysterious Half-Life experiments, some elements did survive and make their way into Alyx. Reidford is an artist who worked on a lot of the environment art, weapons and interactable objects in Alyx, and Phelan is an animator who helped to choreograph and breathe life into the new and returning creatures in the game. To help process the experience, I spoke to Tristan Reidford and Christine Phelan from Valve once I was a few chapters into my playthrough. There’s no strong aftertaste anymore - you’re just sipping on juice. Going back to what you might call a ‘visceral’ console shooter after playing Alyx is like switching from a cocktail to a mocktail. Valve wanted to make the first true AAA VR experience on a scale that hasn’t been attempted before and Half-Life: Alyx fits that bill. Instead, it needs to be able to change the landscape or say something to warrant a new project - and Half-Life: Alyx is the fruit of that ambition. The company has no interest in churning out sequels to its revered series just for the sake of it.

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