Why I regret buying Half-Life - Alyx

Hello and welcome to this video about a

video game called Half-Life: Alyx. Up

until recently, I've never really been

interested in VR. I always thought it was

kind of gimmicky, and I thought, well,

after the gimmick wears off, then it'll be

kind of boring. But I recently decided to

get myself a VR headset, and that was

mainly because I saw PewDiePie play this

game called Half-Life: Alyx, and I

thought, wow, that game looks really fun,

I really want to try it. So I got myself a

VR headset, the HTC Vive Cosmos,

and I also purchased Half-Life: Alyx,

which cost £45. And I

guess I just feel kind of upset that I

wasted so much money on a game that I

don't really like. So thank you,

PewDiePie, for helping me waste £45. I

blame you. And I can't refund the game

because I've played about 20 hours now,

and I think I think after playing about 20

hours of the game, I've had enough and I

don't want to play it anymore. So when I

first started playing the game, I thought

it was pretty cool actually. I was just

blown away at the fact that you could pick

up objects and put objects inside of

objects and break objects using your fist,

and it was really fun. I spent hours and

hours before I actually started to play

the game properly. I spent hours and hours

just messing around picking up cups and

picking up bottles. But after a few hours,

the whole gimmick of being able to pick up

nearly anything in the game and being able

to break anything in the game and being

able to manipulate objects using your

hands, that kind of wears off after a

while. And after I got fed up with messing

around, I started to play the game

properly. And unfortunately, I just found

the game to be so boring. There just isn't

really much to the game apart from the VR

gimmick, when you strip away the whole VR

gimmick, it's basically a pretty

bog-standard FPS shooter that doesn't

really do anything special or interesting.

I feel like the gameplay feels kind of

repetitive. So far, the gameplay mainly

has consisted of you explore some area,

you need a key to open a door, you defeat

some enemies, and usually there's some

stupid puzzle that you have to do. I

really hate doing the puzzles. They

usually involve spinning some kind of

globe around, and then you have to either

match up blue circles, or you have to

line up a blue line so the red dots also

become blue. And they're not difficult

puzzles, they're just kind of

time-consuming and kind of annoying to

have to complete. I just hate it when

games keep forcing you to do these stupid

puzzles. I really hate puzzles in games.

They're not fun, they're usually not

challenging. If I wanted to do a puzzle,

I'll do a jigsaw puzzle or play with my

Rubik's Cube. After you've finished

solving some kind of puzzle, it will let

you move on to the next room or the next

area, and then they usually give you a few

enemies to fight. And to be honest, I

don't really find the enemies to be fun to

fight. Usually in games I enjoy shooting

things, but in this game the enemies are

just kind of, kind of boring to fight.

There's this zombie kind of enemy, which

is just a zombie with a big crab things

stuck to its face, and they're just so

easy to take down. They're not challenging

to fight at all. They're really slow and

they don't really put up much of a fight.

The other enemies I've encountered so far

are the crab things that just jump at you.

They're pretty easy to take down as well,

not really challenging. And then there's

these things that are stuck to the

ceilings and they have like a tentacle

that dangles down, and if you don't shoot

them, then they suck you up with their

tentacle. They're kind of annoying.

They're pretty easy as well. I mean,

you're never going to accidentally walk

into the tentacle because it's pretty

obvious that it's just dangling there.

And then there's these soldier type of

enemies which are human and they have guns

and you have to do like gunfights with

them. I guess they're the most fun to

fight against because you actually have to

be careful and you have to take cover and

use some sort of tactics, whereas when

you're fighting the zombie-like creatures

They're just kind of dumb and you just— it

doesn't really take much effort or skill

to take them down. It's just so

disappointing because even though the game

looks cool and it is kind of fun putting

on the VR headset and then being able to

pick up objects and do weird stuff using

the physics engine, the physics system.

But apart from that, I just don't really

enjoy playing the game. I think the

puzzles are annoying. I feel like fighting

the enemies and progressing from one room

to another just feels kind of repetitive.

And tedious. I feel like I'm doing the

same thing over and over again, just in a

different layout. Also, I feel like

there's way too many loading screens and

it takes ages to load the next map or the

next area. I'm just sitting in my bed for

minutes waiting for the loading screen to

finish so I can start playing again. But

that isn't really my main problem. My main

problem with the game— the biggest problem

I have with this game is I cannot play it

for longer than 40 or 50 minutes because

it just makes me feel so sick. And I still

feel sick right now after filming the game

footage that you're watching right now. I

really wanted to film more interesting

gameplay footage, but I just couldn't play

it anymore. I started to feel like I

wanted to vomit. I haven't really gotten

very far in the game. I got to the bit

where you find your dad and then he falls

down a hole and then some weird alien

creature rescues him. And the reason why I

haven't gotten very far in the game isn't

because it's a difficult game. It's

because I can't physically play it for

longer than an hour. And I need to have a

really long break after taking the headset

off because I end up just feeling

absolutely terrible. And I guess it's not

really the game's fault that I feel motion

sick after playing it. And most VR games

where you have to move a character around

an area, they make me feel sick. There's

certain games like Beat Saber and Pistol

Whip that don't make me feel motion sick

at all. And I think that's because there's

no side-to-side turning. In games like

Beat Saber and Pistol Whip, there's a lot

of movement, but you're just going

forwards in a straight line, so I don't

really feel motion sick at all when I play

those games. But unfortunately, in

Half-Life: Alyx, you can't just move in a

straight line. You have to turn left and

right. It just feels really weird having

to turn left and right whilst moving

backwards and forwards inside of a virtual

space. It's kind of like trying to read a

book. Inside of a moving car. Now there's

2 ways that you can look left and

right. You either physically move your

head from left to right and rotate on the

spot, but the problem with doing this is

you end up getting tied up in the VR

headset cable. It starts wrapping around

you and then you have to keep adjusting,

readjusting the cable and stepping over it

so you don't get tangled up. It's kind of

the reason why I wish I got the Oculus

Quest instead, which is a wireless

headset. The cable just gets in the way,

it's so annoying. So in order to avoid

getting tangled up in the VR headset cable

and to avoid having to constantly shuffle

around and rearrange the cable so it's not

getting in my way, I use the right

thumbstick on the controller to move, to

turn left and right, which makes me feel

really, really sick. And for this reason

alone, unfortunately, I have to knock 4

points off of my total rating for this

game. I would have rated it 6 out of 10

because it is a pretty cool game, looks

nice, and it's just fun picking up objects

and then smashing them. But because of the

motion sickness and how sick it makes me

feel, I'll have to bump it down to a 2 out

of 10. And it's just so disappointing. I

guess this is one of the limits of VR

gaming, and I'm not really sure how to fix

this problem. People say the more you play

VR gaming Then you build up a tolerance to

motion sickness, but I just feel so sick

that it stops me from wanting to play the

game. Even if it was a really good game,

I still wouldn't want to play it just

because it makes me want to vomit. So in

conclusion, I don't like the game. I think

I wasted £45 on something that I probably

won't play again. I would not recommend

Half-Life: Alyx.

Heads up,

zombie.

Look out.