'Half-Life: Alyx' And The Promise of Virtual Reality
When Half-Life released in 1997, it was unlike any other first person shooter — a genre of video games predicated on the central mechanic of blasting things with a firearm. Popular pioneers of the genre, like Doom and Quake, were known for being over-the-top and full of bombast.
Half-Life is not like those games. It begins not with a bang, but with a slow, methodical tram ride.
"Welcome to the Black Mesa research facility," says a sterile voice over the tram speakers; it is the first day on the job for MIT graduate scientist Gordon Freeman. During that tram ride, players are introduced to a government facility of dubious intentions, and forced to question their own role in it.
Things quickly go wrong. Really wrong. Like, opening interdimensional portals and introducingkind of wrong.
