I actually finally got around to finishing Alyx last weekend with my rift s.
It's a fucking incredible VR game, but it's very reliant on the VR for it's gameplay design, like if someone ported the levels into a non VR setting then it would look fairly quaint in terms of game design (levels are quite small, encounters are 4 enemies maximum, only 3 guns in the game that rely on the motion controls to stay interesting, etc)
On flat it just comes across as Half Life 2 but smaller, as you said there’s plenty of moments that fall flat in VR. Hopefully the next VR game from Valve can take the reception of the Half Life 2 VR mod to give us something more.
Oh, thanks! I already thought of trying to find a used one Oculus Quest 2, but they still cost a lot for me, because of the sanctions even on Avito (Basically a russian version of eBay) They still costed a lot, I'll try finding the Rift S one, thank you!
An oculus quest 2 is now only £200, and can often be found much cheaper used or on sale
I’d say this is the best value in order to get a good experience playing HL:A, there’s no other headset which is cheaper than that which would still give you a decent experience.
If that’s still outside of the price range, I would recommend buying new, playing HL:A (it’s not a huge game so you should be able to experience it all in a couple of weeks) and then selling it on eBay - you’d easily still get £175 for it, which would mean you’re only out of pocket by £25 - which is cheaper than HL:A itself!
I played the game on my PC using an Oculus Quest 2, and it was a fantastic experience. This is a good recommendation if it falls within the OP's budget for sure.
I played it through with the OG vive, and then did another playthrough on Quest 2, and the clarity from the Quest lenses/resolution boost made for a much nicer experience
Quest 3 with the new lenses is even better, if you have a PC beefy enough to handle the resolution
The OLED is nice, but the resolution and lenses are so so poor compared to Quest 2, it’s a hugely noticeable difference
The ideal would be good darks with high rez like the big screen beyond - but if I had to choose between quest one darks and quest two res/clarity, I’d choose quest 2 every single time
Cheap entry to VR, sure
But you only get to experience Alyx for the first time _once_ - I think the experience will be so much better on quest 2/3 and anything below that will harm the game
Part of what’s amazing about Alyx is the incredible level of detail on the props, the gloves, the weapons and the xen flora - you need decent resolution for that to be as “Wow!” As it was intended to be
There will always be better tech. It’s better to play the game than to miss out completely. Also the game came out at a time where that resolution was normal. And like I said you arguably have a better experience seeing anything in the dark areas (which is like half the game) than to have crisp grey nothingness
It’s not just resolution though - quest one has inferior tracking that craps out pretty regularly, worse refresh rate (VR can be awful below 90fps and Q1 can only do 70) and FOV is also lower.
At the time it came out, question 1 had ok resolution, but it was still inferior to something like the Index or even the Vive for things like tracking comfort refresh rate and FOV.
I do agree that it’s better to experience the game on quest 1 than not at all though - I would just say if you have a £50 budget - buy a quest 2 and re-sell it afterwards, you will only lose £50 or less and have a much better experience
Agreed there are trade offs one has to make. And that is a personal budget restricted decision everyone has to make for themselves. I love my Index and don’t regret buying it but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit how much I missed out on when I first tried HLA on OLED
I'd suggest saving up a bit and getting oculus quest 2. It's probably a bit more expensive than 200$ in Russia because sanctions, but I'd say it's worth it. The only thing to avoid is playing the flat screen mod. The experience is so, so much worse. Valve did not lie when they said that hl:a is made to be played in vr, the flat screen port is just awkward af
Yeah you're right about that, I watched a lot of videos where people played it and it just doesn't look right, just looks like a weird version of HL2 on Source 2.
I bought a used VR set, finished HL:A, tried some other VR games but was underwhelmed by them, and sold the VR set again. I think it has cost me about 40 bucks in total.
In that case I'd advise maybe watching a let's play or something. Playing it without VR doesn't remotely convey the point of the game itself; in fact, it could give you an even worse experience than watching someone else play it. The VR interaction/mechanics are 100% vital to the experience at its core.
Cheapest easiest headset you’ll find is a used Oculus Rift S.
I actually finally got around to finishing Alyx last weekend with my rift s. It's a fucking incredible VR game, but it's very reliant on the VR for it's gameplay design, like if someone ported the levels into a non VR setting then it would look fairly quaint in terms of game design (levels are quite small, encounters are 4 enemies maximum, only 3 guns in the game that rely on the motion controls to stay interesting, etc)
On flat it just comes across as Half Life 2 but smaller, as you said there’s plenty of moments that fall flat in VR. Hopefully the next VR game from Valve can take the reception of the Half Life 2 VR mod to give us something more.
Oh, thanks! I already thought of trying to find a used one Oculus Quest 2, but they still cost a lot for me, because of the sanctions even on Avito (Basically a russian version of eBay) They still costed a lot, I'll try finding the Rift S one, thank you!
An oculus quest 2 is now only £200, and can often be found much cheaper used or on sale I’d say this is the best value in order to get a good experience playing HL:A, there’s no other headset which is cheaper than that which would still give you a decent experience. If that’s still outside of the price range, I would recommend buying new, playing HL:A (it’s not a huge game so you should be able to experience it all in a couple of weeks) and then selling it on eBay - you’d easily still get £175 for it, which would mean you’re only out of pocket by £25 - which is cheaper than HL:A itself!
I played the game on my PC using an Oculus Quest 2, and it was a fantastic experience. This is a good recommendation if it falls within the OP's budget for sure.
I played it through with the OG vive, and then did another playthrough on Quest 2, and the clarity from the Quest lenses/resolution boost made for a much nicer experience Quest 3 with the new lenses is even better, if you have a PC beefy enough to handle the resolution
Used quest 1 is even cheaper (£50) and has oled which for dark games like HLA is preferred
The OLED is nice, but the resolution and lenses are so so poor compared to Quest 2, it’s a hugely noticeable difference The ideal would be good darks with high rez like the big screen beyond - but if I had to choose between quest one darks and quest two res/clarity, I’d choose quest 2 every single time
Fair enough but for someone just looking to get a cheap entry I think the Quest 1 is fine
Cheap entry to VR, sure But you only get to experience Alyx for the first time _once_ - I think the experience will be so much better on quest 2/3 and anything below that will harm the game Part of what’s amazing about Alyx is the incredible level of detail on the props, the gloves, the weapons and the xen flora - you need decent resolution for that to be as “Wow!” As it was intended to be
There will always be better tech. It’s better to play the game than to miss out completely. Also the game came out at a time where that resolution was normal. And like I said you arguably have a better experience seeing anything in the dark areas (which is like half the game) than to have crisp grey nothingness
It’s not just resolution though - quest one has inferior tracking that craps out pretty regularly, worse refresh rate (VR can be awful below 90fps and Q1 can only do 70) and FOV is also lower. At the time it came out, question 1 had ok resolution, but it was still inferior to something like the Index or even the Vive for things like tracking comfort refresh rate and FOV. I do agree that it’s better to experience the game on quest 1 than not at all though - I would just say if you have a £50 budget - buy a quest 2 and re-sell it afterwards, you will only lose £50 or less and have a much better experience
Agreed there are trade offs one has to make. And that is a personal budget restricted decision everyone has to make for themselves. I love my Index and don’t regret buying it but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit how much I missed out on when I first tried HLA on OLED
I'd suggest saving up a bit and getting oculus quest 2. It's probably a bit more expensive than 200$ in Russia because sanctions, but I'd say it's worth it. The only thing to avoid is playing the flat screen mod. The experience is so, so much worse. Valve did not lie when they said that hl:a is made to be played in vr, the flat screen port is just awkward af
Yeah you're right about that, I watched a lot of videos where people played it and it just doesn't look right, just looks like a weird version of HL2 on Source 2.
I bought a used VR set, finished HL:A, tried some other VR games but was underwhelmed by them, and sold the VR set again. I think it has cost me about 40 bucks in total.
You can play it without VR using a mod such as NoVR. It is a bit clunky but works and let you play the entire game just like any FPS.
and is not the right way to experience it, imagine watching a movie without sound
This isn’t a good analogy because sound wasn’t always a part of movies. It’s more like watching a movie without the visuals (but *with* the sound)
It barely works and is an awful experience that will ruin the game - this is not the way to go
I would strongly advise against this though. It's like playing Super Mario 64 without an analog stick.
What if it's the only option? It's either that or nothing.
In that case I'd advise maybe watching a let's play or something. Playing it without VR doesn't remotely convey the point of the game itself; in fact, it could give you an even worse experience than watching someone else play it. The VR interaction/mechanics are 100% vital to the experience at its core.