Recent reviews by shawly

I've seen the review from IGN with Gabe and they said they want peoples feedback on this, so here I go.

Where should I start? Well I'm just not impressed by the game.. It just didn't meet my expectations, being marketed as a game that "fully utilizes VR controls" while it DOESN'T is disappointing.
I've owned my Index for a little more than a week now and I've bought it since I was stoked on playing HL:A.
Of course I bought it to play VR games in general too, so I already played a few games that brought me into the whole virtual reality thing, I'm in no way really experienced but I've overcome the motion sickness part and the lingering after effects from playing VR for too long are also gone so I feel accustomed to VR.

So I started up HL:A, being really excited because I mean IT'S A NEW HALF-LIFE MAN.
Being blown away from the title screen I started off, cutscenes, excitement, Half-Life dude, it's Half-Life!

Next thing I know is that it felt pretty awkward with the slow movement speed with smooth locomotion, it feels like playing a shooter on rails where you are sloooooowly making your way through the level, similar to lightgun games back in the day. I didn't let it bother me at the beginning but after a while it gets annoying.
I have to use teleportation to trace back to the resin machines otherwise I'd grow a beard. Teleporting around like a madman takes a toll on immersion pretty much so I try to avoid it but it's necessary at some parts.

The missing jump mechanic replaced by teleportation just feels out of place, I get that it's been implemented like that for new players but I wish I could just turn on jumping in the menu and jump around. Just let me get motionsick, it should be my choice.

Forced teleportation when climbing through windows and the last bit of a ladder also feels like someone has been too lazy or didn't have enough time to implement a better solution.

Invisible walls blocking paths because I need a flashlight first is taking away from the experience, just let me get eaten by a barnacle for gods sake!

Weapons and the multitool being glued to my hand until I select a free hand is just a bad implementation, it feels awkward having the Index knuckles, hands open, but Alyx still won't let go of the weapon, why not allow the weapon to return to the inventory when it's being dropped? Why no holster system? I don't like selecting a weapon through a menu, especially a menu that always pops up when I just rest my thumb on the touchpad, forcing me to suddenly have a gun in my hands..

Why is there no melee? Looking at the gameplay trailers I suspected there is no melee combat, but NPC completely disregarding that they just got a huge box thrown at them? Lame. The physics just show that it's an updated Source engine which instantly reminds me of HL2, Gmod or Left 4 Dead, ♥♥♥♥♥♥ physics.
The only time I got to utilize props in combat was when I held a brick in front of a headcrab when it jumped, received no damage but I also felt no impact so I doubt it was intended to work like this. It's actually exactly the same when you held a prop in HL2 in front of a headcrab it just jumped against the prop and landed, that's it.

I like the puzzles with the multitool, but puzzles which require me to press some button patterns just slowed down the game and this happens right at the beginning, I knew the eye meant something but I didn't get that it was pointing at the solution. When I traced back the eye didn't appear again so I assumed there are no hints for me here, so I tried 8 damn patterns until I was fed up and googled the solution.. I'm neither blind nor stupid, it's just a bad and especially an unnecessary puzzle.

Nostalgia and some nice references to HL1 and 2 and little details humor me and keep me in the mood, the atmosphere is nice and the dialogs amuse me quite a lot. But the mechanics are just so oldschool VR, I feel like games from 2016/17 partially feel better in some regards.
What disappoints me the most that there have been a lot of details implemented like writing with a whiteboard marker on windows, but then there isn't something like throwing a glas bottle to distract zombies, they don't have ears but they can see me even if I'm ducked behind a barrel, exactly like HL2...

Things that would improve the game for me:
- no hand holding mechanics like invisible walls until I accomplished an objective, I wanna go wherever I want if it's not out of bounds and I'm not scared of the dark so why not let me venture into the dark if I dare
- jumping, I want to jump, not teleport
- ~smooth turning, I prefer it over the 90 degree snap~ (seems to have been added via a new update <3)
- sprinting for smooth locomotion or at least a slider to adjust acceleration so I don't have to teleport around
- no glue weapons, no weapon wheel, a holster system would be way better and switching the weapon hand on the fly
- if I can't throw props, at least give me a crowbar to slap zombies with, without melee it feels like something is missing
- remove puzzles that disrupt the overall pacing of the game, it's just not fluent gameplay when you are stuck for 10 minutes at the same place
- AI without wallhacks and an actual hearing system so enemies can be distracted by bottles or props

Things I liked:
- it has the same atmosphere as HL2 or rather an updated one (except for the physics)
- the dialogs and the puns
- overall linearity of levels and exploration, finding ammo and resin in hidden places is nice
- multitool mechanics, they look nice, aren't too simple or too difficult to affect pacing
- wrist flick gravity gloves, not as nice as the regular force grab but a cool idea

I'll definitely finish the game so I can give my opinion on the story, up until now the storytelling was nice, but I'm not far enough into the game to really rate it.

All in all it's an OK game, my expectations were too high and I've already been pampered with games that have ten times better mechanics. If this was my first VR game I'd probably give it a better rating, since the overall experience feels very very beginner friendly. But it's not really exciting for me personally anymore...