Exclusive Gordon Freeman.

One of the features of the Half-Life: Alyx VR project is the absence of amount in the game – one of the hallmarks of the entire series. Valve employee Robin Walker in a conversation with Kotaku noted that the creators “spent about a year and a half of their lives” in vain attempts to add the mount to the virtual space, but did not succeed.

Not for Girls – Valve about the absence of Half-Life: Alyx’s iconic weapon series

“Mounting, of course, opened up many possibilities in mechanics. There were puzzles for solving which it was necessary to stick the mount between the bars, hook something and pull it to you. She could work as a kind of extra hand, which was cool. However, this created a lot of problems, ”Walker said.

In particular, the creators encountered difficulties in realizing the physical interaction between the mount, the player and the objects surrounding the heroine.

“The lack of tangible returns meant that players would often keep the mount out of sight because that’s exactly what happens when you hold the amount – you don’t look at it all the time. However, she would cling to things. You go, and she clings to the door. We asked ourselves what to do in such situations, and tried various options, including disabling the physics of the mount or disabling its interaction with objects at times when it is not visible on the screen. In real life, you would feel that your hand jerked if the mount had hooked on something. However, in virtual reality, we have no way to realize a similar effect of bestowal. We tried to do this through the vibration of the controller, but the idea did not pass the test. Some players didn’t notice the vibration, ”Walker said.

Another point concerns the fact that many players perceive the mount as an excellent melee weapon. In this case, in Half-Life: Alyx you can only throw objects at enemies, and the heroine deals with opponents, as a rule, with the help of firearms. The creators of Half-Life: Alyx experimented with melee weapons, but could not bring this aspect to a level of quality that suits them. Therefore, the mount would have looked unnatural.

Perhaps the key reason for the lack of amount in the game was that it is strongly associated with Gordon Freeman in people. When testers were asked to talk about the game after reviewing it, they thought they controlled Gordon. In addition, Valve wanted Alix to not resemble Gordon 2.0 and tried to give the girl uniqueness, including due to devices like a multifunctional device and a gun.