Half-Life: Alyx is a 2020 virtual reality (VR) first-person shooter developed and published by Valve. Set between the events of Half-Life (1998) and Half-Life 2 (2004), players control Alyx Vance on a mission to seize a superweapon belonging to the alien Combine. Players use VR to interact with the environment and fight enemies, using "gravity gloves" to manipulate objects, similar to the gravity gun from Half-Life 2. Traditional Half-Life elements return, such as physics puzzles, combat, exploration, and survival horror elements.

Alyx was released for Windows in March 2020 and Linux in May 2020, with support for most PC-compatible VR headsets. It received acclaim for its graphics, voice acting, narrative, and atmosphere, and has been cited as VR's first killer app.

Valve brings VR masterpiece "Half-Life: Alex" back to the "Half-Life" series. 

This game is launched in VR format, presenting a completely unparalleled sense of immersion. Its scene shock, screen details, and controllability are completely different from the past impressions of VR games. 

It was a seemingly hopeless contest with the evil alien race coalition forces. 

Alex Vance, the only hope for human survival. The coalition forces placed the only humans under house arrest in the cities, and their control of the earth only increased.

b Among the crowd are two of the best scientists on earth: you and your father. 

The resistance forces have not yet stabilized, and continue to engage in secret scientific activities-to carry out vital research，and create valuable tools for the more brave humans who do not resist the coalition army. 

Every day, you have a deeper understanding of the enemy; every day, you are working hard to find their weaknesses.

Half-Life: Alyx is a virtual reality (VR) game that supports all SteamVR-compatible VR headsets, which include the Valve Index, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Oculus Quest, and all Windows Mixed Reality headsets. As the gameplay was designed around VR, Valve stated there were no plans for a non-VR version. Half-Life: Alyx also supports user mods via the Steam Workshop.

Screenshot showing the VR-perspective hands and user interface

Players control Freeman's ally Alyx Vance as she and her father Eli Vance fight the Combine, an alien empire that has conquered Earth. Designer David Speyrer said Alyx was not an episodic game or side story, but "the next part of the Half-Life story", around the same length as Half-Life 2. Players use VR to get supplies, use interfaces, throw objects, and engage in combat. Like the gravity gun from Half-Life 2, the gravity gloves allow players to manipulate gravity. Traditional Half-Life elements such as exploration, puzzles, combat, and story are there. Every weapon can be used one-handed, as Valve wanted players to have a hand free to interact with the world at all times. While the game is primarily a first-person shooter, it adds elements of the survival horror genre, as health and ammo are more scarce, and it includes surprise frightening encounters.

Players can physically move around at room-scale to move Alyx in-game. Alternatively, players can use analog sticks on the VR controllers to move Alyx traditionally, teleport to nearby points or an intermediate node that has Alyx "glide" to selected points. In the case of the teleportation option, the game still simulates the movement even though the action appears instantaneous, and Alyx may die if attacked or moved from too great a height.[