With that in mind, Valve chose accessibility over an over-reliance on haunted house thrills. Ultimately, Half-Life: Alyx still aims to be a VR Half-Life game, not VR's Amnesia: The Dark Descent or PT. You could be doing just so many jumpscares in there that would just make it really unpleasant I think for 90 percent of the people who play.' 'Again, with Chris' the 'immersive' word, being there is a whole different feel. 'I feel like you could pretty easily make a game that would be virtually unplayable for a lot of people by amping up the jumpscares,' Wolpaw says. Moments like that elevator scene demonstrate how Valve's designers squeeze a lot out of familiar gameplay while still being careful to neither overdo things in VR nor shy away from the medium's strengths. I remember the first time I played it they had implemented the part where you get locked in the elevator with him, and it was such a good moment in the game.' ' in place not exactly, but in the overall form that it's in: you're gonna need to be quiet and make sounds to avoid this unkillable monster. 'That level existed when we came on a year and half ago,' Erik Wolpaw explains. It all adds up to a novel and tense experience that feels very in keeping with the original game. In Half-Life: Alyx, you have to physically chuck bottles while Jeff's maw hovers mere inches away. The giant tentacles of 1998's 'Blast Pit' chapter worked in a similar manner, requiring you to toss grenades as distractions in order to creep past. The conceit of luring Jeff away with sound, though, is pure Half-Life. The unkillable stalker is a well-known survival horror trope, with examples ranging from Resident Evil's Tyrant to the Nemesis to Dead Space's regenerating necromorphs. 'immersive' is such an overused word, but when you're in a VR environment, it's immersive in a much more literal, present, and immediate way than in a traditional game.' 'When you're working on a virtual reality game, the horror elements can't help but be extremely evident,' says Remo. It's both a welcome change of pace in gameplay and, quite often, scary as all hell. Instead, Alyx has to sneak around unarmed, tossing precious vodka bottles to distract Jeff while remembering to cover her mouth lest she breathe in some Xen spores and start coughing, drawing attention her way. 'Jeff,' the chapter, quite literally keeps players in the space with its titular horrorshow for about an hour. It hadn't occurred to me to put it in that space.' We Need to Talk About Jeff Which isn't to say that my evaluation is wrong or that their evaluation is wrong or anything like that. 'Here at Valve, a lot of people do think of horror as an important element of these games, in a way that as a player hadn't occurred to me. 'efore I came here, I never really thought of the Half-Life games as horror experiences,' Chris Remo says. and then Alyx has to sneak past his spore-ridden husk without getting mauled by him. Once a Combine cleaner, Jeff is now a blind and seemingly invincible zombie who roams the chapter's abandoned vodka distillery. After saving Larry from a sticky situation, Larry introduces Alyx to Jeff. | ValveДЄ little bit past the halfway point of Half-Life: Alyx, a short and suggestive chapter title appears in floating text: 'Jeff.' For most of the story up until that point, Alyx is totally on her own, save for Russell's reassuring quips over the headset, and then there's this chapter, which opens with Alyx meeting a scavenger named Larry. Spoiler Tag: Spoilers for every aspect of Half-Life: Alyx's story, including the ending. This second and final installment will cover key points about Half-Life: Alyx's plot, including the events of the final scene-if you don't want to know how it ends, turn back now. In the first spoiler-free installment, we cover how Alyx's lead characters were cast, some challenges of designing for VR, what the former Campo Santo team is up to at Valve, and take the temperature on whether or not more Half-Life is on the way. This is the second part of our extended interview with writer Erik Wolpaw and designer/programmer Chris Remo, two members of the Half-Life: Alyx team at Valve.

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