Action · March 23, 2020
Half-Life: Alyx (2020)
Half-Life: Alyx is Valve’s VR return to the Half-Life series. It’s the story of an impossible fight against a vicious alien race known as the Combine, set between the events of Half-Life and Half-Life 2. Playing as Alyx Vance, you are humanity’s only chance for survival. The Combine’s control of the planet since the Black Mesa incident has only strengthened as they corral the remaining population in cities. Among them are some of Earth’s greatest scientists: you and your father, Dr. Eli Vance. As founders of a fledgling resistance, you’ve continued your clandestine scientific activity—performing critical research, and building invaluable tools for the few humans brave enough to defy the Combine. Every day, you learn more about your enemy, and every day you work toward finding a weakness. ABOUT GAMEPLAY IN VR: Valve’s return to the Half-Life universe that started it all was built from the ground up for virtual reality. VR was built to enable the gameplay that sits at the heart of Half-Life. Immerse yourself in deep environmental interactions, puzzle solving, world exploration, and visceral combat. Lean to aim around a broken wall and under a Barnacle to make an impossible shot. Rummage through shelves to find a healing syringe and some shotgun shells. Manipulate tools to hack alien interfaces. Toss a bottle through a window to distract an enemy. Rip a Headcrab off your face and throw it out the window. COMMUNITY-BUILT ENVIRONMENTS A set of Source 2 tools for building new levels is included with the game, enabling any player to build and contribute new environments for the community to enjoy through Half-Life: Alyx's Steam Workshop. Hammer, Valve’s level authoring tool, has been updated with all of the game's virtual reality gameplay tools and components.
Action releases from 2020
236 Action titles launched in 2020 — top 6 by review volume.
More from Valve
Valve has 29 titles indexed — top 6 by review volume below.
Position in Action
| Metric | This title | Genre position |
|---|---|---|
| Review volume | 97.2k Steam reviews | Top 7% in Action |
| Positive rating | 98% positive | Genre average: 83% — this title sits in top 3% |
| Metacritic | 93/100 | Genre average 77 — top 1% of Action titles |
| Concurrent peak | 202 players | Top 25% in Action by live player count |
| Engagement hours | 11 h average | Top 43% for session depth among Action |
Peer Action titles
Comparable titles in the same genre and review-volume band — ranked by Steam positive percentage.
Community Tag Signals
Tag weights reflect how many Steam users voted each descriptor — larger pills = stronger consensus.
- VR · 2.3k
- FPS · 2.0k
- Story Rich · 2.0k
- Horror · 2.0k
- Female Protagonist · 2.0k
- Shooter · 1.9k
- Singleplayer · 1.9k
- First-Person · 1.9k
- Action · 1.8k
- Sci-fi · 1.8k
- Atmospheric · 1.8k
- Zombies · 1.8k
- Beautiful · 1.8k
- Aliens · 1.7k
- Adventure · 1.7k
Localization Coverage
Interface / Subtitles (12)
- English volume_up
- French
- German
- Spanish - Spain
- Japanese
- Korean
- Russian
- Simplified Chinese
- Spanish - Latin America
- Traditional Chinese
- Italian
- Czech
Full audio (2)
- English
- Swedish
Reception Metrics
Steam community
98%Overwhelmingly Positive · 97.2k reviews
95.3k positive · 1.9k negative
Metacritic
93/100 critic aggregate
Metacritic user score
9.2/10
Curator recommendations
88.3k
Peak concurrent players
202
Features & Capabilities
Community
- Steam Achievements
- Steam Workshop
Accessibility
- Captions available
- Adjustable Difficulty
- Subtitle Options
Input & Comfort
- Tracked Controller Support
- VR Only
- VR Support
- Custom Volume Controls
- Stereo Sound
Other
- Single-player
- Save Anytime
Engagement Profile
All-time avg
11h
short (5–15 hours)
Median
6h
Typical completion time
2-week avg
1h
Current engagement
Achievements
42
Steam unlocks available
Release & Availability
| Release date | Mar 23, 2020 |
|---|---|
| Developer | Valve |
| Base price | $17.99 -70% |
| DLC / Add-ons | 1 released |
| Platforms | Windows |
| Estimated owners | 1M–10M |
| External links | Official site · Metacritic page · Support |
Content Notes
Includes violence and gore.
Editions & Packages
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