You Don’t Need A VR Headset To Play Half-Life: Alyx

Republished By Plato

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A new mod turns the popular VR game into a flatscreen experience.

Despite having been released in 2020, Valve’s Half-Life: Alyx remains one of the best single-player experiences available on PC VR headsets. And while the expertly-crafted first-person shooter was built from the ground up for VR, that hasn’t stopped one group of modders from turning the immersive game into a flatscreen experience.

Available now for download, the Half-Life: Alyx NoVR mod allows you to play through the entirety of the single-player campaign, start to finish, without the need for a VR headset or any additional cheats, thanks to a series of unique tweaks designed specifically for keyboard-and-mouse. This includes updated Gravity Gloves and the ability to smash wood planks and interact with cabinets, cranks, and doors by pressing “E.”

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Here’s the official change log (as provided by the developer team):

“Updated gravity gloves – use on objects with E.
Gloves can now grab any object from a distance including ammo and other pick-ups.
Gravity gloves sound effect added.
Late-game glove power added.
Wooden planks can now be broken off doorways and doors with E.
The entire game is now playable from start to finish (no cheats or noclip needed for anything – bugs may still be present but a save reload will fix that – please post issues on our GitHub Issues board, some of these bugs are carried over from the original HLA release and can only be fixed by Valve).
Movement speed has been adjusted so you move a bit slower when walking with proper footstep sounds.”

Fan art / **HLA-NoVR Discord server member BlooDood**

“All cranks, doors, cabinets, etc all now open by pressing E once or twice for some
Subway doors open more naturally now.
33/42 steam achievements currently work (see section in the article on achievements for more details).
Combine fabricators are now functional.
Various weapon upgrades can be selected for all 3 weapons (3 each).
Resin counter added to HUD.
Stability fixes.
Additional support for other mods (see section in the article for more details).
More!”

“This is our biggest update yet and we have no plans on slowing down!” said the mod team in an official post. “With thousands playing Half-Life Alyx NoVR we are happy to announce our largest update yet! As the titles state the entire game can now be played from start to finish, with the Gravity Gloves fully implemented along with combined fabricators providing weapon upgrades.”

“Also since we are now updating the final parts of the game there may be spoilers!” they added. “We will do our best to not spoil anything while ensuring we communicate these late-game areas have been updated along with their gameplay mechanics.”

Half-Life: Alyx No VR is available for download now via Moddb. The mod itself is free to download, though you will need to own a copy of the original game in order to play. Half-Life: Alyx is currently available for $59.99 via Steam. NoVR is even compatible with other popular mods like Levitation and Overcharge.

Feature Image Credit: GB_2 Development Team