Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Half-Life: Alyx Review - Kinda Funny Gamescast Ep. 13

Episode Date: March 23, 2020

No Clip's Danny O'Dwyer joins Greg to talk about their time in Valve's newest installment in the Half-Life franchise. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up, everybody? Welcome to the Kind of Funny Gamescast review of Half Life, Alex. I'm one of your host, Greg Miller, alongside me Irish cream, Danny O'Dwyer. Good to me back. How are things? You know, they've been better. Yeah. How are you surviving, Danny? Because I enjoy that we came in. We got you on Discord, obviously. If you're an audio listener, you've missed all of our stuff. Obviously, kind of funny's working from home. No clip is working from home in the midst of this pandemic. However, you and I got together here and have not talked about life at all. So it's been a long time since you're on kind of funny, Danny.

Bring me up to speed. Yeah, it's weird because I moved back to the Bay Area maybe, God, I don't know, four or five months ago. And we've been like threatening about like, oh, we need to get together, how we can collaborate again. And then it's like one of those things where, oh, I'll do it next month. And then no chance I'm crossing the bridge now for a while. Yes, exactly.

So you might as well be out of the East Coast again. Exactly. But it's great. We're living out here. I came back with a daughter. Don't tell her parents. Don't tell her parents that we stole her. She hasn't seemed to notice, so I think we're good.

She likes you better. It's fun. Exactly. And it's good. I feel like video games came at the right time between this, Doom and Animal Crossing. Plenty of ways to escape for a little while, you know. That's right. Yeah, and that's right, ladies gentlemen.

Half-Life, Alex is finally out today. This is your review of it. What's going to happen is we're going to treat it kind of like we used to do spoiler cast for the kind of funny movie stuff. So it'll be spoiler-free in the beginning. Then we will take a little bit of a talk of walk down memory lane about Half-Life and then a hard cut of like, now we're going into the spoiler stuff. Don't listen until you've beaten this part.

But before then, let me remind you this is the Kind of Funny Games cast. Each and every week, we get together to talk about the things we love about video games. If you love that, you should head over to patreon.com slash Kind of Funny Games, where you can, of course, support us. Get your questions read on the show. Get your topics read on the show. But most importantly, get the show ad-free along with the exclusive bonus. post show we do only on patreon.com slash kind of funny games. If you have no bucks to toss

our way, it's no big deal. You can head over to YouTube.com slash kind of funny games, roosterteeth.com, and podcast services around the globe each and every week to see what we're talking about in the world of video games. Hard to give you ever a, hey, here's what the date that the show goes up because we try to hit review embargoes like this. Last week you had, last week you had two. There was doom and animal crossing. Now there's this one on a Monday. Who knows what's going to happen? All I know is that we couldn't do without you. And speaking of that, thank you to our Patreon producers, Mohamed Mohamed, A.K.A. Momo.

James Hastings, Evan Ballard, Stephen Insler, Sancho West Gaming, Duval King, Jabub, Cody Banks, the Secret Agent, Trent Berry, Max Blair, Julian the Gluten Free Gamer, Tom Bach, Nano Support, Michael Bradley, and Joseph O. Yousef, we love and appreciate each and every one of you. Today we're brought to you by Honey, but I'll tell you about that later. Danny O'Dwire.

Oh, boy. Half-Life Alex. Man. Spoiler-free. what do you think? I completed it last night and I swear to God I could sleep for two hours just like thinking about I'm a huge half-life fan I've completed Half-Life 1 and 2 multiple times this was like important to me in lots of ways and if you asked me halfway through how I felt about it I'd be

like it's getting there it's like it's it's it's taken a lot of time to teach me to play this game but by the end I was like they they They did it. Like, they actually pulled it off. This, this feels both in terms of scope and length and gameplay style and pacing, this just felt like a half-life game. It doesn't feel like a spin-off. And then by the end, you're like, oh, this is, this is totally like an essential part of the half-life experience. I mean, that I think is, can't be understated enough. And it's something we'll delve into for sure in spoilers. But yeah, this is not a spin-off at all. This is very much core to this half-life story and universe. And it's interesting. What I'm going to

be excited to dig in with you about in this is that I've never completed a half-life. When Orange Box came out and I was at IGN, I remember getting it on 360 and trying it. None of the games, even then they were a little bit old. So they just didn't work for me. It didn't click for me. I didn't like driving around. I didn't like the combat. So I respect obviously the storytelling of it, but never, ever got invested in it. So for me, I came at Half-Life Alex very much. much as I love VR. I love my PlayStation VR. I love my Oculus Quest. You know, the fact that Valve was willing to basically make a headset for this game and say that, hey, we believe enough in VR that we are going to give you a full-fledged VR game with arguably, in terms of our fans,

at least, our biggest franchise, right? The thing that drives home what Valve is and who it is. I came in like, okay, cool, what is a general VR person going to think about this? And I was, I'm there with you of I started it. And in those first opening things, it was like, okay, cool, this is a VR game. Okay, cool. And then there'd be the little things you'd get. And like they'd drop in a new piece of gameplay or a new piece, a new tool or a new tech. And it was that thing of like, it built on itself over and over and over again to the point that I don't, I think that when they came out, we're like, hey, we're going to do a VR game. All eyes were on them. And there was a lot a hyperbole that if they're doing this, they're going to revolutionize VR. They're going to change

the way we think about VR games, so on and so forth. I don't think that happened. I think that this is a really great game. When I take off the headset and I would either talk to Jan or talk to somebody else that kind of funny about it, what I would say is this is a hell of a game. Like this, like to your point earlier, this is a game. Like it isn't a VR experience. It is very much like you are playing this game. And I know if you, I'm sure that makes sense. If you're watching this, you know a little bit about VR, right? But it was. was that thing of the more and more they added to it, that it is a really great game throughout. And then what we'll talk about, spoilers, for me personally, there are two major moments

where you're like, oh, these are extraordinary. Right. This is what takes it above and be on my expectations. For me, I think the issue with a lot of these games, especially VR stuff, is that they spent a lot of time having to teach you how to play the game. And what I really liked about Half-Life Alex is that it does do, there are some things that definitely borrows from other VR games, but it's doing a lot of new things. The way like the combat I think is a really good microcosm of this.

And I think it's helpful that a game like Doom Returnal has just come out because there's a bit of common ground there where um, Doom maternal is a game where when you play it at the start, you're taking on one or two different enemies and you've got maybe one or two different weapons. And then by the end of that game, you are taking on, you know, 20 something demons, often at the same time with a menagerie of weapons, with upgrades. but and you get to that stage. You can't play that final level without having learned

the foundations of the combat. And Half-Life Alex to me is the same way where the first half of the game is very experiential, it's novel. You know, I like playing VR as well. I've had a vibe since maybe six months after that came out and I have an index now.

And I've played a lot of first-person games. This one in terms of just playability and quality is amazing throughout. It has that sort of seamlessness that you get with PlayStation VR titles where they just kind of work. They know their constraints and they work.

Granted, I'm playing on the index. I'm not necessarily playing on... Quest link or anything like that. Yeah, I've got like the finger tracking and all that. So it all works and the haptic feedback. Great point to point out, before I let you go, I would play on index as well.

Right. I played the first half of this in a very... in the studio. So I had like 20 by 20 feet or something. And then I played the last half, maybe here, which is like nine by 10 feet in this small little spare room we have here in my house. When you were in the studio, were you using the space, like actually traversing around? Totally. Totally. And it was awesome because especially in those early levels, you're doing a lot of

walking around different apartment buildings and stuff like that, exploring. I was really enjoying it. But my sense is that at the start, it sort of needed to ease me into it that way. Because by the end of the game, some of the like the set pieces were, They really reminded me of Half-Life games of old. In fact, you having not played those games, I wonder how much of a different experience it was, because there are so many levels that are either direct references or very, like,

beautifully designed nods to famous levels, not just from Half-Life too, but also from the first Half-Life. There's one actually, when you completed it, the pop-up it gives you is basically a reference to that level again. Oh, yeah. And, yeah, I think it's absolutely magnificent. I think if this game came out three years ago,

we would be saying it was the revolutionary VR, what do we call it, the killer app, right? I don't know if that app exists anymore because we know what VR is, but in terms of a VR game, I think its quality as a VR experience is, and we're probably talking about the same, there's one or two levels which are so good

and you could not have done in any other way except VR. And in terms of a half-life game, I think it's toe-to-to-to-to-to with with Half Life One and Half Life Two. I don't think it has that same revolutionary moment, like you had with physics into, or you had with, I guess, like, contemporary storytelling in one. But I also think 2020, there aren't that many big pillars

to knock down anymore. I think this game does a lot, very good, instead of one thing that no one's done before. Yeah, as a sort of a sum of its parts, I think, by the, end I was like, oh, they totally did it. Like, this is, this is a fantastic addition to Halflight. Yeah, Gridley Bear wrote into Patreon.com slash kind of funny games just like you can and says, or does HalfLife Alex set the bar in any design fashion, aside from VR in a way that is revolutionary

like the previous iterations. And so you would know that better. I would think I'm with you, though, again, of answering into this, right, blind, basically of the Half Life universe, but knowing it's Valve, knowing it's VR, you're nailing it when you talk about quality. It's like, and I know it sounds goofy, right? But everything in there, I feel, I see. Like the amount of times that I would literally pull up my hand in game, try to look at my real world watch and I'd be like, oh, no, like the tracking is so good on the index. The visuals on that are so good.

The levels themselves, like the amount of times where it was, when I'm saying it's a hell of the game, I'm saying it's bringing out every part in me that I think. defines me as a gamer and pulls me to games where it was like all right i think that's the door they want me to go through so i'm going to go down this hallway what can i can i get more resin here to upgrade my stuff are they're going to be more mags over here and to your point of how they ease you into it and it does become second nature like that's what i noticed last night and none of this is spoilers obviously but like you know you have gravity gloves and stuff you've seen from the demo so it is like oh there's ammo over there and you know you pull it you grab it

you put in your backpack and i'm already looking somewhere else where it was all second nature of how to do all that. And when you sit there and look at that, the sum of its parts, you're like, oh, man, like I went on a journey in this game that really was so easy. It was the frog in the pot, right? By the time we were boiling, I didn't even realize it. Totally. Yeah, you find moments in, like, my favorite VR first-person shooter up until now has been super hot VR. And I've played a load. Like, I'm playing, what is it? Not Tarkov, the other one that's called, I forget what it's called, the super, the one that everyone's paying at the moment in VR. I said a bunch of, no, I can't remember than it's not everyone who know it's not tarcove it's something like that oh i'm unfamiliar i'm sure people

know they're put in the comments and i can listen to this guy's review and it's it's one of these games a lot of these games are very like hands on with the um mechanics of guns for instance right they're kind of hands on with that stuff what i like is that half life Alex lands a really good middle ground between making sure that each gun has its own way of being loaded like the pistol you need to pop out the old clip grab a new clip put it in and then basically like the chamber, right? You can also, if you want, you can actually pop the bullets out of the chamber and then you can get upgrades that, you know, make it like a triple shot and stuff. But you're not forced to do it. I never popped the bullets out of the chamber. I did it accidentally once. It was like,

it was pretty cool. But for me it was the shotgun of like you loaded it up, shaking it and like I'm ready to go. Totally. And by the end, like you're doing so many actions where a super hot worked because there was a lot of the slow motion kind of gave you that fidelity. In this thing, you're doing it at normal speed where you're you know catching a grenade midair throwing it grabbing a syringe sticking the syringe in your stomach and pressing the button or in your arm or whatever i always went chest um yeah totally right in there like the cult fiction style right um uh you know reloading a gun realizing you're out of bullets because alex said it like she does a lot of really good like letting you know last round three mags left yeah three max left right i it wasn't until i was maybe halfway through the game

that I realized there were no weight points in this game, which has always been the case for Half-Life, like expert level design, but there's no nothing. All the interface in this game is diagetic. Anything is like, you know, on your hands, you've got your simple UI. The only menu you use is to basically go back

and do settings and load the game or anything. Even that, you can do really fast. You can just pop it and hit save game. It's almost like a quick save on PC. So everything is in the world, and it's just so brilliantly designed because you never, we're used to jank in VR games.

You kind of have to play VR games in spite of themselves sometimes. You have to, like, look past it. And I'm saying this game, like, every once in a while, something will act out a little bit weird. Or if you try and pick up bodies, they don't feel heavy and stuff like that. It's just like VR, right? And that was my thing, not to stop you in your two tracks.

It's like when we're talking about revolutionary and does it, you know, push VR forward. And I think it pushes in terms of level design, yes. In terms of this is a real game. You know, it's a hell of a game. It's a game. You know, I spent a lot of time in VR. for, right? Like 10 plus hours. I'm not sure what my final run was. But it is that same thing. Yeah,

of like, yep, I'm in VR and I'm trying to grab. Am I grabbing the body wrong? Like, then there'd be like the drum and I'm trying to move. Is this a drum I can't lift or I can? The same problems I have with when I'm playing Blood and Truth on PlayStation VR, right? Those little things, you're like, oh, that's still there. Now, again, Blood and Truth, one of my favorite PlayStation VR games, this is a so, this is such a big step beyond that into making that world feel fleshed out. hiding itself, I think hiding the seams better than other VR games have too. Yeah, it's funny. I think there is this desire, especially when it comes to a game like this where there's so much expectation, right? There's this desire for it to be that sort of

bridge that brings us into a new reality for a genre or something. To me, I think this game is something more akin to the way World of Warcraft was received in that World of Warcraft was doing nothing revolutionary. There was nothing in wow that Ultima Online has. hadn't done. There was nothing in ware that other pen and paper role-playing games or more deeper dungeon crawlers were doing or online games. But what World Warcraft did is that it did all of them perfectly and also it was as a product was glossy and looked good. And I think that's what this one, that's kind of what this feels. And I think the other thing that Half-Life Falix does is it ratchets up the pace in a way that I've never seen a VR game do well.

And, you know, there are elements of it that they have to crank back, like the AI, for instance, isn't the smartest. They're often not, you know, taking cover the right way. All of these things that you kind of need to do in VR, because otherwise it just becomes impossible, right? And that was my thing, dude, of like where I was like, oh, this is a really great VR game. And I say that because it was, I think the exploration, I think the level we both love that we'll talk about later. Oh, my gosh. So well done. But when it was combat, yeah, it was guys ran around.

and it was few and far between where I died in combat. It was usually that I died, like I fell off of something, a monster got me that I didn't see. When I'm in the gunfights, it's very much to your point that they come and they kind of plant in areas. And it was like, cool, I can get down and I can figure it out. I can run back. I can do it.

It was like what you're saying. They weren't trying to, you know, swarm me or flush me out or do whatever. And we, I was playing a normal, I assume, right? Like, I can't remember it so long ago when I actually picked it. I definitely picked the default normal difficulty. I'm sure I could have cranked it up, but I don't know if it would have made them smarter. And also, for me, the combat, right, wasn't what the game was about. That wasn't why I was playing this.

I wasn't it for the story. I wasn't for the journey. I wasn't for the visuals. So when that stuff got there, I enjoyed it enough. I enjoyed the guns. And, you know, for the most part, with a head crab or whoever or a leggy coming at me. I was like, yeah, all right, cool. I got this.

I don't need to worry about it. Yeah, I think the thing that sort of always separated Half-Life from other shooters was that Half-Life is a game that has puzzles and also the combat is a puzzle in that there is a there's an obvious way of killing things where you can just shoot them all in the head if you want to but if you lean into the way Half-Life is designed there's always environmental stuff that you can you can use to your advantage and given the sort of increased amount of I guess choice that virtual reality gives you in a world where you're able to pick up everything because you can literally pick up everything in this game and there were some really like novel

interesting things you could do like I remember there was this one level where you for instance, you're going to be pocket like two items at a time, but there's nothing stopping you from just like collecting a bunch of them, throwing them into the next room, so you have putting them in a box and carrying the box in. And I remember doing that a bunch of times or throwing some down below so I know I could go down there and get them later. There's loads of like that type of thing, like placing things in certain spots or, you know, throwing flaming barrels or placing them or I found that I, I, the more I sort of like played with it.

And this reminds me the first time I played half life where the way I first played the first half life, it took me the three months to complete because every set piece, combat fight out half, I would reload and try it a different way. And I'm really looking forward to going back and playing Alex on a heart of difficulty because some of them were for the sake of the embargo, I was just kind of getting through it. But I would have loved to have played around a little bit more. So I want to get some reader questions in here that are non-spoilery before we get to spoiler. territory. And actually, before I even do that, bring me up to speed. So, what is your half-life story? Because I don't have one, right? Like, you've heard it. I played Orange Box. And I was like, yeah, I'll play Portal. Portal's more fun. Yeah, I mean, the first Half-Life came out before we had a PC. My brother, we got like a cracked version from my brother's college network. It took him like a month

to bring it down because he had it on like one zip disc every time. And I felt in love it. It was the, you know, people talk about Halo or Perfect Dark or Gold Night. their big FPS game. Half-Life was my favorite game ever. And when the second one came out, I took a week off college, I played it to death, I'll play Cannistrike Source for years, I played Team Fortress for years. And then when we did Noclip, I wanted to do something for the 20th anniversary of the season, of the game coming out, which was November 1998 is when it came out. And we did a whole documentary about it, and Valve never got back to us, so we just kind of did it anyway. So I have basically completed half-life almost every year since,

Half-Life 2, almost every year since it came out in 2004. I did a half marathon in San Francisco and raised money by completing all of the half-lifes in a row. I can literally, I used to, when I was in high school, I used to imagine when I was, I used to do like after-school study and I'd be so bored, and I used to play through the first half-life in my head. Like, I know these games more than any game. And I think for people who are like super fans, of Half-Life, even just seeing like a new type of like enemy, because there's loads of new enemies in there. And there's loads of new context for areas you've been in and there's references, like the

backstory that Reese Starby's character, Russell and Alex have where he's talking about the world before all of this, all that stuff. It's just, it fleshes out the universe in a way that was just like, I was starving for it. And they were like, here's a buffet of new Half-Life Gorge. and again, like, right, like, what a bunch of performances? So good. Alex is so good. Russell is so good.

Like, everybody in this game is bringing it. And to your point, yeah, I've like, I don't even like club sandwiches, but the way he describes a club sandwich at one point in that game, like, fuck, I want that. And it's such a great setup to where they are in the universe, right? Because again, this game, this game, as somebody who's coming in it is not a half-life person. And I thought about doing, like, the, oh, I should watch, like, you know, the 20-minute, like half life in review and i was like you know what no because this is rare for me to jump into a

game and not have source material and so the game as an outsider does not hold your hand and it does not give you like here's the story so far it is very much like drop in and i'm like oh these soldiers are hey hold oh they're they're not they're aliens they're from oh dimensional okay uh i got it and then it's like what what was life before i'm like okay i understand where we're at now and it's piecing it all together by the end i got it and we'll get to all that in a little bit But it was interesting of, in the start of it, I was like, shit, they're not going to give me that. So will I be anchored to these characters? Will I care?

And the back and forth, you know, Russell being the person in your ear the entire way is so good. And like I laughed out loud so many times. And it's not like they're swinging for the fences trying to make a million jokes. You laugh at 2% of them. Like they're just really good at the dialogue making you care. Yeah, I know Eric Wopopopopop was involved in some respect in this. I'm not sure if Jeff Falsak was. but it is that sort of portal level of humor

that you're getting from that. In a way that Half-Life 2, who is the comic relief character and that was largely Dr. Kleiner and it lands way heavier than anything he ever said, it's like it's so much more of a fun, funny story. And I guess it kind of can be because for anyone who's played Half-Life,

you ultimately kind of know where these characters end up, right? Because this happens, I think it's five years before the events of Half-Life 2, before the arrival of Gordon Freeman in the train at the start of Half-Life 2. So it's, you know, it's hard for them to create dramatic tension in that. Yeah, you know, exactly. But they, but they, you know, so for a while you're sort of meandering through the game, you have that pull to like uncover something.

But at a certain point, you actually do get that. And it ends up working really well. So then what have the last 17 years, 13 years, 13 years? 13 years. So what have the 2007? I got to put them in the wrong place. What have the last 13 years been like for you, a half-life fan? Like a lot of replaying the old games, a lot of cautious optimism. I mean, they're pretty good games to have to replay in fairness. A lot of just like how do they get themselves out of this sticky problem? Because, and especially after spending so long going to studios and talking to people, when you lose people and you lose that institutional knowledge and you lose the. desire to make a sequel. At what stage do you have new hires make a sequel, like the third chapter of a trilogy? It just doesn't work. Like, trilogy is a really difficult. Star Wars is a

good example of once again, they've sort of, you know, dropped the ball on that. It's, it's, it's hard to stick a landing, the Matrix, one of the favorite series ever, right? It's really difficult. How would you go back and do it after 13 years? We won't, well, spoilers, we'll keep a lot of last chapter afterwards, but, but it does, you know, that to me was the big sort of thing, was like, will this connect up in any way that'll feel good? Or, you know, when they eventually make a half-life, will it be at episode three or will it be something that's just kind of like a make-good? You know what I mean?

Sure. So I wasn't sure what this would end up being when I started. Yeah, I was wondering, what were your expectations coming into Alex? I thought it would be shorter. I spent 11 to 12 hours in this, and I feel like I scuttled through a couple of those parts. So I was really surprised. episode two is five hours long. No, two is six hours. Five is episode one is five hours. Half-life one proper is about 12.

And Half-Life two is about 15. So this is actually closer to the length of a mainline half-life game than it is one of the episodes. So I think that really took me by surprise. I wasn't expecting, well, I wasn't expecting a lot of things, which we'll talk about later. In terms of the, it's so hard. I know, I know. You're doing a great job. I think I was expecting it to be a smaller in terms of story, in terms of scope, in terms of even distance. Half-Life games have always been these road trips

where you end up doing a lot of walking. And in this one, you do a lot of walking both in the game and physically just because of how long the game is in VR. But it ends up being very similar. You know, Half-Life 2 is a game where it's a huge road trip. There's literally a road trip part in it. there's a part on an airboat you you go to a different city ravenholm you go to nova prospect

you end up coming back to city 17 it's it's a big long but but connected uh story right it has day night cycles you play it in one big chunk and it's the same with this one i was really shocked i thought this might be chapters or interesting bits and bob but it's not it's the same thing it's it's one whatever i don't know 36 hour long period or something and and and it's a road trip the loading screens, which I actually don't have footage of because when you capture the game, it doesn't show those parts for some reason. But the loading screen is literally like a holographic map of where you have been. And those are the ones that fans used to draw after the Half-Life games will come out.

They try and piece together where everything was. So in many ways, like I said, at the start, it doesn't necessarily feel like a Half-Life game. It feels like a VR game that they've made in City 17. but the longer I traveled in it and the more I explored and the richer the story got, I was like, oh no, almost like they didn't want you to know that at the start,

almost like that they were being really conservative with expectations so that they get crescendo to that moment. And they pulled it off perfectly for me. Well, that was the thing, right, of like the moment, and I can't place it, but the moment I realized that the loading screen map was tracing my journey. I was like, oh, that's cool.

And so by the end, when you've taken this, long-ass journey to the destination. It is that thing of like, man, look at everything I've accomplished and look at how far I've come. And it is there are, you know, it's what you're talking about. There are no punches pulled. It is very clear. That's where you started and this is where you are.

Like, you see how that went. And I was like, that's really cool. Like that's a great way to do it. Like I said, I want to get a couple of reader questions. Oh, for it. Or not spoilier or freeze. Brandon, so, you know, at the beginning of the month, we have to put out, hey, we're going to review these games this a month.

And so people write in with their questions. Brandon put this one in and I used it on Animal Crossing, but I'm also going to use it here. And I think somebody used it on Doom. But Brandon asks, simple question, is it a game of the year contender? Yeah, 100%. For me, for me, and I've completed Doom Eternal,

and I haven't booted Animal Crossing yet, but that's, you know, that's not my type of game anyway, but I'll enjoy it. Yeah, for me, this is 100%. Yeah, it's difficult. Because the most, the most disappointing thing about HalfaFalix is that fewer people will get to play it. Right.

And I think that in terms of game of the year contention, I think that comes into it as well. Especially in the sort of economic conscious world we live in today, it is difficult to have. Because it's a significant buy it. It's not just the VR stuff. It's also a computer that's able to play it, right? So I see that being a barrier for it. But in terms of just pure gameplay quality, 100%. It's, it has one of the levels is one of the best first person levels that I think.

think either of us has played in years. Agreed. For sure. It has some fantastic moments in there for sure. It's interesting. I don't think it is. I think for a VR game of the year for sure, like obviously. But I think like for me it's like the little things of the fact that it is still a really great

VR game is what I think holds it back overall. Now that's not to take away from it. I loved it. I had a great time. This is a really great game, period. But it is the thing of like the AI not being that great like when we get in fights, right? The few tech problems I did have. my own personal frustrations of PC gaming, which is my own fault for just having a PC that really never gets used but could do it.

And somebody else wrote in, by the way, too, about did you try QuestLink? That was my original plan before Val for review sent an index. And so I had the cable and I had the thing and I was like, you know what? I should try both. And the PC I have is like out of storage because Alex is huge.

And I was not prepared to like, especially as this pandemic hits to order a hard drive and put it in. I'm like, I'll let it slide on how it runs on Quest. I have no idea. So that was one of those questions there. But it's like VR game of the year, of course. I don't, I don't, it's when you think about it and the amount of time I put into it

and the fact that it's a real ass game and the things they do with that level, the things they do with the story, it's like, I can easily see it. But overall, like, to so many other different degrees, I mean, granted, we have to see what else comes out this year and how well they all, you know, what is cyberpunk going to play like? What is last it was going to play like? I'd be impressed if it made it that far. Yeah, I think it's difficult to decouple myself from my love of the franchise.

And not just like from a fandom perspective, but there's lots of kind of like they're almost like untangibles that this game delivers on that the original one did. Like the music and the atmosphere and just like there are ways in which this game really aggressively echoed. the way half like one and two play, but without being derivative, which to me felt like it just, you know, whenever we talk about games and how we like them,

we tend to try and latch on to these relatively either objective things that we like about them or these very subjective things, but there's something about like the aesthetic and feel of that game, which I totally vibe with and a lot of people do, and it nailed that half-life vibe in a way that, like, it's so soothing to me. And there's probably an element of nostalgia there as well.

Well, yeah, and I think all that's justified. And I think, honestly, this is always my favorite thing of on the eve when we record a review, and I haven't talked to other people who are reviewing it to see how the rest of the world takes it. But I think for the most part, you're going to see the people who go out of their way to review this and play this are Half Life faints, right? Like, you know what I mean? Like I, that Half Life, you know, when I came to IG in 2007 was the shit. Everyone loved Half Life. And I think that in a lot of ways as the churn of our industry has burned out in journals.

and personalities. You have these young faces that I don't know what their attachment is to it. And if they've been, you know, hankering for a new half-life. I think that this, playing through this and watching this story progress, I think it will definitely make new fans, right? Like, it is that thing right now of being buried in games I need for review and finishing this and I literally finished it. I was like, shit, I should play Half-Life 1 and 2.

You know what I mean? Like, I want to play that and then replay this to get it all sunk up. Because as soon as I finished it, it was immediately too. I think I know what's happening here but let me go back and watch the hey here's half-life in five minutes and hey here's this and what about this cut scene what if I watch that again like piece all together

because it is such an iconic game yeah and I think the stuff that really echoed that I really loved is bad stuff I sort of a lot of the issues like with AI for instance feels like that type of thing that you kind of just need to do for VR especially if there's that many enemies because some of the set pieces

they do the half-life thing where it's not just one enemy. There's like a three-dimensional war going on between Combine or zombies in Combine or other, we won't get spoilers in Combine, all this stuff. And like, I feel like, you know, when you're doing that, between the AI being relatively simplistic and also, or generous, let's say. And that's a great way to put it. Yeah, it's kind of helping you add a little bit, right? and the ability to basically like kind of like almost blink like tracer does like the movement

that you do if you pick you can do locomotion and do all that stuff i think for combat i think i used blink the whole way through basically after trying some of the other ones and blink's teleport correct it's like it's the fault one um you can span that thing and basically just like fly across a battleground what i did i would say three fourths of the game i played through locomotion is as is you actually moving, like walking, walking? It's if you press up on the depa or up on the controller, it's that thing where I had forgotten. So I played three-fourths of the way all locomotion,

where I was moving the sticks, moving my character. Oh, wow, okay. And then I think honestly, it was a lot of VR. And as you talked about the review embargo, it was a lot of VR in a very condensed period of time. And on like the second to last night, my eyes kind of gave out of me. And I started getting that VR tummy.

And I was like, God, what am I going to do? And that's when I started using blink. And blink solved it all together. So not only, and I, at the beginning it asked you to pick, right? So I picked locomotion at the top just to have the sticks. However, you have access to blink the entire time. So it's honest. Yeah, you can, when you choose that, you have both.

So it was like, especially after I made the switch, I'd start using the sticks. I'd like, no, hold on. And then I'd blink around and figure it all out. And the fact that that's there, the fact that it's so seamless was awesome. And the fact that I was able to find a play style, even when my play style changed midway through. I never get motion sickness to you. Super rarely.

For me in VR, like in the old days, we had to crawl before we could walk. It was elevators, right? When it'd be going up in an elevator and the elevator would stop, but my body felt like it should keep going because there's no gravity, that's what would get me. And so I felt, I got over it, obviously. But in this game, there's a lot of jumping down holes or like, you know, walking. So when I was doing locomotion and I would come to those moments. I would close my eyes and walk.

Oh, that's amazing. When I was like, all right, cool. All right. But like, yeah, it wasn't even like I was like ill, ill. It was just like, I think I was hungry and I was like, I need to get through this. And I played a little bit longer than I should have when my body was saying stop. And so when I came back, I just started using blink. Yeah, I had that couple of times too, actually.

Yeah, it all worked, right? And that was the thing. And like, that is overall, like, I know this is a review of Half-Life, but it is my first time ever using the index at home, especially for 12 hours. like that that is a fucking machine dude you know what i mean 120 hertz as well makes a big difference like yeah the that helps a little i think with the uh getting over some of that sickness stuff making it smooth right yeah but like you know i because it was that thing of picking it up turning it on and being like and literally lifting it my hands like oh my fingers are oh right

i'm using this because like i thought the hands were screwed up like it was a sink problem it was like no i had my stupid hands out weird right and i was like oh man like that was awesome and so trying to get used to grabbing things but not hitting the buttons. Not because you can't hit the buttons. But like grabbing things and like, oh, this is all I need to do. I don't need to do the rest. It was really. Yeah.

So there's one object in the game, like a weapon that you basically, it's like a grenade and you prime it by squeezing it. And I remember there was one time I was playing where a zombie burst out of like a thing and it shocked me and I took, I tensed up. And then I heard it and I was like, oh no. And I looked down and I accidentally squeezed the grenade. and just had to like throw it. Yeah, yeah, totally.

And it was like loads of those moments where there was just so many like immersive combat, immersive gameplay is always the thing we say with like immersive Sims and stuff like that. But those games in their combat design have always had that quality. And there was loads. I experienced loads of that type of thing. Like kind of like the bucket on the head in Skyrim where if you do certain, if you can sort of mess around with the environment in ways that the game actually allows you to do it.

It responds. It's like what you're talking about. It's, you know, just being in there and being in there and not thinking you're in a game. And like, it was as simple as like,

you know, early on, I put on a gas mask and it was just on. And I was like, oh, that's cool. And then like hours, hours later,

I was walking through there's a hard hat. And I was like, wait. And I went like that hard hat bill right here. I'm like, I never see my character. This doesn't matter at all.

And I'm like, maybe it gives me protection from head grabs. I don't know. But I was like, oh, I never thought about that. I wonder. Oh, my God.

Later on, actually, there's a mask you can put on. I wonder if that will protect your photographs. Yeah, I don't know, man. They had so many little things in there that were like, oh, that's cute. That's cool. And then it was the thing of like the amount of times I would get spooked by something where it would be, oh, God. Yeah. Jesus.

I did a, the barnacles are the names of the tongues hanging. Yeah. Okay. So a lot of the game you spend, you know, same as in half life. You spend picking things up and throwing them onto the. tongs so that they go up so that you can walk past. I remember I was shooting one, there was two of them up there and I was, uh, they usually take, they took three bullets in the original half life and they do in this as well if you do,

right. Um, and I went bang, bang, bang, and one and I started getting sick. And I was empty on my clip and the other one was just there. So I just held it out and bit click and the clip shot out into the barnacle and I was just like, fucking love this game. Like that's, I, I kept getting those moments of just like, oh yeah, of figuring stuff out and then the guy, the game, um, a lot. allowing me to do that, that, you know, emergence elements, so you get.

And to my, you know, to me being like, this is a hell of a game. Like, the amount of, I never felt like I wasted my time exploring. Yeah. I hate that in games when you, oh, there, I don't have to go that way and you go over there and there's nothing there. You're like, oh, this is stupid. You go over there and there's at least some ammo. There's going to be resin.

There's going to be whatever. It's like, all right, cool. You're rewarding me for exploring this environment. You've, you know, taken so long to build, which is awesome. Yeah, it was. And the one way in this feels like very, very, very different to Half-Life 1 and 2 is just that element of virtual reality where you were so much more close and intimate with your environment. So the actual design, like there's a sort of a strange, uncanny valley between this and the old games where the lighting is so much better. The models are so much better.

So the Combined Soldiers look slightly different and the headcrabbs look slightly different than they did before. Which is, of course, because it's been like, you know. It's been a while. It's been 10 years at least, I think, or around 10 years since episode two came out. So, yeah, it's a, so that happens. But just the environment design, like level, in terms of level design, this game is right up there at Half Life 1 and 2. It's, it's immaculate.

Some of the set piece design in this is unbelievable. We'll talk about that one level, I'm sure. But just in terms of- Teasing. Stay tuned, gamers. There's a cool level talk coming up. But just in terms of environmental design from an aesthetic perspective, it's absolutely. Absolutely tremendous.

Just like gorgeous. Like having all this like, you know, alien goo and like tentacles and like even the hacking mini game you do with Alex's thing. Just the way all that interface works and like the way it like has that ambient light. It's just gorgeous. I have it. I take very few notes. But one of the notes I have in here is like, sorry, Bioshock. Like these are the best hacking mini games.

It's so good. game. I got excited every time I had to hack something because there's multiple different ones and all of them are like, oh, this is cool. And it feels futuristic, right? When you grab the giant ball globe or whatever and you start moving things around. It's coming other ways. Like, yeah, this is really neat. Yeah, that game would be like a fun game. And it keeps changing the rules ways that, again, there's hardly any to everyone's no one's no while there's a prompt that comes up on your thing that tells you how to stick a grenade on the front of the shotgun or something like that. But like, so much of this stuff is just, it's teaching you by just showing you.

It's really something else. We haven't really talked about the, the, the, her using her multi-tool to all the electronic stuff. Yep. It's just, like that could have been a VR game on its own. Yeah, just tracing lines back, spinning them around these puzzles of figuring out how to get electricity from one thing to the other. Yeah, it's amazing. That and like the way in which that, you know, evolves throughout the game. we're using different colored wires and then putting your hands in places where you can't see,

like just the funny ways they do things where they feel like you're putting your hands in a spider's nest sometimes, you know? There's just so many like novel moments like that, which, yeah, just the game never felt boring. Every new level, just like Half-Life, every level had something interesting, whether a new weapon, a new enemy, a new type of environment, a new way of interacting with the world through virtual reality, a set piece, a puzzle. there was always something. It felt exactly like Half-Life 1 and 2 in that respect,

where it's just like pacing done perfectly. 100%. Final question I want, before we get into spoilery stuff, comes from Millie Bight. Do you think there'll ever be a non-VR version of Half-Life, Alex? Considering what you played, is a non-V-R version even possible

or would removing VR completely break the game? Do you want to go first? Yeah. I think if, if this game wasn't in VR, it would be infinitely less interesting. This game is, not only is it like clearly built

to take advantage of VR. In terms of a first person game, just a keyboard mouse controller FPS game in 2020, the environments are small. There's not that many enemies at any one time. The puzzles are so based upon physicality. and the world is so dense and immersive that if you were to do that with a mouse and keyboard

it just wouldn't work. You'd be flying around as well. Like mouse and keyboard controls, like when you're running in an FPS, you're running at a bit 2.5 speed of a regular person. If you're walking, you're going way, way faster. So it would just feel ridiculous. Someone will hack it, I'm sure, and they'll try and play it.

You'll see how bad it would be. I don't see them ever retconning or, what would you say, remastering remastering into a mouse and keyboard it would basically make you'd have to fund them yeah it just wouldn't work

even if you did the work technically it wouldn't work in terms of you know it would lose the magic of what it is because you're talking about it with it being that immersion it is like even if you were like mouse and keyboard or controller or whatever and you're using motion controls to scan the walls like

you know and you've seen videos of people playing VR they think they look cool they look like morons if you're in your living of doing this, like trying to, it would be like, no, this isn't working with the Omni tool. Yeah, like, when you're scanning the wall is one thing, but then one of the things, a lot of things you have to do in this game and involve having more hands.

So, like, doing things like holding something up and grabbing something or, or ratcheting something, or, you know, throwing. And there's lots of this game where you have to do something with one hand and, like, throw things. You know, all the puzzles are based upon, not just using your hands, but, like,

there's gameplay in the arc of the throw. If you're playing a game with a mouse and keyboard or with a controller and you're throwing something, you're hitting X to throw or so you're hitting square to throw, right?

Maybe you can somehow do the power of the throw by holding down more or less, right? When you're throwing a game in virtual reality, you're literally picking the point at which it leaves your hand, the angle, and the strength. And in Half-Five Alex, there is

all of those things combine to make a result. So everything in the game becomes infinitely less interesting if you take away the hands, not just grabbing things or shooting. Everything does. So I don't think it will. I don't think it will. But after playing this game, I am seeing how much work they put into it. And everything else will talk about in the spoiler section. I am more confident that this is the start of more half-life than I've ever been, which I think that's maybe the most exciting thing about this.

Ooh, la la, la. Well, what a transition. It's time, ladies and gentlemen. But before we get into our spoiler-filled discussion, let's hear from our sponsor. The Kind of Funny Gamescast is brought to you by Honey. Online shopping is supposed to be easy. So why is it so hard to find coupons that actually work? Thanks to Honey, it doesn't have to be. Honey is the free online shopping tool that saves you money online. Honey automatically finds the best promo codes and applies them to items in your cart, which makes online shopping finally feel as easy as it's supposed to. to be. Imagine you're shopping at one of your favorite sites, Target, Best Buy, Sephora, etc. When you check out, this little box drops down and all you have to do is click apply coupons. Wait a few seconds for it scan every promo code on the internet and watch the prices drop. As you know, we use Honey Here. I do. Tim does. I believe Kevin does. Kevin correct me if I'm wrong. I love it. Exactly. It's super simple. You download it once. I use Chrome. It's in my

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It's free to use and installs in just two clicks. Get Honey for free at joinhoney.com slash kina. That's join honey.com slash kinda. All right, this is it. Your last chance, ladies and gentlemen, to turn this off and not have any of Half-Life Alex spoiled for you. You have had all the warnings in the world. I'm giving you your warning now to touch you,

even if you're driving a car, plenty of time to pull over to the shoulder, tap the little iPod, end it over there. All right. We're good. Don't watch this. Come back. obviously. Don't watch this until you did. All right. Great. Danny, where do you want to start? Should we start? Should we should we ramp into the spoilers? Just go kind of slowly but surely.

Just jump in like cold water. Just go straight in. Yeah. Okay. Let's talk about that level then first. How about that? Okay. Jeff. Jeff. Dude. I was like if they're going to name a level after Jeff Keely, that was named. At least get it right. And then Park. Then the Park Ranger from Firewatch starts talking like Campo Santo you're all over this game dude like it is yeah you said it right it's the best level I've played in forever I can't think of a level that stood out to me like this stands out to me but then it's like also this weird best survival horror game yeah forever built into Half Life Alex it's like it's like it's like Resident Evil nemesis or something or like Resident Evil 2 what's his face right it comes after you that it's like

Yeah, Mr. X. Mr. X mixed with like the clickers from The Last of Us. Yep. So Jeff is basically just a mutated worker in a vodka plant. And you're trying to make your way through the level. And he's basically unable to see anything. He can only hear stuff. And his hearing's great.

His hearing is. You can walk around him and he won't hear you really. But there's loads of things in the environment that make noise. And there's also vodka bottles everywhere that you can just pick up. and throw and he'll go in that direction. And I think, you know, key to this setup, right, was, and I know he's from Madman, too. Do you remember this actor's name that I'm talking of? The guy from, the park ranger from Firewatch, but then also the guy from Madman.

Doesn't matter. He's the first human you see in forever, right? Like when I walked in and heard his, he's like, hey, and I was like, oh, I'd have to shoot this guy. Oh, he's just a normal dude. And he's like, yeah, hey, welcome to the thing. He's like, look out for Jeff, though, gives you this introduction, shows you by smashing something. He's like, he's an idiot. Don't worry about it.

Bye and runs away. You're like, all right. But then getting into this and then learning, yeah, exactly that, okay, if I don't, oh, I don't have to move and he'll be all right. Okay. How do I do this? What do I do? This is when I just started using blink too.

So I was like, this is very helpful in this instance. But then the ways they keep ratcheting it, right? Of like there's this, you know, these spores mist that's being kicked out and it'll make you cough. And so when you start coughing, he obviously runs to that until they're told you to hold your mouth or your hand over your mouth. And so then... And it does it.

It animates the hand over the mouth. And again, this is like... We're so late in the game that this gets introduced and is like a, oh my God, like what the hell? They made all this for this one thing. And it is walking around your hand covered, trying to be quiet. Like you're suddenly, you know, in a quiet place. You know what I mean?

You are Emily Blunt hand over your mouth walking around doing it. And it was like, oh my God, that's brilliant. It's simultaneously the scary. and funniest level in the game, I think, just in terms of pure design, because what they keep making you do to get through the level involves making a shitload of noise. So at one stage, you have to, like, crank something. So you have to, like, throw a bottle through a window, which gets him far enough away. You can crank this thing as fast as possible. And then at one point, you can, like, get him locked in a freezer cupboard, basically. But then you're doing the hacking thing

to, you know, he's locked away, he's fine, he's not going anywhere, right? I've solved Jeff. And then you're doing this, you know, electricity puzzle. And the wire goes into the freezer and you're like, you have got to be kidding me. And then that and then it's just between that, it just keeps ratcheting it over and over again. You're stuck in more ridiculous situations with this thing. And it was the brilliance of it, right? Of like, again, I'm going through, I'm like playing this like fallout.

I'm going through every drawer in this game. I'm getting every resource I can. So, yeah, like, oh, Jeff's all the way over there. Don't have to worry about it. And I throw open this thing and I see the vodka bottle roll at me. I'm like, you fuckers. And I try to catch it. I can and it smashes and I run in high.

And like, it was so well done. It's like what you're talking about. Yeah, where it was this mix of being terrifying and being so much fun to play. Yeah. And even like, you know, towards the end of the level when you're trying to set up the three different power couplings, right, to then open up the, like, you have to keep going back. And it was that originally thing when I got there and I thought I was done with Jeff. And I looked at this and I was like, God damn it.

And then like after you get the first one, I'm like, I got this. Like, how am I going to do this? Like, okay, do this, do that. What? Yeah, the last, the last one was really funny where you had to wheel from this like piece of barbed. Rebar. Yeah. Rebar.

And then stick it through another one so you could crank it a little bit and have this thing roll out. And it's just, I remember one stage I had my mouth covered for so long. And I actually did it earlier in the game. And I was like level two, I did it by accident. And I was like, oh, I wonder why she wants to be quiet. And then I was thinking, oh, I wonder if you could bring one of those gas masks from the earlier levels because there's none of them in there. You actually end up seeing one immediately after. No, dude, there's one in there.

Oh, there is. Did you use it? Yeah. Yeah, it did. It totally worked. It was in that same room where the vodka bottle rolled out. At some point, I opened a drawer and found it. And I was like, put it on.

And I walked right to the spores. And I was like, fucking bravo valve. Because again, like, that's why the game is something special. Because it is, and I know it's such a tired thing, but if you see it, you can do it kind of thing. Like, it was rare for me. And I can't think of an example, I guess. So maybe it didn't even happen where I was like,

I should be able to break this glass and I can't. That's bullshit. Instead, it was like, oh, I can break that glass. Here's a wooden crate. And I'd like, drop it lightly and it wouldn't break. And I'd be like, well, wait a second. Whip! And it would shatter.

And I was like, fuck yeah. Fuck yeah. That's exactly how it should react. Yeah, it's a there's that whole level was just that to me was when that Half Life Special Sauce works where it's not just one thing where they've layered three or four different things. There's the spores. There's him with the sound. There's, you know, being able to cover your mouth. There's not really being able to use your guns at all because you'll come after you. Like just so many considerations that you're thinking of. Yeah. Like the puzzle of Jeff, right? It just like there was one one of those things you had to pull out. I think I pulled the thing and the barnacle took it up and dropped a bunch of stuff or something

it just noise kept happening and at one stage I put in my face up to my mouth for so long and it left and when I put my hand down Alex said, I hate you Jeff did you hear you say that? No, I never did that. I had the hand up present I think by that stage you might have had the

maybe it's because I did yeah she like muttered breath God I hate you Jeff. That's awesome that is so fucking cool it was amazing and like that and like even in the, like, yeah, the game, dude. It's just, it does so much right. It's such a great time. It's hell of a game.

And there's loads of levels before that that we didn't get into earlier. There's definitely one level that is Ravenhole equivalent of this game, the sort of horror one, which is when you first get your flashlight and you're doing a lot of like exploring in the dark and you have this, this flashlight. And it's that perfect way they do it, right? Where literally a minute and a half before, I was like, fuck, it's dark. I wish I had a flashlight. And then I got the flashlight and I'm doing this and doing that. It's like, I'm like, Bravo, Valv, Bravo.

You know what I mean? That's, that is like how you talk about like designing gameplay to a T. Where the moment I'm like, I should have this, they give it to me. So I know I have that need. I have that want and then I get it. And it's like, oh, yeah, great. There's one level which I alluded to in the first half. Which is a where you come up and it's basically, you come down an elevator,

you open up the shutter and it's basically a room full of exploding barrels with trip mines in it. Yeah. Which is a level from Half Life one. It was a way, the one. Yeah. and you had to jump over stuff. You did like, basically it was like a jumping puzzle.

And in that one, yeah, you can go around and hack a bunch of them. I think there's a way through without hacking them. I'm sure there is. I tried to figure it out, but I couldn't.

Yeah, that was the thing. Like, you know, opening those doors and having the, they give you the abilities and take them away

in interesting ways where you go downstairs and yeah, it's just, you know, gas cans everywhere. And it's like, all right,

cool, I can't fire my gun in here. So what am I going to do? Yeah, that whole, yeah, there was one, where you explode and at one stage one of the barnacles picks up one of the barrels and I was like

oh my God what do I do what do I do yeah you die yeah it's just can we talk about some of the enemies that are new and ones that are yeah because I don't know them so I that's great like I knew barnacles I know head crabs obviously yeah and the combiner were there before the heavy combine there was equivalent in one of the islands um but I think that's specific one with the shield wasn't in it before okay um the like to your point the shield dude I felt was specifically designed for VR, right? Yes. Because he's got the Gatling gun on you and you're like, well, I'm fucking dead.

Or maybe he's the shotgun. And then he'd throw up that shield and sit there and wait. And be like, okay, here's a chance for me to fuck around and get my thing reloaded, run away. Yeah, there's two heavies, right? There's one that has the shield and there's another one that doesn't. I don't know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The head crabs with the hard shells and the bellies, they're new.

Okay. The sort of turtle head crab looking ones. Yeah. The antlines were returning. They were, uh, Russell called them leggies. I love that so much. So you do know ant lions? Yeah, they're called legs.

Yeah, he's like ant lions. Or they're like tiny like ants. He's like, no, no, no. So they're like lions. And that's like a good point. Like it's why are they called ant lions? It's a stupid name. Yeah, so the, the Vortigants were in it again, but only has one character.

I think you didn't fight them same as Half-Life 2. And Half-Live 1, you were fighting the Vortigants, the weird guys who kind of- The Alex Vance. Exactly, yeah. They were the main enemies in Half-Life 1. or at least in the sort of the second, third of that game. I enjoyed, you know,

not knowing anything about them. I enjoyed their introduction. I enjoyed, like when I got to the right to go into their little hole and there was like that cave painting. And I walked over and even I'm like, well, that's Gordon Freeman.

You know what I mean? Like what's going on here? And you get in there and there's this person that seems like Dr. Manhattan, right, existing out of time being able to talk. I was like,

yeah, okay. Totally. I'm trying to think what our enemies were in it, that were, the strider you fight near the end every half-life has to have a strider fight at the end i guess or every half-life two they were introduced into um that was one of my few complaints gameplay wise where when i got to the cannon section of that right for some reason and it might just be the way i had it set up and that's vr but like yeah i might when i reached down to try to do it my hand would wig out

so there's like perfect i was god damn it like trying to do it but like you know got through it no problem but yeah i'm trying i can't think of any other words there's only four weapons in most of them are the pistol looks like the pistol from Half-Life 2 the shotgun was a different shotgun the Combine Gun was basically the Combine Gun I think they remodeled it or something and then was that it? Omnety Tool, yeah, your Omni Tools is your 4th.

She had that in Half-Life episode too. She would use that on doors. That's awesome. But the hacking stuff was all new. As Mr. Half-Life here, when they get to the point and they say, oh my God, it's a prison, they have Gordon Freeman.

What did you think? Did you think that was, because obviously that doesn't line up with what you know. I didn't know. So I was like, oh, shit, did she save him? I never knew that. Yeah. So eventually you get to a place where you. The conversation between who I think is Judith Mossman, who ends up betraying you in Half-Life 2,

talking to one of the Combine. I forget what they're called. Are they overlords? They're essentially the big slugs that sort of control everything. She's talking to one of them via like a video phone or something. you can only barely see it. You see her silhouette. Yeah,

while she talks about it. She has a great line of like, what about this girl so far makes you think you're going to stop her? Yeah, right. And then they allude to saying that they have Gordon Freeman

or I forget either maybe Eli tells you or something. Yeah, I think you put it, she says something about like how impressive or important this person is in what he's already done. And they fill in the gaps

and like, holy shit, I think it's Gore Freeman. Yeah, Gordon's in there. And so you kind of, to me I was shocked because I was like okay then how you know I think I'm wrong I think they they did come to that conclusion before this conversation but the conversation is in a way that drives it home to them that they're right right exactly um so I was thinking okay well when

Alex meets Gordon at the start of half five two at the end of like the second chapter um it's the first time they've met and they're like why are you doing back here and all this sort of or you know where have you been all that sort of stuff so I was like okay well that's interesting like are they how are they going to fit this in like are they going to try and rewrite something like surely not are they going to is this like does does alex end up like losing her memory or like or does do they not end up ever actually physically meeting so the conversation still makes sense you know what I mean like they or or is that a nod like Gordon Freeman I presume you know what I mean when she says out at the start like so I was I was kind of mostly I was just like fucking excited

because I was like oh whoa wait a second it suddenly turned from this is a game in the half life universe to, oh, this is like giving new context to Half-Life 2. Like, they're in the shit now. They're telling you what's going on. And they're going to go further, surely. And they do. Should we get into it? Yeah, sure.

So the final chapter is called point extraction. The first chapter of Half-Life 2 is called Point Insertion. So this was, I was like, okay, this is literally they're going to bridge the gap between the two games now you enter um i forget what it's what was it called the prison the the floating thing that's in the trailer no the citadel is the one in half-life two um i forget what this thing's called it's the thing you're based the vault you're trying to get to this floating thing it was in the trailer you eventually making it force it to crash on the ground it ain't floating no more uh-uh took you spent most of the game trying to make it not

float in real quick too another line of like laugh out loud dialogue i thought when and she gets up there and she's like, how comfortable kitty could it be? Oh, crap. And like it comes up

and it's like a million handles. I'm like, oh, Jesus. There's a lot of really good like big setpiece explosions with like trains crashing and things exploding and like, they do bombast really well.

The amount of times too when that would happen like in this very specific thing when the explosion starts and I did this. Yeah. For no reason. Like just naturally like, oh right. I'm not really here.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So you end up entering it. And then the level is this sort of It starts off as this bizarre sort of Twin Peaks, non-Euclidean, I don't know, like exploration, like tests where you're going from room to room and they're mirroring each other, like something out of Christopher Nolan Interstellar, right?

It's like that. It's like, what's going on? And then you end up gaining this new, you come out of that section. No weapons. Your weapons were taken away when you went up in the tractor beam. All gone. this is all echoing the end of Half-Life 2 basically, which is that Gordon enters the citadel,

goes into the top of it, his gravity, all his weapons are gone, but his gravity gun gets this ability to pick up humans for the first time. It's like a big reveal at the end of Half-Life 2. Sorry, spoilers for Half-Live 2, everyone. But in this, you end up being able to harvest electricity

into your hands, like sort of Magneto style, and throw it. It actually took me a minute or two to figure ahead, to do that. Right. Yeah, because you're in that room full of the things. And I would see the orange and I'm like, what do they want me? And I finally pull it off. And I was like, boom. And I was like, oh shit. This is awesome. So then you end up becoming just like meteor hands, like bombarding people with with electricity. And you do that for a little while. And then you get to the end and you get to the center of the vault. The cells there. Yeah. There's a cell. There's somebody standing there.

And I immediately knew a while. I was like, oh. this makes sense. This makes sense for Half Life 2 if this is what was going on. Did you know who that was or what was going on? When we got there and it was clear that it opened up and I was like, I knew the face. I knew, first off, I wonder how many people are going to be

hip to the game before they get there if they're thinking of the fact that you saw that trailer with G-Man in it. Right. Because I, somebody who doesn't know anything. I totally forgot about that until he popped up in game. Like, oh, right. And so when he popped up, I knew he was a bad guy. and I knew he was important to the Half-Life,

but I didn't know anything about him. I had to go read later. Yeah, so it's kind of, it was, from his silhouette from behind him, I could tell it was right away with the, because you also, you've never, Gordon Freeman has never been shown in third person in Half-Life. There are no cutscenes.

You never see anything from anyone else's perspective. You see his model in Half-Life debt match if you look at like a, if you see people running around. So you smash the thing open, and then it goes into basically, the G-Man thing is that he, always transports you into this random void area and talks around you and shit, right?

That's like his thing he did in half-five-one at the end of that. Half-five-two, the game opens with him basically getting Gordon out of whatever stasis he did. So this is basically G-Man saying like, so they obviously were keeping G-man there, the Vordagons or the combine were, sorry, because they were worried that he would influence things. Because the G-man, for people who don't know, is effectively, he works for some type of, it's as benefact. He speaks in ways that humans understand, but basically he is an instrument of change that is able to pull quantum strings and make things happen in certain ways. So the Seven Hour War, the events of Black Mesa, all of this stuff was engineered by somebody and the GMAM was the person who sort of kicked into action. So when he turns up, you're like, okay, so they were worried about him getting out because he's going to get Gordon out, which is then Half-Life 2, right? but then the conversation takes a turn

where he's basically saying like I can nudge things what would you like me to nudge he's like I owe you right for going through all this and getting me I owe you a favor what do you I owe you or this is g man just existing without time and everything that's happening and this was always the way it was meant to happen and who knows right so he basically says what would you like to have nudged and she was like get the combine off earth and he was like

that's a pretty big nudge and also my benefactors might not want that, my employers. He was like, how about if I gave you something you don't know you want yet? So one of the big driving factors of this game is that she's terrified for Eli's safety. We didn't really talk about the start, but yeah, Eli Vance, who is a character from Half-Life-1, kind of, who they cause of recont into Half-Life 2 is this character. He's a big character in Half-Life 2. She's worried about his safety all the time.

For people who don't know, at the end of Half-Life Episode 2, he is killed by one of those slug things. And the game basically ends on a cliffhanger with Alex saying, don't leave me. And then it fades to black. And that's the last half-life we ever got. And I was going to say, that was 13 years ago. And even me who I'm not a half-life guy, I know that scene. Yes. That's one of those cliffhangers you talk about in games that like, oh, I get it.

I know that something bad, you know, that this happened. Totally. And it's like there's a certain amount of poetic cruelty and the fact she says, don't leave me before the franchise left everyone. So he hands her a briefcase and she grabs it and it fucking transports you to the end of Half-Life 2 episode 2. And I literally, the hair stood on my hands, I literally gasped. I was like, they're not doing this. I can't believe they're going to try and do this.

They're going to like not only make a Half-Life game, but they're going to try and fix the gap. They're going to try and fix the trilogy. They're going to try and solve the question, which is everyone's problem, which is how are they make another half being episode three? Like, we're in this moment. And he basically... To go back, because you said this in text to me last night, and I think I understand based on the earlier conversation we were having.

When you talk about fix it, fix the trilogy, you make half... You're talking about the fact that so much of that team is gone. So much of the team has gone. The story, as it was meant to be told, it's just... It's really difficult for a development studio to make... like an echo of a game, right? Like Half-Life Episode 3 was largely apparently meant to take place on the Borealis,

which is referenced a lot of the portal games. It was supposed to end this arc, right, that they'd been talking about over those three games. And it would just, I think it's really hard for any team to make that game now, because the technology has changed because they're basically going to spend years telling someone else a story. And also all it does is close out a story. It doesn't really start a new story. It's the final chapter of a trilogy, which most of the time is the most boring part of the trilogy, right?

It's fan service. And no one thought they'd ever go back and make a half-life episode three or a half-life three. And a lot of the reason wasn't just because people thought they'd never make another half-life. It was because they'd sort of, we have the term in Europe, snooker yourself, where they've put themselves in a position where it's difficult to get out of it. There's no easy fix to half-life. So by going here, I was like, oh, they're going to continue. continue this. Like, we're back here at the end of Half-Life episode two. They're going to continue the story. And what they did next was actually, was not that, and way crazier and completely

took me by surprise. Do you want me to walk through it? Hell yeah. So he basically, you still got your electric handpowers. He's saying, you know, nudge, I think he says, or something. And you fire your hands before the slug gets to Eli. You kill the slug, and Eli's okay. And then he pauses time again or i think eli says something like are you okay honey or something like that he talks to you again um and then time is paused again gman comes in says this one will continue this one has died right we've we've saved this life and killed killed this one um did you you take it as it the slug yes the slug yeah yeah because when we get to the after credit scene i was then confused of wait did did we just whatever go ahead i don't i don't think it's

that but I don't know what happened. So what happens next is basically what happened at the end of half. Oh, you're kind of, sorry, what happens next happened. What happens next happened at the end of Half-Life 1 and Half-Life 2, which is that G-Man pulls out the protagonist. At the end of Half-Life 1, he said, wow, you were like really good at getting out of Black Mesa. Like, we didn't want you to do it really, but like, you'll be useful. And he basically says, like, you're, you can, you can decide to work with us or you'll die and you make a choice. And it's, you, you, you end up going with him. The end of Half-Life 2, same things happens.

You blow up the Citadel. He basically transports you out of there. He also transports Alex, I think. And it comes up with texts saying, you know, subject, Gordon Freeman, such and such and such. So he does the same thing for you. He's like, well, you've clearly proven yourself incredibly useful. You're able to do all of this stuff. We're going to need you again.

So he pulls her out. And then it comes up, subject, Alex Vance, da-da-da-da-da. You know, next mission on, you know, classified or we don't know. yet. Credits roll. It's amazing. All the names comes up. I'm clapping with my vibes on. And then there's a post-credit scene where suddenly you're back and I look at my hands and they're the HV suit gloves. And I'm like, what? What? Okay. I'm Gordon. And it's Eli basically saying like, where did Alex disappear to? Like, where's she gone? But obviously, G-man's pulled her out at that stage. And he's like, what are we going to do?

And then I think dog jumps in, who's... The big robot thing. Yeah, a big robot thing. Hands him the crowbar and basically Eli says something to the fact of like, are you ready to continue or something? And holds out the crowbar. And I've never grabbed anything in a video game so hard in my life. I just grabbed the crowbar and held it there. And then it just fades to black.

And I was like, okay, they basically changed the end of, Half-Life episode two, but they've also managed to make episode three, not episode three. It's now something else. Yeah. We've changed time. This is all uncharted territory.

We don't know what's going to happen next. And also they let you be Gordon Freeman in VR for a second. So now I'm like my mind is going crazy. Because in my head I'm thinking this was a fantastic game. I want them to make more half-life in virtual reality. But would they make up, would they make a non-vr one of this? It's like, I'm fascinated to see how fans are going to react to this

because I have no idea. And that was the thing, again, even not being a fan, being just a casual, a casual half-life person, you know, a gamer, right, by trade or whatever. But like, I knew the, I knew how much that moment meant of grabbing the fucking crowbar and being like, holy shit. And see, what I got confused on is I didn't catch the dialogue

of him taking her away as taking her away. I took it as something, I almost took it for like the soul stone in Avengers, like a soul for a soul where I was like, wait, did she die in his place or whatever? But he didn't seem broken up about it. He seemed angry about it. So I was like, no, I don't think so.

Yeah, it's maybe if you don't have the context for it, it doesn't make sense maybe. But yeah, it's fascinating. It's, I just have a million and one questions. I just want to go back and play it again. And I'm just like, I'm I'm like shocked and like so I don't know I just try not to get there are very very few games that I have a very strong like emotional attachment to and it's been like a shit week you know what I

mean it's like it's bad like things are bad and I cannot tell you how good it was to see them stick the landing yeah I never thought it would happen I never in a million years. Even all the press before this, they've been very reserved and very like downplaying things. And I think that was exactly the right thing to do. I think they under-promised and over-delivered on this.

As a game, I loved it. I think the first half feels a bit more normal VR game. I think the second half of the game feels like that it becomes half-life. And then by the end, it literally like plugs with half-life. And that's what it felt like for me.

where like at the start it was a VR game at the end it was Half-Life and it got there and by the end it is it's basically an integral part of the Half-Life narrative now it's it's arguably the most important one yeah it's what is your prediction is the next one more VR is it a standalone thing

do you have to wait a long time for it? I think they will I think there's a couple of different elements here I think one they now have a reality first person games so the next one should be easier so wait hold on you broke up again And you said, sorry.

They now have a pipeline within the student person game, which I think is going to make a big difference, right? So I think that's one thing in its favor. I think a lot will depend on market how this game does, not just in terms of sales, because Valve are very rich, private company, but also in terms of the reception from fans, whether or not there's a thirst for it. They're also releasing the new hammer and like source SDK with this, with the new Vive SDK. So I think they're hoping that there's going to be a big public, you know, modding scene around this new tech, new finger stuff. Like, I think there'll be some really interesting work done by fans within this engine. And I think we'll see. I hope they do more VR stuff.

I would play this stuff over and over. I will. I will play this stuff over and over again. Probably on Twitch because not a lot of people are going to be able to actually experience this themselves. So I think Half-Life, I think, I don't know if it'll be VR or whether or not it'll be a 2D screen game, a Normie, right? One of those old games for 2019. But for the first time ever, like, Greg, it feels like they're going to keep making Half-Life games. it hasn't felt that way in a decade, but there's no way they don't make, like,

and now will forward to like 13 years from now, and I'm still like waiting for me. But it really feels like they have gotten over the hump and that now they are free to do whatever they want in a weird way with this. Because there's no expectation for the next one, God knows what it's going to be. We don't even know what, you know, genre it's going to be. Yeah. It's awesome. It's a fascinating, fun time to be a half-life man, right?

And I really hope people get to experience this as many people do as possible because it's really something else. It's a hell of a game, man. That's how I keep describing it, right? And I think you, you know, encapsulate it so well in terms of this ramp up and this ride to it where, you know, when I think about Jeff, when I think about taking on the strider, when I think about going into the vault and having it be that weird world where that ghost keeps appearing. and it was like, this is fucking rad. And it's, it would have been rad from the start period, but it's rad because I did so much, not mundane things,

but hey, this is what you've done in VR before. And now we're escalating out into something different and new. Yeah, it was, uh, it's, it's weird to look back.

And I was looking through because I'm like, uh, looking at all my gameplay. I captured most of it. And, and going back and being like, oh my God, yeah.

Like, I forgot about that. I forgot about that. I forgot about that. Every, every room had something interesting in it. I was never, like bored. Yeah, it was never like, it's another one of these things, right? Yeah.

Like there's the one, the one, it's the Jeff level, but it's not the part where you're hiding from Jeff or anything, but where you're going through all the different blown out floors. And I remember leaping across and leaping across and then being like, wait, there's a little coat closet and leaping back and like opening the door just to see what's in here. And there's like some resin or whatever. I was like, cool. Yeah. And I think a vodka bottle roll is out when you. There's always something there. Some trap. Yeah. There's always some, yeah, the was a great level for just exploring bits and bobs. Oh, did you play the piano?

No. There's a piano in the lobby of the hotel and you play with your film. I did like Frere Re Jacques on it. I tried to do chopsticks, but I don't know chopsticks. But you can literally play the piano. It was, yeah, it was pretty cool. Half-Life Alex is pretty cool, eh, Danny? Yeah, I can't believe it.

I can't believe it came out. Can't believe they're stuck to landing. It's something special. Ladies gentlemen, what do you think of Half-Life Alex? If you've made it this far, you listen to me, right? And played it and didn't spoil yourself for no reason. Let us know in the comments below. Then, of course, share the video with your friends.

Like, subscribe, all that jazz. YouTube.com slash Kind of Funny Games. Podcast services around the globe. This, of course, is the Kind of Funny Games cast each and every week. We gather around this table coming to talk about video games that we love and think you will to. Go ahead to Patreon.com slash Kind of Funny Games. You can be part of the show. You can get the show ad free.

You can get it with the exclusive post show. That's right, Danny. There's more to do. Post show stuff where we can talk about whatever we want, I guess. I don't. Fantastic. Love it. Absolutely.

I'll be back in 13 years for the next one anyway. But that'll be me interviewing your kid. Totally. We'll be going to interview. Danny, where can people keep up with you? Ask Daniel Dwyer and Twitter. Follow our slash no clip video.

There you go. You cut out. No clip video. That's the one. No clip video. That's it. Your Michael is great for the majority of the show. And now we're getting to the part where it's just like I'm, or not even Mike, I guess,

connection. Dude, quarantine in this day and age, I just suspect my wife is watching. 90 day fiancee downstairs or something like she's just streaming everything totally all right we got a post show to do but until next time ladies and gentlemen it's been our pleasure to serve you