No doubt that VR is most likely the next big thing in gaming, however i think whats holding it back is affordability, a good VR headset costs roughly as much as a decent gaming rig, also consider human rationale, if someone is going to jump onto a fad, they will most likely want the best experience possible.
Convince me what valve isn't just hawking their VR headset, couldn't've they made a non VR version?
Maybe they could have. However you would loose of feeling of being "there" for two reasons.
Reason 1: the visceral reality is lost when translated to a flat screen.
When you play a lot of vr games your game is projected to the screen the same time as your headset. My wife and kids were impressed but my wife also said "I dont play dystopian future horror games"
I then stuck the headset on her and she was blown away. Her jaw quite literally dropped looking over city 17 and she started playing with everything. She could write on glass with markers and crush cans and try to read books. She wouldnt have played it if vr didn't feel so real.
Seeing a vorgone up close had a similar feeling. Amazing on flat screen, but on a headset your jaw just drops.
My hand physically jumped when i stuck my hand flat and open into a med station and felt the needles hit my hand as it upgraded my health. (I hate needles)
Reason 2: A lot of the game play is in controller dynamics.
The game steps up the realism in another way and that is gameplay mechanics. You dont know how terrifying it is to go up against an army of head crabs and worry so badly about your ammo.
With a traditional controller you have to just hit reload and you are done.
With Alyx you have to eject the clip first, then reach over your back pull out a full clip and physically shove it in the bottom of your gun. Then you physically have to pull the chamber to reload. Imagine trying to do that while running for your life.
Also with a traditional game you aim with cross hairs or a scope view. With Alyx you physically have to lift the gun and look down the barrel. There is no on screen fixed crosshair here to cheat with.
Objects can also be interacted with in various new ways also. For example you can pick up a box with your right hand and then tilt it and with your left hand pull out its contents. With a corpse you have to physically turn over a body to search its front pockets to pull ammo clips from it.
With a traditional controller you just look and hit search/collect all.
There's also more precise control. You can decide how far you throw something by how hard you chuck it with a handset. You cant do that with a game pad or keyboard/mouse combo.
Valves ingenious use of controllers is what makes the game. You need a true 3d space controller to make that happen.
There are vr games like the puzzle platformer moss. I like its excellent story telling and graphics. It paints a beautiful world from the perspective of a god watching over a mouse. I mean you feel for the character. But in all honesty it would have translated to 2d with a traditiinal controller and still be a fun game.
Alyx by itself would make a good 2d game. Probably in the top 25 of all time greats.
However the mechanics and the realism in vr make it the most engaging game I ever played. It just might be the best game I ever played due to the engrossing dynamics, and that is no exaggeration.
Is valve trying to push vr? Maybe. But in all honesty valve probably lost a lot of money on alyx because its vr only. Im being serious. This is easily a 100 mil game. Now add how many vr headsets are out there and multiply by $50.
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