Valve ‘not planning’ Half-Life: Alyx multiplayer

Valve isn’t planning any Half-Life: Alyx multiplayer modes, according to programmer Robin Walker.

Asked about the potential inclusion of multiplayer modes such as Deathmatch, he told The Verge that the upcoming VR game is currently a strictly singe-player experience.

“We’re not planning on supporting any multiplayer modes at this point,” Walker confirmed, before going on to say Alyx will offer a linear yet meticulously crafted campaign.

“This is a traditional Half-Life experience, so it’s fundamentally a one-way journey. Half-Life has always been about experiencing a hand-crafted, meticulously designed path, where every space is the result of a team of people thinking about what’s in it and why it’s interesting.

“Some of those spaces afford multiple ways to navigate through them,” he added, “but you’re always moving forward overall.”

While some players find it difficult to handle long VR sessions, Walker said Valve’s playtesting threw up some interesting results.

“Once we had the first hour or two of the game built, and started playtesting it, we found that literally every player would spend longer in the session than we expected. It was very common for them to end their session, and their first comment would be ‘Wow, that was the longest I’ve ever been in VR!’.

“Today, we generally see playtesters go for 2-3 hours before taking a bathroom break. Even subtle improvements seemed to have significant effects, like the way the Index controllers allowed players to open and relax their hands without dropping the controller.”

However, Walker said the game has also been designed so it can be played in short sessions, with the ability to save and restore at any point.

The “feature length” VR game, which is billed as “the next part” of the Half-Life story rather than a spin-off, was announced in late November.

Powered by SteamVR on Valve’s Source 2 engine, Alyx is set for release in March 2020 and will be compatible with Valve Index, HTC Vive, Windows Mixed Reality, Oculus Rift and Oculus Quest headsets, Valve said at the time.

The company hasn’t ruled out bringing Half-Life: Alyx to PlayStation VR at some point, according to designer Greg Coomer.