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[TintoConCasera]

Double posting for impressions posting.

Been playing this for 90 minutes, from the start of the game until a bit after you get the boat. Overall I'm quite happy with what those modders have achieved, and only stopped because I was starting to feel physically tired.

I'll start with the things I don't like:

• Your weapon models have physics, which means my crowbar was always being stuck when crawling through vents. Nothing too bad but it was distracting.
• Ladders. They felt quite jank at first, but at the end I got the hang of them. VR ladders are not my thing anyway so this might not affect you.
• Sometimes I grabbed things without me wanting too. Missing Alyx's "twist wrist to grab" here.
• Boat controls. I don't know why but sometimes I wanted to turn left but the boat turned right.

And that's all, now the positives:

• Lots of cool comfort options, like a laser sight for the guns, an easy mode for throwing grenades or the same for ladders. You can even have a third person camera when using vehicles.
• There mere fact of playing this in VR adds a layer of fun, as expected. Those shoot outs at Route Kanal felt amazing.
• Cool FPS VR features you wouldn't get with a basic mod. The machine gun (and more weapons I guess) requires it being wielded with both hands. Also, cool weapon reloading.
• Fucking up those flying sawblade things (manhacks?) with the crowbar. Absolute VR catharsis.
• Dancing my way through City 17 while giving the middle finger to everyone I came across.

So yeah as I said, I'm more than happy with this. Wonder what improvements they'll add during the Early Access phase.

EDIT: 4.5 hours in. The revolver feels amazing, specially when you manage to land a headshot.

The boat controls very well once you get a bot used to, specially the gun, very precise.

Ravenhom is cool, but since physics aren't hot shit anymore, it wasn't as cool as I remembered. But hey, you get the shotgun here, which needs to be pumped after each shot, but felt kinda jank to me, not as fine as in Pavlov for example. Devs say on their webpage that improving weapons is one of their priorities tho.

Also, my back hurts. Don't know why VR games are so taxing to me, I don't have issues standing for many hours at concerts or parties, but VR games fuck me over.

 

[ResurrectedContrarian]

I played for a little while, just up until the point where you obtain a gun and then a few minutes after to try shooting (using the laser sight).

It’s fun to see the game from this perspective, although it doesn’t do favors for the visual design at this size. Perhaps I should try with additional mods.

Playing this after Alyx reveals how far they’ve come. And how incredible the game design in Alyx was, how different it feels when the entire experience was designed exclusively for VR from the ground up rather than added to an FPS later.

Probably my favorite parts here were the cinematic transitions in the beginning (when g man is talking) and then later during the botched teleport.

Gun combat didn’t feel as engaging as in Alyx, not as weighty and physical. More fun was smashing the drones with your crowbar.

 

[GnomeChimpsky]

It's pretty good but physics and world interaction need some work. Unsurprisingly it runs fantastic, playing this in 144hz feels amazing. Best part is of course world building and game design and exploring city 17 in VR makes it feel like even more of a real place.

 

[Crayon]

People say PC VR is dying, but it actually kicks ass because of mods.

 

[TintoConCasera]

The crossbow feels amazing.

Pulse rifle tho... They didn't add anything to make the aiming easier, so I find myself adopting this pose, shooting like a mad man and aiming taking adventage of the pulse's trace. Could be better, but it still feels cool.

Car section has been cool too. 0 motion sickness.

I'm now about to beging the bridge section. Hoping I don't fall down since that shit on VR can be something else.

 

[Romulus]

The driving sections are actually fun with this mod. I think driving in general is about 10x better in VR anyway.

The scale of the world just has to be experienced. Really good stuff. I had played Garry's mod but this is just superior. Feels like a AAA VR game other than a couple of quirks.

 

[What A Shame...]

I'm loving it so far. Some of the physics are a little janky. Stacking boxes glitched for me and went right through the wall, and throwing with the Index controllers doesn't feel as natural as other games. The teleporter malfunction cut-scene felt awesome.

I played up until you meet the first Vortigaunt. Had to stop there because I copped some pretty savage motion sickness after swimming through the canal. I can now see why water wasn't a thing in Alyx.

 

[coffinbirth]

Did they resolve the HUD issues and overly jittery looking head tracking as seen in the OP vid? Because that was saying it was "perfect" and it looked FAR from it. Would definitely play through HL2 again in VR, but not like that.

 

[What A Shame...]

Did they resolve the HUD issues and overly jittery looking head tracking as seen in the OP vid? Because that was saying it was "perfect" and it looked FAR from it. Would definitely play through HL2 again in VR, but not like that.

Based on my short experience, yes to both of those issues.

The HUD is locked to the wrist like in HL:A and I didn't notice any jittery tracking.

 

[coffinbirth]

Based on my short experience, yes to both of those issues.

The HUD is locked to the wrist like in HL:A and I didn't notice any jittery tracking.

Love to hear it!
Will have to get around to this sooner than later. TBH, it would be cool to play Black Mesa in VR first as well. Looks like Vorpx will have to do with that though. Have you tried that?

 

[What A Shame...]

Love to hear it!
Will have to get around to this sooner than later. TBH, it would be cool to play Black Mesa in VR first as well. Looks like Vorpx will have to do with that though. Have you tried that?

I bought Vorpx in the early days of VR but haven't used it in years. Probably won't be using it any time soon either. My VR backlog is far too big right now.

Played Black Mesa in pancake mode though and loved it.

 

[ResurrectedContrarian]

I played a bit more, enjoyed it but I think one of the biggest detractors for me here is the lack of teleport-style gameplay.

I know that's controversial, but I still wager that teleport is more immersive than stick movement in VR. There's a reason that it's the default setting for Alyx, the most well-thought out and complete VR game ever created (and if you do change the options use the stick, you're very slow by design in Alyx). When you use a stick to slide around virtual environments like a traditional FPS, you instantly feel totally disembodied and out of the scene, because you're just gliding so weightlessly, more like a flying drone in the game world than a character standing in the scenery.

In either case--stick move or teleport--the game mechanic is doing something unnatural; no one moves at all like the gliding of a stick in real life, not to mention that there is no momentum or weight to it so you feel like you're using something with totally broken physics whenever you push the stick. But teleport, while also "unnatural," leaves your weighted, stable immersion in the game world intact, a bit like just blinking for a moment as you step forward. And it integrates much better with pacing around within your room-scale environment between teleports, versus "sometimes I walk sometimes I glide like a drone" feeling if you try to mix room-scale with stick movement.

Anyhow, that's a major problem for me with this game, which pulls it back from what Alyx achieved.

 

[chixdiggit]

I know that's controversial, but I still wager that teleport is more immersive than stick movement in VR.

Just the opposite for me. I feel much more immersed using stick/head movement. But either way it's a shame the option is not in there.

Have not played this yet. How complete is it?

 

[ResurrectedContrarian]

How complete is it?

I've made it a couple hours in, going slowly. It's a 100% working mod, so there's no reason not to jump in if you're interested.

It could use plenty of VR improvements, but at least everything works. To me it kind of feels like playing an emulator with a VR mod... the whole game is there, and it's very cool to see the world at full scale, but it still feels like the VR aspect is added on of course. Other than some nice touches like physically reloading your gun, the gameplay is still very non-VR in style, which is naturally something a mod can't very easily change.

 

[Romulus]

For me, I blaze through the fastest VR games with full speed and no motion sickness. It works as advertised. It's HL2 but in VR, feels like made for VR game 95% of the time.

 

[ResurrectedContrarian]

It's fine to play seated, which I just did for about an hour. Then the movement feels less weird, although it's still extremely disembodied like you're a drone flying through the scenery, and that's nothing like the kind of VR experience you get with games likes Alyx (again, I think making the stick movement super slow even if you turn it on was a critical design decision in Alyx to avoid the weightless / seated style of play that kills VR immersion).

But to be clear, it's not that motion sickness bothers me at all with fast stick-based movement in VR. It's just that it doesn't feel very VR-like. To me, full-body movement and room-scale effect is the critical piece of VR, not just 3D / headmovement.

 

[skneogaf]

They should have done the conversion to vr themselves though!

 

[ResurrectedContrarian]

Played further, made it a long stretch into the boat section.

Boat driving is very fun as expected. And the game is pretty great for seated mode, once I reconciled myself to not getting the smooth room-scale experience that Alyx offers.

Going through the first section of headcrabs and zombies was certainly more intense when using the swivel chair and having to physical swing around to bat these things away with the crowbar, or switch to the 2-handed gun to mow down a zombie before it reaches me. Good stuff, VR changes the feel of the game.

 

[AJUMP23]

Cool.

 

[ResurrectedContrarian]

The vehicle parts are such a natural fit for VR, it makes me wonder... why the hell didn't Alyx have any vehicles?

 

[Romulus]

I'm digging the dune buggy chapters alot. I always thought the vehicle sections were ok at best without VR, but with it, this is a fucking blast.

 

[Wonko_C]

This is the first time I actually enjoyed playing through the game, to the point where the battery on my Quest 2 ran out.

Also it's funny how when I played the game on a monitor 20 years ago I got very motion sick, but I have no problems whatsoever in VT.

 

[ResurrectedContrarian]

The moment when you take down your first helicopter using the turrets on a tower is so fantastic in VR.

Trying to avoid its bullets as you move through that area, looking up to see where it is every few seconds, and then finally getting to the top of that tower and grabbing the reins of the turret gun for payback... so good.

EDIT: reached Ravenholm at last. The entire sequence leading up to that is just fantastic in VR. It's as if I never played it before, because even though I remember the rough plot outline, these locations and scenarios feel so different in full-scale. Running when the raid starts and ending up in the Ravenhold tunnel, using my headlamp, and passing all the grave warning and "stop" signs as you near the infected town was just remarkable.

Even though the graphics are technically dated, the physics alone still make it feel more interactive than most VR titles.

 

[k_trout]

wow...just finished and it knocked my socks off, its like I just experienced it for the first time

edit: 3rd person view during vehicle sections is a life saver

 

[ResurrectedContrarian]

I need to go back and finish it; left off somewhere shortly after you lose the car, during the "floor is lava" antlions section. Fantastic experience, though, it does feel like the game is suddenly new.

I only stopped because I started playing another classic-game-to-VR conversion for Halloween: RE4 Oculus. Which is similarly a total transformation of how the game feels.

 

[ResilientBanana]

Old games feel great in VR.