It’s the old joke: Valve can’t count to three. Left 4 Dead, Portal, Dota, and of course Half-Life all lack full sequels and follow-ups. Half-Life 3, in particular, has become something of a shortcut for all the shattered dreams and dissatisfied hype of PC gamers everywhere. But the show isn’t over as the community around Steam’s hit FPS game continues to deliver awesome fan-made mods and missions, this time with an all-new campaign for Half-Life Alyx that looks and plays so well it could be made by Valve itself.
Free to download on Steam, Half-Life Alyx: Re-Education follows the eponymous adventurer as she travels to a safe house on the outskirts of City 17. Forced off her train, Alyx must navigate her way through through an abandoned school, a rapidly escalating task, and plenty of physics-based puzzles.
With full voice acting, great visuals, and a focus on environmental storytelling you’ve come to expect from the Half-Life series, Re-Education is like the official Half-Life Alyx DLC. It’s slower than the main game, with more exploration and environmental storytelling than action or shooting. But there are still some good combat sections, and the Alyx and Russell impersonations are spot on. You can see it in action below.
Head over to the Steam Workshop to try out Half-Life Alyx: Re-Education now. You could also try Levitation, another Half-Life VR game inspired by the events of Alyx, or perhaps Entropy Zero, a Half-Life 2 pseudo-sequel centered around a rogue Civil Defense member of the Combine.
Otherwise, check out some other great VR games, or maybe the best VR headsets for 2023. You might also want to know what happened to Half-Life 3, but don’t be discouraged: someday, someday, will be real. .