Valve has confirmed that Half-Life: Alyx will forego multiplayer, making it the first game in the franchise to not have a competitive component. Instead, Alyx will be a single-player experience echoing the campaigns found in the first two Half-Life games.
The news comes from The Verge. In a recent and wide-ranging interview, Valve Programmer Robin Walker confirmed that Half-Life: Alyx will focus on telling a single-player story.
“We’re not planning on supporting any multiplayer modes at this point,” Walker said.
Though the interview goes on to talk about Alyx‘s single-player design, such as how it will be “a meticulously designed path,” Walker did not share any further information on multiplayer or if multiplayer would be added in later.
Half-Life: Alyx was revealed in mid-November. Using Source Engine 2, Alyx is a VR first-person shooter set to release in March 2020. It will reportedly support Valve Index, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Oculus Quest, and Windows Mixed Reality. It is set before the events of Half-Life 2.
While the game’s official trailer can be seen at the top of this article, more information about Half-Life: Alyx will be revealed during the 2019 Game Awards.
Half-Life multiplayer has a storied past. Originally a bare-bones mode that accompanied the original 1998, Half-Life multiplayer went on to spawn myriad multiplayer mods built around the GoldSrc engine and the Worldcraft level editor.
Some of the games to later spawn from Valve’s open-source initiative? Counter-Strike, Team Fortress, and Day of Defeat. Considering that history, Valve may very well revisit Alyx multiplayer down the line, though there is currently no information suggesting they will.
Stay tuned to GameSkinny for more news and info on Half-Life: Alyx as it breaks.
