Half-Life: Alyx

Just a girl, sitting in front of a zombie

- IAN EVENDEN

GO TO THE DUSTY CUPBOARD, the abandoned attic, the damp basement, wherever you last saw your VR helmet. Brush aside the cobwebs, blow off the ants, locate all the cables, and put the thing on for what feels like the first time in years. This is worth it. Alternatively, pay a thousand bucks for the Valve Index.

In the gap between existing games, five years before the events of Half-Life 2 if you can remember back that far, Alyx Vance is a scrappy member of the resistance movement fighting a guerilla war against the Combine after their suspiciously easy victory over Earth’s armed forces. Her father, Eli, has been taken by the occupying aliens, and so Alyx heads off to rescue him. It’s not a complicated plot, but the way you go about following it is what makes the game exceptional.