Release date: March 23rd 2020
Developer, producer and publisher: Valve
Genre&Topics: VR, action game, sci-fi, zombie epidemics, FPS, puzzles, psychedelic experience with weird geometry (in the end)
I have just completed HLA on my HP Reverb G2 + PC based on ASUS ROG STRIX RTX3080 OC, AMD Ryzen 9 5900X, RAM 32GB DDR4 3600MHz. In the past I had played HLA for about one hour (in different sessions) on Valve Index + PC based on last gen hardware. Well, the experience with G2 is so far better. Sorry Valve, you developed a great VR game but your headset is not the best way to enjoy it because of the not so much satisfying quality of the visuals (depending on the headset and not on the PC hardware). Obviously, this is my personal experience. The Index offers a smoother experience because of better tracking, the headset fits better your head and your facial features thanks to a lot of customizable adjustments, the FoV is a bit bigger. However in this kind of game the G2 tracking has nearly no issues; I had a small problem just in one short sequence, when you have to shoot the cannon: your hands are far apart and you can lose track of the one below when you aim at the enemy. And I had to slightly change my style when launching grenades; not a real problem. The G2 is quite comfortable on your head, difference with the Index is not a game changer. Even audio is quite the same, maybe Index has some more low frequencies. On the contrary the visual quality of the G2 at full resolution, without compromises, is simply mind blowing and highly immersive despite the standard FoV. And that’s a game changer and tastes as next gen! You’re always contemplating the environment and saying wow wow and wow, gee gee and gee*, your eyes watering for the joy! You feel as you are riding the frontiers of modern gaming (from a technical point of view)! Sometimes monsters are just annoying! Don’t bother me stupid zombies, I want to contemplate the scenario!! 🙂
Congratulations to Valve for the quality of the production, HLA has a great technical value. Developing VR games is not the same as developing flat games. HLA is a full triple A game with high quality textures, a lot of scenarios, assets and meshes, state-of-the-art light rendering, a lot of animated and AI driven NPCs, robots and monsters, hundreds and hundreds of action sequences, great 3D sound, superb physics and so on. My mind was blown by the simulation of liquids in bottles! Outstanding! Valve implements all the tricks to fool your perception and give 3D depth to the visuals: smart rendering of light to match stereoscopic view, realistic occlusion and shadows, realistic size of objects, contrast at the edges of the objects, textures and colors gradients, aerial effects, correct placement of objects along z-axis, parallax, etc. Weird, HLA doesn’t implement artificial blur on the background when objects are close to your eyes and fill most of your FoV. In VR games you want usually to implement different kind of interactions making good use of the 3D virtual space and of the tracking of head and hands. Plus, you have to compensate for heavy aliasing and for lens distorsion, and you have to render two different screens with shifted points of view (like your eyes), at least at 90 Hz of refresh rate!! Valve made the miracle, HLA needs just 6GB of VRAM! Just? Yes, trust me, in comparison to the high quality of the graphics, this is a limited quantity of VRAM. VR games with lower quality are not so optimized and devour more VRAM! Plus, RTX 3080 OC (or RTX 3090) is enough to play always at 90 fps at full resolution, even at ultra quality! That’s the proof of a very well optimized game! When I say full resolution, I mean a resolution so far higher than the screen resolution. G2 has resolution of 2160×2160. SteamVR renders at 150% of the G2 resolution!!! My PC seems to fly when fans cool the heavy overclocked GPU (but noise doesn’t annoy me because my play spot is far from the PC, the G2 cable is 6 mt long, and I have very good air cooler). So, reprojection is absent or very limited and you cannot notice artifacts, you have always crystal clear visuals. Not the same on Quest2, relying on heavy image warping because of limited internal hardware and consequent compression and decompression of signals (yes, I tried HLA also on Quest2, but everytime I was asking my friend to let me use the Index…). Just a disappontment with HLA: you can clearly see that it’s made for teleportation; you can have smooth locomotion, but it’s not so refined, it’s very rough, rigid, sometimes even jerky, you don’t feel like you’re a person moving, acting and walking.
In terms of VR, HLA gives the best towards the end, when the virtual space takes on weird geometries and your brain has a psychedelic trip! Ahah, walking and rotating in such an environment gives you strong but pleasurable sensations! I’m still playing this sequence again and again to have more fun! Even mechanics are more interesting in the ending scene; here you take full advantage of 3D virtual space and of the change of perspective when you change the point of view. If you are behind a wall, you can shoot enemies from a different perspective by bending the torso or stretching your arms or kneeling down and so on. If you have enemies at your back, you need less than one second to turn around on your feet, without rotating the virtual camera. And so on. Shooting in VR is quite another story, but it’s more difficult to aim at enemies in the 3D space; you must have a very precise aim, it is not like in flat games, here it’s you who handle the gun, not the controller; and your are not aiming at the flat plane of the screen, here you have depth, perspective is changing everytime you move your head. Plus, you take full advantage of tracking of gestures; as you know, in HL series you have gravitational force at your service; here you can attract items with simple movements of your hands and this is strategic in the ending sequence. I’m not new to VR, I played a lot of games on PSVR, even shooters (e.g. Farpoint); but HLA is more realistic, has better mechanics, is more immersive. However, it’s not the best VR game so far in my opinion!
Ahah! Surprised? You know, I’m Video Games Art! Games are not only tech toys for easy entertaiment! I search for deep narrative, meaningful content, innovative gameplay, expressive aesthetics, immersive lore and so on. HLA is outstanding from the tech point of view. But let’s give a look at story, aesthetics, lore, content and at the overall interactive experience. Remember: gameplay stands for overall virtual interactive experience, it’s not the same as mechanics!
Story is the last thing you are interested in while playing HLA! It’s very minimal, just a rough plot integrated in the HL saga (events happen before the Gordon Freeman epics); it is just an excuse to give motivation to the numerous challenges, action scenes, shootings and puzzles you experience! Completely forgettable! HLA is developed with the only one purpose to give a great “physical” VR experience to players. Period. It’s a funny playground for VR enthusiasts and for lovers of shooters and action games! The rest doesn’t matter, it’s just garnish! So, don’t be surprised if HLA is the n-th game where one character alone turns in a war machine winning over billions of stronger, better armed and harnessed enemies! Completely ridiculous! It’s ok for immature kids or teens, but sincerely I’ve enough of such silliness. There is no pathos, no drama, no psychology, just some thrills in a few sequences; e.g. when you have to avoid a monster that you cannot kill; the monster is blind but can hear you. Fun and in a smart way! For the rest, HLA is a collection of action sequences. Period. Developers are fully aware of this, Alyx Vance, the protagonist (you), is always ironic, she doesn’t take seriously even the most dangerous situations. I enjoyed some shootings and challenges, but after a while I got bored. My personal best satisfaction was to play with liquid in bottles, contemplate the realistic scenario, enjoy my eyes with the well rendered light, etc. Just the feeling to be inside the game was a joy for me.
There is no content and no lore; I cannot define content or lore the vague mission of fighting for freedom against an oppressive alien race in a world affected by zombie epidemic; even b-series comics or movies face the topic and build the lore in a better way! Speaking of lore and story, I enjoyed the old Half Life 2 more, but I was younger, so this is not a meaningful comparison! Aesthetics has no expressive purpose, everything is very good looking just to give the player one of the best visual experience in VR. Period. The overall interactive experience is very good just for the VR tech; if you take VR away, you have a forgettable flat game. Don’t misunderstood me! As I said HLA is a memorable step ahead in the history of VR. Nothing is really wrong in HLA: voice acting is good, texts and dialogues are well written, etc. The production value is high. But from an artistic point of view, it’s empty, like the story, the characters, the lore; not bad, just empty and shallow, forgettable. If you take away VR, it’s like so many others shallow AAA mainstream games for immature teens. Ok, maybe a bit better because of a few variations of gameplay. I told you of the sequence with the blind monster and of the more experimental and awesome ending sequence, the real added value of HLA.
So, what’s the best VR game I played so far? Well, in terms of art, story, content, innovative gameplay, etc. The Invisible Hours. And also Here They Lie for the visionary and expressive aesthetics (but it’s not a game for everyone, you’re adviced, it’s a sort of movie by Lynch). They are very meanigful and innovative experiences because of VR, but they go even beyond VR. However in terms of VR tech, HLA is so far superior. I think that we should find other games breaking VR tech frontiers in order to make meaningful comparisons. And here it comes Resident Evil 7 VR… that PCVR-only players can just dream of… Don’t tell me of the vorpx version, please! If you don’t want to kill one the best VR experience, forget vorpx.
I’m always so provocative! 🙂 Let me explain! RE7 VR was released in January 2017 together with the flat version. It’s not a simple transposition of the flat game. It’s a native VR game! It is the creation from a passionate team that developed the VR version while the main team was working on the flat version. Yes, Resident Evil 7 is two games in one, the VR version is a parallel project where qualified and pioneering developers experimented new graphic techniques for the best immersion ever in realistic 3D virtual world. And clearly the development of the VR version influenced the development of the flat game and viceversa. When you play RE7 flat, you can enjoy the extreme realism of the experience; realism is so impressive because RE7 has been developed with VR in mind. Despite the severe limits of PS4 and PSVR hardware, RE7 VR in my opinion is still the king of VR! Sorry Valve, but HLA doesn’t reach the same immersive lore as RE7 VR. It’s not so far, but it’s not the same at all. RE7 VR is meant to be played with the dualshock controller, so it doesn’t introduce innovative interactive gestures as HLA. However implementation of natural gestures and movements in VR is still too unripe. I can say that there is no good match between your natural gestures and the counterpart in the game engine; so the abuse of virtual gestures is often distracting and immersion breaking. I’m not talking of defects in tracking. I’m talking of implementation of gestures in game engines. As said above, even smooth locomotion in HLA is not so good, too linear and flat, you’ve not the feeling to walk like in real life; HLA is made for teleportation, but I cannot stand teleportation in VR games. RE7 VR has so far better and convincing smooth locomotion.
RE7 VR experimented in 2017 the same technical solutions implemented by Valve in HLA in 2020, the ones I listed above. Plus, RE7 VR adds more 3D depth thanks to motion parallax effects and background blur effects that are nearly absent in HLA. The rendering of light in RE7 VR is very smart; I’m not an expert in computer graphics, I cannot say exactly why, but I can say that lighting in RE7 VR gives more depth, seems more realistic; light is more warm and vibrant like in real life, contrast of bright and dark spots in the scenes is very effective! Maybe it’s the union with state-of-the-art design of interiors and high quality photogrammetry textures that seem more complex and realistic than in HLA. Maybe it’s the multi-layered field of view with objects wisely positioned and rendered at different distances from your eyes; your near FoV is often covered by well focused furnitures close to your eyes; the objects placed on more distant planes seem to be affected by blurring, a sort of simulation of accomodation and selective focus. At least, this is my impression, my perception; I have not experienced the same effect in HLA. Even the 3D soundscape is better than in HLA. Don’t forget that good 3D audio paired with stereoscopic clues makes the 40% of the VR experience!
However I think the winning key of RE7 VR is the lore: the quality of the narrative situation, the care for the environment aesthetics in order to build a compelling atmosphere, such to make RE7 VR very similar to an interactive cinematographic experience in first person view. The first long part in the farm is an exquisite homage to the insane atmosphere of the Texas Cahinsaw Massacre. You may not like this kind of horror movie, I don’t like it so much to say the truth. But I must be honest. You are literally engulfed by the nightmarish experience! With no stupid challenges or shootings, just very few not invasive puzzles. Most of the time you have no weapons, you are weak and helpless! It’s an extremely serious and oppressive experience, not sustainable for the faints of heart! The smart interactive sequence of the two men filming the farm for a stupid TV show prepares the ground! There after the real nightmare begins! The grotesque and ironic dinner with the Bakers, quoting a similar sequence in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, cannot help to lower the tension. And the exploration of the cellars is terrifying! A few times I was unable to move because of fear! The quality of the first person view interactivity with NPCs and environment is mind blowing and engulfs you in a realistic cinematographic nightmare that seems to have no end. For the first time in my long life of player I experienced real fear in a game! I was forced to give up after a few time, I played it in several sessions! I have experienced something similar no more! Aliens, Visage, etc. are like walking in the park in comparison! Obviously this is my experience, yours could be different! And you know? I had already played the flat version of RE7 one year before (I played the VR version in spring 2018) ! The power of VR!
Yes, VR is powerful, but art is what makes the difference! RE7 VR comes for sure with great tech solutions for VR in 2017, even better than HLA in 2020; but the real game changer is the quality of the art, the cinematographic experience, the design of the interiors, the well defined and convincing characters, the aesthetics of the environment and above all the quality of the narrative situation creating an immersive convincing lore. Ok, the second part of the game is not on par with the first part, it’s forgettable; but the first part remains probably the best moment in VR gaming so far.
It’s incredible that I lived such an hell of experience on PS4 and PSVR, despite the hardware limits and the bluriness of the visuals! As you see consoles are the best way to play games. They are optimized machines for gaming, matching the best quality at the lower price. As you know there are not two PCs that are the same! You buy separate components and assemble them, then install your OS; there is not just one OS, but different OS and you can choose from a lot of different components of different quality and brands. You have a lot of issues coming from drivers compatibility and upgrading of drivers and OS! Sometimes PC gaming is a real unnerving mess even if you have the best and most expensive components! PC gaming is not optimized as console gaming. At the end of the story my 3500 euro PC + 500 euro G2 is a very powerful system; but an optimized 1500 euro VR console (headset and controllers included), with games developed and optimized for its hardware, could give the same experience!
VR needs absolutely dedicated machines, VR consoles. This is a lesson we can learn from history of gaming.
At this point, my only complaint is the absence of the PCVR version of RE7 VR! I’m shivering while thinking at the crystal clear visuals I could have with my PC + G2 in comparison to the blurry visuals of PSVR. And at the same time I wonder how much more terrifying could be the experience!!! Please Capcom, give us the PCVR version of your masterpiece! Some hopes come from the modder Praydog, actually working at VR mods of all the RE titles built with the RE Engine, RE 2&3 and RE 7&8! Finger crossed!
In the end I want to evidence another good VR game: Lone Echo I (I have not played part two yet). In terms of tech quality, solutions and innovations, Lone Echo is not on par with HLA or RE7 VR. However realism, animation and artificial intelligence of the main character (a female NPC) is outstanding, she is like a real person in front of you. And the lore in deep space, in absence of weight, is very effective; I still remember the sensation of floating in the air! I enjoyed it so much. Luckily no stupid challenges or shootings or fightings. I recommend to play seated to enjoy the floating!
In conclusions my favorite VR games so far are RE7 VR for breaking VR tech frontiers in game development and for the terrifying, extremely realistic and immersive experience (thanks to art). HLA for breaking VR tech frontiers in game development and because it is the best PCVR game so far. The Invisible Hours for introducing brilliant and innovative storytelling in VR. Here They Lie for introducing extreme expressive and visionary art in VR. Lone Echo I for the pleasurable experience in deep space in absence of gravity and the outstanding AI-driven and realistic NPC. I played also a lot of shorter experiences and one of them made me wonder. I’m talking of Aircar, flying simulator in a Blade-Runner-like metropolis. Highly recommended. It’s free, so what are you waiting for? Stay tuned for other suggestions! In the meanwhile you can read my old suggestions here.
* English is not my language, but I read some english comics. Carl Barks used the esclamation “gee” in a few stories with the ducks family! I don’t know what it exactly means, it’s something expressing enthusiasm, however I like it so much, more than wow! 🙂
Video Games Art 