I think this game illustrates perfectly the paradox of games, technology and cutting edge technology.
HL:A is a single-player, first-person shooter.
HL:A apparently redefines the VR experience.
HL:A demands technical knowledge. I’ve heard of people fighting to get the game to run. I’m talking hours before being ready.
HL:A demands a $3K hardware investment or the experience will be poor.
HL:A was in production for at the very least five or six years. It will not break even (I imagine Valve doesn’t care so much about that but other developers would).
Despite all that, the reviews and what I gather is that the experience is phenomenal. That HL:A is one of the best game experience ever made.
And that this experience involves shooting at people, having a dedicated room, a powerful computer, being very tech savvy and that this game cannot be shared with anyone else.
Simply put, that is very 1999.
That’s like the opposite of the zeitgeist right now. On the other hand, A single-player VR game in a quarantine and self-isolation era sounds great. Except that we all long for socialization and going outside.
Humans! Games! Stuff!