As its name implies, Half-Life: Alyx sees you step into the virtual shoes of Alyx Vance, Gordon Freeman’s fellow Resistance member from Half-Life 2. But in early playtests, several players still thought they were playing as Half-Life’s silent protagonist, Valve have told me.
“We spent a bunch of time early on messing about with Alyx, trying to figure out what kind of language players responded well to, and where it was appropriate,” Valve’s Robin Walker said. “But over time, there were certain things where it became sort of obvious that we needed to do it. For example, early on when we’d ask players questions around what they were doing, the state of the world, their goal etc, it was interesting how, when Alyx was silent, everyone just assumed they were playing as Gordon Freeman.”