Half-Life: Alyx

Half-Life: Alyx is an upcoming VR game developed by Valve. It was announced on November 18, 2019, unveiled on November 21, 2019, at 10 AM Pacific Time. It is set to release March 2020.

Chronologically, the game takes place in-between Half-Life and Half-Life 2.

It will be the first official Half-Life game since Half-Life 2: Episode Two, which was released 12 years prior, and the first full-length Half-Life game since Half-Life 2, which was released 15 years prior.

Plot
Set in City 17, around a decade after the events of Half-Life and before the events of Half-Life 2, Half-Life: Alyx follows Alyx Vance as she works with her father, Eli Vance, to fight against the Combine and build their resistance.

Characters

 * Alyx Vance
 * Eli Vance
 * Russel
 * The G-Man

Development
Half-Life: Alyx was largely developed in secret, with work on the game beginning in 2016. According to Valve designer Greg Coomer, the development team for Half-Life: Alyx was the "largest [Valve has] had yet", with a third of the team having worked on the previous Half-Life games.

Valve kept all information about Half-Life: Alyx from the public until the game's announcement on November 19, 2019. The public's only knowledge about the title came from leaks and rumors concerning a Half-Life title utilizing VR technology. This title was then known simply as "HLVR", never given an official codename. Beginning as early as late 2016, leftover lines of code referring to HLVR within Dota 2 began to appear. These strings suggested new weapons and NPCs, and referred to familiar Half-Life characters (such as Vortigaunts and Zombies). Fans, at the time, speculated the leftover data was related to the development of Half-Life 3.

The generally accepted narrative about HLVR started to change in 2019 when rumors, leaks and interviews with Valve employees started to suggest that HLVR would be a prequel focused on Alyx Vance, set to release some time in 2020. This latest batch of rumors turned out to be true with the announcement of Half-Life: Alyx.

Trivia

 * This is the first game since  Half-Life: Decay not to feature Gordon Freeman as a playable character.
 * The first game in the series not to be named after a scientific term, and the first to have a character's name in the title.
 * Valve's David Speyrer noted that though the game is a prequel to Half-Life 2, it is recommended that players finish Half-Life 2: Episode Two before playing Half-Life: Alyx, "for reasons that will become clear as you progress."
 * This will be the first time in the franchise that Alyx Vance and Eli Vance will not be voiced by Merle Dandridge and Robert Guillaume, respectively, the former due to this game taking place prior to Half-Life 2, and the latter due to Guillaume's death in 2017.
 * Alyx will be voiced by Ozioma Akagha.
 * Eli will be voiced by James Moses Black.