Half-Life: Alyx is the first Half-Life game that Valve has released since 2004’s Half-Life 2. It is a Virtual Reality game that tells the story of a struggle against the Combine, a vicious alien race that took control of the Earth since the Black Mesa incident. Alyx is set between the first two Half-Life games. The player takes the role of Alyx Vance, who was an NPC in Half-Life 2. She is part of a resistance that tries to save humanity and defeat the Combine by trying to find a weakness and building crucial tools and weapons for the remaining humans.
Half-Life Alyx has received critical acclaim from most reviewers, with praise for its atmosphere, writing, graphics and gameplay. The game is already notable for being the first killer app on VR. Players have explored almost every nook and cranny in the game, but there are still plenty of things they have missed. So, let’s take a look at these things, whether they are secrets or Easter eggs.
10 Gnome Chompski
Alyx has a playground similar to the one in Half-Life 2. When the player goes through this playground, they reach Russel’s Lab. This place is full of secrets, but the most interesting one to find is the Gnome Chompski bottle opener.
Gnome Chompski showed up first in Half-Life 2: Episode 2, where the player had to transport him for the duration of the whole game and finally sent him away inside a rocket. In Half-Life: Alyx, the player also gets an achievement if they carry Gnome Chompski for the entirety of the game.
9 Citadel Layout
The Citadel is the huge headquarters belonging to the Combine. Construction hasn’t been completed in this game yet, unlike in Half-Life 2. When the player is in Alyx’s base, one of the hidden things is a whiteboard with sketches that show the evolution of the Citadel over time. Notes are scribbled on the whiteboard that speculate about the structure’s purpose. The speculations include how deep the base of the structure goes, what material it’s made of, why its scaffolding is unusual, how come its peak has a perpetual thunderstorm, and what materials it is made of.
8 Globe With Half-Life 2’s Setting
Alyx’s base is full of small things that hardly anyone paid attention to. One of them is a globe. It has arrows that point to the base, which is somewhere in the middle of Russia. There is also a question mark over Africa, meaning that its fate remains unknown. That’s not all. By rotating the globe, the player can see a massive X over North America. When the Black Mesa Incident occurred, a thermonuclear explosion destroyed Black Mesa. From the clues in this globe, this means that North America is no longer livable, which is why Alyx’s base is all the way in Russia.
7 Tech Impact Magazine
When the player goes to Russell’s lab, they can find a magazine called Tech Impact whose title is ‘The Mind of Breen’. Just underneath that, it reads ‘How the right man in the right place could save us all.’ And the cover image is, naturally, one of Dr Breen himself. The title is a reference to Half-Life 2, where G-Man opened with a monologue where he implied that main character Gordon Freeman was simply the right man in the wrong place.
The magazine title, Tech Impact, can also mean the Tech Impact Awards, which are based in the same state as Valve itself.
6 Pw:lazl0 Sticky Note
When the player is in Russell’s lab and just about to put on the gravity gloves, vision is quite poor. However, if the player looks into the room on the righthand side, they can see a mannequin with a sticky note above its head. The note reads ‘pw:lazl0’, a reference to a character called Lazlo in Half-Life 2.
In Half-Life 2, Lazlo is a Resistance member who dies after he disturbs a nest of Antlions, and his comrade says, “Dear God! Poor Lazlo! The finest mind of his generation, come to such an end.”
5 Baby Tentacles
On one of the upper levels inside the hotel, there is a bathtub that has little baby tentacles seemingly growing from it. Baby tentacles are a clear nod towards the first Half-Life. In that game, players encountered these creatures—which are stalky beaked Xen creatures—in the Blast Pit level, and had to fight them to progress.
The baby tentacles are not the only Xen creatures in Half-Life Alyx. The game features plenty of related flora and fauna like light stalks and fungi, especially in the restricted quarantine zones. Since a large portion of the game takes place in these areas, players have plenty of chances to see the Xen creatures.
4 Dr. Isaac Kleiner’s Book
Dr. Isaac Kleiner used to be a researcher at Black Mesa, but he eventually became one of the leading members of the Resistance against the Combine. Players know him in previous games for his various experiments on teleportation.
Dr. Kleiner penned a book titled ‘From Here to There in Under a Second’. Players can find a copy of this book in the opening level of the game, just on the balcony. But if they miss it, they can still find the book when they visit Russel’s lab later on. The book also showed up in Half-Life 2, at Eli Vance’s laboratory.
3 Dog Sketch
Alyx has a robotic companion she loves that is simply called ‘Dog’. She received it when she was a child as a present from her father—it was also meant to keep her safe—and Dog has been with her ever since. Dog was initially one meter high, but Alyx started adding modifications when she grew older. By the time the player encounters Dog in Half-Life 2, Dog is an intimidating, hulking robot.
At the start of the game, the player can find a clipboard containing various sketches of how Dog could have ended up looking like a prototype.
2 Missing Cat Poster
In the laundromat, Alyx has a conversation with another member of the Resistance. There, if the player pays close attention to the surroundings, they can see a missing cat poster on a bulletin board. The cat, that belongs to a woman called Sarah, is called Beatrice. According to the poster, she likes chasing bugs, eating bugs and doesn’t respond to her name.
The player can remove the photo to take a closer look. Soon after, the player will then come upon a grumpy woman who goes into her apartment. Before she slams shut the door, plenty of cats will be visible inside her apartment.
1 Wallace Breen Newspaper Columns
When the player wanders the world, they can find various newspapers, in both English and Russian. Most of these newspapers focus on the Black Mesa disaster, but that’s not all. A number of newspapers have columns about Wallace Breen. He was a Black Mesa scientist until the incident.
Through these articles, we learn that Wallace Breen was a rank opportunist who, while negotiating humanity’s surrender to the aliens, turned from a scientist to a politician. We also learn about the portal storms that ushered in the invasion of the Combine and the Xen.
NEXT: 10 VR Games To Play If You Loved Half-Life: Alyx
