It's been a long time coming, but Valve finally unveiled a new installment in its seminal Half-Life series, titled Half-Life: Alyx. The game is expected to launch on Steam in March 2020 and will be a "full-length" VR-only adventure set between the events of the original title and Half-Life 2. While Half-Life: Alyx is playable on all Steam-compatible VR headsets, you can get the game for free if you own Valve Index, and it'll also come with some additional content--provided you buy one in time.
If you pick up Valve Index by the end of this year, you'll receive a handful of exclusive bonuses. First, you'll receive alternate gun skins in Half-Life: Alyx. You'll also be able to explore environments from the game in your SteamVR Home space, and there will be "special" content themed after Half-Life: Alyx in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
You'll get access to all of this additional content starting early 2020. You can read more about the Valve Index bonuses on the official Half-Life website.
As previously mentioned, you'll also get Half-Life: Alyx for free if you own Valve Index. If you're interested in playing it on other headsets, the game is available for pre-order right now on Steam, and you can get a 10% discount on it as part of a special promotion that runs through March 30, 2020.
Valve Index was released this past June and is Valve's flagship VR headset. The company says Index was "built hand-in-hand" with Half-Life: Alyx, but it comes at a steep price--the headset alone is $499, while the Index kit retails for $999. GameSpot's Michael Higham went hands-on with Valve Index and said, "It's easy to see how Index can push VR gaming forward. However, like all enthusiastic-level platforms, it comes at a significant cost."
Half-Life: Alyx News
Half-Life: Alyx arrives 13 years after the series' last release, 2007's Half-Life 2: Episode 2, which ended on a cliffhanger. You can read everything we know about Half-Life: Alyx so far in our roundup, and you can check out the first Half-Life: Alyx trailer here.