If you have the hardware for VR, Half-Life: Alyx is arguably the best experience that you can have with a headset on. Although made specifically to take advantage of the Valve Index, you can still experience Alyx with any compatible Steam VR headset, and if you have one, you should really consider getting Alyx while it’s still on sale.
And while you’re at it, you should also download Levitation, a new and completely free mod for Alyx that looks as good as anything Valve has ever produced. The mod adds three to five hours of additional story content, including new levels, new animations, new voice acting, and more. Levitation has a perfect five-out-of-five star rating on its Steam Workshop page after 713 downloads, a virtually unheard-of feat.
Announced back in April, Levitation comes courtesy of SFM animator Corey Laddo and level designer Shawn “FMPONE” Snelling. Made with Valve’s officially-released mod tools, Levitation adds “eight challenging levels” to Half-Life: Alyx’s story. Alyx is on the hunt for Maya and Barry, rebels that have gone rogue after finding a floating tower in City 17’s Sector X. According to PC Gamer, that tower is inspired by Zona, a Spanish TV series which itself is inspired by Roadside Picnic, which also helped to inform the Stalker series.
“Alyx returns to City-17 after meeting the G-MAN, and teams up with Russell once again,” reads the mod’s description on its Steam Workshop page. “During her absence, a mysterious levitating building appeared in the Sector X region of City-17. Two key members of the resistance named Barry and Maya decided to infiltrate and investigate Sector X -- until their signal went quiet… Now, Alyx must save her friends, and possibly the whole resistance.”
You can subscribe to Levitation quickly and easily by hitting the "subscribe" buttons for each part on the Steam Workshop. The mod comes in five parts, so that’s five clicks for potentially up to five hours of more Alyx gameplay.