New Valve VR title Half-Life: Alyx puts players in the role of Alyx Vance, but early playtesters of the game thought that they were playing as series stalwart Gordon Freeman until they were told otherwise. The Half-Life series has been revived with a new VR title called Half-Life: Alyx, which puts the player in the role of Alyx Vance from Half-Life 2.
Gordon Freeman was the protagonist of all of the Half-Life games before the release of Half-Life: Alyx, with the exception of the two expansions packs that were released for the original Half-Life. Gordon was a silent protagonist, which was a design choice on the part of Valve in order to make the games more immersive, as it was easier for players to imagine Gordon's character for themselves. The use of a silent protagonist isn't unusual in a video game, with characters like Link from The Legend of Zelda series and Crono from Chrono Trigger being beloved by fans around the world, despite the inability to talk.
The fact that Alyx wasn't voiced during the early stages of Half-Life: Alyx's development was surprising to some fans, as they initially believed that they were playing as Gordon once more. Game designer Robin Walker recently told Rock, Paper, Shotgun that playtesters assumed they were playing as Gordon due to the lack of dialogue during the early stages of the game's development, to the point where they had to add a line of text explaining that they were playing as Alyx.
“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.”
It's likely that the name Half-Life: Alyx had yet to be finalized during the early stages of development, or that it was kept hidden on purpose, otherwise, it would have been a dead giveaway as to who the protagonist was. Half-Life: Alyx is set between the first two Half-Life games, so it's possible that the similar locations also threw the players off.
Half-Life: Alyx is meant to be a flagship VR title and knowing Valve's dedication to keeping the player within a first-person perspective throughout the Half-Life series, it's no surprise that playtesters were unable to work out which character they were playing. The fact that Alyx speaks in Half-Life: Alyx could represent a new direction for the series, should Gordon return as a playable character in a future installment. The day may come when we step into Gordon's HEV suit once more, only to hear him complaining about being asleep for over a decade.
Half-Life: Alyx is available now on Steam.
Source: Rock, Paper, Shotgun