Check for any coinage standing on its side or cold weather forecasts for hell, because we have finally laid eyes on a new Half-Life game, and it's coming next year. Valve has shared the reveal trailer for Half-Life: Alyx after it was announced earlier this week , a VR-exclusive game that puts players in the role of Alyx Vance, set between the events of Half-Life and Half-Life 2. Probably much closer to Half-Life 2, since City 17 is a thing and Alyx isn't a small child.

The trailer confirms that Half-Life: Alyx is a first-person game, which, well, Half-Life. Duh. But it's even more thoroughly first-person than its predecessors: Valve is pushing Alyx as a demonstrator of the power of its new Valve Index hardware, which includes special controllers that strap onto your knuckles. They correspond to some cobbled-together-tech gloves that Alyx wears, encouraging you to interact with the environment to move objects aside or root around for ammunition and other helpful resources. You'll also use them to wield Alyx's customized handgun - your main protection against headcrab zombies, Combine infantry, and stranger foes.

(Image credit: Valve)

Valve says Half-Life: Alyx is a full-length game, which should take about as long to play as Half-Life 2 according to an IGN interview - think 10 to 15 hours. In the course of its story you'll meet some familiar characters and some new ones, and you'll see how Alyx and her father Eli worked together to set up the resistance that Gordon Freeman pretty much bumbled his way into championing. The trailer concludes with a brief, wordless appearance from the enigmatic G-Man (the guy in the suit), confirming that all of this is probably a part of his weird, dimension-spanning plans as well.

Half-Life: Alyx will come out in March 2020, and Valve says it will support Index as well as HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and even Windows Mixed Reality. That said, if you own Valve Index (or even just the controllers), you'll get Half-Life: Alyx free, and if you get your Index kit before the end of 2019 you'll get some special in-game skins for Alyx's gun, environments from the game to use in your SteamVR Home space, and some Alyx-themed stuff in Counter-Strike GO.