Half-Life: Alyx, the new VR game from Valve, will be a full entry in the series set between the events of Half-Life 1 and 2.

Valve confirmed as much today following the game’s announcement earlier this week. As the name suggests, Half-Life: Alyx will put players in the shoes of Alyx Vance, who fought alongside players in Half-Life 2.

Alyx will bridge the gap between the Black Mesa Incident portrayed in the original Half-Life and Gordon Freeman’s return in Half-Life 2. Together with her father, Eli Vance, Alyx will help establish a resistance against the Combine, the alien race seen in the sequel. A brief trailer for the game showed the game’s iconic headcrabs jumping at you, a few puzzles and a world in which physics seem to take front and center. Every item in the trailer seems to be interactive and there’s a ton of characters we haven’t met before.

Valve says the game was designed “from the ground up” for VR, but still features all the usual elements you’d expect from a Half-Life game. That means first-person combat and puzzles, complete with a new story. The game will also be running on Valve’s own Source 2 engine, and the first images confirm a big leap in visual fidelity since 2007’s Half-Life 2: Episode 2.

Return To City 17?

These screenshots also confirm a lot of other locations and features for the game. In several images, we can see the Combine soldiers first introduced in Half-Life 2. Another reveals what looks like the construction of the obelisk-like Citadel that towers over City 17 in the sequel.

Finally, in several screenshots we can see Alyx’s hands fitted with an assortment of wires and machinery. The file name for the image below is ‘Gravity Gloves’, suggesting these are the new weapon mentioned in previous reports about the game (although it was reported they were called the ‘Grabbity Gloves’, which is a much better name). It’s thought these will be able to manipulate objects much like Half-Life 2’s Gravity Gun. Note that they also show what looks to be Alyx’s life meter. Valve tells us the some of the interactions in the game will only work with its own Index controllers, but these will be entirely optional.

And that’s all we have for now. Half-Life: Alyx will be coming March 2020 to all SteamVR-supported headsets.

Need more on Half-Life: Alyx? Why not check out our character biography of the titular character? Or track Valve’s long journey towards announcing the game, starting all the way back in 2012.