Flip on the ol’ Developer Commentary
In-game commentaries are synonymous with Valve, but due to the rough year we’ve all been through, Half-Life: Alyx wasn’t able to launch with the Developer Commentary fans have come to expect.
Almost eight months later – and just in time for game-of-the-year discussions to begin in earnest – Valve has added the commentary feature to Alyx with a free update released today on Steam.
There are caveats – as Valve admits, the team had to use “closets and blanket forts” instead of its “comfortable high-quality recording studio” due to COVID – but there are over three hours of behind-the-scenes tidbits. The commentary touches on “art, animation, rendering, sound, and more.”
Basically, it’s perfect for your inevitable next replay – just start a new save with Developer Commentary toggled on. According to Valve, there are subtitles for English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Castilian Spanish, Latin American Spanish, Russian, Polish, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese.
I always appreciate sincere, meaningful commentary tracks, but there’s something extra special about the hands-on nature of Valve’s narrations. In this case, there are 147 “points of interest” to find.
Commentary Update [Steam]