17 Amazing Half-Life: Alyx Mods That Give You More Of The Game For Free

Half-Life: Alyx is widely recognized as one of the best VR games out there, and is a prime example of what a well designed AAA quality game can look like on Virtual Reality.

Unfortunately, Half-Life: Alyx was released years ago and hasn’t received any new official content for quite a while. So once you’ve mastered the main campaign of the game you might get bored with it.

Luckily the developers at Valve also released fantastic modding and level creation tools along with the main game, and many talented and dedicated modders are here to fill the content gap for Half-Life: Alyx.

So here are 17 Amazing Half-Life: Alyx Mods that will add more levels and content to the game for you to play through. These Half-Life: Alyx custom campaigns are some of the best around and will surely give you more good times in this fantastic VR game.

You’re guaranteed to have a good time with any of these HL:A Campaign-Likes.

Gunman Contracts Chapters 1 And 2

The logo for the first chapter of the Gunman Contracts Half-Life: Alyx mod.

No list of Half-Life: Alyx mods or Half-Life: Alyx custom levels can be complete without Gunman Contracts Chapter 1 and Chapter 2.

You might have seen this game referred to as a “John Wick” game, and that is an extremely accurate description for it. The Gunman Contracts mods pits you and your custom pistol against armed human goons, henchmen, and thugs just like John Wick in the movies.

You’ve got a mission to complete, and a ton of enemies in your way that you’ll have to fight through. Gunman Contracts does a great job of using Half-Life: Alyx’s Source 2 engine in a more true to life setting, and staging interesting, fast paced, dynamic, and intense firefights for you to enjoy.

Instead of fighting through alien infested ruins and ancient metro tunnels, Gunman Contracts has you blasting through windows in high rises and bottles of booze in bars. It’s great, and makes you feel faster and more powerful than you do in the base game, but also throws many more enemies at you.

If you want some fast paced urban shooting action in a Half-Life: Alyx mod, then give Gunman Contracts a try. The author of this mod is even working on a standalone VR game as well.

Half-Life: Incursion

The logo for the Half-Life: Incursion Half-Life Alyx mods.

Half-Life: Incursion places you in a small area of the Quarantine Zone surrounding City 17 and throws waves of combine soldiers at you.

You’ve only got so much time to scrounge of ammo and prepare your defenses, like placing tripwire mines, before another attack comes. They start out easily enough, but get harder and harder.

Luckily you won’t only get more supplies, but better weaponry as the waves get tougher. Survive them all and you’ll win. Half-Life: Incursion lets you get really crafty with your defense. You can lure soldiers into traps or try to evade and confuse them in the narrow alleys and city streets.

The attack waves are very well designed and varied, and there is even some excellent voiceover work to enjoy as well in Half-Life: Incursion.

Return To Rapture

The logo for the Return To Rapture Half-Life Alyx mods.

Remember Rapture from the first two Bioshock games? Well now you can return to it in Virtual Reality in Return To Rapture.

That’s right, the combine have invaded Rapture and so now so will you. What is absolutely fantastic about this mod is how it transfers so much of the environment, gameplay, and vibe of Bioshock into Half-Life: Alyx.

There are all sorts of old favorites to enjoy from Vita Chambers to Plasmids. So if you want to experience Bioshock VR then try this mod. It is incredibly expansive, well made, and a creative combination of two game worlds.

Levitation

The logo for the Levitation Half-Life: Alyx Mod.

Half-Life: Alyx - Levitation feels like a continuation of the main campaign of Half-Life: Alyx both in terms of tone and quality.

Set right after the events of the main game, the story really kicks off when Alyx looks for two fellow resistance members investigating a mysterious floating building. Things escalate from there, and you’ll find yourself facing new challenges, seeing new fantastic sights, and enjoying yourself immensely.

Levitation is huge for a mod project at easily four hours in length, and is visually stunning in places, while also being a fun challenge for those who have already completed Half-Life: Alyx. It really feels like a continuation of the main campaign, despite being a mod.

Goldeneye Alyx 007

The logo for the Goldeneye Alyx 007 Half-Life Alyx mods.

Remember the Nintendo 64 classic Goldeneye? Well the authors of Goldeneye Alyx 007 certainly do, and they’ve been busy recreating maps from the classic James Bond Goldeneye game in Half-Life: Alyx.

As far as Half-Life: Alyx mod ideas go, this is pretty ambitious considering the scale and detail of the maps recreated here, but the mod authors pulled off recreating those old areas with detail very well. Not to mention they’ve managed to fill them with great combat and exploration challenges.

Whether you want to relive some Goldeneye nostalgia or just want a fun series of James Bond themed maps to play through, check out this mod.

Hotline Alyx

The logo for the Hotline Alyx Half-Life: Alyx mod.

If you’ve ever heard of the top down shooter Hotline Miami then you probably recognize the reference in the title of Hotline Alyx.

Everything, the masks, the music, the gritty 80s easthetic, and of course the fast and frantic combat of Hotline Miami are recreated here in Virtual Reality in this Half-Life: Alyx mod. There’s even a story, just like in Hotline Miami.

Each level is challenging, packed with enemies, fast paced, and a true challenge of your reflexes and tactics. You’ll also have to be very careful with your ammunition usage, so precision is key. Though you can always use melee weapons.

That’s right, this mod has melee weapons and they’re… okay. Still, it’s very impressive that they work at all. Hotline Alyx is impressive from how it includes such unique features and ties them together into a frantic package of VR close quarters shooting carnage.

From Here To There

A screenshot of part of the secret lab in the From Here To There mod.

If you want an entirely new story set in the Half-Life universe with a long campaign, new enemies, and new mechanics, then you’ve got to give From Here To There a try.

This is a very long Half-Life: Alyx mod that can run you up to 8 hours. It is fantastic, and you’re also a different character, Dr. Smithers from Half-Life 1.

After the Black Mesa incident Dr. Smithers works as a custodian and has a secret laboratory underground. In case you’re wondering, yes the secret lab is amazing, and there are a ton of experiments to play with. In fact there are a ton of new toys to interact with in From Here To There.

It’s got new weapons, a new story, and so much creativity on display for such a long run time. There are even some sections that will require puzzle solving skills and creativity. There is a ton of additional content in this mod, and it is all of very high quality.

Re-Education

The logo for the Re-Education Half-Life Alyx mod.

Re-Education is a more slow paced mod that focuses on exploration, environmental storytelling, and taking things slowly.

In it you, as Alyx once more, make your way through an abandoned school in order to get to the safe house on the other side of it. Things start off inauspiciously at first, but as you get further into the Zen infested school things get more dangerous.

Why? There’s yet another Jeff inside of the school, but as far as Jeff encounters go this one was a much more creative use of the monster. Re-Education is a solid 45 minutes to hour of Half-Life: Alyx modded gameplay for when you want to do more careful exploring than shooting.

Cornered

Combine soldiers preparing to breach your apartment in the Cornered Half-Life: Alyx mod.

In Cornered Alyx is laying low inside of an Apartment building. You wake up to an alarm and poke around your temporary apartment.

There you’ve got plenty of weapons and supplies, that you should definitely gather up quickly, but soon the combine find you and blast through the walls and front door to attack you.

This mod is extremely difficult, and the combine throw everything they’ve got at you. Though at the same time you’ve got a lot of weaponry and ammunition to fight them with. While you might die a lot, this mod is a real test of your close quarters combat skills in Alyx, and the feeling of relief when you fight your way out is fantastic.

Goon Squad

The logo for the Goon Squad Alyx mod.

Want to be a combine soldier in Half-Life: Alyx? Well now you can in the Goon Squad mod.

You and the other members of your squad are exploring an old underground sewer within the Quarantine Zone when things suddenly go very wrong.

Can you survive as a lone combine soldier cut off and without support?

The Undertow

The nightclub from The Undertow, a highlight of this Half-Life: Alyx mod.

So you’re going to a nightclub with a briefcase, and you’ve got to deliver it to the owner. Unfortunately, things won’t end up being that straightforward in The Undertow.

This Half-Life: Alyx mod features a very fun setting with its neon saturated nightclub, though things do change up from there, and take a strangely horrifying turn.

There are more engaging combat challenges and puzzles in an hour long package. Not to mention the vodka is now drinkable!

Half-Life: Zheptics

The logo for the Half-Life: Zheptics Half-Life Alyx mods.

Half-Life: Zheptics is another long story campaign that you can enjoy for Half-Life: Alyx that puts you in the shoes of a Resistance member that is investigating a strange old facility with their brother.

This facility is called Zheptics, and is related to the original Black Mesa from the first Half-Life game. You’ll find a really surprising breath of fresh air in Half-Life: Zheptics, and it almost feels like a whole new game than the original.

There are new puzzles that take very surprising turns, new gameplay mechanics, new puzzles, and even new enemies. All of these fantastic surprises in this mod keep coming and are all of very high quality.

If you’re looking for a fresh new experience with a great playtime then of all Half-Life: Alyx mods none delivers more new content than Half-Life: Zheptics.

Euphoria

Combine soldiers surrounded by zombies in the Euphoria mod.

Goon Squad isn’t the only mod that lets you play as a combine soldier.

Euphoria differentiates itself just as Incursion does in the world of Half-Life: Alyx mods by being more of a wave defense campaign than an actual set of linear levels you play through. Also it heavily features allied combine soldiers. You feel more like part of a squad than a lone survivor this time.

In Euphoria you and your squad of combine buddies are in a ruined nightclub that is heavily infested with zombies. The zombies keep coming, you and your buddies keep blasting, and fantastic music keeps playing. It’s a good time.

Buckshot Bugs

The logo for the Buckshot Bugs Half-Life: Alyx mod.

If you’re bummed that you don’t get to use the shotgun enough in Half-Life: Alyx then the Buckshot Bugs mod is for you.

In this mod the shotgun is your only weapon. Once more you need to fight your way out of an infested area and make it to a train to escape. There are a ton of enemies, and more importantly a ton of shotgun shells.

That is, if you know where to find them. Constantly being on the lookout for ammunition is very important here, but the satisfaction of shotgun blasting your enemies is fantastic. It’s surprising how intricate the combat can get with just a single weapon, and how great the upgrades for it are.

Abduction

The logo for the Abudction HL:A mod.

In Abudction you wake up in a combine prison and escape, gather some weapons, and fight your way out while avoiding being recaptured.

This map is also short, but very tightly designed and well made. The premise is solid, and while nothing was truly surprising in this mod it was an overall solid experience. Nothing groundbreaking, but just a ton of fun that uses the mechanics of the original Half-Life: Alyx campaign well.

C17YSCAPE

The Citadel in C17YSCAPE.

In C17SCAPE you are once more in prison, except you’re no hero, just a normal citizen.

Luckily your cell malfunctions and you can escape. Unluckily the combine are after you and you are unarmed.

You’ll have to find a weapon and fight your way to, hopefully, safety. It’s hard out there for most in the Half-Life universe, and C17SCAPE is an old but great example of a solid hourlong map, and its been updated since then.

Overcharge

An early combat area in Overcharge.

Saving arguably the best for last we have Overcharge, a mod that early on in the life of the Half-Life: Alyx modding community revealed just how great Half-Life: Alyx mods can be. It is the #1 rated mod for this VR game.

In Overcharge you are a rebel soldier tasked with the near suicidal objective of disabling a combine substation in the area before it is built.

Overcharge is an absolute classic and a must try for anybody who really wants to get into Half-Life: Alyx mods. While it isn’t the longest, it is the highest rated for good reasons.

Anyhow those are 17 amazing Half-Life: Alyx custom campaign mods that give you more amazing Half-Life: Alyx gameplay for free!

All Half-Life: Alyx Weapons and Upgrades

If you’re wondering what amazing weapons you’ll get to enjoy in Half-Life: Alyx, or are wondering which weapon upgrades are worth it, then you’ve come to the right place. This complete list of all Half-Life: Alyx weapons and upgrades has every weapon in the game as well as every upgrade that you can get for them. So while you explore City 17 in Half Life Alyx you’ll know exactly what to spend your Resin on.

Table of Contents:

• Half-Life: Alyx Weapons - The Pistol

• Half-Life: Alyx Upgrades - The Pistol

• Half-Life: Alyx Weapons - The Shotgun

• Half-Life: Alyx Upgrades - The Shotgun

• Half-Life: Alyx Weapons - The Combine SMG

• Half-Life: Alyx Upgrades - The Combine SMG

• Half-Life: Alyx Weapons - Grenades

Half-Life: Alyx Weapons - The Pistol

The Pistol is the first weapon that you get in Half-Life: Alyx. Russel gives it to you at the beginning of the game by throwing it over to you after assuring it isn’t loaded, but hilariously misses and hits the roof of a car. This makes the pistol go off… apparently it was loaded.

Old Reliable

The Pistol is an all around great weapon in Half-Life: Alyx. Ammunition for it is plentiful throughout the game, and while it doesn’t offer the greatest firepower it is accurate and has very manageable recoil, so it’s not hard to control when firing quickly. Since all of the combat in Half Life: Alyx takes place in pretty close quarters, you can reliably hit enemies at whatever range you encounter them at. Though you’ll still start to miss if you don’t aim your shots and pace yourself. Firing too rapidly will affect accuracy.

The main downsides of the pistol are its low damage output and low magazine capacity. Since you can’t fire it as quickly as possible and expect to hit at any range further than point blank, you’ll find yourself not getting a lot of bullets into your target due to having to aim and pace your shots. So when compared to other weapons in Half-Life: Alyx, you won’t get the greatest damage output from the pistol.

Pistol Upgrades are pretty great

The pistol will also run out of bullets quickly, as each magazine doesn’t hold many. This is especially true when you’re facing enemies that can take a lot of hits before going down. Luckily there are upgrades to help with both the damage and ammo capacity problems.

Half-Life: Alyx Upgrades - The Pistol

• Reflex Sight - A very useful upgrade at only 10 Resin if you don’t like the default pistol sights. The Reflex Sight upgrade also highlights weak points on enemies, and so helps even more when you’re having trouble seeing what you’re aiming at.

• Burst Fire Mode - This pistol upgrade costs 20 Resin and lets you switch between single shot and a burst fire mode that fires 3 shots at once. This dramatically increases the damage output of the pistol by letting you get out three accurate rounds at once.

• Bullet Reservoir - A pricey pistol upgrade at 30 resin, but definitely the best way to solve the ammunition storage problems that the pistol has. Now you can store an extra 10 bullets inside of the pistol, which will be automatically taken out of the loaded magazine if the reservoir isn’t full.

• Laser Sight - A costly laser pointer upgrade at 35 resin, but makes aiming without looking down the pistol’s sights very easy. Whatever the laser is pointing at is what you hit!

Half-Life: Alyx Weapons - The Shotgun

The Shotgun is the second weapon you acquire in Half Life: Alyx. While exploring the quarantine zone you’ll find it hanging above a deadly pit from the claw of an expired headcrab zombie. You have to retrieve it quickly by turning a nearby wheel to winch the old zombie down and then stop the wheel with a piece of pipe. All this while still living zombies are breaking through the walls to get at you! This was definitely a very intense way to introduce a new weapon to Half Life: Alyx.

Blasting a headcrab

As you might expect the shotgun works very well at close ranges. Out of all Half Life Alyx weapons, it definitely has the highest damage output when used up close. It even feels devastating. Each shot you fire with the shotgun is very punchy and impactful, though the recoil is tremendous, so don’t fire it too quickly. Luckily since each shot is so powerful that you generally won’t have to fire it more than once or twice to clear the area in front of you.

Blasting an antlion

The downside is that shotgun ammunition is pretty scarce compared to ammo for the other weapons. This is probably overall a good thing, because otherwise it would be so easy to rely on the shotgun to punch your way through most enemies with a single shot. Still, it does mean that the shotgun functions more as a powerful panic button than a regular part of your arsenal in Half-Life: Alyx. When you start to run low on shells for it you’ll naturally use it a little more sparingly whenever you’re surrounded by enemies at close range, or need to deal a lot of damage quickly.

The only downside to the shotgun is that it is only effective at very close ranges, so don’t try blasting anything that’s more than a few feet in front of you, or you won’t deal a lot of damage and waste your shells.

Luckily upgrades give the Shotgun a lot more utility than just a “get out of a life threatening situation free” card.

Half-Life: Alyx Upgrades - The Shotgun

• Laser Sight - A 10 Resin laser sight upgrade. Just like the laser sight on the pistol, you’ll hit whatever the laser is shining on. Dubiously useful since the shotgun is only accurate at very close ranges. Aiming isn’t often a problem.

• Double Shot - For 25 Resin you can fire two shells at once out of your shotgun with this upgrade, just like in Half-Life 2 and Half-Life! So if you really want to make sure whatever you’re aiming at goes down, you can always make sure you take it down in a single shot. Generally this is overkill, but can still come in handy.

• Autoloader - At the cost of 30 Resin you can install an autoloader upgrade on your shotgun which lets you load even more shells into the shotgun before needing to reload, like the Bullet Reservoir for the pistol. Very useful if you tend to miss a lot with the shotgun and need to know you’ll have as many shells as you might need in any given situation.

• Grenade Launcher - While this is an expensive upgrade at 40 resin, it is definitely the best Half-Life: Alyx shotgun upgrade. With this you can attach a grenade to the front of the shotgun and arm it by pulling a handguard on the front, then firing the shotgun will launch the grenade far and accurately. This upgrade adds a ton of utility to the shotgun, and makes your shotgun a lot more useful, even when you’re out of shells for it. Best of all this lets you hold another grenade on you, since it will stay attached to the shotgun. So basically another free storage slot!

Half-Life: Alyx Weapons - The Combine SMG

The Combine SMG is the third and final weapon that you will acquire in your Half Life: Alyx journey. You’ll find it in the basement of the North Star Hotel, right past a gauntlet of black headcrabs. Most Combine SMGs are DNA encoded to only be useable by their intended soldier. However the one that you find in Half-Life: Alyx, is still in the box and not yet programmed. Definitely a fantastic find!

An Upgraded Combine SMG

The Combine SMG is a powerful third addition to your arsenal. Just like the pistol it is effective at any range you will encounter enemies, but unlike the pistol it has a sizeable magazine and high rate of fire. The Combine SMG can down enemies quickly. This is also because it has the lowest recoil out of all Half Life Alyx weapons.

You can reliably fire fully automatic with the Combine SMG and hit your target every time as long as you keep your aim steady. This means that you can do a lot of damage quickly with the SMG at all ranges. You’ll also be finding decent amounts of ammunition for the Combine SMG after you get it (and even a little before).

Firing an SMG with the Reflex Sight Upgrade

The only downside is that the Combine SMG is a little cumbersome to reload, and if you try to solely rely on it you will run out of ammo. Also the iron sights that comes with it aren’t the easiest to aim with and can make it hard to hit your first few shots before you follow the tracers and get on target. Still, as always, there are upgrades to help with that.

Half-Life: Alyx Upgrades - The Combine SMG

• Reflex Sight - For 15 Resin you can install a reflex sight on your Combine SMG. This sight upgrade operates a lot like the pistol reflex sight and highlights weak points on enemies. Since the iron sights on the SMG aren’t very good, this upgrade is very worth it.

• Laser Sight - If you’d rather skip the Reflex sight upgrade you could go for the Laser Sight upgrade for 25 Resin instead. Just like the laser sights on the pistol and shotgun, whatever the laser is pointing at is what you’ll hit. Great for firing from the hip.

• Extended Magazine - If you’re tired of reloading the Combine SMG in combat, then with 30 resin you can add an extended magazine upgrade to it! this functions like the pistol reservoir and shotgun autoloader in that it holds extra ammunition, and automatically loads it as the weapon runs dry. Make sure to keep your extended magazine topped up in between fights though.

Half-Life: Alyx Weapons - Grenades

For the final entry into Half-Life: Alyx weapons, you’ll find grenades. Grenades come into two varieties, the mechanical combine grenades, and the biological Xen grenades. Combine Grenades can be found scattered around like any other sort of ammunition or consumable item. While Xen grenades spawn out of the mouths of stalk-like creatures in Xen infested areas. It takes a little practice, but if you’re fast enough you can swipe the grenade out of their mouths before they pull away from you.

Launching a grenade from the shotgun

Both grenades are very effective, and both can dispatch a room full of enemies when they detonate. Just hold it, press the activation button (check your settings for which one, it is controller dependent) and throw it quickly. A Grenade can even be launched with a shotgun upgrade. Oh, and Xen grenades also infinitely spawn out of the creatures who create them, so whenever you’re near one go nuts!

There you go, all weapons and upgrades in Half Life Alyx. Hope you enjoyed and have a better idea of what’s worth your resin and what isn’t. As always, have fun in Half-Life: Alyx’s City 17!