You knew it was coming, we knew it was coming, Valve knew it was coming, and now it's finally here – a mod that lets you play Half-Life: Alyx from start to finish without a VR headset. The new Half-Life game is built to be played in VR, but if you must force your way through a very janky version of it, that mod is now live.
The Half-Life: Alyx no-vr mod is available on FPS games, with mouse look and keyboard movement.
But do not expect this mod to just turn Alyx into the flat-screen Half-Life 3 you may have been dreaming of. The controls are sketchy enough that the ree includes a list of 'walkthrough difficulties' for moments that really need some precision attention – and the guide also recommends just turning on god mode for tougher encounters.
Alyx launched with a semi-working non-VR mode buried in the code, but it was not up to the task of letting you see the game through to the end.
The Alyx devs themselves recommend a Let's Play if you can't play the game yourself, and that's still probably the way to go if you're looking to see the story without a headset. There might yet be a high-quality no-VR mod for Alyx, and this is a start, but the experience isn't there yet.