In memory of Jeff, the most fascinating level from Half-Life Alyx

As Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) so aptly taught us in Jurassic Park, “Life, er, life finds a way.” That mantra certainly applies to another person named Jeff, the giant, mutated monster who serves as the boss of Half-Life: Alyx’s most memorable level and is also named “Jeff.” That’s a lot of Jeffs.

In “Jeff,” Alyx Vance finds herself alone in an abandoned distillery with the titular zombie and must find ways to navigate the space without alerting him. This proves to be a little tricky as, who would have thought, the building is filled with bottles of alcohol that Alyx can accidentally trip over and cause a racket. She can also use these bottles as noisemakers to distract her friend with sensitive ears.

Alyx from Half-Life: Alyx sits with Covid particles behind her

I can’t reproduce the circumstances under which I enjoyed VR

The world was a very different place when Half-Life: Alyx came out.

Valve is great at building and executing, planting ideas early in games so that the new reality hits you with a vengeance at the end, but doesn’t derail the story. Portal did this by allowing you to find clues to the story hidden behind walls and in back rooms throughout the game. When the cake turned out to be a lie and you had to fight your way through Aperture HQ, those early clues paid off.

Jeff gets a slow, steady introduction to Half-Life: Alyx

Alyx does something similar with Jeff. At the start of the level, you meet Larry, a man whose leg is stuck to the tongue of a Barnacle. After shooting the Barnacle, you hear a monstrous noise in the distance and ask what it is. “Oh, that’s Jeff,” Larry says, before informing you that the invisible monster is blind but has an “ear like Mozart.” Alyx doesn’t know who Mozart is, so she doesn’t get the reference. It’s a clever little foreplay that sets our expectations for the level to come, gives us a clue as to how to deal with the coming threat, and builds the world through Alyx’s cultural ignorance.

When you first see Jeff, you’re at a safe distance on a crumbling metal platform above him. Larry gives you a nice little tip-off here too by throwing a liquor bottle, prompting Jeff to chase after the sound. The game continues this process by first introducing you to something in a safe location with the spores. As you approach an orange cloud of particles, Larry appears and warns you to cover your mouth.

Because the biggest danger in “Jeff” is not the bottles, but your own breathing. As Alyx walks through the factory, she comes across several areas where the air is full of spores that, if inhaled normally, will make her cough. In this case, you must hold your hands up to cover your mouth so she doesn’t inhale the cough triggers.

It’s a great mechanic that makes smart use of Half-Life: Alyx’s greatest asset: your hands. Alyx uses the greater kinetic freedom that VR allows in other smart ways, too. You can peek around cover, easily push open doors, manually carry objects around, and deflect grenades back in the direction of your opponents. But “Jeff” takes it the furthest, forcing you to consider your character as a real person with real human weaknesses. In most shooters, you’re a disembodied pair of arms with a gun, so it felt fresh that Alyx forces you to consider your character’s mortal flesh.

Of course, you’ll have to come face-to-face with Jeff at some point, and Half-Life: Alyx makes sure you’re in close proximity when that happens. The level’s most tense moment puts Alyx in an elevator with the humanoid beast. In virtual reality, with its heightened spatial representation, you really feel like Jeff is right there, about to find you. When you finally escape and trap Jeff in a trash compactor, you can finally breathe a sigh of relief. Half-Life: Alyx has moments that are more important to the series’ progression, such as its conclusion. But there’s no other level in the game that gets as much out of its premise. In that respect, it’s “We’re Not Going to Ravenholm” for the 2020s.