Quote"you wanted to play the game but didn't want to dish out an eye-popping US$999 for the Valve Index, Half-Life: Alyx with the Pancake VR Starter Kit might be the best way to experience Half-Life until/if Half-Life 3 comes around."

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No. If you dont want to buy a Valve index the best way to play Half-Life: Alyx is to buy a cheaper HMD.

• - The Valve index is awesome and the best way to play Alyx.
• - The Rift-S will give you 90% of the experience for half the cost.
• - The Oculus Quest with Link cable will give you 80% of the experience, but also gives you a wireless HMD, for less than half the cost of the Index.
• - You can pick up a Windows Mixed Reality headset for peanuts. Depending what it is this could give a pretty good experience although probably not as good as the Oculus or Valve devices.
• - Pancake mode will give you 10% of the experience at best

Really. Don't go with pancake mode. It will ruin the experience for you.

Of course, everyone knows that it does not cost US$999 to play Alyx in VR.