Half-Life: Alyx modder is recreating BioShock’s Rapture in full for an original campaign

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The new story sees Alyx venturing into Rapture after her plane crashes at sea

Half-Life Alyx Oculus Quest 2 VR
(Image credit: Valve)

A new Half-Life: Alyx mod has rebuilt the entire game as a campaign set within BioShock's Rapture.

Below, you can see the trailer for Return to Rapture (via VGC), a mod created by modder Buytaert. The trailer shows the opening minutes of BioShock, from the plane crashing in the sea just outside the entrance to Rapture, to the player entering the underwater city for the first time, entirely in VR.

This new mod for Half-Life: Alyx apparently takes place over eight instalments. Originally, Buytaert created a half-hour slice of gameplay as a demo for the mod, and wasn't entirely sure if they would ever proceed ahead with recreating the rest of BioShock in Half-Life: Alyx.

Then, according to an interview with the developer on UploadVR, they received the blessing of several former BioShock developers to continue with the mod and recreate the game in full. This then snowballed into the Return to Rapture mod, which transforms Half-Life: Alyx into an entirely different game.

If you ever wondered what BioShock would look and feel like in virtual reality, then this is the perfect mod for you. In fact, the developer is going a step behind recreating the original game, even hiring a voice actor to narrate the story, which sees Alyx descending into the underwater city. There's also Little Sister vending machines, fully voiced audio dairies, and more to uncover.

This is all thanks to Valve releasing the editing tools for Half-Life: Alyx in 2020, which allows the game's community to create their own levels, items, tools, and more. So far, we've seen the likes of P.T., GoldenEye 007 levels, and more remade using Valve's VR game. Return to Rapture is just the latest in a long line of incredibly impressive mods for the game, and here's hoping there's more in store.

To see if Valve's game made it into our list of the best virtual reality games you need to play, head over to our best VR games guide for more.

Hirun Cryer
Hirun Cryer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.