Jump scares can be extremely effective when used sparingly: I can still remember a couple of moments in Thief: Deadly Shadows' Robbing the Cradle level that just about killed me. It's a mainstream shooter, and that means it can't be chasing away people who maybe don't mind a little creepiness but have no interest in a full Frictional. The challenge for Valve was even trickier, because Half-Life: Alyx isn't a game like, say, Outlast or Soma that people play specifically for a horror experience. 'Will a horror game give you the same physiological reactions as being in a horrific situation for real? Horror movies can be very scary or very cathartic or very terrifying, but horror VR will take it beyond that and do we want to be entertained like that?' Suddenly it becomes more real rather than abstracted,' he said. You’re surrounded by it and immersed in it. 'The trouble is that means it’s more intense. Four years ago, Rebellion CEO Jason Kingsley warned CNBC that VR horror games risk being too intense because it 'makes you no longer just a participant in terms of watching but you are present in this story.' Valve isn't the only studio to have concerns about the heightened impact of horror in VR, and it's also far from the first. 'We really did recognize that we didn't want to overwhelm people from the very beginning.' You get the gun and you get the ammo before you have any kind of threat to you whatsoever,' Casali said.

'We deliberately played with the pacing of introduction of elements that could feel overwhelming or anxiety-ridden, like being approached by an enemy for the first time and shooting a gun and reloading for the first time. The desire to avoid inflicting sensory overload on players also informed the speed of basic game mechanics.

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