Story heavy?

You need about one sentence to set up the world. Here, the website even does it for us: „Set between the events of Half-Life and Half-Life 2, Alyx Vance and her father Eli mount an early resistance to the Combine’s brutal occupation of Earth.“

I would tack on “aliens” to describe the Combine and then I’m done. Half Life is not exactly complex or subtle in its storytelling. Heck, the main character in the other games never says a word …

Sure, people won’t get all references, but since this is a HL2 prequel (so between 1 and 2) and happens in a completely different part of the world HL1 happens in there isn’t much you have to know.

If this were HL3 proper then you would have more of an argument, but this seems to just play in that alien-oppressed world and that’s just very simple.

I don’t think you have to know anything at all about the Half Life story to understand this game and I think that’s on purpose.

> Half Life is not exactly complex or subtle in its storytelling

Agreed, but I wasn't arguing it was. It's neither complex nor subtle. It is "story heavy" or rather story-driven, or rather "cinematic". This is a game where the story propels the gameplay. Not saying it's particularly good fiction, just that the fiction matters in the game. Notice how much of what I'm saying applies to Star Wars too, where -- also -- skipping a movie can be done but is not recommended ;)

I think you are massively overestimating the importance of the story of Half Life.

World building (to create tension and a creepy atmosphere) are much more important and also compact things, much more easily transportable and play a much larger role.

Since there will be hardly any plot-connections you are just not missing much …

As was, for example, Baldur's Gate II. And yet you could enjoy it without playing the first. You'd miss all the references though.

They could just as easily take a similar route. And they should, because it's on a different medium.

I suppose, and you may be right. But I meant that the Half-Life series is a very cinematic (among the first games to embrace this, if I recall correctly), right from the intro. Playing just HL: Alyx would be like watching Return of the Jedi while skipping A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back -- I mean, you definitely can and still enjoy the movie, but you're missing something important.

This is a prequel so it should stand on its own just as well.

Isn't the original required when watching/reading/playing prequels?

I mean, I know people who watched the Phantom Menace without having watched the Original Trilogy, but they lost the significance of who was that little boy or why he mattered...