Ehh I like your sentiment....but I would offer a different opinion... militaristic jargon evolved out of humanity, the need for common language when it matters most, sleep deprived hungry cold tired and high on adrenaline that common language that to many makes you sound robotic is in actuallity the exact oposite. With the combine we see that without humanity, not to stay calm stay focused, not to build a team. Merely any aspect of humanity the combine sees as useful at any given moment even at the most extreme end of Unit 3650 but they dont really know or care why it existed previously. Kinda makes the whole thing funny, as in my mind these combine soldiers use the language backwards. using the strict radio jargon when calm and not using it when the chips are down and its life or death. Just always been a cool part of the lore to me that humanity is no different than the striders to these guys, and breen good or bad was able to offer up a twistd bundle of scraps of humanity the combine found interesting enough to preserve. Always felt like even the eletes were not yet really judged as trustworthy or good enough for off world real combine missions, but I am on a rant.
I think the way their codes are mishmashed words is really cool. Instead of some obscure word its things like wallhammer, and bouncer, making them feel alien yet grounded.
That's the point when you consider the combine operate off of an "organism" mindset. They're all part of one major whole, and operates as such. The most clear example is that they refer to Gordon specifically as "the individual", alongside various codes and terms treating them almost like white blood cells.
The fact that the basic combine soldiers feel remorse upon death freaked me out in the same way that it did when I learned that Half Life 2 zombies screams were cries for help played in reverse.
the thing about the cries being played in reverse is that the only reason to reverse them in the first place would be to make them unintelligible. the people aren't alive; the brain would literally be the first thing the headcrabs would mangle and/or eat. plus the chest is torn open so there's no blood pressure, also necessary for conscious thought. something about how the headcrabs make their victims move just makes their vocal chords move too. the zombine make actual words because they're so heavily modified. the combine probably use preprogrammed vocoders that similarly respond to whatever the headcrab is doing
@@MenachemSchmuel regardless, it's horrifying. Half Life (particularly Half Life 2) can feel jovial when you meet up npc's, lonely when you're traveling, and badass when you're in combat, but the true horror of Half Life can only be found when you dig into the lore. I believe Breen Grub is the best example. After Wallace Breen's body is destroyed in the explosion at the end of HL2, his consciousness, or at least a copy of his memories is implanted into one of those psychic combine grubs. Many of the times he awakes, he can tell that someone is altering his mind and memories to better serve the Combine Empire. This concept is absolutely horrific to me. Breen, reprehensible as he is, has lost his humanity and his mind, his very being has become an experiment to be tampered with and permanently altered at the behest of someone else. Truly terrifying. Good thing we have people like Russel in HL: Alyx and Alyx in HL:2 to reassure us in game lol
@@MenachemSchmuel Headcrabs "ride" their victims like parasitic puppet masters, it is never established that they consume the brain in its entirety, hence the ability of zombies to walk, talk and attack you. That requires at least minimal brain function. Clearly some part of the victim's personality remains, however scrambled.
I'd play half-life:Alyx over and over during summer vacation, I didn't use subtitles so it was hard to understand what the combine were saying. One day I was at the top of that construction silo right before you crash the vault. There was one combine grunt remaining, and things were silent. When I landed the finishing blow on the grunt I heard him say "Alyx" Then fall to the ground. My name in real life is Alex, and I never heard a grunt express remorse before, so it really shocked me. I just stood there for a solid half minute.
Hey, they might have crippling body horror augmentations and their personalities might be reset every couple of hours, but at least the combine lets them use telepathy to play chess with each other.
Not just chess, but 4D chess, 6 moves set across 4 points of layered theoretical timespace. The end goal is to create a check across all 4 points in time, thus true checkmate.
I believe the number “game” sequence could actually be a personnel check to make sure people in the squad haven’t been taken out quietly, think like a radio silence check or the pager checks from payday, I imagine its for safety not fun, as anyone not part of the unit likely wouldn’t know the number sequence and would be sniffed out as fake or unresponsive, making impersonating them nearly impossible. As for the “your turn” dialogue, that’s simply them passing it down the line.
Yeah I agree with you. In the military we have status "codes" for things and check ups that each squad send to the platoon commander at certain points. Like, we have "Detroit check" which means the patrol vehicle has been been checked for damages, fuel level etc, and "Sibir check" wich is only applicable during winter time out in the field, where we check each others feet, fingers and face for frostbite. The radio communication for these would go something along the lines of: "This is platoon command, all squads status update" Where Alpha squad starts out; "Detroit Ok, Sibir OK, Las Vegas Negative, out of batteries for the NVGs" and so on. For the combine soldiers, the numbers thing being that kind of status checks seems more probable than a chess game.
Hats down to valve's animation department. Even unscripted motions are so human like it's almost as if I was watching a live action movie. Borderline scary.
kinda sad the commentary path didnt include some height in the terrain to see how they would react to that. the footstep prediction is already amazing but what if there was a change in height? commentary says something about it, but we cant see it in action which kinda sucks
“Dissonance Resolved.” “Update is live. Acceptance is mandatory.” These lines are so simple and yet speak so much about the Combine and how they operate. It’s chilling.
Dissonance doesn't have to mean remorse or second thoughts about their assignment. It could just be a logistical question, ie "where is my position in the formation?"
@@abhaybhatt4286 It probably refers to Cognitive Dissonance though, where your experience doesn't match your preconceived beliefs. Also, the second line is like, every update ever nowadays.
Something I noted is that during their death screams, it's suddenly cut off by the life monitor beep. That's not because they're finished screaming, it's because the life monitor overpowers it. That beep is probably blasting in their ears and over comms while the dying soldier is still going through their death throes. That would be a terrifying way to die.
Knowing how much effort Valve put into making the Combine's design purposeful, it's probably meant to drown out their pained screams and any internal bleeding spitup that might happen while they're in the process of... expiring. Again, the attention to detail Valve put into HL:A is unsettling to the extreme.
@@KiraSlith It's crazy, I love when devs put such detail into unnverving designs. I feel the same way about the Combine as I do some of the enemies in Elden Ring.
Yeeeeesh the combine without the masks are super creepy. Just to think that people overseeing them can just remotely shut off their lives because they're hardwired into the combine infrastructure is just crazy.
Human is just resource to the Combine. If the Combine want, they will just cut off the head and stick some computer directly into the spine or something like that imo.
@@DOSFS interestingly enough this video convinced me that the combine must recognise somthing useful abou humaness because they allow the supressor type to be more human then the others. Anyways I agree but its weird how they do allow some autonomy like "memory wiping" is voluntarily triggered. Why?
@@eccod5637 Ordinal is cold and emotionless, as the leader that makes sense, leader needs to keep the mission in mind and make decisions calmly. Charger and Suppressors are more aggressive, given their jobs that aggressive inclination, natural or perhaps enhanced or directed by whatever chemical or cybernetic means the Combine use, would prove useful under Combine guidance. The memory wipes are mandatory. From what my gut tells me, Overwatch overwrites the memories of the soldiers every so often to prevent PTSD from what is probably a high casualty rate when dealing with Zen creatures, nevermind constant CQB search and clear missions of human habitation areas, as well as probably 24/7, or near enough, deployment as needed, hence why you hear lines about stim deployment as well.
@@eccod5637 Well, you wouldn't want to trigger a memory wipe mid-combat. Memories of a previous life must be wiped long before a soldier is ever deployed, so the chances of one deciding not to refresh once an opportune time comes would be incredibly low. As for what the Combine recognize? Existing hardware. Something Alyx revealed is that underneath all their sleek black metal structures, even their computer terminals utilize bioengineering for the actual computing substrate. It's entirely possible that they never had a digital revolution the way we have IRL; they just repurpose brains into biological computers, are great at reading that output (the advisors are psychic after all) and find that more efficient or effective than investing in mineral-based CPUs. They literally don't even have mechanized vehicles in their home dimensions--what they have on Earth are designs from us. Their tanks are striders and hunters, their artillery is filled with headcrabs, their gunships are giant insectoids. On the rail through the citadel at the end of HL2 you can see they have giant crab tanks. It's a safe bet that even the drones and manhacks have little rodent sized brains hiding away somewhere in there. Think about it from the perspective of a sociopath with infinite resources. What's more likely to work: a true/false based logic system that would take decades of tinkering to teach it how to respond to every situation, or just stealing what evolution has produced after millions of years that is preprogrammed to figure out how best to respond to any situation right on the spot?
@@MenachemSchmuel this "existing hardware" idea is brilliant. I imagine you're right when you say that this is how the Combine look at the resources of the universe. The whole concept of Half Life is control and puppetry. Gordon isn't free to do as he pleases, regardless of how the resistance view him. The combine grunts are practically hard wired into the Combine network, to be controlled by Overwatch. And as you say even the manhacks may have brains inside them. It makes me wonder who or what is at the very top of the chain. What sort of creature would view everything this way? The lore has confirmed that it isn't the grubs. Or at least it didn't start with the grubs.
Just a small insight on 7:50 I can offer as a military member; chemical suit boots don’t have laces, and that might be why the Grunts don’t have any. You just wear your normal boots under and slide into the rubber ones over top.
@@collinthegamer510 the laces may be tucked in the boot, but usually, they arent, a twistie is placed under the lace then the trousers are tied over the twistie Basically the trousers go over the boot and cover the lace If the trousers are tucked in the boot, usually the laces are too
I imagine these guys are BARELY above Civil Protection on the totem pole. They’re some untrained volunteer shoved into the QZ to deal with headcrabs and oversee hazmat workers.
@@aydinmakesthings recognizable as human only so far as the residual human elements that we can see. A vortigaunt would probably be unable to tell where the natural components end and artificial begins, like how we see other combine synths.
The space between the Suppressor's eyes and its firing pattern makes me think they wanted to give him a bigger range of vision and the ability to target and suppress/engage multiple targets at once without letting up on the trigger. What butchery the Combine had to do to the poor human underneath that mask fortunately remains unknown.
If their eyes have been replaced with cameras they don't need to be any different from the grunts under the mask. The wires and the cameras are just placed differently.
I'm personally under the impression that the Combine in the QZ are a taskforce meant for just dealing with the QZ. The grunt is under armored and not very well trained because he's expecting to only be fighting xen fauna and the occasional scav. Wallhanmers and suppressors are closer to riot control, equipped to take a bullet, but their tactics leaving them almost always out of cover is telling. The only exception being the Ordinal, who acts like an actual professional. I think she's more related to your OTA soldiers you seen in HL2 and probably actually is, just assigned to the QZ. Would of loved to see a squad of OTA soldiers in HLA, could be a boss fight. Though I am just speculating, this is what fits in my mind
@@Brick9 from what I have heard, like with the manhacks, they slowed the pacing down quite a bit because all of the combat was VR based, so if they had the same initiative to push the player like they did in HL2 it would have been a way harder game especially in closed environments where combine AI excells
That actually makes a ton of sense. They probably expect a high turnover in the QZ anyway (judging by the amount of combine worker corpses everywhere).
If Valve ever does get back to finishing the mainline Half Life story for good, it would be cool to see some of the new soldier abilities be retconned onto the previous soldiers we fought against. Imagine going up against Combine Elites who now have the ability to use the Charger's Portable Force Field; it would definitely have made their entrance at the end of the chapter, "Entanglement," a lot more grand!
3 year anniversary of hl:a is this Thursday, rumors is that's when they are dropping cs2 and revealing another hl game on top of there new game call neon prime
@@vividclarities7860 he probably just meant VR in general, I have an oculus, but I'm not gonna get another half life game unless it has the option to play it on a monitor, it just feels right to me.
@@ADcommenter It's either that, or it's just a facet of the combine's absolute pragmatism: They have a complete inability to give a damn about design perfection as long as what they're doing gets the job done resource-efficiently. Meaning, a lot of the guys they put in the quarantine zone are just disposable schmucks with the bare minimum gear they need for their tasks - Under those conditions, the quantity of warm bodies matters more than the quality, so there's no point wasting time and resources putting all of them through the full conversion process (like the Ordinals, who might actually be what the "standard" soldier augmentation looks like). That might also explain why they're forcing "updates" on them constantly - These grunts weren't really built for sustained confrontation against capable enemies, the stress of fighting against people is making them dissociate, and so overwatch is essentially "overclocking" them to compensate.
@@BackwardsPancakeI feel the combine needed some kind of experimentation and field testing to see humanities capabilities as soldiers. Grunts are just mild experimented humans, likely promoted civil protection officials or people who signed up for better benefits. While Overwatch was being set up, they likely relied on Ordinals to bark orders at multiple units. Perhaps an adaptation of humanity’s own military ranks? Maybe after the citadel was finished, the combine had done enough experimentation (and enough cleansing) to determine and implement the standard augmentations for human soldiers.
"They are fully dependent on their helmets, and by extension the combine" That part scares me the most. Imagine your employers having ownership of your bodily functions...
@@RescoeZ I think the way the chargers activate their shields is that the wires going into their arm is headed to their brain and when they want to activate it they simply think about it
In regards for 14:47, I find it interesting that the Combine Ordinal zombie is the ONLY zombie to have their heads bloated. Usually it seems as if the facial details of a zombie sloughs off or, in the case of the security guard and zookeeper, mummify. The malformation of the Ordinal zombie's face is probably due to a combination of the headcrab causing changes, and the inflammation of their implants. The zombine in HL2E1 has some oddities compared to regular zombie as well, like how you can't seem to see their organs when they're cut in half.
We can see in Half-Life 2, the bare upper body of a combine soldier with the face of "Eric". He was replaced by the Combine's artificial organs, from his original organs.
It's possible that the body may be slightly bloated from the process of decomposition aswell as the other reasons mentioned, if the body has been "dead" for a longer period of time.
Yeah, I like that, helps to reinforce the idea that they just take people and turn them into this, they all look and sound pretty uniform, but underneath the armor they could be anyone.
Or maybe a code they have to say among themselves To see if there is a imposter amogus Like how Barney is at start of hl2 Prolly a code they have to say a intruder would not get it and they would catch em
**Extremely modified inhuman voice that sounds equal to all combine voices:** "hello Alyx it is us your human friend ready for some fun human activities like rebelling against the universal union and drinking regular non Dr Breen's water, why don't you open the door and come out to see your totally human friends ?"
Very interesting take on the grunts more “hesitant” radio etiquette and how they’re “getting used to it” or still retaining their humanity. It makes total sense. I work in a career where radio talk is a vital part of our daily operations. You can always tell whose voices are new based on that same uncertainty or hesitance. Maybe anyone else here who uses radios at their career can chime it. Really nice attention to detail.
I won't lie, I trip up on some 10 codes every now and again, but when you're using 1 through 99, some get used all the time, others get used almost never.
The suppressors might actually be the closest to Combine Soldiers rather than Quarantine Clean up crew. This could explain why they're in a pissy mood and think highly of themselves since they got put on clean up duty by their superiors.
Ordinals and Suppressors are likely volunteers. Grunts and Chargers are likely conscripted out of Civil Protection. Valve sucks at world-building. Half-Life will never have a library's worth of lore like Warhammer 40K, despite the potential for it...
@@carinhatube3727 Just saying, it'd be cool if we could've followed someone through the conversion process like in Quake 4 or Resistance Fall of Man. And those are supposed to be brainless arcade shooters... Deliberately leaving small details unclear is just lazy writing. Here's an example... What does an Overwatch soldier eat? Do they eat the same rations given to citizens? Is it synthetic paste or is it some Stroyent-like concoction of drugs and the rendered tissues of dead Overwatch soldiers, stalkers, citizens, and Xen wildlife alike? Or is it just rendered-down Antlion grubs? We can assume a member of Civil Protection eats real vegetables at least. We can assume the vegetables we see in Russel's fridge are either grown on rooftops or stolen. But if they're stolen, does the combine grow them in massive warehouses using stalkers, or are citizens put to work on collective farms outside the city? Where does the black market start to form? They DID show us what jobs regular civilians are doing. I liked that. But they don't show us how someone goes from worker drone to hotblooded rebel... Neckbeards looooove to put Valve on a pedestal, but I'm chronically-irreverent. I can keep going.
@@scowler7200 *Literally half of your questions have been answered.* You just haven't searched for it. Also, don't come up with that lazy writing BS. Because only someone who does not play Valve game will say they suck at world building. Valve literally puts effort into putting even the tiniest little subtle details to make their world building feel more alive and rich. Also, this is Half Life. A franchise built trough mystery. Not all questions should be 100% answered. And when they are answered, they are made in subtle details.
You know TheParryGod used the animation for the Charger switching to a stunstick in his video Anticitizens, as well as the Tau Cannon attachment in Patient Zero for the Combine Heavy Shotgun.
I only discovered TheParryGod a few weeks ago but their animations are incredible. Anti Citizens is my favourite but I love the new Combine soldier introduced in Patient Zero.
@@RescoeZ yeah the new soldier, referred to as Spikewall, is Parry's interpretation of bridging the gap between the Charger and the Shotgun Soldier from Half-Life 2 even though the model itself for the Spikewall unit is based on HLA concept art for different Combine Soldier types.
Spikewall closely resembles the third vortigaunt capture squad combine concept within the first set of concept art shown in the vid, which I find to be really interesting
Here’s a good summary on their radio chatter for anyone interested. HVT - High Value Target, referring to Alyx Vance. Ten-three-zero-seven - (multiple meanings) Sentencing a target [eliminating them], moving on objective, applying given orders by higher conduct. Sundown - referring to the end of a life, either enemy or friendly. (Hence, ‘Ordinal is approaching sundown) Necrotics - Head crab zombies. Parasitics - Headcrab. Virome - Antlion. Infection - Mass of alien hostiles. Outbreak - Hostile individuals. Anticitizens - Uncooperative, defiant, violent, or unregistered civilian. 647e - Citizen miscount. (refers to Gordon Freeman, as he is not a registered citizen) Viscon - Visual on a target. Lightvis - Amount of illumination in an area/visibility. Audibles - Amount of noise in an area, amount of noise a squadron is making, the noise caused by hostiles. Bounce - Modified fragmentation grenade that bounces off surfaces instead of dispersing the energy upon impact. Ten-four - Accepting an order, affirming information, confirming received info. Ten-two - Disagreeing. Eleven-ninety nine - Injured, under hostile pressure, nearing death, requesting backup. Ten-twenty - Current location. Lmk if you want sum more listed By order of the high council, more have been added: (Number sequences 1-7) - Callout code to ensure squad mate activity is confirmed. [1,3,11,14,6, Check.] Code Delta-7 - OTA code for on duty personnel without engagement from hostiles or no hostile signatures. [standing by] Condition Delta - Defensive measures/positioning in response to excessive hostile offense. Condition Alpha - Offensive measures/positioning in response to limited hostile offense. Condition Quicksand - Measures taken to lure a target into an ambush or into a trap; area well guarded in anticipation of possible enemies. Recall - Retreating from an area, or suggesting squad mates from leaving their positions to regroup.
"we didn't steal anything!" "We know you stole the power generators but we don't care about that, what did you SEE" love how thats implied by the ordinal 4:18 the combine getting used to radio codes can be heard when you first enter the loading yard outside the vodka distillery, one of the grunts is stumbling over the radio trying to remember what the combine jargon is.
I like to think it also implies that the Ordinal is under a lot of pressure to find out who and how many saw the Vault photo, and anyone else who happened to be nearby.
The only explanation I can think of for Combine soldiers retaining the ability to laugh, taunt and feel positive emotions is because it actually aids their combat ability. If it's like a game to them, or murdering and toying dissidents allows their bodies to release happy chemicals then that can only make them more effective. It also might hint that those first chosen for higher ranks are individuals who already have psychopathic tendencies.
6:02 So bizarre but hilarious to see such human qualities in these grunts. They're just casually on call with Overwatch while one of them is kicking a downed strider.
i still love learning about the little details in half life games, didnt even know oridinals are sometimes british and even have a level of humanity like the grunts. The fact they potentially play a weird little number game too is so fascinating to me
It's much darker than I realized. All Combine are slaves. They either obey or die. The exception to this are those willing, Dr. Breen, Halsey and Barney. Most Combine are integrated like The Matrix. If any are wishing for freedom, it's too late. In Episode 1 where Alyx talked about the Stalker this video confirms what she hoped. That is a terrifying realization. If any Combine could be freed, it would leave them in a worse state than before.
well in that case, the citizen wasn't trespassing nor had he done anything wrong, they were likely interrogating him since iirc this is after the breakout from the armored car
@@waffler-yz3gwThey bully and harass people who aren’t Doug anything wrong all the time. It’s part of the reason people run when they see them. “Hey you. Pick up that can”
I love Valve kept this design philosophy since L4D and TF2, is that the Alyx combines have unique and distinct designs between each other. And having different style of engaging the player
In hl2 they cut out All lot of enemies to not make the game clutter Now the game looks bland and boring A bit of variety would have been great man Even in half Life hit scanner HECU were fine coz they had startergies like they retreat throw grenades and due to claustrophobic nature of the game it was fun fighting em In hl2 there are only like 3-4 enemy varient and guess what all are hit scanners. Wish Hl2 had less Humanoid enemies and more Alien Ngl fighting the combine is the most boring part of Hl2 Other than that it's a solid game
Female Combine assassin's : ¿Why do we live longer Than Combine men? Male Combine Soldiers: Let's test how many bullets can the charger shield stand! 17:26
I think the number game could be some previously learned protocols needed to be checked before continuing. Something like patting your pockets for keys, phone and wallet before leaving your house. Something like: corners clear, no visible movement, guns working, no headcrabs, diaper comfortable, etc. The "check" supports this theory, and the "your turn" could mean they're designating another person to do this check. The numbers could be situational - you don't do "8" and "11" when there is no headcrabs in vicinity. The other option would be playing chess from memory, hence the "check" and maybe the person with the least amount of moves win lmao.
That's probably the best explanation I've heard so far. It also provides a less noticeable advantage; it prevents spoofed communications. Assuming Overwatch keeps a record of unit communications, it can be used to check the situation against recordings, which can then be resolved as such: Spoof unit: (incorrect numbers response) Ordinal: Unit numbers contradict situation. Move to engage.
It just occurred to me that the beeping when an overwatch soldier dies might not only be Overwatching terminating contact but also terminating the soldier's speaking device.
@@dkskcjfjswwwwwws413But for a radio check you’d just say “radio check”. And the response would be “5 by 5”. Or “1 by 5” etc etc. the series of numbers they do is very strange
Something to note about the possible retcon of gene-coded weapons, is that in HL2, all of the weapons you pick up from the combine are real-life weapons, apart from the AR2. They don't look modified so i doubt gene-coding is used for them. The AR2 is thus the only weapon that likely could have it in HL2. While this isn't actually a mechanic in-game, the first AR2 you find, before you have a chance to pick one up from a dead soldier, is sitting on a crate, in a manner not dissimilar to the smg in HLA, So, while you can purposefully ignore this AR2 and pick one up from a dead combine a bit later, I like to think that *canonically* gordon picked up this unbounded weapon and is merely taking the magazines off of later AR2s.
Eh, possibly true, but remember on once the uprising starts rebel soldiers have no issues in picking up AR2s off of dead combine, and even ditch their smgs for it.
@@astrotrek3534my theoretical explanation is the resistence maybe found unpaired weapon crates and hacking probably got better so they mass armed the population with their stockpile when the time came.
Given that HLA takes place five years before HL2, it's likely that the Combine had phased out the gene bonding failsafes for many of their infantry weapons for units stationed on Earth due to complications with constantly making such sophisticated technology.
@robowisanveithasung6022 yea but with new lore. I assume if you shoot a combine you can possibly interupt what terminates connection and use of the gun. And it stays open. Think of it like taking a part out of a computer but that computer is still powered. Bullets i think interrupt such a function.
People say the Combine soldiers are automatons with their humanity wiped, but every now and then they show signs of personality in Alyx, which is interesting.
This is honestly what I love about worldbuilding in any sort of media; the small things that largely nobody notices but are definitely there if you look hard enough. I love this video more than words can describe.
I wasn't expecting the combine ordinal to be voiced by a woman haha, I never really considered the prospect of gender in the combine force, aside from the obvious of course. Soldiers are typically depicted in media as men probably due to historical reasons, and let's be honest, the combine forces in HLA don't really look (or sound) overtly feminine. But I suppose in hindsight I feel like in lore it could be truly anybody under those masks, I don't think the combine would be very picky about who gets to be a soldier as long as they just get the job done.
The Ordinal isn't just a soldier, but also seems to act as a sort of comms and logistics officer. She(?) carries a large radio device, passes orders to other soldiers, and relays information between them and command. And in real life, while men make up most of the frontline infantry, a surprisingly large number of women in the military are part of communications and administration.
@@xxfalconarasxx5659 what if all combine soldiers regardless of gender are the same looking if you remove the suit. All the stuff are cut off or removed/ hidden
@@CASA-dy4vs It's possible. I'm sure over the course of the transhumanisation process, the Combine do remove features they deem unnecessary. This may include genitalia and mammaries. We know they do this to an extreme degree with Stalkers, who've had a lot of redundant organs removed.
@@xxfalconarasxx5659 It's surprising that Raija actually voiced a combine, but it still sounds nothing like her regular voice and mostly like the typical distorted male voices you hear. So I think people reading into it way too much. But it was actually a female combine in HL2, the combine assassin, but she had a typical female form, with breasts and even high boots to count. She was scrapped tho when that level was removed
@@johan13135 Well, they do speak through a vocoder, so their voices are not representative of the voices they originally had when they were human. And when you are wearing a ton of body armour on top of a bulky hazmat suit, you're female form won't be all that apparent. Not to mention that the transhuman surgical process would probably involve the removal of breast tissue. It could also be that they do some drastic alterations to their entire physiology, that even their build changes to some extent. As for the Combine Assassin. It's a cut enemy from an earlier developmental period. I'm not sure how useful it is to use them for speculation. They do admittidly have a more feminine figure, but they are wearing much more form fitting garments than the other Combine Soldier. However, they actually don't really have prominent breasts though, nor are they actually wearing high heels. I think you might be thinking of the Half Life 2 Survivor model. The ones in the beta wear a rather bulky bullet proof vest, and the boots are flat, but they do have heel springs (like in Portal). In Half Life 2 Survivor, a Japanese arcade game based on Half Life 2, they have a modified version of the model that does emphasise her bust a little more and did give her actual high heels (Japanese people, lol). Lastly, an interesting thing to note... Raija actually has her own RUclips account (called pusseytat), and has commented on RescoeZ's videos. And one of the comments I found was her correcting another commenter for calling the Ordinal a "guy". Seems that at the very least, she seems to think the Ordinals are female. Of course, she's just the actress, and not the character designer, but it's interesting none the less.
This comment will probably go unnoticed, but thank you for this video. It's such a refreshing break after listening to so many obnoxious video essays. I wish there would be more classic videos like this these days.
It would be cool if we got like a spinoff Half-Life game where you play co-op as the Combine, working with your friends or "team" to clear out the quarantine zones.
28:29 i honestly would be surprised if this was some kind of game they played. the thing that makes the most sense to me would be that they periodically check in on certain positions or areas and then make sure that their other squad members are staying on task. both the game theory and the report theory makes sense though
6:44 I think the insignia represents the QZ. The orange square could represent the contaminated area, and the black curve is the perimeter wall. 19:14 Just like how the Grunt/Ordinal pull an invisible charging handle after loading their invisible magazine. I'm certain the animations were made well before the weapon designs were finalized. 24:18 I think the machine gun uses the same ammo. It has the same cell-loader as the pulse SMG, meaning it's likely loaded the same way. But instead of using one cell at a time, it fires them in sequence using a gatling gun-style rotary system.
Rescoe, you've always been a service to the Half-Life community. Thanks for putting in all this effort for the fans- we appreciate you. And the video's great as always.
Glad to see a return to this kind of deep dive analysis content. This is extremely interesting to watch, and there's plenty of neat details I didn't notice before this video.
I think the wire going into the charger’s arm is going to their brain, probably to allow them to activate it at will, knowing how the combine will adapt organisms to fit what they need them for, it’s something to at least consider as likely.
Holy fuck, requesting memories to be reset in order to avoid cognitive dissonance is genius and horrifying. I want to see that elaborated on more. Only in Half-Life would a piece of lore THAT compelling be reduced to just enemy idle lines.
I believe that their modifications make them hear combine voices/ radio chatter as normal human voices. If I was a combine man I wouldn’t understand anything they said I’d be like “Uhh.. Excuse me?”
People have deep dived HL2 similar to this and it just fucking amazes me that Valve created something so absolutely insane like this. None of this is really all that important to the game (the experience) yet it also cements it as being so fucking good. On one hand I wish they made more Half Life games and pumped them out a bit more regularly. But on the other... the care and sparsity is what makes them so unique.
Really fascinating. Had to skip some parts because they seemed like they might be spoilery. But the information regarding the Combine is always welcome. Nice!
@RescoeZ Absolutely! I hope one day I can afford a VR headset so I can stop avoiding spoilers lol Ty for the great info! The concept art having Vort hunters was a neat tidbit!
I'm pretty sure there is one spot in Alyx were you can find an unmasked ordinal. It's after you've made the train crash in amongst the wreckage somewhere. Might check later but I think I found one there on my playthrough. Brillaint video!
I just had a quick look and there's several Grunts (masked) and a dead Zombine. However that said, the unmasked Ordinal does exist in the game files and looks just like the Grunt and Charger, but is never used ingame as far as I know. The Suppressor though... who knows what they look like underneath.
I like to think of the combine soldiers in HL: Alyx as the SWAT of the Civil Protection. They are not really armored, or as equipped as those in HL2. I think of the OTA in HL2 as the military of the Universal Union, since they are visibly more armored and more trained than the ones in Alyx.
The combine keeping eyes on you at all times while running from position to position while running, very convincingly shifting their weight, the way they shuffle as they slow down to change directions, and the side steps are all so absurdly lifelike. These developers are immaculate professionals.
I cannot express how much this helps in the half life community and how much information it gives to everyone interested. The effort you put on this kind of videos is outstanding and shows how much love and respect you put on each one. Seriously, your work is inspiring.
The permanent nature of the grunt's helmet immediately made me think their boots must be riveted. Rather than laces, the lace holes are permanently clamped to the boots' tongues. If they never take those helmets off, they probably don't take their boots off either.
About the grunts being more augmented than their hl2 counterparts, this is simply because the Half-Life 2 TA are still in the process of augmentation, and not finished. Also, love these videos, you truly explore the lore without making assumptions and staying true to everything given to you by the game and valve.
Well I try not to make assumptions but I do sometimes theorize about stuff, such as the Grunt's gas tank. One of the things I love about doing these vids is that if I'm wrong or if someone has a different take, it can be shared in the comments and create more discussion.
@@vasiliypupkin3239 Could also simply be different units for different tasks. The Overwatch soldiers you generally encounter in HL2 are the top of the line military forces sent to pacify rebel outposts and hunt Anticitizen One, whereas these guys are specifically for patrolling the QZ. Maybe Overwatch can even hotswap the augmentations and programming as necessary.
@@bluegum6438 I love this theory the most, I'll keep it in mind from now on. It genuinely seems like a good theory that's even a bit canonically supported seeing as the TA we see in HL:A look like they're almost specifically designed for the QZ. With logos, things they're wearing, etc.
As someone who loves half life to the point he cosplays the Metro Police, your dedication to showcasing the intricacies of these characters is amazing and very much appreciated.
Worth the weight, I love your content. Great work on this video. A few things I wanna highlight. - While I have listened to the isolated voicelines you uploaded, you did a great job pointing out and making me realize differences in how they all speak. While I noticed the Grunts being a bit more human, I never picked up on the Suppressors being more aggressive, nor the reason why they kept relaying numbers to each other. - Even with the heavy voice modifications hiding potential imperfections, Rajia Baroudi being the voice of the Combine Ordinal is seriously impressive. She's got some great vocal range. I had also looked her up and apparently she's also part Scottish, which might be why her accent slipped in a bit for some of the lines. Then again the only place I've seen that says this is the fan wiki for Power Rangers. - While I do wish that Combine Chargers could, you know, charge you, I am thankful we didn't have to deal with those Tau Cannon extensions. Combines with railguns sounds terrifying, especially in a game like Alyx. - Also never realized that one NPC that walks through Eli's feed at the beginning is the same one as one of the humans pinned down by the Combine during the elevator scene. That's fantastic attention to detail.
While it is cool that the units can be distinguished by voice, I do wish they kept them more intelligible. Hearing the Combine reacting in combat really added a lot imo
Agreed. The voices are super cool, but while in combat it's really difficult to understand them. I had the same problem with the soldiers in HL1 lol, although I guess everyone kinda did
Chargers probably activate their shields via a gesture, judging by the animations. The flash is likely a useful side effect of the shield discharging the energy used to power it.
It could also be something like a pressure plate in the glove. I notice it almost looks like it clenches their hand into a fist before the shield activates.
7:27 they may also be seen with handgun ammunition, suggesting they’re always looking out for sweet little Alyx in case the game logic notices she is running low on ammo🥰🥰
I’m pretty surprised that the combine soldiers don’t have night vision capability. Their eyes glow a bright color so I would assume SOMETHING is in there!
![PATIENT ZERO - A Half-Life Short [S2FM]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/8Bm3le9s3-A/mqdefault.jpg)
Best part of this video is
"He's kicking it."
"Overwatch says stop kicking it."
"He stopped kicking it."
it's so funny for no reason
Funny stuff
and in EZ2,developer add an achievement named this😊
When?
@@soggybubble 6:02
That Echo unit looked so sad when he was told to stop kicking the Strider
that was probably his only source of entertainment for the entire day
His ally was such a snitch.
@@ninjaguyYT Any thing for social cred
I feel bad for him if I was one of the combine I would entertain hi,
@@glados-ox2nbI know right?
I kinda feel bad, they have like no entertainment.
What do they do on break?
Do the Combine troops even have a break?
@@declanjones8888probably not no.
I love how clinical the Combine dialogue is. It's not militaristic jargon, just cold and uncaring statuses and codes.
And dehumanizing
Doctors with guns
Ehh I like your sentiment....but I would offer a different opinion... militaristic jargon evolved out of humanity, the need for common language when it matters most, sleep deprived hungry cold tired and high on adrenaline that common language that to many makes you sound robotic is in actuallity the exact oposite. With the combine we see that without humanity, not to stay calm stay focused, not to build a team. Merely any aspect of humanity the combine sees as useful at any given moment even at the most extreme end of Unit 3650 but they dont really know or care why it existed previously. Kinda makes the whole thing funny, as in my mind these combine soldiers use the language backwards. using the strict radio jargon when calm and not using it when the chips are down and its life or death. Just always been a cool part of the lore to me that humanity is no different than the striders to these guys, and breen good or bad was able to offer up a twistd bundle of scraps of humanity the combine found interesting enough to preserve. Always felt like even the eletes were not yet really judged as trustworthy or good enough for off world real combine missions, but I am on a rant.
I think the way their codes are mishmashed words is really cool. Instead of some obscure word its things like wallhammer, and bouncer, making them feel alien yet grounded.
That's the point when you consider the combine operate off of an "organism" mindset. They're all part of one major whole, and operates as such. The most clear example is that they refer to Gordon specifically as "the individual", alongside various codes and terms treating them almost like white blood cells.
The fact that the basic combine soldiers feel remorse upon death freaked me out in the same way that it did when I learned that Half Life 2 zombies screams were cries for help played in reverse.
the thing about the cries being played in reverse is that the only reason to reverse them in the first place would be to make them unintelligible. the people aren't alive; the brain would literally be the first thing the headcrabs would mangle and/or eat. plus the chest is torn open so there's no blood pressure, also necessary for conscious thought. something about how the headcrabs make their victims move just makes their vocal chords move too.
the zombine make actual words because they're so heavily modified. the combine probably use preprogrammed vocoders that similarly respond to whatever the headcrab is doing
@@MenachemSchmuel regardless, it's horrifying. Half Life (particularly Half Life 2) can feel jovial when you meet up npc's, lonely when you're traveling, and badass when you're in combat, but the true horror of Half Life can only be found when you dig into the lore.
I believe Breen Grub is the best example. After Wallace Breen's body is destroyed in the explosion at the end of HL2, his consciousness, or at least a copy of his memories is implanted into one of those psychic combine grubs. Many of the times he awakes, he can tell that someone is altering his mind and memories to better serve the Combine Empire.
This concept is absolutely horrific to me. Breen, reprehensible as he is, has lost his humanity and his mind, his very being has become an experiment to be tampered with and permanently altered at the behest of someone else. Truly terrifying. Good thing we have people like Russel in HL: Alyx and Alyx in HL:2 to reassure us in game lol
@@MenachemSchmuel Headcrabs "ride" their victims like parasitic puppet masters, it is never established that they consume the brain in its entirety, hence the ability of zombies to walk, talk and attack you. That requires at least minimal brain function. Clearly some part of the victim's personality remains, however scrambled.
I'd play half-life:Alyx over and over during summer vacation, I didn't use subtitles so it was hard to understand what the combine were saying. One day I was at the top of that construction silo right before you crash the vault. There was one combine grunt remaining, and things were silent. When I landed the finishing blow on the grunt I heard him say "Alyx" Then fall to the ground. My name in real life is Alex, and I never heard a grunt express remorse before, so it really shocked me. I just stood there for a solid half minute.
@@shbeebo1176 VR can feel so unbelievably real sometimes.
Hey, they might have crippling body horror augmentations and their personalities might be reset every couple of hours, but at least the combine lets them use telepathy to play chess with each other.
Not just chess, but 4D chess, 6 moves set across 4 points of layered theoretical timespace. The end goal is to create a check across all 4 points in time, thus true checkmate.
It's actually chess??
De que están hablando. Es verdad?
it could be poker? idk
A dystopic take on the common trope of soldiers gambling with other soldiers, i like it.
I believe the number “game” sequence could actually be a personnel check to make sure people in the squad haven’t been taken out quietly, think like a radio silence check or the pager checks from payday, I imagine its for safety not fun, as anyone not part of the unit likely wouldn’t know the number sequence and would be sniffed out as fake or unresponsive, making impersonating them nearly impossible. As for the “your turn” dialogue, that’s simply them passing it down the line.
I thought of that too, good touch
Yeah I agree with you. In the military we have status "codes" for things and check ups that each squad send to the platoon commander at certain points. Like, we have "Detroit check" which means the patrol vehicle has been been checked for damages, fuel level etc, and "Sibir check" wich is only applicable during winter time out in the field, where we check each others feet, fingers and face for frostbite. The radio communication for these would go something along the lines of: "This is platoon command, all squads status update" Where Alpha squad starts out; "Detroit Ok, Sibir OK, Las Vegas Negative, out of batteries for the NVGs" and so on. For the combine soldiers, the numbers thing being that kind of status checks seems more probable than a chess game.
@@Edimonde
I can't believe "Detroit check" doesn't mean "has everything been stolen?", so disappointing.
@@theonlybilgedetroit was big in car manufacturing.
@@Alex_Vir
Alright, sure, but: can't have shit in Detroit.
Hats down to valve's animation department. Even unscripted motions are so human like it's almost as if I was watching a live action movie. Borderline scary.
kinda sad the commentary path didnt include some height in the terrain to see how they would react to that. the footstep prediction is already amazing but what if there was a change in height? commentary says something about it, but we cant see it in action which kinda sucks
pretty sure they used real time animation(porting video to animation). But if they did animate all of that, they need to get higher pay.
@@Picercian you mean motion capture? They also used it for half life 2, no game studio makes their animations by hand
@@epicorp I mean you gotta make some of the animations by hand. Some.
@@dj11o9er a small percent, yes but on the larger scale it is basically mocap
"He's kicking it"
"Overwatch said stop kicking it"
"He stopped kicking it"
LOVE IT
the best line
The implication that overwatch told the grunt to tell the other grunt to stop kicking it is hilarious
6:06 timestamp
“Dissonance Resolved.” “Update is live. Acceptance is mandatory.”
These lines are so simple and yet speak so much about the Combine and how they operate. It’s chilling.
Dissonance doesn't have to mean remorse or second thoughts about their assignment. It could just be a logistical question, ie "where is my position in the formation?"
@@abhaybhatt4286 It probably refers to Cognitive Dissonance though, where your experience doesn't match your preconceived beliefs. Also, the second line is like, every update ever nowadays.
@@abhaybhatt4286Isn’t dissonance in musical meaning conflicting notes and in figurative meaning like a just a conflict or smthing?
@SS-rf1riimagine combine-regulated internet
Something I noted is that during their death screams, it's suddenly cut off by the life monitor beep. That's not because they're finished screaming, it's because the life monitor overpowers it. That beep is probably blasting in their ears and over comms while the dying soldier is still going through their death throes. That would be a terrifying way to die.
Well good thing that was written down
Knowing how much effort Valve put into making the Combine's design purposeful, it's probably meant to drown out their pained screams and any internal bleeding spitup that might happen while they're in the process of... expiring. Again, the attention to detail Valve put into HL:A is unsettling to the extreme.
@@KiraSlith It's crazy, I love when devs put such detail into unnverving designs. I feel the same way about the Combine as I do some of the enemies in Elden Ring.
@@KiraSlith it could also be to prevent squad mates from hearing their fellow soldiers screaming in agony in terms of
PTSD and morale
@@collinthegamer510 That's another way of saying what I said, yes. Doesn't make it any less unsettling.
Yeeeeesh the combine without the masks are super creepy. Just to think that people overseeing them can just remotely shut off their lives because they're hardwired into the combine infrastructure is just crazy.
Human is just resource to the Combine. If the Combine want, they will just cut off the head and stick some computer directly into the spine or something like that imo.
@@DOSFS interestingly enough this video convinced me that the combine must recognise somthing useful abou humaness because they allow the supressor type to be more human then the others.
Anyways I agree but its weird how they do allow some autonomy like "memory wiping" is voluntarily triggered. Why?
@@eccod5637 Ordinal is cold and emotionless, as the leader that makes sense, leader needs to keep the mission in mind and make decisions calmly. Charger and Suppressors are more aggressive, given their jobs that aggressive inclination, natural or perhaps enhanced or directed by whatever chemical or cybernetic means the Combine use, would prove useful under Combine guidance.
The memory wipes are mandatory. From what my gut tells me, Overwatch overwrites the memories of the soldiers every so often to prevent PTSD from what is probably a high casualty rate when dealing with Zen creatures, nevermind constant CQB search and clear missions of human habitation areas, as well as probably 24/7, or near enough, deployment as needed, hence why you hear lines about stim deployment as well.
@@eccod5637 Well, you wouldn't want to trigger a memory wipe mid-combat. Memories of a previous life must be wiped long before a soldier is ever deployed, so the chances of one deciding not to refresh once an opportune time comes would be incredibly low.
As for what the Combine recognize? Existing hardware. Something Alyx revealed is that underneath all their sleek black metal structures, even their computer terminals utilize bioengineering for the actual computing substrate. It's entirely possible that they never had a digital revolution the way we have IRL; they just repurpose brains into biological computers, are great at reading that output (the advisors are psychic after all) and find that more efficient or effective than investing in mineral-based CPUs. They literally don't even have mechanized vehicles in their home dimensions--what they have on Earth are designs from us. Their tanks are striders and hunters, their artillery is filled with headcrabs, their gunships are giant insectoids. On the rail through the citadel at the end of HL2 you can see they have giant crab tanks. It's a safe bet that even the drones and manhacks have little rodent sized brains hiding away somewhere in there.
Think about it from the perspective of a sociopath with infinite resources. What's more likely to work: a true/false based logic system that would take decades of tinkering to teach it how to respond to every situation, or just stealing what evolution has produced after millions of years that is preprogrammed to figure out how best to respond to any situation right on the spot?
@@MenachemSchmuel this "existing hardware" idea is brilliant. I imagine you're right when you say that this is how the Combine look at the resources of the universe. The whole concept of Half Life is control and puppetry. Gordon isn't free to do as he pleases, regardless of how the resistance view him. The combine grunts are practically hard wired into the Combine network, to be controlled by Overwatch. And as you say even the manhacks may have brains inside them. It makes me wonder who or what is at the very top of the chain. What sort of creature would view everything this way? The lore has confirmed that it isn't the grubs. Or at least it didn't start with the grubs.
Seing such a bulky looking enemy run at you full sprint would be terrifying
Check out TheParryGod's Anti Citizens video. It shows the Charger doing just that and it's just as you'd expect.
Basically space marines
@@Rawmel But less religous
@@RescoeZ their fault for aggravating the charger
An unstoppable force against a very much movable object
Just a small insight on 7:50 I can offer as a military member; chemical suit boots don’t have laces, and that might be why the Grunts don’t have any. You just wear your normal boots under and slide into the rubber ones over top.
☠🤩💀😱☠😐🤤😱🤨🦶😭🤓😣💀😐😍🤩🤨😍🇮🇱😭🤤🤩🤨🤢🤩🤨😏🤩😐😍🤩😭🤤🇮🇱👨🔬🤢🤩😭🤤🤢☠😔💀😔🤱🗝🖐🥰
I guess the lack of laces is for reducing the amount of contagious elements that gonna get caught on the laces flapping about
@@Taishisama well I think the military tucks their laces in somewhere anyways
@@collinthegamer510the laces are usually pulled up and tucked into the pants sleeve
@@collinthegamer510 the laces may be tucked in the boot, but usually, they arent, a twistie is placed under the lace then the trousers are tied over the twistie
Basically the trousers go over the boot and cover the lace
If the trousers are tucked in the boot, usually the laces are too
It's interesting to me that the lowest rank - whilst already being so thoroughly augmented- still doesn't have their humanity completely removed.
I imagine these guys are BARELY above Civil Protection on the totem pole. They’re some untrained volunteer shoved into the QZ to deal with headcrabs and oversee hazmat workers.
God can only imagine what the Suppressor must look like?
Is there even a head under that mask?
@@aydinmakesthings yeah... their eyes are super far apart and also jutt outward. I would honestly love to see what they actually look like under.
@@aydinmakesthings recognizable as human only so far as the residual human elements that we can see.
A vortigaunt would probably be unable to tell where the natural components end and artificial begins, like how we see other combine synths.
If their visors are hardwired to their brains their skulls might not be too different
The space between the Suppressor's eyes and its firing pattern makes me think they wanted to give him a bigger range of vision and the ability to target and suppress/engage multiple targets at once without letting up on the trigger. What butchery the Combine had to do to the poor human underneath that mask fortunately remains unknown.
Idk if that guys even human. I wonder if its an alien-humanoid.
Basically, they turned his head into a naval rangefinder.
Gas station weed.
Sid the Sloth lookin headass XD
Dude looks like he came straight out the shallow end of the gene pool
If their eyes have been replaced with cameras they don't need to be any different from the grunts under the mask. The wires and the cameras are just placed differently.
the charger being such a monster of a dude whipping out a stunstick and charging the player would have been so cool
Nah would have killed people with heart attacks
@@Memeguppy tis' the point!
TheParryGod's "ANTI-CITIZENS" has a scene showing what that would look like. Can confirm, goddamn terrifying.
@@toaster_toaster2398to be fair, he did tell them to not resist
Wulululu
I'm personally under the impression that the Combine in the QZ are a taskforce meant for just dealing with the QZ. The grunt is under armored and not very well trained because he's expecting to only be fighting xen fauna and the occasional scav. Wallhanmers and suppressors are closer to riot control, equipped to take a bullet, but their tactics leaving them almost always out of cover is telling.
The only exception being the Ordinal, who acts like an actual professional. I think she's more related to your OTA soldiers you seen in HL2 and probably actually is, just assigned to the QZ. Would of loved to see a squad of OTA soldiers in HLA, could be a boss fight.
Though I am just speculating, this is what fits in my mind
I agree with your take there, the combat felt.. Lacking, in HLA, compared to the soldiers in hl2 and episodes
@@Brick9 from what I have heard, like with the manhacks, they slowed the pacing down quite a bit because all of the combat was VR based, so if they had the same initiative to push the player like they did in HL2 it would have been a way harder game especially in closed environments where combine AI excells
@@knockrotter9372 That's what I meant, even hard mode felt easy
Ordinal is still most likely a man, in spite of the female VA.
That actually makes a ton of sense. They probably expect a high turnover in the QZ anyway (judging by the amount of combine worker corpses everywhere).
If Valve ever does get back to finishing the mainline Half Life story for good, it would be cool to see some of the new soldier abilities be retconned onto the previous soldiers we fought against. Imagine going up against Combine Elites who now have the ability to use the Charger's Portable Force Field; it would definitely have made their entrance at the end of the chapter, "Entanglement," a lot more grand!
Also, I would LOVE to see the units from HL2 have the same amount of personality as the HLA units, it makes them a hell lot less boring
3 year anniversary of hl:a is this Thursday, rumors is that's when they are dropping cs2 and revealing another hl game on top of there new game call neon prime
i hope they don't until their obsession with vr blows over because i really don't want another index tech demo
Also what obsession with VR? It's literally just one game
@@vividclarities7860 he probably just meant VR in general, I have an oculus, but I'm not gonna get another half life game unless it has the option to play it on a monitor, it just feels right to me.
Digital eyes make a lot of sense. More easy to replace them
Also i love that they retconned them to make them feel the joy of battle
I mean, this is a prequel so maybe they're still trying to figure out how to modify them into cold murder machines that follow orders like loyal dogs
@@ADcommenter It's either that, or it's just a facet of the combine's absolute pragmatism: They have a complete inability to give a damn about design perfection as long as what they're doing gets the job done resource-efficiently.
Meaning, a lot of the guys they put in the quarantine zone are just disposable schmucks with the bare minimum gear they need for their tasks - Under those conditions, the quantity of warm bodies matters more than the quality, so there's no point wasting time and resources putting all of them through the full conversion process (like the Ordinals, who might actually be what the "standard" soldier augmentation looks like).
That might also explain why they're forcing "updates" on them constantly - These grunts weren't really built for sustained confrontation against capable enemies, the stress of fighting against people is making them dissociate, and so overwatch is essentially "overclocking" them to compensate.
@@BackwardsPancakeI feel the combine needed some kind of experimentation and field testing to see humanities capabilities as soldiers. Grunts are just mild experimented humans, likely promoted civil protection officials or people who signed up for better benefits.
While Overwatch was being set up, they likely relied on Ordinals to bark orders at multiple units. Perhaps an adaptation of humanity’s own military ranks? Maybe after the citadel was finished, the combine had done enough experimentation (and enough cleansing) to determine and implement the standard augmentations for human soldiers.
And the Combine can alter their visual perception so that they would be able to only see what the Combine wants you to.
"They are fully dependent on their helmets, and by extension the combine"
That part scares me the most. Imagine your employers having ownership of your bodily functions...
Give it ten years
American healthcare be like
Cyberpunk be like
@@PineappleDealer37 It's a nightmare that most aren't even aware of.
Welcome to the capitalist paradise
29:59
I like that the grunts have the most enthusiastic laugh since they aren't as modified as the rest
Laugh of other types of soliders is distored
6:02 Unironically one of the best Half Life scenes in the series
Just the idea of the Overwatch Voice getting annoyed with the soldier kicking it and telling his partner to stop him is hilarious.
True.
A stand-out.
It's more human if u ask me even tho they are barely human.
@@RescoeZ I think the way the chargers activate their shields is that the wires going into their arm is headed to their brain and when they want to activate it they simply think about it
In regards for 14:47, I find it interesting that the Combine Ordinal zombie is the ONLY zombie to have their heads bloated. Usually it seems as if the facial details of a zombie sloughs off or, in the case of the security guard and zookeeper, mummify. The malformation of the Ordinal zombie's face is probably due to a combination of the headcrab causing changes, and the inflammation of their implants. The zombine in HL2E1 has some oddities compared to regular zombie as well, like how you can't seem to see their organs when they're cut in half.
We can see in Half-Life 2, the bare upper body of a combine soldier with the face of "Eric". He was replaced by the Combine's artificial organs, from his original organs.
maybe the ordinal was attacked by a poison headcrab?
It's nice seeing you here in the comments, i remember previously having a nice conversation with you about HL2 lore.
It's possible that the body may be slightly bloated from the process of decomposition aswell as the other reasons mentioned, if the body has been "dead" for a longer period of time.
Well some of the Ordinal are women.
It was a massive twist for me that ordinals are voiced by a woman. Valve's audio team makes really good synthesizers.
Yeah, I like that, helps to reinforce the idea that they just take people and turn them into this, they all look and sound pretty uniform, but underneath the armor they could be anyone.
I think it's a mistake actually, I've read a discussion long ago that it was the Overwatch voice actress, not ordinal.
@@Pllayer064 Overwatch is Ellen Mclain
Hochi mama!!!
@@rawpowerjaggso that’s why overwatch sounds like me huh
I like the idea that all the soldiers, even the super modified ones, play a number counting game while out on missions, seems funny
The Combine hasn't invented boredom suppression biodats yet. That's why they have no choice but to play
I think it's a play on the trope of soldiers gambling on their free time
Boredom is truly a powerful thing that not even the combine know how to stop
Or maybe a code they have to say among themselves
To see if there is a imposter amogus
Like how Barney is at start of hl2
Prolly a code they have to say a intruder would not get it and they would catch em
Kudos to Valve for consistently designing NPCs with lots of thoughts and lore on each of them
**Extremely modified inhuman voice that sounds equal to all combine voices:** "hello Alyx it is us your human friend ready for some fun human activities like rebelling against the universal union and drinking regular non Dr Breen's water, why don't you open the door and come out to see your totally human friends ?"
"Hello fellow anticitizens"
Very interesting take on the grunts more “hesitant” radio etiquette and how they’re “getting used to it” or still retaining their humanity.
It makes total sense. I work in a career where radio talk is a vital part of our daily operations. You can always tell whose voices are new based on that same uncertainty or hesitance. Maybe anyone else here who uses radios at their career can chime it.
Really nice attention to detail.
I won't lie, I trip up on some 10 codes every now and again, but when you're using 1 through 99, some get used all the time, others get used almost never.
@@SayVandelay reasons why I just use plain english to be honest.
I wonder if the Ordinals having infrequent British pronunciation is from them mimicking the way the Overwatch voice speaks in HL2.
@@dickc.normus2406Mainly because their VA is British but I think this headcanon is nice :O
The suppressors might actually be the closest to Combine Soldiers rather than Quarantine Clean up crew. This could explain why they're in a pissy mood and think highly of themselves since they got put on clean up duty by their superiors.
Ordinals and Suppressors are likely volunteers. Grunts and Chargers are likely conscripted out of Civil Protection. Valve sucks at world-building. Half-Life will never have a library's worth of lore like Warhammer 40K, despite the potential for it...
@@scowler7200 "Valve sucks at world- building."
*Look! We got ourselves a comedian in this comment section!*
@@carinhatube3727
Just saying, it'd be cool if we could've followed someone through the conversion process like in Quake 4 or Resistance Fall of Man.
And those are supposed to be brainless arcade shooters...
Deliberately leaving small details unclear is just lazy writing. Here's an example...
What does an Overwatch soldier eat? Do they eat the same rations given to citizens? Is it synthetic paste or is it some Stroyent-like concoction of drugs and the rendered tissues of dead Overwatch soldiers, stalkers, citizens, and Xen wildlife alike?
Or is it just rendered-down Antlion grubs?
We can assume a member of Civil Protection eats real vegetables at least. We can assume the vegetables we see in Russel's fridge are either grown on rooftops or stolen. But if they're stolen, does the combine grow them in massive warehouses using stalkers, or are citizens put to work on collective farms outside the city? Where does the black market start to form?
They DID show us what jobs regular civilians are doing. I liked that. But they don't show us how someone goes from worker drone to hotblooded rebel...
Neckbeards looooove to put Valve on a pedestal, but I'm chronically-irreverent. I can keep going.
@@scowler7200 *Literally half of your questions have been answered.*
You just haven't searched for it.
Also, don't come up with that lazy writing BS. Because only someone who does not play Valve game will say they suck at world building.
Valve literally puts effort into putting even the tiniest little subtle details to make their world building feel more alive and rich.
Also, this is Half Life. A franchise built trough mystery.
Not all questions should be 100% answered.
And when they are answered, they are made in subtle details.
@@scowler7200 Explaining away every little detail is lame
Never have i ever thought of how combine soldiers looked underneath and now ill never forget
Yeah it's quite a sight isn't it? Now just imagine what the Suppressor might look like...
@@RescoeZ Imagine It would have a normal human face...
@@RescoeZ Id imagine it would look like a grunt underneath and the eye parts are just wired to the brain
They had to remove the Charger running at you because too many play testers shit their pants
You know TheParryGod used the animation for the Charger switching to a stunstick in his video Anticitizens, as well as the Tau Cannon attachment in Patient Zero for the Combine Heavy Shotgun.
I only discovered TheParryGod a few weeks ago but their animations are incredible. Anti Citizens is my favourite but I love the new Combine soldier introduced in Patient Zero.
@@RescoeZ yeah the new soldier, referred to as Spikewall, is Parry's interpretation of bridging the gap between the Charger and the Shotgun Soldier from Half-Life 2 even though the model itself for the Spikewall unit is based on HLA concept art for different Combine Soldier types.
@@EnclaveSOC-102 spikewall is such a badass nickname
Spikewall closely resembles the third vortigaunt capture squad combine concept within the first set of concept art shown in the vid, which I find to be really interesting
35:22 this is amazing he double checks where hes going so cool
the animations are so good, i hate how bad they made the ai
@@waffler-yz3gw yea its quite brain dead, shame
This video updated my biodats and resolved my cognitive dissonance. Our Benefactors are pleased.
Speaking with Combine radio commands should be a recurring meme in half life videos
@@yes_very_good Deviation from Overwatch-approved vocabulary will result in immediate memory refresh and replacement.
@@ETIL_ me when i see an anticitizen who wants a malcompliance verdict
@@Bacony_Cakes
Clamp is losing mental game. Overwatch, request faculty refresh for BC-4123.
Here’s a good summary on their radio chatter for anyone interested.
HVT - High Value Target, referring to Alyx Vance.
Ten-three-zero-seven - (multiple meanings) Sentencing a target [eliminating them], moving on objective, applying given orders by higher conduct.
Sundown - referring to the end of a life, either enemy or friendly. (Hence, ‘Ordinal is approaching sundown)
Necrotics - Head crab zombies.
Parasitics - Headcrab.
Virome - Antlion.
Infection - Mass of alien hostiles.
Outbreak - Hostile individuals.
Anticitizens - Uncooperative, defiant, violent, or unregistered civilian.
647e - Citizen miscount. (refers to Gordon Freeman, as he is not a registered citizen)
Viscon - Visual on a target.
Lightvis - Amount of illumination in an area/visibility.
Audibles - Amount of noise in an area, amount of noise a squadron is making, the noise caused by hostiles.
Bounce - Modified fragmentation grenade that bounces off surfaces instead of dispersing the energy upon impact.
Ten-four - Accepting an order, affirming information, confirming received info.
Ten-two - Disagreeing.
Eleven-ninety nine - Injured, under hostile pressure, nearing death, requesting backup.
Ten-twenty - Current location.
Lmk if you want sum more listed
By order of the high council, more have been added:
(Number sequences 1-7) - Callout code to ensure squad mate activity is confirmed. [1,3,11,14,6, Check.]
Code Delta-7 - OTA code for on duty personnel without engagement from hostiles or no hostile signatures. [standing by]
Condition Delta - Defensive measures/positioning in response to excessive hostile offense.
Condition Alpha - Offensive measures/positioning in response to limited hostile offense.
Condition Quicksand - Measures taken to lure a target into an ambush or into a trap; area well guarded in anticipation of possible enemies.
Recall - Retreating from an area, or suggesting squad mates from leaving their positions to regroup.
Gimme gimme
gimme
it’s been 6 months man… list them.
"we didn't steal anything!"
"We know you stole the power generators but we don't care about that, what did you SEE"
love how thats implied by the ordinal
4:18 the combine getting used to radio codes can be heard when you first enter the loading yard outside the vodka distillery, one of the grunts is stumbling over the radio trying to remember what the combine jargon is.
I like to think it also implies that the Ordinal is under a lot of pressure to find out who and how many saw the Vault photo, and anyone else who happened to be nearby.
The only explanation I can think of for Combine soldiers retaining the ability to laugh, taunt and feel positive emotions is because it actually aids their combat ability.
If it's like a game to them, or murdering and toying dissidents allows their bodies to release happy chemicals then that can only make them more effective.
It also might hint that those first chosen for higher ranks are individuals who already have psychopathic tendencies.
6:02 So bizarre but hilarious to see such human qualities in these grunts. They're just casually on call with Overwatch while one of them is kicking a downed strider.
i still love learning about the little details in half life games, didnt even know oridinals are sometimes british and even have a level of humanity like the grunts. The fact they potentially play a weird little number game too is so fascinating to me
18:58 is comedic. Just the way he turns straight at the player, "Hmph"s and then freezes.
It's much darker than I realized. All Combine are slaves. They either obey or die. The exception to this are those willing, Dr. Breen, Halsey and Barney. Most Combine are integrated like The Matrix.
If any are wishing for freedom, it's too late.
In Episode 1 where Alyx talked about the Stalker this video confirms what she hoped. That is a terrifying realization.
If any Combine could be freed, it would leave them in a worse state than before.
Probably. Civil Protection is the most human-like.
@@PotentialGrimBarney was evident of that. Their work is minimal with only a few tasks.
Really like how they made the combine clear areas and behave like actual soldiers instead of awkwardly waddling around like half-life 2
3:20 I never thought I'd see combine soldiers not being hostile to a citizen
well in that case, the citizen wasn't trespassing nor had he done anything wrong, they were likely interrogating him since iirc this is after the breakout from the armored car
@@waffler-yz3gwThey bully and harass people who aren’t Doug anything wrong all the time. It’s part of the reason people run when they see them.
“Hey you. Pick up that can”
@@EggEnjoyerThat was a loyalty check. If you put the can in the trash can he reports it to overwatch and you get some credit
@@Reaper231_ why was bro laughing about it
@@EggEnjoyer because he enjoyed having authority of citizens?
"Friendgame effective" holy shit that's...evil. like actually fucking villainous shit
I love Valve kept this design philosophy since L4D and TF2, is that the Alyx combines have unique and distinct designs between each other. And having different style of engaging the player
This was in half life 2 as well. Shotgunners used different tactics and the squad leader flanked you more often,etc
In hl2 they cut out
All lot of enemies to not make the game clutter
Now the game looks bland and boring
A bit of variety would have been great man
Even in half Life hit scanner HECU were fine coz they had startergies like they retreat throw grenades and due to claustrophobic nature of the game it was fun fighting em
In hl2 there are only like 3-4 enemy varient and guess what all are hit scanners. Wish Hl2 had less Humanoid enemies and more Alien
Ngl fighting the combine is the most boring part of Hl2
Other than that it's a solid game
Female Combine assassin's : ¿Why do we live longer Than Combine men?
Male Combine Soldiers: Let's test how many bullets can the charger shield stand!
17:26
*laughs in Combine*
The "male" Combine Soldier you are referring, the Ordinal, is voiced by a woman, and thus probably not male.
@@xxfalconarasxx5659 Combine become genderless after their transformation of human to Combine.
There is no male or female for Combine anymore. They are abominable cyborg intelligence.
@@xxfalconarasxx5659bart from simpsons is voiced by a woman
I think the number game could be some previously learned protocols needed to be checked before continuing. Something like patting your pockets for keys, phone and wallet before leaving your house. Something like: corners clear, no visible movement, guns working, no headcrabs, diaper comfortable, etc. The "check" supports this theory, and the "your turn" could mean they're designating another person to do this check. The numbers could be situational - you don't do "8" and "11" when there is no headcrabs in vicinity. The other option would be playing chess from memory, hence the "check" and maybe the person with the least amount of moves win lmao.
That's probably the best explanation I've heard so far. It also provides a less noticeable advantage; it prevents spoofed communications. Assuming Overwatch keeps a record of unit communications, it can be used to check the situation against recordings, which can then be resolved as such:
Spoof unit: (incorrect numbers response)
Ordinal: Unit numbers contradict situation. Move to engage.
"Diapers comfortable?"
"Negative."
"Contact Diaper Chief."
Unit B7-384A, you are now designated "Little Diaper Chief", move to wipe and dispose.
It just occurred to me that the beeping when an overwatch soldier dies might not only be Overwatching terminating contact but also terminating the soldier's speaking device.
28:12 i can imagine the combine units playing a game similar to chess over the radio, the numbers could be about their "pieces" being moved
might just be a radio check
@@dkskcjfjswwwwwws413But for a radio check you’d just say “radio check”. And the response would be “5 by 5”. Or “1 by 5” etc etc. the series of numbers they do is very strange
my favorite part of this whole thing was 6:09, the funniest part is that overwatch actually gave a response
Something to note about the possible retcon of gene-coded weapons, is that in HL2, all of the weapons you pick up from the combine are real-life weapons, apart from the AR2. They don't look modified so i doubt gene-coding is used for them. The AR2 is thus the only weapon that likely could have it in HL2.
While this isn't actually a mechanic in-game, the first AR2 you find, before you have a chance to pick one up from a dead soldier, is sitting on a crate, in a manner not dissimilar to the smg in HLA, So, while you can purposefully ignore this AR2 and pick one up from a dead combine a bit later, I like to think that *canonically* gordon picked up this unbounded weapon and is merely taking the magazines off of later AR2s.
Eh, possibly true, but remember on once the uprising starts rebel soldiers have no issues in picking up AR2s off of dead combine, and even ditch their smgs for it.
@@astrotrek3534my theoretical explanation is the resistence maybe found unpaired weapon crates and hacking probably got better so they mass armed the population with their stockpile when the time came.
Given that HLA takes place five years before HL2, it's likely that the Combine had phased out the gene bonding failsafes for many of their infantry weapons for units stationed on Earth due to complications with constantly making such sophisticated technology.
@@Slimpicken the thing is that the Rebels pick up AR2 from dead Combine soldiers, with the Rebel soldiers already armed with AR2's being rare
@robowisanveithasung6022 yea but with new lore. I assume if you shoot a combine you can possibly interupt what terminates connection and use of the gun. And it stays open. Think of it like taking a part out of a computer but that computer is still powered. Bullets i think interrupt such a function.
People say the Combine soldiers are automatons with their humanity wiped, but every now and then they show signs of personality in Alyx, which is interesting.
Not by the time of half life 2
This is honestly what I love about worldbuilding in any sort of media; the small things that largely nobody notices but are definitely there if you look hard enough. I love this video more than words can describe.
I wasn't expecting the combine ordinal to be voiced by a woman haha, I never really considered the prospect of gender in the combine force, aside from the obvious of course. Soldiers are typically depicted in media as men probably due to historical reasons, and let's be honest, the combine forces in HLA don't really look (or sound) overtly feminine. But I suppose in hindsight I feel like in lore it could be truly anybody under those masks, I don't think the combine would be very picky about who gets to be a soldier as long as they just get the job done.
The Ordinal isn't just a soldier, but also seems to act as a sort of comms and logistics officer. She(?) carries a large radio device, passes orders to other soldiers, and relays information between them and command. And in real life, while men make up most of the frontline infantry, a surprisingly large number of women in the military are part of communications and administration.
@@xxfalconarasxx5659 what if all combine soldiers regardless of gender are the same looking if you remove the suit. All the stuff are cut off or removed/ hidden
@@CASA-dy4vs It's possible. I'm sure over the course of the transhumanisation process, the Combine do remove features they deem unnecessary. This may include genitalia and mammaries. We know they do this to an extreme degree with Stalkers, who've had a lot of redundant organs removed.
@@xxfalconarasxx5659 It's surprising that Raija actually voiced a combine, but it still sounds nothing like her regular voice and mostly like the typical distorted male voices you hear. So I think people reading into it way too much. But it was actually a female combine in HL2, the combine assassin, but she had a typical female form, with breasts and even high boots to count. She was scrapped tho when that level was removed
@@johan13135 Well, they do speak through a vocoder, so their voices are not representative of the voices they originally had when they were human. And when you are wearing a ton of body armour on top of a bulky hazmat suit, you're female form won't be all that apparent. Not to mention that the transhuman surgical process would probably involve the removal of breast tissue. It could also be that they do some drastic alterations to their entire physiology, that even their build changes to some extent.
As for the Combine Assassin. It's a cut enemy from an earlier developmental period. I'm not sure how useful it is to use them for speculation. They do admittidly have a more feminine figure, but they are wearing much more form fitting garments than the other Combine Soldier. However, they actually don't really have prominent breasts though, nor are they actually wearing high heels. I think you might be thinking of the Half Life 2 Survivor model. The ones in the beta wear a rather bulky bullet proof vest, and the boots are flat, but they do have heel springs (like in Portal). In Half Life 2 Survivor, a Japanese arcade game based on Half Life 2, they have a modified version of the model that does emphasise her bust a little more and did give her actual high heels (Japanese people, lol).
Lastly, an interesting thing to note... Raija actually has her own RUclips account (called pusseytat), and has commented on RescoeZ's videos. And one of the comments I found was her correcting another commenter for calling the Ordinal a "guy". Seems that at the very least, she seems to think the Ordinals are female. Of course, she's just the actress, and not the character designer, but it's interesting none the less.
when u get friendgamed by the ordinal and the whole combine squad starts laughing at u 😭😭
Hostile is scrambled 😈
This comment will probably go unnoticed, but thank you for this video. It's such a refreshing break after listening to so many obnoxious video essays. I wish there would be more classic videos like this these days.
You’re welcome.
It would be cool if we got like a spinoff Half-Life game where you play co-op as the Combine, working with your friends or "team" to clear out the quarantine zones.
Entropy Zero 2 might be what you’re looking for.
28:29 i honestly would be surprised if this was some kind of game they played. the thing that makes the most sense to me would be that they periodically check in on certain positions or areas and then make sure that their other squad members are staying on task. both the game theory and the report theory makes sense though
6:44 I think the insignia represents the QZ. The orange square could represent the contaminated area, and the black curve is the perimeter wall.
19:14 Just like how the Grunt/Ordinal pull an invisible charging handle after loading their invisible magazine. I'm certain the animations were made well before the weapon designs were finalized.
24:18 I think the machine gun uses the same ammo. It has the same cell-loader as the pulse SMG, meaning it's likely loaded the same way. But instead of using one cell at a time, it fires them in sequence using a gatling gun-style rotary system.
On your second point that's exactly like the HL2 soldiers using the OICW reload for the auto loading AR2
@@KoalaTContent Yep, and the MP7 uses the MP5K animations.
Rescoe, you've always been a service to the Half-Life community. Thanks for putting in all this effort for the fans- we appreciate you. And the video's great as always.
Thanks, that's really kind of you to say 🙂
I just finished this game earlier today. Great timing!
Love these guys
The Ordinal is the coolest imo
Glad to see a return to this kind of deep dive analysis content. This is extremely interesting to watch, and there's plenty of neat details I didn't notice before this video.
Super informative and interesting as always. A pleasure to watch!
“I don’t know. I don’t know. He’s kicking it. Overwatch says stop kicking it.”
*stare*
*stare*
“He stopped kicking it.”
I think the wire going into the charger’s arm is going to their brain, probably to allow them to activate it at will, knowing how the combine will adapt organisms to fit what they need them for, it’s something to at least consider as likely.
The graphics, physics, & animations in this game are phenomenal, literally top of the line. They all come together beautifully
Holy fuck, requesting memories to be reset in order to avoid cognitive dissonance is genius and horrifying.
I want to see that elaborated on more. Only in Half-Life would a piece of lore THAT compelling be reduced to just enemy idle lines.
Timestamp?
@@why-themale0727:37
Finally after all these years, the much expected Combine analysis is here
I feel like I've seen a different analysis like this one but now I can't find it. ... Perhaps the video I'm thinking of focused on HL2
oh half life. I feel like the series' influence in the gaming industry overshadows the fact that its a cosmic horror masterpiece, imo.
I believe that their modifications make them hear combine voices/ radio chatter as normal human voices. If I was a combine man I wouldn’t understand anything they said I’d be like “Uhh.. Excuse me?”
This is why I love the people at valve, no one puts this much love into their games like them
Grunt 1: He's kicking it
Grunt 2: (still kicking it)
Grunt 1: He's still kicking it
Grunt 2: (keeps kicking it)
Grunt 1: Overwatch says stop kicking it
Grunt 2: ☹
People have deep dived HL2 similar to this and it just fucking amazes me that Valve created something so absolutely insane like this. None of this is really all that important to the game (the experience) yet it also cements it as being so fucking good. On one hand I wish they made more Half Life games and pumped them out a bit more regularly. But on the other... the care and sparsity is what makes them so unique.
Excellent video. It may be a bit niche for most, but for hardcore Half Life fans like myself, it was such a joy!
Edit: spelling
Thanks! Yeah I reckon most casual fans would probably think "Ok buddy too long to watch" but even if just a few watch it it's good enough for me.
> niech
niche
Really fascinating. Had to skip some parts because they seemed like they might be spoilery. But the information regarding the Combine is always welcome. Nice!
Might have been mild spoilers inside I admit. It's always best be on the side of caution when it comes to spoilers!
@RescoeZ Absolutely! I hope one day I can afford a VR headset so I can stop avoiding spoilers lol
Ty for the great info! The concept art having Vort hunters was a neat tidbit!
@@Srcsqwrn Have you yet?
@@kosstarYT Unfortunately no. VR headsets are pretty expensive
@@Srcsqwrn Aww... Don't worry, you will have one someday!
Always very high quality videos in this channel!
I love how natural the grunt's body language is. Also, was not expecting the Ordinal to be voiced by a woman.
I'm pretty sure there is one spot in Alyx were you can find an unmasked ordinal. It's after you've made the train crash in amongst the wreckage somewhere. Might check later but I think I found one there on my playthrough. Brillaint video!
I just had a quick look and there's several Grunts (masked) and a dead Zombine. However that said, the unmasked Ordinal does exist in the game files and looks just like the Grunt and Charger, but is never used ingame as far as I know. The Suppressor though... who knows what they look like underneath.
@@RescoeZ citicar-ahh skull shape
I like to think of the combine soldiers in HL: Alyx as the SWAT of the Civil Protection. They are not really armored, or as equipped as those in HL2. I think of the OTA in HL2 as the military of the Universal Union, since they are visibly more armored and more trained than the ones in Alyx.
Grunts are instantly like union workers upon hearing them talk to each other
They need better pay and hours
@@SpiffoGaming and their eyeballs back
Universal union workers
"We're not throwing it in the pit because it's SAFE."
Absolutely love the look of the Combine in this game; especially the concept art of the Vort Hunters. The visceral nature of it is so appealing.
I love your videos on the Combines, i never miss one.
The combine keeping eyes on you at all times while running from position to position while running, very convincingly shifting their weight, the way they shuffle as they slow down to change directions, and the side steps are all so absurdly lifelike. These developers are immaculate professionals.
I cannot express how much this helps in the half life community and how much information it gives to everyone interested. The effort you put on this kind of videos is outstanding and shows how much love and respect you put on each one.
Seriously, your work is inspiring.
The permanent nature of the grunt's helmet immediately made me think their boots must be riveted. Rather than laces, the lace holes are permanently clamped to the boots' tongues. If they never take those helmets off, they probably don't take their boots off either.
That would be super inpractical
@@kreatywnynick9180 Are the stalkers practical? xD I don't think the Combine cares.
@@gparc3457 Every army needs to care about practicality+ being a stalker is punishment
@@kreatywnynick9180 I'm probably wrong either way, since I'm seeing laces on the other classes.
@@gparc3457 so we can gues that grunt is just an idiot
About the grunts being more augmented than their hl2 counterparts, this is simply because the Half-Life 2 TA are still in the process of augmentation, and not finished. Also, love these videos, you truly explore the lore without making assumptions and staying true to everything given to you by the game and valve.
Well I try not to make assumptions but I do sometimes theorize about stuff, such as the Grunt's gas tank. One of the things I love about doing these vids is that if I'm wrong or if someone has a different take, it can be shared in the comments and create more discussion.
I think it’s because the prequel’s Combine didn’t catch up with the augmentation technology on humans yet. It’s messy and probably costly.
@@vasiliypupkin3239 Could also simply be different units for different tasks. The Overwatch soldiers you generally encounter in HL2 are the top of the line military forces sent to pacify rebel outposts and hunt Anticitizen One, whereas these guys are specifically for patrolling the QZ. Maybe Overwatch can even hotswap the augmentations and programming as necessary.
i think they just retconned the original combine because fully emotionless soldiers are lame
@@bluegum6438 I love this theory the most, I'll keep it in mind from now on. It genuinely seems like a good theory that's even a bit canonically supported seeing as the TA we see in HL:A look like they're almost specifically designed for the QZ. With logos, things they're wearing, etc.
As someone who loves half life to the point he cosplays the Metro Police, your dedication to showcasing the intricacies of these characters is amazing and very much appreciated.
Worth the weight, I love your content. Great work on this video.
A few things I wanna highlight.
- While I have listened to the isolated voicelines you uploaded, you did a great job pointing out and making me realize differences in how they all speak. While I noticed the Grunts being a bit more human, I never picked up on the Suppressors being more aggressive, nor the reason why they kept relaying numbers to each other.
- Even with the heavy voice modifications hiding potential imperfections, Rajia Baroudi being the voice of the Combine Ordinal is seriously impressive. She's got some great vocal range. I had also looked her up and apparently she's also part Scottish, which might be why her accent slipped in a bit for some of the lines. Then again the only place I've seen that says this is the fan wiki for Power Rangers.
- While I do wish that Combine Chargers could, you know, charge you, I am thankful we didn't have to deal with those Tau Cannon extensions. Combines with railguns sounds terrifying, especially in a game like Alyx.
- Also never realized that one NPC that walks through Eli's feed at the beginning is the same one as one of the humans pinned down by the Combine during the elevator scene. That's fantastic attention to detail.
It’s so creepy that the grunts act so casual and have a sense of humor, yet they’re already so heavily modified under the helmet.
at last, this is going to be a masterclass
amplified weapons probably just means sending in better guns, a supply drop
While it is cool that the units can be distinguished by voice, I do wish they kept them more intelligible. Hearing the Combine reacting in combat really added a lot imo
Agreed. The voices are super cool, but while in combat it's really difficult to understand them. I had the same problem with the soldiers in HL1 lol, although I guess everyone kinda did
@@ryanphillips4123 that's kinda like the point of their voice modifications
@@user-tzzglsstle585e38 kinda, but I figure its less about being hard to understand and more about being cool and scary
@@ryanphillips4123 it being harder to understand doesn't detract from that, those are not mutually exclusive.
@@user-tzzglsstle585e38 fair enough. Sounds like we aren't disagreeing, just talking past each other.
Absolutely fantastic, I’ve been waiting for this video ever since I played HLA. You’re the best creator out there for this content!
This video has been a long time in the making. I’m not the best, but thank you for the kind words!
25:25 its possible that supressor was supposed to have something like "flammable grenade launcher" or Grenade launcher perse.
Chargers probably activate their shields via a gesture, judging by the animations. The flash is likely a useful side effect of the shield discharging the energy used to power it.
It could also be something like a pressure plate in the glove. I notice it almost looks like it clenches their hand into a fist before the shield activates.
This is one of my favorite videos on all of RUclips right now
7:27 they may also be seen with handgun ammunition, suggesting they’re always looking out for sweet little Alyx in case the game logic notices she is running low on ammo🥰🥰
Came back to appreciate the dynamic animation system for their walking. Seriously underrated system. I love it doing its thing procedurally.
You know, with the high presence of Barnacles, I'm surprised that they dont have everyone carrying a knife of some sort
Can't genecode a knife.
@@fuzzytransmissionman a switchblade could work
I’m pretty surprised that the combine soldiers don’t have night vision capability. Their eyes glow a bright color so I would assume SOMETHING is in there!