PATIENT ZERO - A Half-Life Short [S2FM]

Resistance members set an ambush for the Combine in the abandoned outskirts of City 17.
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A very short explanation behind this custom Combine model for my fellow obsessive weirdos. As stated in the intro it's 1 year after the events of HLA and 4 before HL2; and so I wanted to create something that could be the missing link between the wallhammer and HL2 shotgunner. That is the long and short of it. I hope I managed to find a good balance with the design and it comes off as "believable" given the context.
This project itself started out as a "Hey let's make a very short trailer for my custom Combine model" so it obviously grew into the most complex project I've done so far. In all honesty it did not came together as good as I imagined, but I'm still incredibly proud with what I managed to cobble together here. If anything, visually I think this is the best I've gotten out of Source 2 so far. I realize gray isn't everyone's cup of tea. I like it very much.
KZbin compression unfortunately really didn't like the low-light + uniform color pallette interior scenes and they look quite horrible in places. I did tests with several different codecs, bitrates etc and these are the best results. I'm looking into options to host my videos somewhere where I can provide the uncompressed files, but due to how big these videos are I haven't yet landed on a solution.
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I'd like to thank everyone who helped me out on this project. Firstly, my current and past patrons and everyone else who donated through other channels. You helped fund a lot of what went into this and lifted a lot of stress for not uploading squat for 4 months.
Fabian Brandt, who designed the big guy's vocoder. It is just the most glorious thing I've ever heard.
linktr.ee/nyonmusic
Jordan Gottschick for all the feedback, inputs and voice performance.
And all the wonderful folks for their voice work.
Tito Ferradans
/ @anamorphiconabudget
Forrest McGilvray
/ forrestmcgilvr1
Saverio Turrano
linktr.ee/savturrano
Valencia R
MastaPumpkin?t=7Y...
Csaba Szigeti
www.youtube.com/@rustroute322...
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Software:
Source 2 Filmmaker
HLA Workshop Tools
Premiere Pro
Photoshop
Blender
Substance Painter
Audacity
Song:
• HITMAN Soundtrack - Pa...
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Twitter:
/ theparrygod
Artwork:
www.flickr.com/photos/1537941...
Support my work:
/ theparrygod
www.buymeacoffee.com/theparrygod

[@nyonmusic]

Creating the vocoder dialogue sound design was an absolute blast! I had so much fun while working and fine tuning them. I'm so blown away by this short. Honored to be a part of this tbh! :D

[@MarkChong]

Damned good job

[@T-74]

Goddamn man, nice iob. You made something comparable to the originals created by Valve.

[@DerpsWithWolves]

And a damn good job too, mate! I barely even recognize my own voice (Victor 9-2), I sound like an actual Half-Life character! Bravo.

[@theseagullwithteeth116]

Amazing Vocoding

[@combinecornercosplay5118]

Would you be willing to share a tutorial for the community so people could create their own fan films?

[@mihaitoma4144]

give this man 50 cans of red bull, a couple million dollars, a super computer and 2 years of time, he'll make a movie better than hollywood, i guarantee it

[@greenbean2222]

Now I'm sad he can't realistically do any of this full length without literally sacrificing himself to do so. Unless we crowdfund, but again I don't see it being fruitful I suppose.

[@poussinmoumoute]

for sure

[@poussinmoumoute]

amazing to see such talent

[@peachsncream5808]

We are the movie 🤫👣🦘👍

[@alexthedemon2203]

@@greenbean2222 Money wont fix the issue he just needs more people to help

[@calcuimconsumer6980]

Hopper mines are actually terrifying. When you aren’t Gordon Freemen everything in the Half-Life universe is a force to be reckoned with

[@arthurchadwell9267]

He's the hipster Master Chief!

[@vizthex]

for real. even those mines pack a huge punch as Gordon.

[@hashbrown_blitz8869]

even for gordon freemen without a shit ton of luck, respawns, and the player with potential hundreds of hours of pure experience he's basically fucked

[@ozvoid1245]

@@hashbrown_blitz8869 Yeah have you ever played Half-Life 2 in VR on hard with no loading saves? Yeah didn't think so. Even Gordon's fucked, he only survives because of the meta-knowledge the player provides him.

[@hashbrown_blitz8869]

@@ozvoid1245 the player is basically demigod in games

[@Excalibursin]

6:35 I love how the Soldier's lack of humanity also prevents him from formulating a convincing lie. Even when trying to convince the rebels that he won't harm them, he still refers to them as both actively "hostile" and active "targets"!

[@splatdon1750]

I think that’s why they don’t use the “friend-game” tactic anymore after HL:A (maybe)

[@tilasole3252]

"Attention Hostile Targets. You can come out now. It is safe." 😂

[@backstabber8884]

Friendgame effective.

[@IJNAoba9-25-26]

With this you can tell why Gordon is very much highly respected in the Rebel alliance. Here a group of them almost got slaughtered by a single Combine Soldier, meanwhile Gordon casually strolls into the Nova Prospekt and Citadel, destroys everyone, then leaves.

[@arthurchadwell9267]

That power armor Gordon is wearing must a MJILNOR prototype.... 😉

[@mrboxleytheonly]

Good luck out there, Gordan!

[@shcdemolisher]

@@arthurchadwell9267 it is called the Hazardous Environment suit, HEV suit for short, and it did get upgraded to have a shield generator along with faster movements and reaction time none to dissimilar with what Spartans can do. However to be honest… Spartans have better armor overall and a recharging shield.

[@conni4518]

@@shcdemolisher they don't have gordons crippling morphine addiction tho

[@genericuser984]

@@conni4518 Morphine A D M I N I S T E R E D

[@settingsgear5602]

The contrast of civil protection struggling with combine jargon at the beginning and combine soldier being perfectly fluent in it is amazing.

[@DiscipleOfHeavyMeta1]

They have slightly different voice procedures, too. The CPs is closer to that of IRL cops while those of Overwatch is closer to that of IRL militaries.

[@BOTmaster15]

CP are human beings, they answer like humans would even after training. Combine soldier however is closer to biocomputer than human. "He" or rather "it" is shaped like human but under that armour there is nothing related to human. Sure there are smaller drones that prolly were engineered from regular people but if I remember correctly mostly if not all responses were preprogrammed into each unit (they dont think what to say but like a program shovel predefined answers that are closest to specific pattern - also vocal cords are expendable so there is only speaker left). Think of it like more of a bioterminator unit.

[@lionhartjohn1000]

@@BOTmaster15 You're right in that Overwatch troops can't really be called a humans anymore in the traditional sense, but they are all made from regular humans. Mostly CPs that got "promoted" or actually volunteered. Transhuman soldiers are scary mfers, both in the way they think and look.

[@F.M671]

I m sorry but could you provide me with the specific example? I would really like to understand what you meant here

[@drantosilver3531]

@@F.M671 at the start, around 0:13, you can hear the CPs talk. They had several “uhh” and “uhm” in their sentences, probably because they’re not used to it yet. Now skip to the part about the soldier. He speaks fluently and without any problem. Just like a robot.

[@0inarrow735]

I absolutely love the transistion at 4:40, making you think that the Combine are breaking down the door to the room the rebels are in, only show us it's a different room, great way to induce tension.

[@raiderone-zero1267]

6:11 Among many other details others have pointed out, I LOVE the detail of the female rebels actions. She empties the revolver, which barely does any damage to the Combine soldier, but it kept throwing his aim off, making him miss two shots, buying a second of time for the others to get out of the hallway, into cover. If she had dived or ran into the doorway on her right instead of straight forward in panic, she likely would've made it.

[@sunscreeneater5937]

Damn you’re observant, these SFM projects are no joke when it comes to the little details.

[@moonasha]

another amazing detail is when the combine soldier shot through the wood into the guy, it filled the guy's head with wood splinters, feel like that's something 99% of animators would miss out on

[@pewpewplasma3793]

I think the thing that scares me the most about the soldier is the way everything just cuts off after it dies. There’s clear agony, it reaches for its missing “eye”, it wheezes in pain clearly not completely dead yet, and then lights out. It’s just gone. Like it got unplugged. Like Overwatch realized the unit was beyond repair so it just switched it off. It just dies so unnaturally and machine-like.

[@LondonsFrost]

State of malfunction and panic, death can hit humans the same way. But for something to be half machine half man... The kinetic factor is what draws out the "wiry abrubt death"

[@peterprokai1329]

Kind of mercifully of overwatch to shut the unit down than have it suffer a long painfull death as its cybernetics struggle to keep it alive.

[@transitcombine9057]

@@peterprokai1329 basicamente est esto: ia del cuerpo combine: puede mas? nope? goodbye **sonido de cierre**

[@dektarey4024]

@@peterprokai1329 Though this is more of a positive sideeffect more than anything. If anything overwatch pulls the killswitch so that no information can be forcefully extracted.

[@pobblebonk2928]

iirc they're actually still dying and drowning in blood, but Overwatch just recognizes the sound as unuseful radio noise so they're just wailing in agony, all sound being drown out by the screech of their vitals monitors flatlining, while their transponders are remotely shut off by her to clear the air waves. as heavily modified and twisted by metal and wires as they are, they're still largely living beings. despite the surgeries replacing their eyes, ears, vital organs, digestive tracts, the combine has yet to find a suitable and convenient artificial replacement for blood, bones, sinew and brains. anything alive still takes a minute to turn off after you pull the plug.

[@N3ON47]

I absolutely love how you portray that even a group of rebels can hardly stand a chance against a single combine soldier. Also nice to see manhacks getting some much needed attention. Those things would be terrifying in real life.

[@nicholastuttle2445]

Gordon can chew through combine soldiers because he's experienced (fighting HECU and Xen), well armed and very well armored. I'd guess the average rebel is poorly equipped and armed, without much real combat skill.

[@Armin2012]

Puts the city 17 uprising into some perspective. Imagine what the initial riots were like before it turned into street fighting. You can probably picture wall hammer units acting as riot shield teams against a crowd of citizens, up until some one pulls a trigger on someone. It also goes to show how inspiring Gordon Freeman was during his time in HL2. The guy not only blazed through the city on his way out, but took the fight to the combine itself Given the supernatural nature of his arrival, and no doubt that vortigaunts spoke of it, to the average citizen, Gordon was a godsend

[@b.c.s.o4169]

@@nicholastuttle2445 this animation gives gordon an almost legendary stature, id like to think he doesn't chew through soldiers as much as outsmarting them, with him being a scientist and all that. fueled by PTSD and morphine the whole time.

[@KorianHUN]

@@nicholastuttle2445 To get a better feeling for realism, play HL2 with 50% capped health, no armor and maximum speed is walking. I once roleplayed in New Vegas with a realistic amount of gear (like completely realistic, what i would actually likely carry in that situation) and compared to a regular playthrough it was extremely hard.

[@Horny_Fruit_Flies]

@@nicholastuttle2445 Gordon can chew through Combine soldiers because he's the protagonist of a video game, it wouldn't be much fun if instead of 50 health points soldiers had 200 like Gordon, and could aim worth a damn.

[@Deltadog55]

6:20 the fact he was still alive and let out a second scream was genuinely terrifying. You portrayed the unfiltered brutality of a combine soldier perfectly.

[@delmuswu-tangbroadnax9056]

I'm glad but am genuinely surprised he was mercy killed. I genuinely felt bad at the scream. Even the gasps or random dying vocalizations from the CP made me feel bad. Goddamn it SFMs like this aren't added to some kind of art history list I'm gonna be upset cuz this is by all definitions art

[@wll1500]

​@@delmuswu-tangbroadnax9056the combine doesn't "mercy kill". They just kill.

[@large-turkey]

Well he would have ultimately died because of blood loss, but yeah that scene really sent chills down my spine

[@rach_66]

​@@wll1500 he would still have died, but it would be more painful and longer

[@samtt4489]

@@rach_66the point is that he eliminated the threat entirely so there was no risk of them surviving long enough to still shoot at him

[@JATorigin]

6:16 I love how you can see how visibly annoyed he is from the gunfire and tries to ignore it at first but just goes "LET ME FINISH MY REPORT ASSHOLE" and just deletes them

[@jakeg3733]

That's more than annoyance, it's pain. The Combine had to leave that particular biological response intact. His plates soaked up most, if not all of that burst... But all that energy still has to go somewhere. It'd hurt like hell getting stitched like that, even if we're talking about "only" an intermediate cartridge and your armor stops full penetration. It is also possible at least one _did_ get through the armor or a gap between plates

[@czajkowski2352]

The deadpan delivery on the "You can come out now. It is safe. (ಠ ‿ ↼)" was amazing 😂 Glad to see the Combine still haven't mastered lying in those 10 years since HL:A

[@ETIL_]

It feels like the soldier says it out of some twisted sense of humor.

[@NotWendy3]

@@ETIL_ Standard procedure to filter out the dumbest targets, probably. Grunts in HL:Alyx do the same thing at one point.

[@eternal7912]

HLA is only 5 years before HL2. This is only a year after that. But yeah, I really like the bad lying, trying to make themselves seem more human than they are.

[@czajkowski2352]

@@eternal7912 Oh, I thought it was more because of how much the Combine progressed from HL:A to HL2

[@eternal7912]

​@@czajkowski2352 I was merely correcting the "10 years since HLA" part (because this video is only 1 year after HLA), not so much how the Combine changed since then. In that regard, you're right.

[@AVGyerra22]

0:40 The contrast between the metrocops and the soldier is frightening. The metrocops are tapping their feet and fidgeting their fingers to mitigate their anxiety, and the soldier sits in complete silence. It shows the difference between a trained human (Civil Protection Team) and a transhuman created for battle (Spikewall).

[@ultmateragnarok8376]

And as well, the size and stature, and the weight - the metrocops, well, the truck shifts under them as it will, sure. But the soldier makes a dedicated carrier for metrocops and prisoners creak and groan on its suspension as he moves. He's got that front seat not just out of leadership priority and respect from the others, but because he's physically completely different to the point that he'd change the vehicle's handling on a side seat. And it stays apparent later, whether it's his very, _very_ distinct footsteps during the final parts, or just him towering over the others and having a shape that doesn't look quite right at times despite still looking like just a bulky human at others. And his reactions in the other scenes, like when they're all running and he has notably different body language, more controlled than the others.

[@TheGamingToaster]

@@ultmateragnarok8376 To put it simply, he’s built different

[@oscarlove4394]

@@TheGamingToaster not simply, literally too lol.

[@MethshockFilms]

@@ultmateragnarok8376 Also notice how as soon as the exit the vehicle, the CP´s draw their weapons and nervously scan the area, where as this big motherfucker just gets out of the truck zero F´s given. He doesn´t give a shit if he lives, gets shot or dies in the process. Man´s there on a mission. And he´ll get it done one way or the other.

[@ChaosAndLawsStupidJourney2]

@@ultmateragnarok8376 what’s a spikewall?

[@petertse5353]

You can see at 4:16 that the Rebel's shotgun is loaded with a slug round instead of buckshot, which has better penetrating power compared to the notorious weakness of buckshot to body armor. Makes sense considering how tough combine soldiers are, and additionally is more precise allowing, for that accurate headshot at the end and the (relatively) clean wound. Its a nice little detail that highlights how experienced the shotgun soldier is at combating the combine

[@TheParryGod]

Or he's just lucky he managed to scavenge some slugs instead of buck or bird, haha.

[@whos_that_one_guy]

It’s cool because in half life alyx the shot gun shells in the game are buckshot and when fighting the charger it takes several hits with it to kill it and seeing how this rebels shot gun got him in two shots was just amazing

[@arrilocknewmoon9620]

They will have a pressure effect and will deal damage, but they absolutely will not penetrate it in the slightest

[@Raven-ch6tm]

@@rewrite1239 Depends on the plates. And depends on the slugs as well. Lead slugs won't pierce the same as AP which are quite rare.

[@a.k8185]

Entropy Zero makes shotgunners fit the "combine killer" description.

[@umbranoctis4348]

Some of the best "fight coreography" in any animation I've seen. No flashy movement and wasted opportunities left, right and center. Everyone's actually trying.

[@JonSudano]

The more you watch the Combine operate in the way they do, the more you begin to understand the reason Earth surrendered in just 7 hours.

[@absolutezerochill2700]

wow, it's you! and only 18 minutes ago

[@absolutezerochill2700]

also yeah, definitely. i imagine that by hour 5 they'd most likely obliterated all of Earth's major armies, probably governments too. Though, Doctor Breen could have also had a part in it. I assume being the closest allowed him to communicate better, as well as being the only one willing to give the Combine terms that were agreeable to them. (ie basically slavery but I'm in control) but yeah, 1 day of full on conflict? They'd be lucky if any human buildings at all remained.

[@StalinSpokeYiddish]

the Overwatch establishment on Earth most likely entails very little to almost nothing of what the Combine invasion of Earth was like since most of the policing entities on Earth are post-human troops and reversed engineered human assets/war machines. The Striders & Gunships (Synths) are the most likely to have been in the 7 hour war, yet the overall nature of what left the Overwatch to police Earth is a mystery. The raising the bar book described the Combine (probably in a general term to the collective race as a whole, or even it’s origin) as a “ever evolving synthetic virus”. Which is pretty significant since early concept art of the Combine synths would suggest that these alien entities constantly mimic and adapt technology against what they invade. Also evolving and weaponizing synthesis/biology. For example, the early gunship concept art seemed arachnid-like, with an implanted nose canon that was like a projectile machine gun instead of a pulse canon, which leads me to believe the gunship was a root of Combine synthetic creatures that permanently adapted itself to Earths environment while “mimicking” the tech of a military helicopter to hunt down human resistance. So that’s probably a good idea of what the Combine was like in it’s true nature, at least in the beta, but I’d like to think that its the same in retail, but the Combine influence on Earth suggests that they adapted and absorbed many human forms of medical logic and organization, primarily of course militarism of human characteristics. Which led to everything from the use of advanced A.I, radio connections and codes like a hive mind, and highly advanced armies of trans-humans soldiers to inject and sterilize human “malignants” of the likes. Everything in order with serial numbers, symbology, labels etc. In short, what the Combine was like before all that, most likely may have been very different to the peace keeping influence on Earth 20 years after the invasion. Probably like what the RTB book had described. A hyper-invasive, ever evolving synthetic virus. Evolving, assimilating, adapting… indifferent, brutal reconfiguration from the void… combine… humans were probably the first species that it encountered that were advanced in such a way. (The Combine apparently would rather discard humanity into forgotten extinction but their out of the box thinking is unique to them. The detection of local teleportation technology, & the alleged breakthrough of it would lead to the attempt of extracting it. Which is hard since it seems the only ones who could master the local teleportation is limited to just a few scientist from Black Mesa. The Combine could as easily siphon the entire population of a team of scientists to give them the tech, but with how abstract this situation is, it means the Combine Earth forces have to try and extract it by strangely forward means of hunting them down with infiltrate and destroy teams of post human troops. ironically, until absorbing human logic & intelligence, the Combine behaves like an immune system, while the humans opposing the Combine with their flexible & “magical” thinking is to the Earthbound Combine, a fatal disease that must be annihilated at all cost. An interesting & poetic way to see of how much a horrifying force like the Combine are so much as to be almost afraid of the free will, intellect & tenacity of humans… The Overwatch A.I literally enforces orders to Overwatch troops AND metrocops like as if they were white blood cells… “Sacrifice. coagulate. Clamp…” The cold and unfeeling response to troops being KIA… “Unit deserviced”… The Combines perception to humans unwillingness to be slaves and resist is akin to an immune system detecting the presence of cancer/disease… out of the systems control, spreading rapidly, a danger to the entire body… “amputate” the cancer from the body… Humanities will to be free & resists… their flexible “magical thinking”… to not be apart of the body… to potentially make it fall apart and die… That’s how threatened the Combine influence on Earth are of humanities distinct intellect… they’ve never came across such a species most likely. It’s so thought provoking that a leftover presence/influence of what is literally an inter-dimensional cosmic horror of a viral infection, once revolutionised by human science and logic, resembled the function of what they were supposed to infect and exploit, till it dies… that’s what the Combine presence is doing to earth. A virus that functions like a collective body, sucking a planet dead and dry… risking a deadly infection trying to extract a crucial technology, from something so uncertain and complex, unlike anything the immune system is used to… that’s why they were so brutal in their oppression. removing humanities ability to reproduce, yet the resistance, backed by higher forces could still topple the entire thing… Gordon would be that final nail in the coffin…) The goal to allow humanity to live on so that they could develop local teleportation is what made the Combine ghostly presence on Earth to reconsider some slow & indecisive process.. it’s very clear that the Combine itself is either very unmotivated/careless or unable to commit a heavy process on Earth to extract this alleged local teleportation… probably both. it’s possible the Combine views Earth as a side project handled by a satellite/ghost presence to undertake the slow extraction, given very slim resources to work with… like as if the Combine influence on Earth is really really hard to maintain on Earth, so the larger Combine body would rather focus on other things in its expansion… perhaps the Combine expansion is so large and distant from the Earth frontier that There wasn’t much focus or care for the operation on Earth, and many resources wouldn’t be needed to undertake the process to extract an alleged technology. I personally think the Combine for some reason swept Earth aside in negligence of any real effort to maintain the underfunded outpost, and just gave out the resources that they did for the assumed chance of extracting a critical technology. Back to the main subject. the Combine before Earth probably didn’t even use the concept of fielding a common symbols, since they were probably an inter-dimnsional horde of evolving, synthetic invaders that were more virus-like (that probably looked insect-like than anything else) than a hyper-organized, A.I driven force that resulted of the Combines contact with human logic and technology on Earth.

[@whyyes6429]

@@StalinSpokeYiddish this was actually really interesting, now i want more info on the combine before earth.., how their society functioned before arriving on earth. i think the rtb book proposes a really good theory for it.

[@planesofrealitymusic547]

Its even worse when you learn that all the citadels on earth (at least 24), were dropped from the sky through the portal storms all over the earth at the same time. Not only is dropping a 2 mile high building like a bomb a devastating kinetic attack, the citadels then erupted billions of synths and robots to assimilate everything, and they did this everywhere on the planet. There was no defensive choke point, no corridor to build through defences, earth was blindsided from all directions at once and genocided into submission. The combine you see in game is no more than a tiny security team performing counter-insurection. Earth is of so little value that the combine dont even keep their own soldiers there, they just recruit from the local population instead, just like real life when america sends "advisors" to recruit locals for counter-terrorism and maintain order without hardly any of their own resources. Thats why the advisors are called advisors in-game ;) theoretically they arent even high ranking members themselves, makes you wonder how far up the ladder goes.

[@dkkanofkash8798]

I LOVE how the Combine Soldier is introduced as more of a super soldier compared to the regular human CP cops. There’s honestly nothing better than these beautiful Half Life SFMs.

[@drantosilver3531]

The Combine commandos like the one here are pretty much super soldier tbh. Modified and programmed to fight, donning enough armor to shrug off most small arms, inhuman strength, reflex and durability. And yet they are just the local militants of the Combine, and not the main forces that defeated Earth in 7 hours. No wonder why only our main characters can stand a chance against them.

[@libertyprime1614]

Now imagine how scary is Gordon Freeman.

[@mishaalkisan1688]

They pretty much are - Combine soldiers are modified cyborgs. Your average combine soldier will probably have little issue overpowering the average man.

[@eternal7912]

Yeah, people give the Overwatch soldiers shit for their AI and gameplay, but I've always thought that realistically, they would be quite formidable. More machine than man, with little in the way of emotion, and combat training programmed into their brain. They would be terrifying, not to mention the alien weaponry they use. I mean that plasma shotgun puts any real hand held gun to shame in terms of destructive power.

[@shadowteam9943]

OTA are supersoldiers technically.

[@denizs.9619]

I love how the guy just stands frozen at the end, shaken with adrenaline, still comprehending he is alive and managed to take down the thicc combine

[@alexanderveiluva115]

For those that don't know Tom is obviously the cat. (2:37) I actually emailed Parry God directly, and he told me the next film is about Tom and Tattoo escaping by teleporter to the G-Man's party mansion and the Combine isn't allowed in cos they're fucking nerds.

[@TheParryGod]

Aww man, I wanted to keep it a secret.

[@alexanderveiluva115]

@@TheParryGod Hahaha for real tho these are incredible, man.

[@ish2008]

E

[@CRT_YT]

Stray 2: Combine Forces

[@GramdalftheOff-White]

I still have nightmares about that cat

[@xxfalconarasxx5659]

I like the little detail at 4:16 showing that rebel's shotgun is loaded with slugs rather than buckshot. Buckshot has low penetration power, and would do very little against the heavy body armour that the Spikewall is wearing, so it makes sense to use a denser and more stable round.

[@FootOfOrion]

Slugs aren’t that great at penetrating compared to something like most rifle calibers, but it’s still the best they’ve got. Good catch.

[@xxfalconarasxx5659]

@@FootOfOrion I know, but he's not using a rifle, or at least not THAT kind of rifle (the shotgun might be rifled though), so slug rounds are probably the best thing available given the weapon he has. The rest of the rebels have pistol caliber weapons, and the one guy with an assault rifle was the first to die, so the guy with the shotgun was really their best chance.

[@kmsk1999]

@@xxfalconarasxx5659 btw that shotgun guy looks like the last survivor from Anti-Citizen. same model, and have the same tattoos on his face.

[@user-xh8df9oz4y]

​@XLINE Ye it's the same dude

[@deusvult6229]

The shotgun round looks unusual. Considering we've seen the shotgun guy earlier in Anti-Citizens, he must have took it from the Combine Charger and that's why it worked against the heavily armored soldier

[@cheezkid2689]

Did NOT expect this to be so violent. God, the screams as that one rebel had his arm blown off were visceral. Absolutely love it. 10/10 work, as usual.

[@TREX_04]

I loved that scene too! The violence is on point👌 The second shot going through the wall and making a bigger hole also shows that the soldier takes no prisoners and instead makes sure everyone in his wake is dead.

[@UnknownOps]

Reminds me of sandstorm, the groans, screams and cries of your enemies is a sudden break from the carnage and gunfight that makes the game a fantastic one.

[@pixleplays305]

@@UnknownOps are you refering to insurgency: sandstorm or something else?

[@UnknownOps]

@@pixleplays305 yep, I’m referring to Insurgency Sandstorm

[@milolev7243]

The camera angles the colour correction the expected door switch the close ups mise en scene and cinematography is outstanding, top notch high quality stuff.

[@BakkuIa]

Love the contrast at the beginning in the transport. Both CP's are fidgeting and restless. The Combine unit is unmoving. He's not human. The CP's scream "NO!" when they're about to die, and the Combine shuts down like a dying machine.

[@transitcombine9057]

Es interesante como saben antes de la operación, en qué casos ya saben cuándo van a ganar y cuando van a perder 💀

[@Jack_I5]

I just realized an amazing detail, the shotgun unit tries to use his manhack when the rebels start to hide in the rooms at: 6:24 but it doesn't work and he puts it back, forcing him to find them on his own. If it didn't break, he would probably force the rebels out with it and stay in the hallway waiting. Incredible attention to detail and great video!

[@galmax2000]

at that point he deserviced his manhack and threw it to off floor relocation

[@tj8097]

This is literally on Valve's production levels and I'm not hyperbolizing. Amazing work

[@DesolateLavender]

I'd say it's even a level above what Valve did in HL:A.

[@m.t.amassteamingarmy7710]

Yeah life this is not valve lebel its beyond and far ahead

[@JJSnake]

Valve doesn't even do cutscenes. This is beyond them.

[@nsv8613]

Valve don't really understand how dark the world they have created is. They make the characters too cheerful for a world where there is practically no hope for a better future. Here the atmosphere is nailed perfectly.

[@user-sx7rt4ly1l]

​@@nsv8613 They understand all things perfectly, they just dilute the atmosphere and do not want to Half Life turned into a horror.

[@ColonialFungus]

What gets me the most are the moans and grunts of the soldier in the last fight. Right after the "Its safe" line the absolute inhuman sound of the vocodor just turns the whole scene into a horror movie. Very well done.

[@thegrayseed2792]

I like how it also sounds like agonal breathing considering how Combine Soldiers looks like more like a corpse.

[@bshap495]

I think it would've been a lot creepier if the soldier was able to use it's vocoder to mimic a normal human voice, only to have it distort on the last couple of words.

[@ultmateragnarok8376]

The way you can't tell, when it turns to shoot the rebel with the MP5, whether the sound it's making is agonized grunts from the bullets, sounds of exertion from moving with that damage being dealt to it, or just expression of anger at being attacked and interrupted during a transmission - there's not enough there to determine what it's thinking. It's impossible to read, making it only the more uncanny and inhuman.

[@TheGreegles]

His breathing sounds like it's being done through multiple plastic tubes. It's super fitting, kudos to the sound designer(s)

[@comradpingu5745]

@@thegrayseed2792 combine soldiers can't talk normally anyway, their vocal cords are linked directly to their radio to still be able to talk even while being out of breathe (since there's no air in their sentences, they don't have a recognizable voice between themselves)

[@jeefberky9101]

I think if I ever had a complaint playing Half-Life, it's that the enemies never felt particularly threatening in gameplay, but in this? Just the impact of that soldier's boots when he ran made him menacing, and the punch of that gun? Goddamn. Well done.

[@transitcombine9057]

Well, combine shooter a less is a amenazar.

[@AParticularlyConcernedCitizen]

Play on hard, you'll stop believing that.

[@ETIL_]

2:08 I love how the augmented combine soldier still accepts a nod as an answer.

[@gyrtiasnecrotaros4710]

I mean it would make sense for Combine Overwatch units to make use of non-verbal communication like nodding and handsigns Makes it very usefull if the combine wants to sneak in somewhere or coordinate a silent ambush It's already a tried and true method irl so for the combine it makes total sense

[@ETIL_]

@@gyrtiasnecrotaros4710 True, you can even see the soldiers in HL2 doing hand signals.

[@wll1500]

Nonverbal communication is super important in any military setting. You can see the soldier doing a hand signal at 4:38 to tell the CPs to stack up at the door

[@Srpski_inat1984]

Interesting perspective

[@strydertallini]

After-all, just because they're augmented doesnt mean they're stupid

[@John-uw2je]

I just realized the parallel between the two shotgunners. Both experience professionals, leading a group of newbies.

[@five6122]

Holy shit your right

[@user-xh8df9oz4y]

Dude I'm glad you pointed that out, that's actually a really cool detail.

[@agentburningbutters3655]

You are a certified Valve fan for understanding this

[@ethanton7074]

The sheer fear of the CPU at 5:41, and the repeating "NO, NO NO NO NO!" shows how Human the CPU are. He values his life, to an extent that he begs to not die.

[@TheParryGod]

Glad my voice performance sold the moment, haha.

[@oilyboy7243]

@@TheParryGod Absolutely amazing my guy

[@PCBoi2005]

no, nono NONONO- wait wait wait.. WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT D:

[@PhamvanDong]

A bit misleading when you refer to the civil protection as CPU, considering how combine soldiers are humans that actually operate with a combine CPU (computer chip) inside their brain. Civil protection being regular humans are referred to as just CP.

[@TheParryGod]

1, We don't know what's inside the head of a combine soldier so what you're saying is pure speculation. 2, I wouldn't think a singular person will get confused by the comment as computer parts can't scream in fear to my knowledge. @@PhamvanDong

[@LambdaDerg]

I love how "anti-protectors" this is. i love the difference that calm tension that Patient Zero has, and the action packed tension that Protectors has. And also the contrasting story aspect. Protectors: The Combine show up, the rebels are unprepared, The Combine catch the rebels off guard, and they all get easily picked off until they're all dead. Patient Zero: The Combine still show up, the rebels are very prepared, they catch The Combine off guard, and manage to kill the last remaining Combine Soldier. This is genuine art.

[@TDOPB]

Honestly, I think if the Protectors rebels were prepared, they could've won, no casualties. There weren't any nigh-unkillable death gods in the squad that time, unlike here. Just speculation, though.

[@LambdaDerg]

@@TDOPB i completely agree with that. If only the Protectors crew had destroyed that scanner, they wouldn't have been wiped out

[@set3980]

It's like poetry. It rhymes.

[@noone3363]

When the rebel with the pistol is being shot at you can see he wears old military fatigues. 6:45 There is a БНА patch on his arm, which was the Bulgarian National Army (During the communist regime). Now that's some amazing detail!

[@TheParryGod]

First comment pointing it out I belive. Good eye!

[@noone3363]

@@TheParryGod And thank you sir for the great animations! They are unworldly! Thank you so much for the recognition of Bulgaria too!

[@crismaster7498]

@@TheParryGod Which furthers my belief that city 17 is in Sofia Bulgaria!

[@TheParryGod]

It is set in a fictionalized version of Sofia. The map of HL:A is almost a 1:1 copy of a section of the city.@@crismaster7498

[@crismaster7498]

@@TheParryGod Thanks I didn't know that. I have heard a lot of counters to that like the 7 Days newspapers that say there are local are in Russian and the languages are very different from Bulgarian and almost unintelligible. I do not know if it is a mistake by valve but after all it is a fictional city. Great video though and I am still finding new details everytime I rewatch them.

[@DrHotelMario]

The way this ended so abruptly makes me realize how badly I want a Half-Life movie.

[@jackdaniels5071]

Or even a TV show

[@littlefrank90]

@@jackdaniels5071 OR ANYTHING THAT IS CONTENT, I LOVE THIS UNIVERSE I NEED TO KNOW MORE!

[@themechbuilder6171]

@@littlefrank90 even a third game if that's too much to ask for

[@OneFreeMan17]

No you don’t. They’ll absolutely ruin it by making Gordon a transgender black person

[@themechbuilder6171]

​@@OneFreeMan17oh yeah, i forgot about the *MODERN AUDIENCES*

[@SilentAMV14]

As soon as I saw the civil protection body language being so good in the armored car I knew this would be another masterpiece, they are all nervous except for the soldier, showing his lack of humanity due to the modifications to which soldiers are subjected, the scenery and the action felt so real, and so brutal holy damn! Makes you realize how scary the Half-Life Universe truly would be... When you are not Gordon Freeman of course

[@jasperzanovich2504]

And now imagine you are beeing sent against Anticitizen One. He already took out several squads of soldiers without breaking a sweat, what the fuck are you going to do?

[@m.t.amassteamingarmy7710]

Ofcourse not freeman with a metal stick

[@mrm1987]

Couldn't agree more!

[@blu4390]

@@jasperzanovich2504 realistically? Shoot him with a pulse round and he bleeds to death since they are insanely powerful and human tech that isn’t the size of an APC wouldn’t do shit to stop it.

[@durackhie1089]

I don’t know if someone wrote about it. I wildly liked the fact that the shots of shootings and ambushes are very realistic, you can feel the weight of the characters, that they carry weight when they want to run up, there is no crazy dynamics like in the game itself, even such a trifle as juggling the shotgun bolt catches and you really believe in what is happening, it's real magic. Dude, I think you should be paid money to make a movie in this universe.

[@Kazuyamuchi]

Bro Ur a bot ??

[@durackhie1089]

@@Kazuyamuchi yes

[@barberiusz6119]

One thing I absolutely love about this is how the camera, movement and sound make everything that happens in the screen have weight. Like combine soldier running felt like this guy weights a tone and the way he speaks, the first second you see spikewell you know you would be fucked if he's directive was to neutralise you

[@zefft.f4010]

I really like how, in the vehicle, Spikewall is just sitting there. The metrocops have their nervous ticks, if he were more human that probably would've annoyed him - but he's completely unphased, it's inconsequential. Only the mission directive matters, other things barely even register. It's details like this that make your work a cut above.

[@perskarva123]

I also noticed that.

[@user-CPU-APF]

He have his orders, and that is matters, since failure is leading to utilisation of failed unit and rebuilding him. So he is not gonna rest till work is done.

[@Freelancer837]

Yeah, I always love when SFM animators show off the difference between the Metro Cops (who are just people in the suits) and the other Combine Soldiers who have actually been "upgraded" by the combine

[@Daniel_Lancelin]

@@Freelancer837 Yeah, that's why I really enjoyed the police station segment from the beginning of Entropy Zero 2; it was cool just seeing what these guys get up to when they aren't out on duty.

[@zameilo]

bro sitting like the fucking black ops logos

[@leadbed7263]

I noticed after watching Anti-citizens that the shotgunner is the same guy with the CP mark on his foreheard and that he's wearing Wallhammer's chestplate. Love the attention to detail, makes him seem much more like a badass seeing him survive.

[@klv8037]

Wait it's the same guy? Goddamn bro survived like 3 videos now lmao

[@MinersLoveGames]

Yeah, I noticed that too! I love these little bits of continuity between the videos. Makes it feel that much more alive.

[@eyesack6845]

I don't think It's wallhammers chestplate. Wallhammer was way too big for that. Looks more like an ordinal's chestplate. Also we see that he gets captured after anti-citizens in one of his other videos, so if he took it from wallhammer it would have been confiscated. The ordinal chestplate would have to have been acquired after he escapes custody.

[@unavela]

Man's bloody tough then, surviving overwhelming odds with no protective suit nor protection from a superior being is very impressive

[@typhoonn3478]

@@eyesack6845 didn't they turn him into a stalker? I saw a hint of it in the same video where he was being beaten up by the CP

[@TrashHowitzer]

I adore this. Also I'm a huge gun nerd and the showcase of early rebels using real surplus or civilian firearms against the juggernaut that is the combine is a concept I have always wanted explored and this is even better than I could have imagined. BRAVO

[@localqueergoblin7486]

One of my favorite details of the short is the brutality of the weapon the soldier uses and his wheezing through the helmet as he runs through the building, hunting the rebels. It's almost as if he's pushing his body to the limit every time he runs in armor that is extremely bulky and heavy. Love your animations, man

[@wll1500]

I don't think it's exertion so much as it is pain from the multiple wounds he's sustained by that point

[@orbit692]

his armor deflected all of the bullets. dont think if he had any pain@@wll1500

[@AM1-supreme]

That upgraded Charger shotgun now has 0.00001% the power of a SPAS-12 in the hands of a shotgunner from Half-Life 2

[@MenachemSchmuel]

by the time hl2 happens they've taken all the actual good stuff offworld to fight other wars, leaving only what they thought was necessary to hold earth

[@azhydx]

@@MenachemSchmuel we all know that spikewall's shotgun ain't nothing against HEV Suit

[@naturesquad9174]

@@MenachemSchmuel woosh

[@MenachemSchmuel]

@@naturesquad9174 you dont know what a woosh is

[@eyesack6845]

@@naturesquad9174 That isn't a whoosh

[@shamWOOHOO22]

Even after taking a slug to the eye, it still went down slowly. Honestly some of the scariest monstrosities that I've ever respected.

[@weirdgamer9566]

to be fair they're literally made to be mostly robot with limited sentience for creativity, so it's gonna take some punishment for it to go down and its easier to armor

[@user-CPU-APF]

@@weirdgamer9566 They are not being more robotic in reactions, not slower, but much more faster, augmentation was supposed to make them less humane, no sense of fear, sorrow, or doubts, clean serving of orders, also the elite combines, as we're said in lore, can be respawned via mind keeping shit in citadel or elsewhere. Also part of the augmentation is biotic other is mechanical, they are not cyborgs or mutants, they are very good combination of it, machine and flesh. They still eat and drink since they operating as organic being, what Is more confusing how working synthetic airships, drons and striders?

[@Liquid_Biscuit]

I believe that most ( if not all ) combine soldiers and up are vat grown with personalities imprinted on them from successful soldiers that were either captured or turned collaborator during the first years of occupation, once the combine got what they thought they needed from the planet they exported most acquired assets offworld to fight in their multiversal wars, after that, they subjected the remaining humans to a slow and painful extinction

[@thedemolitionsexpertsledge5552]

I’m not sure if anyone else picked this up, but at 1:15 (when the transport stops and the protection team disembarks), the two CPs consciously move to minimise the force of exiting the raised carrier (crouching down, bracing against the metal, etc.) which seems like a very human action. Meanwhile, the Spikewall just steps out and takes the drop without any visible reaction. Another very subtle detail highlighting the complete lack of humanity in the higher ranks of OTA soldiers.

[@MrSHURIKENCHO]

Or he just cant bend over because of all that armor... Some of you guys are reading way too deep into these scenes lol

[@thedemolitionsexpertsledge5552]

@@MrSHURIKENCHO yes that is also true

[@MrSHURIKENCHO]

@@user-oj1zr7wx9z people in any fandom do it, but these videos are full of comments with people not knowing what int he fk they are even trying to imply. Just trying to be seen as "observant" or something

[@transitcombine9057]

​@@MrSHURIKENCHOyeah

[@thedemolitionsexpertsledge5552]

@@MrSHURIKENCHO honestly that’s fair

[@isvuswright4882]

One detail I really liked about this is just how heavy the soldier is. He towers over the CPUs, he's wearing heavy plate armor, and it shows in how he moves. He doesn't change direction quickly when running, he breaks down a door just by body-slamming it, his footsteps shake the camera, and he takes shot after shot at close range without ever being knocked off balance. He takes a slug to the back almost at point blank, and he STUMBLES. The only thing that really knocked him down was dying.

[@DJTachanka]

HOLY SHIT! That was SO brutal. Amazing job as usual, really showed the reality and brutality of what Half-Life is.

[@Poltard]

Guess you can say… its a HALF life.

[@aunusuallylargecat1779]

War is brutal over all hell we don't even need plasma weapons to do some wild shit. This mans animation skill and audio creation is amazing!

[@Armin2012]

Imagine the HL2 city uprising with this level of carnage

[@KorianHUN]

I wish i had 4 people I know having free time at the same time. This short would be so much fun to do in live action.

[@warriorzpath]

@@Armin2012doom music

[@redi5674]

6:18 bro whoever did that scream after getting hit with a shotgun nailed it. it felt too real.

[@Hanfgurkenhasser]

Sent fucking shivers down my spine. Brutal.

[@redi5674]

@@Hanfgurkenhasser agreed my brother. agreed.

[@warsaw9657]

Definitely

[@contrast_editing]

It sounds like Tyler1 :D

[@polarisborealis4143]

@@contrast_editing tyler 1 should play half life alyx, i think it would make for some funny moments, especially when fighting Jeff

[@marcusangelomunoz756]

Dude the sheer PUNCH of the Spikewall's bullets is so damn sexy. Every shot fired pierces every plywood wall sending a piece of raw unfiltered "FUCK YOU" energy to whoever is sorry enough to be in the Spikewall's line of sight. The scene where he just spams the shotgun through the wall suppressing the rebel as much as he can, its so brutal. I LOVE IT.

[@MarcoAdventures]

Damn I should've used my main to comment this, oh well.

[@thebusiness8212]

"Attention Hostile Targets you can come out now it's safe..." *Persuasion 1*

[@Chad-Rainis]

I love everything about the Shotgunner here. Like a monster. Those noises it made when dying would fit right in a Little Nightmares game.

[@awsomewolfman124]

Made him sound like nothing more than a dying beast, lacking any humanity whatsoever.

[@tomasmonzon207]

And the weapon blast sound is extremely well done, really feels like it packs a punch. got ptsd from that thing just from watching the video

[@CRMSN_RDR]

It feels weird though because for me I rooted for the combine here there the bad guys yeah but it feels good to see the combine military win since there usually made a mockery of.

[@davidintrabartolo5887]

I like how the CP submachine gun at 0:50 and the Rebel shotgun at 4:44 have the same nervous tick. They're both human.

[@ultmateragnarok8376]

It's nice symmetry as well - they're both stuck in the same situation on opposite sides of this. The Combine forced it to be this way, but while one of them joined and the other rebelled, neither can really change anything.

[@tragile9108]

Nice catch

[@PurpleCh4lk]

@@ultmateragnarok8376 Well said.

[@ammielmarcos4947]

Child po-

[@Hanger087]

​@@ammielmarcos4947not funny

[@Dom-um6gi]

I both LOVE and HATE that the camera cuts away from Tom RIGHT as the Soldier fires the last blast at him, and then right after Shotgun kills Soldier and calls out to Tom, the scene ends. After seeing the brutality and gore of how the other's death, it's so gut-wrenching with concern over if Tom made it or is horribly wounded or dead 😢

[@secktuss9610]

we only heard one shot, so tom is still alive.

[@NygesOverlord]

Absolutely incredible work! I just can't stop watching your animations! Please keep it up! I'm an animator as well, and your content has inspired me to try my hand at a Half-Life animation as well sometime :)

[@TheParryGod]

Thank you so much for the kind words and the support! Glad to hear these had such an impact on you. Good luck with your future projects!

[@thebiggerboat3236]

I love how, as Spikewall gets more injured, he continuously makes audible noises of agony that sound so painful that you'd think it'd be enough to give him pause or some physical hinderance. Yet, due to how utterly modified his body is, he is completely divorced from any human sense of bodily preservation and instead continues to push the enemy no matter what. He vocalizes his debilitating injuries, but his body is completely removed from it as if the two were entirely different beings.

[@lmao.3661]

(human) pitbull

[@theroyle7098]

is this short acted or fully animated? - its so good I can't intuitively tell

[@thebiggerboat3236]

@@theroyle7098 Animated lol

[@strelis6615]

Also he was panting at 6:53

[@GameReview-el4uj]

Hello! Have you seen the trailer for the new game? kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z4POln6Gipaig8U

[@littlefrank90]

Absolutely fantastic. Very lore-friendly. 6:35 "Attention hostiles targets, you can come out now, it is safe" is a classic thing the combine would say, soldiers try to trick you into thinking they are friendly many times in both Half Life 2 and Alyx.

[@sgt.eclair]

They don't in HL2, only Alyx.

[@ThatOneCWhite]

ngl even if he really meant it, the voice would be scary enough to keep me hiding lmao

[@Journey_Awaits]

It’s probably a phrase they are programmed to say when they lose sight, a creepy machine trying to imitate behaviour but failing from never bothering to be sincere p.

[@naturesquad9174]

@@sgt.eclair the hgrunts actually do in HL1 through the VOX announcement system

[@thesauceguy1809]

@@naturesquad9174 Those are humans though tbf

[@Equinox226]

The wheezing in Spikewalls voice adds so much for such a small detail. It really makes it sound like his organic vocal cords really are intertwined with the augmentations, beautiful touch.

[@LazzyQ]

This video is simply a masterpiece, I've never seen anything like this on KZbin.

[@TheParryGod]

That's quite the praise, haha. Thank you. Very glad you enjoyed it.

[@LazzyQ]

@@TheParryGod It's really divine, we are waiting for more similar content!

[@Horny_Fruit_Flies]

Damn, what a massacre. You're basically the best SFM Half-Life animator on the internet. I dream of a world where Valve hires you to make a movie 🥺

[@alexpiekarczyk501]

A movie for the new installment of the hl series would be amazing

[@lucjanpakulski1083]

I hope they don't based on what happened to Syama Pedersen's "Astartes Project" after being hired by Games Workshop. Dead silence 💀

[@Horny_Fruit_Flies]

@@lucjanpakulski1083 GeeDubs sucks, and has a bad anti-fandom reputation. I have less distrust for Volvo

[@joseffranz3872]

@@Horny_Fruit_Flies This, Valve as a company is very hands off. The exact opposite of GW which puts mandates on what mods can be on the Total War workshop.

[@Hyde-dg7ef]

@@lucjanpakulski1083 nah they wont. valve isnt like gw in that respect. source: look at all of the sfms that exist. in fact, source film maker is valve's tool for making their trailer animations yet look at how valve was like here, we'll give you our tools for free, now go ham.

[@_dusklo]

As someone who's only been on film sets IRL, I have such a massive appreciation for these worlds that you create. The fidelity of the map-making and model design is astonishing. But, as a bit of a camera nerd, what I really love is how you've emulated the look of an anamorphic lens with the slight distortion and softening of the image on the sides of the frame. This has definitely helped inspire me to make screenplays and films set in the Half-Life universe. Great work!

[@noah.2B]

Man this is so fucking sick. The sheer intensity of the power and force from the Combine soldier's shotgun is absolutely brutal, every single shot holy fuck. _This_ is exactly how intense I want the Combine to be portrayed. Cold, efficient, militant, and very very lethal. Everything felt nice and weighty, solid and heavy. They exude so much strength in this raw, horrifyingly-cruel brutality. Absolutely perfect.

[@jimboslam]

Just shows how utterly helpless the resistance must have felt. That much energy to take 3 CPs and a soldier.

[@user-CPU-APF]

One mine killed only two of CP units, while 3-rd "Respawned", Spike only lost his manhack drone, barely give a shit to any shot he received, only thing that actually hurt him was the slug shell that was directly shoted at his eye, and still, if he was a bit more durable or wound less lethal, that guy would be another bloodstains on dust covered floor.

[@drantosilver3531]

@@user-CPU-APF Imagine two Spikewall soldiers like him. *shudder* This rebel squad only fought a literal patrol team yet lose 3/5 (or 4/5 even, given the silence at the end) of it's members. And not even a full team, they were taken out by a single, lone, soldier. Really hammered the fact that if the Combine wanted the rest of mankind dead, they would have done that already.

[@VGLounge]

I like the line" Why is there *a soldier* with them?" They already knew a single soldier is a serious issue

[@user-CPU-APF]

@@VGLounge An regular soldier, not the elit or heavy armd one! They would just get the hell out of there.

[@slambler6702]

This is why Gordon Freeman is built differently

[@SadFace201]

I wish Combine mines were introduced earlier in the game before you had the gravity gun so that you actually had to avoid them rather than just use them as ammunition. This scene actually does the mines justice---they're an even more horrific version of the bouncing betty. The rebels had to use risk their lives unearthing the mines and hacking into them while Gordon just has to flick his gravity gun at it.

[@padmanabhanvaidyanathan7182]

The same with those roller mines - without the gravity gun you actually have no way of getting rid of them.

[@lick3227]

Well when it came to the hoppers u could just easily dispose of them with a few shots, which is how I dealt with them because I was too lazy to pull out the gg

[@joseocasio3740]

​@@padmanabhanvaidyanathan7182you can get rid of em with explosives in my first playthrough of half life I did not know that the grav gun could pick up roller mines so I used grenades to destroy them

[@N3gativeR3FLUX]

​@@padmanabhanvaidyanathan7182and you can let them bounce off you until they hit water, in gmod I found out water can destroy them.

[@diegodunn-humphrey512]

I would have added them in water hazard

[@normietwiceremoved]

This is fucking astonishing quality for a fan made movie. Seriously, this is seriously high quality, and I don't mean the animation and graphics only. I mean the editing, voice acting, sound design, cinematography, lighting. This is seriously fucking good.

[@OliBob-dr8ji]

shows how scary the combine is to the resistant if you're not in a orange magic pyjamas also 6:10 the brutality! amazing video

[@danielebraccio2474]

This dude is truly mastering what telling a compelling story in a short format is.

[@craftyearthythe2nd]

The manhack failing to make the turn in the hallway caught me off-guard. That shotgun to the head was as brutal as the critical headshot in RE2 Remake.

[@TheParryGod]

That head model is actually from RE3 remake. Not sure if it's a reused one from RE2 but probably.

[@craftyearthythe2nd]

@@TheParryGod I was close, nice choice of head models, good sir.

[@kodiak4594]

ATTENTION HOSTILE TARGETS. YOU CAN COME OUT NOW. YOU WILL BE SAFE.

[@Farneevich]

IT WAS DONE VERY COOL. God, the sounds, the animation. Everything is at the highest level! You guys have done an amazing job. I wish half life 2 would look so serious.

[@dextergrif]

You ever see a fan project that’s so good you consider it canon? Yeah. This is one of those.

[@johnconnor7501]

This is fan made? 😢 I wanted this to be a real game coming out soon

[@SomeKindaSpy]

Oh same. Literally everything theparrygod has made is canon in my mind.

[@Mroziukz]

@@johnconnor7501 huh?

[@angelofiron4366]

Valve should hire him! Perrygod gonna be the next Marc Laidlaw.

[@oligb1469]

Spikewall is the perfect "enforcer" character he's big, imposing, well armed and worst of all extremely well trained. Just an amazing character!

[@gront5172]

Yeah, idk if spikewall is a canon since this is the only time i had ever seen one but it seems to be a wall hammer combined with an ordinal. It has the heavy shotgun but uses cells instead of shells(kinda like the ar1 ordinals uses but a shotgun), Has access to manhack(s), decently mobile, seems to be the Squad leader, good armor(except the head). But minus the shield of WH.

[@dr.gorgeous]

@@gront5172 I believe its meant to be a more HL2 like version of the Wallhammer, so like a newer model after HLA.

[@gront5172]

@@dr.gorgeous the time this animation is set in is a year after the events of HL:A (but probably different time line). So it would make sense.

[@stefanschleps8758]

Is this part of some game? Ancient geek here. A little help?

[@dr.gorgeous]

@Stefan Schleps The half life franchise

[@Lemonke-dr3do]

this is the coolest half life s2fm short i've ever seen. It also looks like it was filled like a movie.

[@buellxb5362]

and this is why you dont skip leg day...

[@Skynet5885]

Well the humans can't. Combine don't have to worry about that, they are bioengineered to no longer need leg day. This is why the rebels are doomed without Freeman or at least without Hazard Suits.

[@Space_CowboyHD]

I LOVED the touch of having the manhack come around the corner too fast and bump into the wall! These are always so brutal, love how gritty it all is.

[@unkn0wnz0ne]

Yeah that was so badass. And how half of it sort of lags behind as it turns. Really brilliantly done

[@samuelspry6955]

You gotta have balls of steel to fight the combine, and Freeman kills those soldiers with a crowbar. That suit of his is incredible.

[@arthurchadwell9267]

I think it must be a prototype of the MJOLNIR armor the Master Chief uses later.

[@matthewjones39]

@@arthurchadwell9267Fun fact: Not every game is connected to eachother.

[@shaeby8123]

@@matthewjones39 Is joke

[@matthewjones39]

@@shaeby8123 :(

[@keithRice-wn7et]

@@matthewjones39He’s right, you know.

[@hassanedvvn]

its actually insane how perfect this short, and others from TheParryGod are. The vocoder for the soldier and CPs is spot on, you can feel the weight of the soldier and manhack as they manoeuvre around, the animations and the events feel natural and realistic. each camera shot and angle felt like it had a purpose, each line from every character felt so fitting. There is no one who comes even close to your work. I'm dumbfounded. i've always wanted valve to release a full HL2 movie, and you have succeeded my expectations. absolutely ridiculous! please tell me you plan on making more!

[@emoboy9131]

I just noticed how the hands of the man with the shotgun were shaking when he fired the last shot. It's just an amazing job to the little details that make you believe in what is happening. Keep up the good work !!

[@tenacityxl]

I absolutely love the fact that the rebels in your videos get a wider variety of weapons than they do in the games. Really hammers home the fact that no matter what we use, the combine are just way stronger than us.

[@yume5338]

Right? I immediately noticed the AKS-74U, it would make sense there would be quite a collection of Soviet arms in City 17, as most reference sources for the art team were straight from Sofia, Bulgaria, a country that was a very loyal satellite state to the USSR. Their army consisted of almost all Soviet equipment even by the 7 hour war.

[@Akane4121]

not to mention the different between height of the CP and the Combine solider.

[@dkskcjfjswwwwwws413]

unless youre alyx and have more plot armor than barney in blue shift

[@TheParryGod]

@@dkskcjfjswwwwwws413 The games would be quite infuriating if they played like real life. They are power fantasies.

[@dkskcjfjswwwwwws413]

@@TheParryGod grai+ diabolical mode proves that

[@z4g4n5]

It's scary to even think about how destructive elite soldiers encounter would be.

[@galmax2000]

cant wait for that one!

[@kairoward7738]

That combine soldier was an special unit

[@hcpsmansdddeglm]

elites are not canon to HL:A i think

[@bl4ckrabb1t]

@@hcpsmansdddeglm ok, so? This is clearly an elite, he has a skull insignia

[@large-turkey]

​@@bl4ckrabb1the isn't an Elite Soldier, pretty sure he's a Spike Wall unit

[@pandill0]

The sheer difference between this and SFM is ridiculous and I am very hopeful that this is the future of source films in general. Simply outstanding.

[@RutlandChronicle-ts5vx]

Man I love your sfm stuff. It's got this real-world gritttiness to it that just fits so perfectly with half life. The shot composition is so visually striking while still feeling completely candid (I really liked your use of center framing) and the action, particularly the deaths, are so quick and unceremonious that after killing thousands of combine playing hl2, it kinda slapped me in the face with the notion that I am in fact, NOT Gordon Freeman, and that I wouldn't last a second gainst the Combine. Genuinely hope you keep making these. I feel like it's doing for Half Life what Astartes did for 40k

[@pigeonpigeon3249]

I love how at 6:16, after the combine soldier gets shot, he recoils at first before groaning and locking his shoulders to fire. It really makes the combine seem human, as he gets spooked by the sudden gunfire before getting angry and smoking the rebel. It’s those types of little details that I love. Also, whoever voiced the rebel who gets his arm blown off is an amazing voice actor, from him shouting to get away to him just screaming so convincingly.

[@DolphinsAreWeird]

I don't think it was angry, due to having everything non-combat related removed from it so emotions would be removed too. It's probably just its body being pumped up with drugs to increase movement speed, awareness, and reflexes so the body has to compensate with harder breathing.

[@OckhamAsylum]

@@DolphinsAreWeird Or he just got the wind knocked out of him. I mean, shit hurts.

[@DasterTheStalker]

spikewall does not seem too human, you should look at its general body shape at the beginning where its visible from all sides and the joints when it walks

[@OGSnoberry]

If you run it back frame by frame, at 6:18 when it zooms up to Spikewall before he locks his shoulders and engages the MP5 rebel, you can see blood spurting from gunshot wounds in his lower and upper back. I think the recoiling/hunching was from pain before his biobag got painkillers and stimulants into him.

[@thething1563]

@@DolphinsAreWeird While the Transhuman soldiers' humanity is heavily suppressed, it still exists to some degree. In the game Alyx, the soldiers can all laugh out of sadism. In Half Life 2, the soldiers can panic and are apparently affected by speeches if that one speech by Breen in Nova Prospeckt indicates anything. The Universal Union may change a lot of an individual, but at a certain point, it's just not feasible to remove all of a subject's humanity, assuming they could at all. It's probably ideal to at least retain a few human traits for optimal performance while suppressing the other ones.

[@VaatiVidya]

You're on another level man. Props to everyone who worked on this. Amazing suspense in this episode!

[@bartoszmachula8927]

I'm friends with one of the rebels, I have to say I am so proud of him. Very good job throughout! Splendid!

[@darkmatteracid2353]

Hi vaati

[@scottdula2631]

I need more...this was just too good...

[@techpreist8396]

seeing you here is a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one

[@IceglowQ]

Bruh ain't no way

[@Creekbed_art]

I love the chilling quiet after the combine falls, and Tom not responding really evokes the feeling of shock and sudden isolation from how quickly everything and everyone fell

[@ozvoid1245]

These videos make me think if valve still made SFM shorts in an alternate timeline where they made them for Half-Life too. This is some really professional work!

[@smokeMKII]

6:44 You can feel the desperation of that person and the brutality of the combines here at the same time. This short film is simply spectacular, I have no words to describe it. I stopped dreaming a Half-Life movie would exist a long time ago but the with the last tf2 movie and others animationes like this are giving me that hope back!

[@notlone7721]

What tf2 movie?

[@notlone7721]

@@SpizeNice ah

[@teoborges3949]

​@@notlone7721 Emesis Blue

[@notlone7721]

@@teoborges3949 some one already responded but his comment got deleted for whatever reason

[@negative1up]

The lady getting her head blown apart was so abrupt and gruesome it sent chills up my spine. But the screaming, it was... Harrowing.

[@Hanfgurkenhasser]

I was *not* ready for the levels of brutality shown on display here.

[@MrKalthar]

@@Hanfgurkenhasser I love the "realism" of brutality here. Tired of boring movie-like scenes. This is awesome! Shows the reason to fear combine soldiers, to fight them.

[@Juxtaposed1Nmotion]

went back to watch it several times it was so well done that whole scene

[@EchoOne101]

@@Juxtaposed1Nmotion ikr, i fucking love the combine, their design is so fucking cool, the custom vocoder for spikewall is fucking amazing too.

[@AmericanGrunt.]

Timestamp?

[@mattfox2716]

Omfg that was one of the best animations I’ve ever seen. Story, lighting, movement, cinematography, voices. Wow, just wow.

[@austinwhite3575]

Just think about it. An official half-life uprising movie by TheParryGod. It would be glorious.

[@corgi8953]

I am so extraordinarily grateful that you use your skills in part to bring us such high quality content, and don't sequester your talent. Hope you continue making these studio level edits for months to come.

[@TheParryGod]

Thank you very much for the kind words and your support! I hope to continue making these for as long as I can.

[@theturkishbadger]

@@TheParryGod What is your end goal?

[@gamejoker977]

@@theturkishbadger No matter the end goal, he's already acheived a lot.

[@wraygun1481]

Gotta love the custom voices :). Great work, as usual.

[@junbinseo2978]

You know what makes a good episode, movie or even a short film? When you know the person and group of people making it has passion for it. You can feel that they love what they do in every animation they make. There's no rush, minimal imperfections (barely any) and the voice acting is art. I love seeing the final stage of any project that was cared for and raised with love and passion. It's rewarding as a person to watch this masterpiece. Thank you for your effort

[@steven.2602]

THIS is the type of "adult animation" I think we need more of. there's definitely some other independent shows (that I shan't name) that come to mind when talking about adult animation, and IMO, they're fine*, not to mention that this is already using an existing IP, too, but imagine an animated series using an original IP with a similar tone & atmosphere to this. it would be SO GOOD. I can only wish for so much, but at the very least, I sincerely hope you continue making stuff like this, because the formula you have here is extremely engaging, and as far as I've seen on this platform, entirely unique to your channel. *I am a simple man

[@francocornachoni5840]

I need to see how this continues. Absolutetly amazing and, by the way, stunning sound work.

[@bingus1895]

Damn didnt even respond anyway you are very kind for donating

[@sirbenedict6635]

@@bingus1895You got a good point!

[@bingus1895]

@@sirbenedict6635 he usually responds im just surprised the one he didnt respond to was a dono

[@sirbenedict6635]

@@bingus1895 was this not $250? I’m not saying he’s a douch or anything just disappointing a little.

[@whalewarrior6420]

@@sirbenedict6635 250 Argentinian Pesos, or about $1.25 USD / €1.18 EUR.

[@LucyWoIf]

I like how all the videos connect. The rebel with the slugs killed a big guy here, and a wallhammer later on (which did end costing him his life)

[@adrianhenriquerochalima9546]

I will be honest, I've watched this video around 30 times already. I just can't get enough of it.

[@Quantoffo]

I though i was the only stupid😅

[@flowee9452]

6:02 Love the fact that when "Spikewall" shoots blindling through the cupboard he hits the rebel's thorax, and on the other hand when het gets a clear shot on another in the corridor, he aims and hits the rebel right in the head...Truly a killing machine

[@datatsuchi8396]

THORAX??? BRUH HE TOOK OFF HALF OF HIS RIBCAGE

[@potatolord7284]

bro why did you say thorax like that man a bug?

[@yugian5735]

@@potatolord7284 It is technically accurate. The chest is the Thorax :P

[@leojwolfhouse8746]

@@datatsuchi8396 Thorax means ribcage area

[@RetroCube]

@@potatolord7284cuz anti-citizens are an infestation of bugs xD

[@uruburus5203]

Finally The soldiers being portrayed like the juggernauts they are

[@allyski5914]

0:55 i love how both civil protection are jittering and the soldier is stone still 1:40 the soldier just standing in the open, careless with his life, going by procedure like surgery, compared to the cp who take cover and look around 4:38 only one to cross over the door. again, careless and tanky 5:29 i love how this woman cp stands, it’s almost like a hl2 animation. it also just shows that it’s still humans in armor. compare her clearly female voice with the wheezing mechanical lungs of the soldier is also neat 6:06 this part just this part. imagine that but a whole army of that invading earth 6:45 the blue vial things that come out from the top is actually an unused tau cannon animation leftover in the game files. super cool that they’re used 7:00 i love the groaning the soldier has for the rest of the fight because no element in the universe is gonna stop a slug shell from giving u a concussion when slammed against the back of ur head, but this thing is probably so filled with drugs and missing parts of the brain that it’s probably experiencing as close to one as an alien could 7:02 champ with the dive slug shot eye shot, freeman levels honestly. also this thing took a shot thru it’s “brain” and the suit doesn’t shut off until it’s realized it’s host is flatlined amazing work i loved this

[@Collisto2435]

What an incredibly well animated video! Movement was smooth and fluid, textures look crisp and defined, and the cinematography is fantastic to boot.

[@cybrxi]

6:07 the shrapnel getting stuck in his body is an amazing detail, you can see if it you pause at this exact timestamp