Half-Life 2 - Combine Soldier Short Analysis

Something I had planned for a while, just a little insight into Combine soldiers, my favourite enemy from the Half-Life series.
For anyone who's curious, I've customized Half-Life 2 quite a bit. The shotgunner skin, AR2 and shotgun firing sounds are custom done by me.

[@crosseightyeight]

I guess Valve is like Bungie, in that they hide humorous text on small labels. Like the Halo rocket launcher "hold like this"

[@jessegd6306]

*was Valve doesn't make games anymore. Bungie still makes games, maybe not good ones, but yeah...

[@CaninePlays]

Various launchers in real life also have had text along the lines of "point this end toward enemy". The AT-4 actually has a diagram on it akin to Halo's.

[@the_real_Kurt_Yarish]

@@CaninePlays Military diagrams and text designed to be read by common soldiers tend to be direct and to the point, I've found. For example, the water-activated chemical heaters included in US MRE's have a diagram on them, indicating how it should be operated and set up while the food cooks. It's notable for including the phrase "[prop against] a rock or something", next to a depiction of the heater leaning on a rock. It's jarring in both how casual the language is and how seemingly obvious the directions are. As if someone asked "Okay, it's activated and steam's coming out. Now what?" and got the response "I dunno, prop it on a rock or somethin'!". You'd think such directions wouldn't be necessary, but apparently not.

[@CaninePlays]

@@the_real_Kurt_Yarish To be perfectly fair, in regards to explosives, it's probably good to be as idiot proof as possible. Blowing up the people standing behind you is probably not what the goal was.

[@the_real_Kurt_Yarish]

@@CaninePlays A fair enough point, though I'd be worried if the military accepts people that idiotic, that often. That being said, I'm willing to bet anybody could briefly forget which end of the boom stick is the explode-y bit in high stress combat situations.

[@AmBush2048]

From the Dev notes, it's apparent that there was supposed to be an animation for soldiers getting killed by antlions, and that the instakill was a placeholder

[@GhostXM9]

Albert Pavlas that would make sense. Like the antlion pins the soldier to the ground and kills them in a somewhat lengthy animation.

[@christiancinnabars1402]

Two kill animations were actually added in the model files for both the antlions and the soldiers in ep2. They were just never implemented for some reason. There’s “antlion_soldier_DI_1,” which has the antlion pick up the soldier with its mouth, hold them upwards for a moment, and slam them into the ground, and there’s “antlion_soldier_DI_2,” which has the antlion stab the soldier with one of its legs and toss them behind itself.

[@enderzilla747orleomiranda8]

Search up “Half Life 2 antlion animation” and somebody restored it. It will be used in upcoming mod Entropy Zero 2

[@TAOEXPRESS]

@@enderzilla747orleomiranda8 Wait, the animations are going to be used in Entropy 2? I didn't know that!

[@nathannantasai8945]

The placeholder seems like a better result as an antlion doing its kill animation could easily be getting backshots from a shotgunner or pulse rifle which would leave it with barely any health left. HL2's complexity and skirmishes would make antlion kill animations only good for 1v1 scenes such as when Alyx got pierced' by a Hunter.

[@2sexyy]

2004 game btw

[@Zoxide_]

forsen1

[@2sexyy]

@@Zoxide_ forsen1 I C BAJS

[@jajcjsncjanciwndjnc2493]

it wont be forgotten for quite dome time

[@thedankestmeme]

and yet it's better than 2019 games gg

[@thedankestmeme]

yujiro hanma lol true

[@smtl6029]

HECU Marines : Duck At their own grenade Combine Shotgunner : 180 duck shot, can avoid headcrabs by crouching CSGO BOTS : *A I M F O R Y O U R D I C K*

[@thenthson]

Csgo bots: weakness identified

[@Pan-be3vv]

So...... CS:GO bots have the best tactic so far

[@kittyluvr]

CSGO bots: Look out there's a mosquito beside your head!

[@KoishiVibin]

@@Pan-be3vv It's all fun and games u til the OpFor uses pelvic armor

[@Complete_Stranger7050]

CS 1.6 bots and their wallbangs:

[@crosseightyeight]

I think the shotgunners are different purely so the player can identify them and avoid instant death.

[@alialatrach9788]

Like the Shotgunner in HL1

[@reshzy3807]

cowabunga it is

[@jajcjsncjanciwndjnc2493]

Hahaha lol

[@YourCrazyDolphin]

Yeah but gameplay functions can still often have lore explanations as well, and in many cases probably need it.

[@masterninjaize]

You better believe if you're not paying attention and come within 5 metres of him you're dead

[@lolsterf4147]

5:27 so that's why they're elites, that 180 duck shot

[@leonardusrakapradayan2253]

LolsterF4 MLG approves

[@sk-xg7re]

CS 1.6 & Source bots be like:

[@govinlock8568]

LMAO 😂

[@iamtakingapiss7916]

5:34 dude is crouching to avoid headcrab

[@aandyherr817]

My man .... He's smart-- Until he tried to buttstroke a Zombie with that shotgun.

[@iamtakingapiss7916]

@Stix N' Stones yeah I got out yesterday

[@iamtakingapiss7916]

@Stix N' Stones so many people ask me this question that I've ran out of jokes, let's pretend that I don't know

[@lolok6236]

But he still got hit anyway..

[@furiousfinch1587]

You're right. He did it the first time, too.

[@enriquesanchez7895]

Not to mention the shotgunners can have a random chance of discharging several rounds into player without needing to pump the shotgun. This in a way shows the fact that shotgunner soldiers are something to fear. While AR2 wielding soldiers keep their distance, shotgunners show no hesitation for immediate close range suppression.

[@Hotomato]

From what I've heard spas-12 shotguns (which is what appears to be what combine shotgunners are weilding) have two modes: pump action and semi-auto. Perhaps the shotgunners that fire several rounds in rapid succession have their shotguns on the semi-auto mode.

[@enriquesanchez7895]

That maybe so, but keep in mind that your character (The player) can't switch the shotgun to semi-auto mode and has to manual pump the shotgun for each individual shot or for a dual shot. Which makes the half life 2 shotgun even more of a mystery than it should be.

[@enriquesanchez7895]

Dude, learn how to take a joke. My choice of wording was just to coincide with how ridiculously convoluted half life logic is. Don't hurt yourself by getting annoyed from a silly comment I made. We're all friends here so relax man. :D

[@gamerxt333]

shotgunners cheat, yeah

[@AcitoriaVakarianIdunno]

@@ivancheekibreeki3979 That or the Semi-Auto mode is completely unknown/unaccessible by non-Combine.

[@Tomahawks360]

Most people mock about HL2 AI, mostly in how the Combine AI wasnt at the level of the HECU AI. To me, HL2 AI was pretty neat. The problem wasnt the Combine maneuvers, the problem was Freeman being too OP with a lot of open areas to move.

[@jonathanwells223]

Tomahawks360 Well to be fair the combine soldiers are half cyborg, brainwashed and are supposed to be dumb as bricks. A far cry from the special forces marines sent out to clear Black Mesa.

[@reddrahvett623]

@@jonathanwells223 they're supposed to be tactical, not stupid, I think the reason they may not seem very smart is because they're not trained to handle the rogue guns-a-blazin' nature of Gordan, and they likely don't know how (or more likely don't have the time to) improvise, due to the fact Gordan slaughters them before they can even come up with a viable tactic to use against him.

[@leonardusrakapradayan2253]

I think it's because the combine are trained to fight conventional enemies with conventional tactics not a run&gun blazing scientist like Freeman

[@thedatatreader]

@@leonardusrakapradayan2253 Or just trained to fight mostly unarmed civilians. Remember, the earth military was disbanded and it's not like the "benefactors" care if a few combine end up getting killed in stray firefights.

[@vengeance160]

Did you see their stats and how they shoot? Combine soldiers are nerfed as hell, they feel stupid because valve wanted to make player more comfortable, to make game more casual. Imagine if soldiers would have a high damage and decent aim.

[@RescoeZ]

In the "Follow Freeman" chapter, when protecting Alyx at the generator, the soldiers that approach from the tunnel may do a running crouch. I haven't seen that behaviour anywhere else in the game. I'll include a clip of it if I do an Elite video.

[@AmBush2048]

Sorry for the late response, but that's because their AI entered a standoff mode, which changes how their AI works. The animation only shows up when a soldier is running from a "crouch cover low" hint node to a hint node of the same type.

[@thegreatfieryphoenix2271]

I doubt anyone even cares, but I'll still say that the plaza section where you have to defend Alyx while she is shutting down the generator is not happening in "Follow Freeman!", but rather in "Anticitizen One" chapter.

[@stuglife5514]

Hello, I know this is super late but you can sometimes rarely see this in other sections of the game, usually when there’s heavy firefighting with rebels backing you up. Usually it’s a fresh spawn squad who are moving into a position to attempt to engage Gordon from cover. They do this when cover is between you and them and they have a open space. Not sure exactly how it works on a technical level, just my observations.

[@kip5703]

Absolute quality stuff lad, love your work.

[@acoolerhandle]

Agreed

[@valkaerie8715]

Woah, Hey mads

[@kip5703]

ranger 2600 *[Delighted Mads Noise.]*

[@kip5703]

ranger 2600 ya got discord or something?

[@kip5703]

ranger 2600 could you pass me your discord tag so we can talk?

[@AStarCalledWormwood]

Absolutely fascinating. Makes you wonder how mean these guys can be if it weren't for gameplay mechanics, especially early game, and were armed with more than SMGs.

[@alevegaliolios]

Though in early game you don't fight combine soldiers, but rather metrocops.

[@jcdenton2187]

Combine Soldiers are, in some ways, more interesting than HL1's HECUs in my opinion

[@brunor.1127]

Well if they weren't made of 100 polygibs and had textures bigger than 128x128 they would be more interesting( i made up all thefacts don't judge me)

[@paradoxicaloutcome1007]

The only reason people claim the HECU are "more interesting" is because they run like they have jet engines in their backpacks and take absurd amounts of damage to take down. They're not any smarter or more varied (In fact, they're lesser in both aspects), they just look that way because; -The HECU are more of a threat to the player because they're flying bricks and so look more competent even though they aren't, -The HECU live longer to actually execute their AI strategies, -HL2's map design doesn't give the Overwatch the oppurtunity to execute most of it's smarter AI scripts.

[@alevegaliolios]

Don't forget HECU soldier have much better accuracy.

[@Skorly]

​@@paradoxicaloutcome1007 I'd say it isn't that black and white. The reason why I like the HECU soldiers more is because they work better in more situations in normal gameplay situations. They are faster and take cover more effectively because of that, It's a lot easier to understand what they are saying and they seem to have more self preservation(100% change to take cover on "heavy damage" vs 50%). Trust me, you can make Combine soldiers look very smart if you spend a ton of time scripting combat encounters. But when its just base AI, I'd say the encounters with HECU are generally more interesting IMO. (Also, I don't think they take an absurd amount of damage. A single head shot from a magnum or half a clip of SMG bullets at close range kills them on any difficulty)

[@AB-bg7os]

I find both cool but I gotta love the HECU more

[@willianghstz9174]

2019 and we still having half-life stuff

[@Caffeine_K9]

2020*

[@humanman2358]

2021*

[@gaynime9363]

2034*

[@theironsword1954]

And they complained about the AI being terrible! This is some complex stuff that I don't even think the HL1 grunts can use.

[@govinlock8568]

Yeah. Combine soldiers behaviour looks more natural than HECU grunts

[@Clazzette]

Am subbing you for this. You're basically MarphitimusBlackimus but in Half-Life 2 He also needs to see this. :D

[@trevorsmith470]

I like how the soldiers actually use tactics instead of just mindlessly blasting at the enemy. I also liked that the developers put the effort forward to make more advanced units be smarter rather than just soak more damage.

[@kenjen9861]

Holy shit! I didnt even know you could sneak up on enemies, let alone get a damage bonus for it!

[@Neo2266.]

Wait the shotgunners looked the same as the other soldiers? Damn that had to be hard distinguishing between what can kill you from fat away, and what can murder you insantly if i comes anywhere near you

[@Anubis424242]

I still remember playing it when the shotgunners looked the same as the other Combines. It was definitely more difficult that way. I got my ass kicked by them way more often before the update, than I did afterwards.

[@omencito]

They have slightly different postures, so they could be pointed out that way, but I can totally see how it would be hard to point them out over other combine.

[@nathannantasai8945]

It definitely makes gameplay a bit easier if Valve was going for that, though whats interesting to think about is that if Elite emblem was put on the Shotgunner's right padding as an update only making them slightly more distinguishable only by certain angles in their release.

[@Tanook]

That pistol sound in my right ear is pretty disturbing.

[@dustrockblues7567]

I heard it in the left ear....

[@arikelvara]

3:03. WOW! The soldier is actually counting down the grenade timing!

[@elbasurerodequavert7158]

6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, flash flash flash

[@denifnaf5874]

​@@elbasurerodequavert7158 combine ASSASSin: don't mind if i do

[@ImJustJass]

At 2:04 the reason why they never finished a clip was due to a familiar bug where the AI will automatically discard the gun upon finishing a clip. Atleast that is my hypothesis on it.

[@wolfyou]

My left ear likes this video.

[@saxo9266]

After playing Half life 2 and Gmod for so long now! I’ve just noticed that the combine soldiers have a small headset on the mask

[@TheOdst219]

I think that white text on the filter is an invntory ref number or serial number.

[@adamas_dragon]

No i think he meant the text above the serial number that he couldnt read after "or the" i can make out one word maybe two and those are "offsite?" and "officer"

[@jordynmendola3963]

HL2's AI are really smart.

[@friendlyneighborhoodcombine]

imagine being the combine in this video, I like to imagine that the player in this case is a cheaply, you just keep firing and won’t die, spooky

[@dattyduff2690]

Thank you for doing the analysis on Highway 17 it’s my favorite chapter.

[@meb8839]

I've always liked these types of videos. Don't know why

[@MisterJohnDoe]

I love how that shotgunner at the end was crouching to avoid the headcrabs

[@sergeantspam51]

Shotgunners are a branch of elite unit apparently.

[@Harbinger28567]

I can't even begin to imagine how many times I have played through this game. But every time I encountered the Combine soldiers, all I heard was garbled radio voices with walkie talkie chirps being drawn out by gun fire. It wasn't until your channel uploaded what they were saying that it made sense. Thank you.

[@dwightdeisenhower929]

Not sure why this was recommended to me but it is one of the most interesting YT videos I’ve watched in a while. Please do this on more enemies.

[@jiraffe9600]

Nice, this is my favorite game.

[@kingdarkness1280]

the "Elite" insignia it's a branch, so if a capured Rebel becomes a shotgunner there are chances that he may become a Elite Overwatch later on, in my opinion

[@czajkowski2352]

The "only 2 soldiers firing at once while the other 2 are reloading" may sound like a good idea at first, but in practice it's a pretty awful strategy. First of all, when you have a standoff between 4 rebels and 4 soldiers, the rebels simply wipe the floor with the soldiers every single time, because they will have twice the damage output per second. Not even the soldiers' 25% higher health can help them. Even metrocops don't do that "only 2 firing at once" bullshit and just shower the enemy with bullets. Secondly, with bigger squads of soldiers, like 6 or 8, that means that most soldiers WON'T even fire their guns. So only 2 soldiers shoot, and the other 6 stand around like idiots or charge the enemy in melee? I'm trying to figure out how to remove this dumb limitation from the source code for a small mod that I'm making... If anyone had any success with this, please let me know.

[@alevegaliolios]

Don't rebels wipe the floor with combine soldiers mostly because they've been programmed to have significantly better accuracy? (especially *amplified* the difference in Garry's Mod)

[@MillsTC]

@dead squid on keyboard also, i believe this can be fixed using an ai_standoff flag, the ai_standoff forces the combine to use the most of their AI because it forces limitations and enables certain ai features. It makes the combine find the nearest cover node and stick to it, peeking out for split seconds to peek and shoot, basically, removing the 2 soldier limit on shooting by making the soldiers all go in a peeking order, with 2 popping out, taking 5 shots, going back to cover, and the next 2 guys pop up, while the first group throws grenades. it's such a shame that standoffs weren't used that much, the only standoff i can recall used is in Follow Freeman, where you raid the Civil Protection outpost

[@czajkowski2352]

@dead squid on keyboard Yeah, for know I rely on using several smaller squads, but the problem is that the soldiers aren't coordinated as well as one big squad, they have no regard for friendly fire and often throw grenades under each other's feet. But I'll look into the scripted assaults, thanks.

[@czajkowski2352]

@@alevegaliolios Well, that also adds to the problem, but it's not the most important thing. The NPC proficiency has five states: POOR, AVERAGE, GOOD, VERY_GOOD, and PERFECT. Rebels have PERFECT with every weapon. Combines had GOOD (explaining their absolutely horrible accuracy, especially with the SMG) and in EP2 they were upgraded to VERY_GOOD for the AR2. This is hardcoded, so you can only change it with the source code. Well, that's exactly what I did, and Combines even with PERFECT accuracy and 25% more health are still 9 times out of 10 raped by Rebels. Usually only a lucky grenade can turn the tides of battle.

[@czajkowski2352]

@@MillsTC Hmm, that's interesting. I haven't yet used ai_standoff. Thank you for the info!

[@lepi120]

Shotgunners:"Wearing the elite emblem to show how dangerous they are" Oh they sure as hell are dangerous!

[@saxo9266]

Dude I love your small analysis series, please make more content also with synths and the resistance. But yea keep up the good work (+1) subscriber

[@Nitreon0978]

Shotgunner: *shooting Gordon point-blank* "WHY WON'T YOU DIE?"

[@heavymachinegun1206]

1:40 you say between standard and elite That's mean expert

[@Atomix7_137]

Among ordinary soldiers, this sign is most likely worn by squad leaders, that is, soldiers with a shotgun are commanders

[@muffy7323]

Every video I see more I fall in love and get surprised by HL2

[@shootbat]

Such an underrated channel

[@istoleyunomilesbigmac]

"half lifes AI is very advanced" *me rushing to every enemy with my pistol in my hand spamming the hell out of it and killing everyone

[@thaksjtube]

The stealth headshot makes so much sense from a gameplay perspective, because it would be so unsatisfying for the player to sneak up and headshot an enemy only for them to turn around like you tapped their shoulder

[@DerpySnake]

Anyone else notice at 1:55 that the soldier specifically aims for the crotch?

[@UKMysterrr]

HL2 devs: "throw that emblem on they're combine lol" This guy: "They are ranked in a hierarchy in-between elites and normal combine"

[@genericcreator6467]

3:21 *read this* When I do close quarters combat with soilders: Combine: let’s pile into this room and throw grenades! *then my game crashes because of how many AI just died* Also, if the combine were actually people online: “Man I got RNGed to hell, ran into the juggernaut (Gordon) twice”

[@Spillow-C]

5:28 skilled combine

[@majdavlk649]

The combine soldiers are actualy using logical tactics, i am impressed, especialy by the suppresing fire.

[@matthiassmedlarsen3676]

Very interesting video. I didn't know about the Combine Shotgunners not having their own texture, and some of the AI stuff is really intricate.

[@pyroplays599]

"WARNING USE OF THIS EQUIPMENT MAY LEAD TO THE UNTIMELY DEATH OF THE USER OR THE *unreadable* INFINITE(?) AMPLIFIER"

[@KyJIaK71rus]

Good job dude. Will you make analysis of the Elite soldiers? Also maybe you'll start Half-Life 2 Fact Files series like MarphitmusBlackimus with HL1?

[@RescoeZ]

The Elites aren't that much different behavior wise, other than they use energy ball attacks instead of grenades, but I could end up making a short video about them. I don't think I could make videos like MarphitmusBlackimus, he really goes in-depth with his videos and I tend to make mine sporadically.

[@Skorly]

I believe the only differences from elite and normal soldiers are: 1. More health (70hp instead 50hp) 2. Energy ball attacks instead of grenades(like RescouZ said) 3. More melee damage 4. More accurate with AR2(not completely sure about this one) Also, here's a FUN FACT: they will still try to fire their AR2 ball even if they don't have an AR2. You can see this near the end of the "Follow Freeman" chapter where there is an Elite with an SMG.

[@stripe1919ify]

also, if you force an elite to equip a shotgun, it will actually use the double barrel rather then normal barrel (i think this might be due to them trying to fire a ar2 ball) and they make for great foes.

[@alialatrach9788]

What i like about the combine is we have more then 1 type, like the metropolice combines, combine soldiers, Nova Prospect combines and elite combines. Unlike HL1 where we get one type of the HECU, the black ops was their enemy so it dosn't count. Also this is making us able to spawn many different type of combines in the same map and by the relationship cheat i can make all the types against each other.

[@unitedstates387]

I like the pistol shooting sound

[@John-un3lj]

Fuck me, I never knew they were so smart.

[@rH0und]

This dude single handedly showed how in depth the ai and texture is in such a old game But games now? *big gun and jelly screen when shot*

[@eltrashooter2578]

Damn a lot of interesting stuff here I never knew of.

[@cookiemunchers89]

this video has given us +3 iq

[@mistahcookiez3289]

my left ear really enjoyed this

[@Luigi-yp9sl]

So half life 2 has hidden stealth mechanics. Holy shit.

[@sektaxd]

Shotgunners: *try to show they are dangerous* Me: *killing them with just a barrel*

[@genericcreator6467]

That stealth thing is cool, I wish the devs added in a silencer or something

[@DietmarEugen]

The crossbow is silent.

[@cancerousnut7767]

They fire all but on shots because loading an empty pump action requires you to “chamber” a shell before fully loading it, this could take you an extra five seconds to reload doing this. It’s a smart thing to do.

[@Anthony20084]

Valve has some programers with otherworldly skills working for them.

[@Kj16V]

1:04 Argh! That label is bugging the hell out of me now! Looks to me like it says "Warning... Untimely death of the user *of* the [something, something] offlined" ?

[@Ghost-ns8vs]

It says warning this equipment can cause untimly death or assault on shift offline but that's what I peiced together because up to or it gets to be blured and clumped like the entintionly wanted it to be hard to read

[@CallSignAlza]

Gordon: peacefully walking Shotgunner combine: “hey kid, yeah you, wanna be flown across the map?”

[@PantMal]

Great work! Would like more videos like this.

[@makigames6530]

I thi k the shotgun soliders are like Flametgrower units in ww1. It would fit that many squads would have one, and in ww1 every flamethrower solider would be awarded with the totenkopf badge

[@phalanxHH]

Now I wonder how Half life Alyx will be.

[@the_mental_gent]

The pistol is the ultimate sneak attack weapon

[@BoxJoe136]

holy shit that first thing with the stealth kill i never knew

[@tonycallme3667]

Jesus Christ valve Youre really outdid yourself

[@Aulsalt]

Damn these NPC’s are smart.

[@jerichosamurai]

I've noticed something when killing them in Gmod and this might just be exclusive to Gmod for some reason even though I figured they were a direct port from Half-Life 2 but for some reason they die in a single shot to certain weapons when unaware of your presence when otherwise it would take 2 or even 3 hits with the same weapon. Also, sometimes when they take damage very rapidly it kills them when if the damage had been spread out over a longer period it wouldn't have. For example a 3 shot burst directly to the torso I've noticed sometimes will kill them but if I do 3 taps on the same spot, 1 each second, they do not die despite the same amount of damage being dealt from each bullet. So perhaps there's a where'd multiplication happening where damage is amplified if taken rapidly in a short time.

[@Lilhunbun-ec6ho]

When that shotgun soldier was fighting that poison zombie he ducked I think that’s a lil cool

[@FatherMerica]

I think the tag on the helmet says "WARNING USE OF THIS EQUIPMENT MAY LEAD TO THE UNTIMELY DEATH OF THE USER OR THE ANOMALY (ophrite?????) OFFLINERS".

[@CaveyMoth]

0:00 Imagine if they scripted AI that was smart enough to detect an invincible opponent.

[@Infinite_Archive]

Am I the only one who didn't know Half-Life 2 had stealth mechanics?

[@danielproductions3364]

If only Half Life 3 would come out

[@leavewe]

I'm trying to read that label but the more I look at the last bit the less sense it makes

[@jeryang1998]

Love the analysis! Have you tried the Half life 2:MMOD? what are your thoughts on it?

[@RescoeZ]

I have but only the first few chapters, I enjoyed it but did encounter a few bugs.

[@Dabadi4834]

I'm in love with a new channel

[@ILIKEARMYS]

first one and second one about pistol are amazing‼ I always though the pistol is more accurate and powerful than smg in close and medium range. And I never know the pistol can be fought like stealth mode if you were not detected. It would be more amazing if pistol in hl2 could have silencer as secondary weaponry like counter strike.

[@rockethero1177]

I guess the HEV suit is slightly better than the Combine Armor at protecting against Antlion claws. Well it was made for incredibly dangerous environments. The combine really should try to better equip their soldiers if they wanna stay in power

[@shiba2ndworlder]

I for some reason see a parrarell with doom zombiemen. In doom there were Pistol armed zombiemen( Metricops can use pistols), shotgunners( no need to explain) and chaingunners ( Soldiers with their lulse rifles)

[@nutjobber6742]

I wanna point out that in Half Life 2 Ep 1, two shotgun soldiers can be seen setting up a tripwire or whatever they are called. So maybe they are bomb specialists as well.

[@denifnaf5874]

In nova prospekt eome antlions run into tripeires in the kitchen area causing an explosion and making a hole in the wall and fire

[@chii9028]

The Combine Soldiers, for enemy bots, are surprisingly smart and realistic. (aside from the additions that were placed just to make the game easier)

[@existingperson]

The Combine’s AI is pretty impressive, aside from the accuracy. They can work together as a team very efficiently and get you in dangerous positions. It’s just not used a lot in HL2 or maybe it’s too fast to notice it

[@landlockedcroat1554]

finally some hl2 content

[@BlackMesa_Coomer345]

Killing freeman here was an award

[@DeanAmx]

the headcrab does not take over the dead combine soldier body on screen

[@Kropolis]

Jesus my left ear

[@roccolomeli1117]

It’s kinda sad how much work and effort was put in to make these gas mask clad soldiers look like a capable strike team only for us to strafe them with RPGs and assault rifles

[@JukesMcGee]

900 IQ nade at the end god damn.

[@naizamabao4681]

HOW DID YOU CHANGE THE GUN SOUNDS ON THE PLAYER????

[@WAcrobat19]

I would like to see you do an analysis for Rebel Soldiers?

[@rajendraamberkar9512]

1.57 combine vs terminator.

[@MiguelSanchez-jj6ks]

they are so inaccurate, though they throw grenades perfectly

[@idioticchildno.0171]

You’re not gonna mention that one of the combine soldiers backed into a room while another rushed towards you in order to trap you, he then took cover which allowed you to walked out, he then entered the doorway to cover his friend, finally the first combine soldier pops out in hopes that his friend had dealt enough damage

[@Premod]

interesting tactic from the poison headcrab zombie - they like to throw their passengers behind the target so that they turn their back to the zombie, where it can close the distance and attack

[@YourCrazyDolphin]

They throw it at the face, just momentum keeps the crab going past- even more so when the soldier ducks under the headcrab.