PROTECTORS - A Half-Life: Alyx Short [S2FM]

Civil Protection picks up a 647-e signal coming from a restricted zone in City 17, and an Overwatch Stabilization Team is dispatched to investigate.

The idea for this project has been sitting and morphing in my head since about 2011 when I first got the taste for video editing, stitching together clips from Garry’s Mod in glorious 360p. It’s extremely fulfilling to finally be able to translate those old ideas to video, and I hope you’ll enjoy this short.

Also, I wanted to clarify that about 75% of the character animations you see are presets created by VALVE. I only modify and stitch these together to form a coherent narrative.

Songs:
The Only Thing They Fear is V – Jupiter
Cauterizer – Mike Morasky

Additional assets:
Black Mesa Glock 17 – Johnathan
Walther PPK Pistol Replacer – McMessenger
SMG Energy Ball Launcher Remover - Mettle Meek
Half-Life 2: Remade Assets part 1,2,3 – Half-Life 2: Remade Assets Team
Half-Life 2 Beta inspired Combine Units Pack - Evil Garlic, Alex Portman, Carpethop, RED_EYE, half5life

Software:
Source 2 Filmmaker
Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe Photoshop
Audacity

Twitter:

Screenshots/Wallpapers:

Support my work:

[rustroute]

Hey hope you enjoyed the video. Had a good time putting on the finishing touches on the sounds (unlike my cpu) with this nitpicky bastard.
Great video, share it, spread the word!

[dagger]

I liked how the first combine that died could have prevented his death by immediately shooting, but his instincts kicked in and told him to put his hands up instead. Shows how their still human.

[generic__]

Imagine a crossover with a game like “ready or not” where you’re a team of combine preparing to clear a sector full of rebels

[matthewk.mitchell-miyashir]

The minute The Ordinal's voice deepens at "Target is compromised".

He done playing games

[taskforceboi]

Ordinal definetly wasnt happy about his guys dying, look at the way he mercilessly pursues the dude

[SuperWiiBros]

This is the most cinematic Valve could get

[MarcoAdventures]

To basically explain the beginning dialogue, there was a downed city scanner in a Rebel base. The city scanner was barely alive and used the remaining energy it had to give out a 674e reading which is basically a "Hey bad guys here" signal, and a Civil Protection unit detected it and reported it. The CPs commanding officer then reported it to Overwatch, who responded by sending a stabilization team to investigate the area.

[LondonsFrost]

4:46 the APF calling out "Forcing Compliance" seconds before mag dumping the rebel/anti-citizen with a combine saw was sick asf

[meer]

"Failure to treat identified local outbreak will force team recall and recycle"


How overwatch deals with skill issue

[KrissFliss]

This makes me want a coop shooter where you play as the combine.

[drax]

The formation that the troops are walking in at 3:18 is interesting.

A grunt is directly in front of the squad leader to protect the team leader from direct fire

The Supressor is offset to his left, this gives him the benefit to supress any enemy contact from the front, while at the same time covering the squad leaders left side

The grunt behind is rear guard, notice how he constantly looks behind himself, also capable of shielding the squad leader from enemy fire from the rear

Another thing to point out is that with this formation, there are 2 guns ready to return fire from whatever direction they may be ambushed in, at the same time preventing crossfire

[A_ROCKS_]

2:19 this scene must be the most under appreciated part of this short, seeing the headcrabs interact with each other is fascinating

[anomalyxd]

What’s best about this is you never actually see what the ordinal can do in half life alyx and why they are so dangerous. This film captures why ordinals are high ranking combine units and what they are actually capable of. Excellent work!

[Man-oktj]

The movements of the combine worker, and the small tremors of the citizen when seeing the combine gives a touch of realism to this animation good video bro

[SpillyWilly_]

3:45 love how the Grunt says "back to sleep" because they still retain some of their human personality

[suckurmum]

I like how Jake (the one with the hazmat suit) screams when he sees the girl in the beanie die, considering how we saw them in the beginning, it's safe to assume they were friends. Seeing the death of a comrade is traumatizing, and the VA nailed that.

[ETIL_]

This is objectively the best S2FM animation made so far.

[Mad_raccn]

Have you noticed how Ordinal always kills his target just with one accurate shot? This guy is not fooling around and wasting ammo like his subordinates. Truly a killing machine.

[chaoticcar]

"APF forcing compliance." Is such a banger line.

[abnormality]

For the first time a SFM/S2FM finally made the citizens and rebels seem human. They react to their friends' deaths appropriately and the fact they damaged the supressor and killed the grunt shows that they know how to use guns. Love this short, keep doing what you're doing