Combine Grunt - model and behavior analysis - Half-life Alyx

Half-life is my favorite game serious, and I enjoy looking at every detail I can find in those games, so I decided to look closely at the Combine Grunt, and I would like to share what I found.

[neloth]

Its strange how the Combine grunts act in Alyx. They show much more personality and humanity in the game, even laughing sometimes. Even though they look mostly transhuman without their helmets on they seem much more human then the HL2 Combine soldiers.

[vldo]

I am sure that combine grunts were designed as some sort of middle ground between the civil protection and overwatch soldiers. Take a look at their equipment, it looks more like hazmat suits, than armour. It is posible that grunts being used as auxilary force to provide more firepower for xen fauna cleaners, or just to protect them. When the combine gouwerment will get rid of the xen contamination, they more likly will discard grunt units as well. This can explain why grunts fell more human.

[johngammon]

3:04 The last act of that combine was to kick the air while dying.

[TemmieTheCat]

Combine Grunt during the video:
*She's touching me!*
*Overwatch says stop touching me!*
*She's still touching me!*
*Brrrr*

[sivel]

The "metal plates" on their legs aren't metal plates I believe. They're mounts or whatever they are called I think. You know, to attach pouches and ordinances and stuff

[gabew]

i dont think thats a propane tank on their back, i think thats just an oxygen tank. pure oxygen is extremely flammable and can be explosive if pressurized

[gnome]

Combines are by far one of the most coolest sci-fi enemies in my opinion.

[azetlordragon]

I recently heard the screams that the grunts give when the tank is shot. Holy crap, those screams are haunting

[josephrothmeyer]

Very well done!, some Half Life 1 music would fit the mood perfectly.


I also think showing them fighting other npcs, like zombies and antlions would have also imrpoved the video, as well as showing their weapons.

[eternal]

You know, I could see a battlefront style mod with different classes based on these (obviously there would need to be all new classes for the rebels).

[Tokujii]

I would like to point out the the “small metal plates” are not actually metal there Molle loops there use for military application in such that there used to tie extra equipment/pouches to the soldier.

[combineordinal]

Very good video, I really like the design of the Combine units in HL:A.

[CrusadingJello]

Honestly, I like to imagine that the "Grunts" were both the progenitor to the Combine Soldiers of HL2, but still created and had a presence at the same time as auxilliary units for less important roles. For example; escorting xen contamination cleaners, or engineers/mechanics for power generators and whatnot. Or being deployed into a location where the environment is a greater hazard than the enemy, so a Combine Soldier would perform less effectively as a Grunt in their hazmat getup.

[AngryOwl]

So from what I can deduct from this is that Hank Hill took over the world and now controls the major propane supplies which is partly used to fuel his soldiers

[GodloGamer]

Nice work, good analysis :) I was looking for that. Thank you !

[ygorschuma]

To anyone that wonders why the Overwatch Soldiers act more human in this game, is because the game is set 5 years prior to Half-Life 2's Point Insertion, it is said the Seven Hour War happened, this means it is at the "start" of the Combine occupation of the planet, they are still settling in and adjusting, the Grunts, are the most early form of Soldier employed, probably brainwashed, but still Human, the Captains possibly went through further augmentation on them, and most probably became future Soldiers or even Elites, going through more harsh training and surgeries, they are also less trained than the Overwatch Soldiers in the Uprising, you can see that by paying attention to their movementation and behavior when encountering enemies and moving around, the Grunts often turn their backs on their targets when running away, where the Overwatch Soldiers, the Grunts also seem to like spreading their legs when running. Their equipment is also pretty "basic" compared to their future counterparts, the gas tanks on their backs seem to inflate their suits, for some reason and they still have their vocal cords as we hear their voices more clearly like a Civil Protection officer, suggesting no augmentation or a more early, basic, version of the gasmask with an possible older model of vocoder.

[GenSecPL]

You also should say about their lenses glowing yellow when they are alive and when die die they turn off leaving only blue glass.

[Dennis-ncvw]

Man, it's so eerie seeing you...examine them like that. VR feels so next gen.

[Lumberjack_]

Imagine Russel, could see Alyx touching dead combines everywhere

[rmhj]

I love how with the power of VR technology, you straight-up use a dead Grunt corpse to help explain