Cremator

"Keep it clean... or he will"

- Combine propaganda poster

The Cremator is an enemy cut from Half-Life 2. "A Combine janitor of sorts", it was originally intended to clean the city from corpses and (possibly) fight the player occasionally.

Overview
The Cremator was to be some kind of janitor, disposing of dead bodies through the use of its Immolator - a large cannon capable of spraying a green beam of acid or plasma, which would disintegrate organic matter upon contact. It was intended for the player to obtain an Immolator, which would have been effective against organic enemies.

It is also unknown if it was to be a transhuman like the Combine Soldier or the Stalker. After all, children were to be constructing Cremator heads in the Child Factory located in the Combine Factories in City 17, making its head rather robotic. The player was also to be able to pick up Cremator heads and throw them at enemies, as part of the Brickbat weapon.

It is unknown if the Cremator was to notice and fight the player, since its NPC has no AI, no clear fight animations and was mostly intended to clean the streets. It is likely that the Cremator was more some sort of dynamic prop than a real NPC, like the Boid in Half-Life. However, since it was intended for the player to get to use its weapon and pick up its head to throw it at enemies, it is possible that it could have been fought and killed by the player or Rebels later in the game.

In its model, its eyes and "mouth" textures are incorrect, although they are properly rendered in the Brickbat's Cremator head.

Maps
Several WC mappack maps, such as " " or " ", feature areas of the American-like City 17 of the first concepts where some Cremator tests were conducted by the development team. The map " " involves a run-down area in fire with two Cremators, while " " involves a normal area with Cremator squads protected by Metrocops and a brick tunnel filled with wrecked cars, Manhacks and Ceiling Turrets, all attacking the player. It also contains several door/guard towers, also cut from the final game.

Half-Life 2
The Cremator partially made the final cut as an Easter Egg left in Eli Vance's lab at Black Mesa East. There can be found a Cremator's head preserved in formaldehyde on the table located to the right of the teleport. Eli mentions that Alyx brought it in, stating "We still don't know what that does. Alyx brings in the strangest things".

It is possible, though quite improbable, that Cremators exist in the Half-Life universe, as burnt bodies are often discovered in-game, located in places where Overwatch execute their clean-ups. But Eli Vance does not know what is in the jar and would obviously know, had Cremators been a common sight in the Half-Life world.

List of appearances

 * Half-Life 2
 * Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar