Cremator

"Keep it clean... or he will"

- Combine propaganda poster

The Cremator is an enemy cut from Half-Life 2. It was originally intended to clean the city from corpses and occasionally fight the player.

Concept
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 fuel, 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 has no AI in the 2003 leak.

It is unknown if the Cremator was to be a transhuman like the Combine Soldier or the Stalker. Indeed, children were to be constructing Cremator heads in the Child Factory located in the Combine Factories in City 17. Its head was therefore to be robotic.

Several WC mappack maps, such as "cremator_039.vmf", feature a prototype City 17 run-down area where the Cremator would have to be probably met. It also contains cable cars directly taken from early concept art.

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 conserved 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.