Gargantua

The Gargantua is a large and powerful Xen alien featured in Half-Life, Half-Life: Uplink, and Half-Life: Opposing Force.

Overview


The Gargantua is approximately six meters (20 feet) tall, mostly blue in color, and has one yellow eye that glows red when it perceives a hostile unit. Instead of hands, it sports two massive pincers that can be opened to emit jets of intense heat (the Alien Grunt hands are also similar), as well as a pair of vestigial legs below the trunk, a common trait in most Xen creatures.

The creature has a thick shell or carapace that renders it completely bulletproof and normal bullets just do minimal damage. It requires a large amount of explosive, electrical, or energy damage before being destroyed and it can rarely be defeated with conventional methods.

It is unknown if the Gargantua is a natural species or if it is manufactured like the Alien Grunt. Its integrated weaponry and bio-mechanical appearance suggest that it is an artificially created or engineered creature.

It is first introduced in Sector E Track Control during the Half-Life chapter Power Up. There it is fighting against two HECU soldiers while the G-Man is watching from the control room, and soon turns to Gordon Freeman upon noticing him. To defeat it, Freeman has to bring back power to the tracks leading to the Sector E Materials Transport network and the small power station located nearby, where the creature will be destroyed by electric discharges.

It is seen again in the chapter Surface Tension, where it throws Black Mesa SUVs at HECU soldiers in an underground parking lot of the Topside Motorpool, leading to the Waste Processing Area 3. Upon noticing Freeman, it chases him in a tunnel leading to Waste Processing Area 3, where Freeman has to use a Tactical Map set up by the HECU to call airstrikes on the creature.

The Gargantua is next seen on Xen (in what may be its natural habitat) during the chapter Interloper, where it can simply be avoided.

The last time the Gargantua appears in Half-Life is in the chapter Nihilanth: when being teleported by the Nihilanth in the third chamber for the fourth time, a Gargantua appears instead of Alien Controllers.

A Gargantua also appears during the final sequence of the Uplink, where it kills several Black Mesa employees while the G-Man watches, before slowly heading towards the cornered player, at which point the demo ends.

In Opposing Force, a Gargantua can be seen tied up on top of the Hydro-Electric Dam (though it can break loose after a certain amount of time), in the chapter Foxtrot Uniform, while HECU soldiers and Shock Troopers fight around and against it and the G-Man uses a cellphone in the dam's intake tower. Dynamite has been installed around it, and Adrian Shephard quickly detonates it, killing the creature and partially destroying the middle of the dam. However, if the player allows the Shock Troopers attack the Gargantua for long enough, they can sometimes kill it.

Behavior and skills



 * The Gargantua can emit jets of intense heat from its pincer-like hands that can easily kill foes in no time.


 * It can hit with its arms and do a lot of damage and send a shock wave towards its opponents by powerfully stomping the ground with its feet, represented by a speeding red dot. This shock wave inflicts heavy damage to the player upon reaching, though it is quite slow and can easily be avoided. When hit, the HEV Suit detects "internal bleeding", one of the only instances where these words are heard.


 * The Gargantua moves quickly (slightly faster than the player) and is very strong: it can smash or toss large obstacles like a SUV in its path with ease, and is invulnerable to most small arms fire.


 * Another ability that this creature possesses is a "supersonic roar". It is never seen in action, only heard when being out of range. Still, the roar is shown to be incredibly powerful and dangerous, as can destroy constructions such as the ceiling of a hallway leading to Sector E Track Control's power generator.


 * Gargantuas are very determined pursuers, and have been known to wait patiently for their target to come out of an area they cannot reach for a considerable amount of time before moving on to something else.


 * When idle, the Gargantua stretches its neck, shakes its head, seems to look for something on the ground for a few seconds, or seems to yawn.

Tactics

 * While it is difficult to do and not required in most of the Gargantua encounters, the creature can be destroyed with conventional weaponry when having enough of the right kind of ordinance. Explosive weapons such as the RPG and energy weapons such as the Tau Cannon or the Gluon Gun are effective against it. Satchel Charges or grenades are also effective, as is the grenade launcher found on the MP5 and M4. However, it takes about nine thrown grenades to destroy it.


 * It is possible for the Gargantua encountered on Xen to become stuck next to or against a Xen Tree, at which point the tree can be coaxed into attacking with any weapon, eventually destroying the Gargantua with no loss of ammunition.


 * In Half-Life, The Gargantua will wait for the player and looks at the player if the player is in the area where the Gargantua cannot enter. However, in Half-Life: Source, the Gargantua will simply walk around instead until the player comes back again.


 * In Half-Life, it is possible for the Gargantua in Sector E Track Control to die. You need for it to stand in the middle of the track, then after he corners you in the blocked part of the rail path use noclip to escape. Enable the train at speed and it will ram the Gargantua and it will explode along with the obstacles.

Behind the scenes



 * The Gargantua is an amalgamation of two different designs. One is a Rancor / Xenomorph-style design, the other is apparently a more robotic one.


 * Several suggested behavior and skills and physical traits were not included into the final creature. They include telescoping jaws reacting quickly to prey, then biting and impaling (similar to that of the Xenomorph in the Alien film series), no visible eyes, back fins flipping up and down "for expression", and a three-pronged tongue for small prey grabbing. It was also originally to usually stand squatting, then stand up like a grizzly bear to attack.


 * Much like with the Chumtoad, several texture colors were tested for the Gargantua. They include a pink skin with green stripes, and orange skin with blue stripes, and a purple skin with green stripes. The final model also had to have yellow stripes.


 * The Gargantua is very similar to the Zentraedi Tactical Battle Pod, the robot used during Half-Life's development to demonstrate the possibilities of skeletal animation.


 * One unused scientist sound indicates that a Gargantua was apparently to be fought on the Topside Motorpool helipads instead of later in the parking lot / Waste Processing Area 3.


 * The Gargantua was originally to appear in Half-Life: Decay, but was ultimately cut.


 * During the original train ride at the start of Half-Life 2, the player was to see from their train "something that resembles the old Gargantua" lunging at a nearby train from a crevasse, and be completely destroyed by the locomotive steel plow designed to shear through herds of whatever creature might stray across the tracks or try to take the train head-on (reflected in the early Razor Train locomotive).


 * The Gargantua is named after the character from the 16th century series of five novels "Gargantua and Pantagruel" by François Rabelais

Audio
Breathing Damaged Roar

List of appearances

 * Half-Life
 * Half-Life: Uplink
 * Half-Life: Opposing Force
 * Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar