HEV Suit

"Well, Gordon, I see your HEV Suit still fits you like a glove. At least the glove parts do."

- Isaac Kleiner

The HEV Suit, also written "H.E.V. Suit", where "H.E.V." stands for "Hazardous EnVironments", is a special full-body hazard suit originally developed at the Black Mesa Research Facility, and was intended to be worn by Black Mesa scientists to protect them from radiation, energy discharges, blunt trauma during the handling of hazardous materials and the effects of travelling to Xen as part of the Survey Teams.

It is predominantly worn by Gordon Freeman during much of the Half-Life series, first as the Mark IV suit in Half-Life, then as the upgraded Mark V suit in Half-Life 2. It allows him to sustain many injuries that would normally mortally wound him.

Mark IV


The HEV Mark IV suit worn by Freeman in Half-Life has a built-in flashlight, Geiger counter, morphine administrator (which allows Gordon to function normally even after serious injury), an optional Long Jump Module which allows jumps over large distances (greatly increased horizontal range; vertical distance is elevated only slightly), a radio, tracking devices, and a heads-up display (HUD) which tracks health status and weapon ammunition usage, as well as including a weapons management system. The suit contains an on-board computer system that constantly monitors the user's health and vital signs, and reacts to any changes in the user's condition with activations in the aforementioned apparatus, and a soothing female-computer voice. Additionally, the suit has an electrically hardened armor system that can be charged by power modules throughout Black Mesa. While charged, the suit provides greater protection from injury as the charge absorbs more than two-thirds of any damage or trauma experienced by the wearer, with the exception of fall damage, which is absorbed directly into body-integrity. With a fully charged suit, Freeman can survive several dozen bullets of small arms fire or even a direct hit from a rocket propelled grenade (but suffering about sixty percent damage). The suit also features an optional helmet, as seen on various HEV-enclosed corpses dotted around Xen, mainly at the ruined research camp seen in Blue Shift. Freeman dons the suit at the beginning of the first game, and is allowed to keep it at the end of the game by the G-Man. It has been debated on countless forums as to whether Gordon's HEV suit has a helmet as he is usually depicted without one yet is able to survive in hazardous environments, meriting its presence. Although, when Freeman is spotted through Opposing Force, he enters Xen through the portal without wearing a helmet, such being the situation he would need it the most. Admittedly however, it could have been removed when Gordon was captured by Marines before this. Headcrabs never attempt to attach directly to Freeman's head either (although, strictly speaking, in the official Half-Life storyline, Freeman never allows a headcrab to attempt to).

The HEV Suit is not exclusive to Freeman. Many can be seen worn by slain Black Mesa research members on Xen. Two additional (empty) HEV storage units are seen near the start of the game in Sector C, which are used by the main protagonists of Decay, Gina Cross and Colette Green and three empty HEV storage units can be seen near the end of Lambda Core. The suits also come in different colors. Although many, including Gordon's and ones belonging to the corpses seen on Xen, are orange, Gina wears a tan suit, while Colette wears a maroon suit.

Mark V


In Half-Life 2, despite being allowed to keep it in the previous game, Freeman starts without the suit. After a visit to Dr. Isaac Kleiner, his former colleague from Black Mesa, Freeman receives an upgraded HEV suit, Mark V. Kleiner, as well as other characters occasionally refer to this suit as Gordon's "old suit," indicating that it is upgraded from his old Mark IV suit; it isn't explained how Kleiner acquired it as Gordon was placed in stasis wearing it. However, the G-Man releases Gordon wearing "civies" (presumably the blue 'prison' uniform) in Half-Life 2 so it is likely that he 'arranged' it somehow. New features include a visual zooming capability, limited enhanced running (sprint) capability, an injector to administer antidote for neurotoxins such as Poison Headcrab venom, an optional ammo and health counter on the crosshair (enabled by the player in the game's "Mouse" options), and the capability to use Combine power nodes to charge the suit. This design feature would have an unexpected effect later on in the game, when the suit appears to be infused with "Dark Energy" from a Combine weapon confiscation field, allowing the suit to store twice as much energy as normal, with maximum power at 200 power units, and will heal Gordon's health back to 100%. At this point, the suit also charges much faster and efficiently, capable of going from 0 to 200, without even depleting a single charger to half capacity (normally, a charger can only give the suit 75 power units). Unlike the Mark IV, the Mark V uses only one auxiliary power source for the flashlight, enhanced running and oxygen supply (though, as of the events of Episode 2, the flashlight now has a separate charge meter). In addition, the Long Jump Module is no longer an avaliable upgrade found in the environment.

Gina Cross is said to have tested a Mark V prototype under the supervision of Richard Keller before the Black Mesa Incident, but it is unknown how this is related, if at all, to the Mark V suit featured in Half-Life 2.

Detailed analysis


It should be noted that HEV energy chargers in Half-Life have the trademark (tm) symbol added after the HEV letters, which suggests that the chargers, HEV suit, or both, are produced by a non-government company. An Easter egg in Half-Life 2, however, reveals an old cover of an HEV charger lacking the trademark logo. However, this could be worn off like most of the HEV lettering on the faceplate.

The HEV suit is unusual compared to conventional hazard suits like Hazmat, specifically that it was designed with combat in mind (where the environment actively fights back against trespassers) as the suit possesses the ability to track weapons in hand, along with their ammunition. The suit also possesses the ability to store multiple weapons and tools, though the method by which this is accomplished is unknown. These combat-oriented features may be explained by the visits many Black Mesa personnel made to the border world of Xen which contains many dangerous and hostile forms of life. It is notable that the Powered Combat Vest worn by the player in Opposing Force apparently uses similar technology as it is also able to replenish its power from Black Mesa HEV chargers. It is unclear which technology was invented first, though it would be reasonable to assume that, since the PCV lacked a "mark" designation, the HEV suit was developed first and the design specifications sold to the government.

The symbol on Gordon's HEV suit is the lower case Greek letter Lambda, λ. This symbol is used by scientists to denote the decay constant of radioactive elements (related to the half-life of an element). As well as appearing on Gordon's suit, the symbol replaces the letter "a" in the game title, Hλlf-Life, and is the name of the complex in the Black Mesa Research Facility where teleportation experiments are conducted. The Lambda symbol is also seen in Half-Life 2 as a marking of the human resistance, seen close to hidden supplies and on the arm bands of better equipped resistance fighters.

Behind the scenes
Kathy Levin recorded the HEV Suit informations and warnings. They were recorded only once for Half-Life and reused in the subsequent games featuring it.

Trivia

 * The HEV Suit charger front panel may be seen in the junkyard of Black Mesa East. Finding it earns the Blast From the Past achievement. Instead of taking barrels from where Alyx asks, stack crates and climb up to the top then pick it up with the Gravity gun. It can be also found in the White Forest base, in the room with the giant TV showing the video of Judith Mossman and the Borealis: it is hidden behind a few crates.


 * In the original Half Life, the HEV Suit's armor not only absorbed 66% of all damage received, it also reduced the total amount of damage any given attack would inflict on the player (i.e. enemy melee attacks would do a total of 6 damage instead of 10 if the suit had power). This changes in Half Life 2, where the player receives the same amount of damage whether or not the HEV suit has any armor energy. To compensate, the HEV suit armor is more effective in Half Life 2, absorbing 80% of all damage received instead of 66%.


 * The Biosuit in Team Fortress Classic and Deathmatch Classic uses the Half-Life HEV model.


 * It is unknown why player characters wearing HEV Suits do not use their helmets.

List of appearances

 * Half-Life: Day One
 * Half-Life
 * Half-Life: Uplink
 * Half-Life: Opposing Force
 * Deathmatch Classic
 * Half-Life: Blue Shift
 * Half-Life: Decay
 * Half-Life 2
 * Half-Life 2: Deathmatch
 * Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar
 * Half-Life 2: Lost Coast
 * Half-Life 2: Episode One
 * Source Particle Benchmark
 * Half-Life 2: Episode Two