Standard Zombie

"These traces of former habitation somehow sadden me."

- Vortigaunt

The Zombie is a common enemy in the Half-Life series. They are created when a Headcrab attaches to the head of a suitable host and takes control over its victim's body, rendering the host a "headcrab zombie" (or "necrotic", as they are referred to by the Combine Overwatch). Ordinary zombies are referred to as 'standard' or 'classic' to distinguish them from the other types of zombies introduced in Half-Life 2, the Fast Zombie and the Poison Zombie.

Appearance & Capabilities


Once a headcrab successfully attaches to a host, the headcrab's alien physiology causes various "mutations" to manifest in its host, such as elongated claws, increased strength, and a sharp-toothed 'mouth' that bisects the victim's chest cavity from neck to groin. In Half-Life 2 the chest "maw" instead appears to be a ripped open chest cavity with no sternum. Removal of the headcrab reveals that the host's head is strangely untouched with it's head bent back and mottled, bloody hair and bloody face set in a scream. In Half-Life 2, horrified sounds emanating from zombies imply that, while severely injured, the host is at least partially aware of its horrific situation.

As their name suggests, zombies do not appear to retain any of their former intelligence and, like Headcrabs, will blindly pursue their prey, oblivious to danger (such as the propeller traps seen in Ravenholm). Zombies do not respond to fire and will walk blindly into it, though they feel it on them and notice they are burning once they are on fire. Zombies mainly attack with swipes from their claws, but in Half-Life 2 they also gain the ability to forcefully punt objects towards the player. Also in Half-Life 2, certain Zombies will attempt to "play dead" and stand up to attack the player if they get too close or are attacked.

Occasionally, headcrab zombies survive losing both legs and their lower torso, and continue to crawl along using their arms. In most cases, a headcrab remains attached to its host until the zombie is destroyed, although in Half-Life 2, they will occasionally detach from the host if it is rendered immobile by its injuries.

Trivia

 * Playing parts of a victim's sound file backwards produces extremely disturbing yells of pain. The reversed cries have been interpreted as "God help me" and "get it off me". If set on fire, the victims may say things that might be interpreted as "Why, why, why!?", "What did I say!? Gaaah!" and "My life's fading! Gaaah!". Similarly, raising the pitch of the sound file produces a normal sounding voice effect.


 * Interestingly, no Xen species are seen 'infected' with headcrabs.


 * It's also interesting to note that, upon removing the headcrab, it can be seen that standard zombies appear to be male. While there is every reason to assume a headcrab could infect a female human, there are no female zombies. It isn't entirely clear whether this is a developer oversight or intentional, though the former seems more likely.


 * An unusual characteristic of the Poison and Fast zombie variants is that only three middle fingers of the five on each zombie's hands develop into claws, compared to all the fingers on a standard headcrab zombie.
 * An often-overlooked effect that signals a zombie's presence is the buzz of flies, showing that the corrupted body of the victim is rotting.


 * In Half-Life, zombies are seen 'feeding' from dead scientists and soldiers by taking flesh from corpses and stuffing it into their chest "mouth". However, this is not seen in Half-Life 2. This behavior might have been scrapped or may have been simply overlooked and not programmed.


 * In the first Half-Life and the expansions, when the headcrab controls his victim the headcrab appears partially transparent and you can see the victim's skull as in Half-Life 2 the headcrab zombie is translucent.


 * If you put the standard zombie in fire, it will say "YABBA! MY ICING!".