Combine Guard

The Combine Guard is an enemy cut from Half-Life 2. Its scripted version is a continuation of concepts for the Combine Synth Elite Soldier and the Alien Combine Soldier, heavily armored and used to combat Resistance vehicles and large numbers of enemies. Considering the camera attachment, it is possible the man inside the robotic suit is blind or, more likely, that the suit severely restricts his vision. The Combine Guard was also to wield a large weapon that fired a powerful disintegration beam, much like a Strider.



Early concepts seen in Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar show a more conventional soldier name "Combine Guard" with a long trench coat inspired in part by the German SS uniforms of World War II, concept that would later kept for the original Combine Soldier, minus the trench coat.

Development
The Combine Guard finally made it into the series as the Hunter, seen in Episode Two.

=Trivia=
 * Although the NPC was cut from the final release, there is a remnant in the form of a sound file: cguard\charging.wav, which implies that the sound of the Pulse Rifle's secondary fire was originally that of the Guard's weapon.
 * In the final version of Half-Life 2, there is a console command "sk_combine_guard_spawn_health 1", a possible reference to the Combine Guard left out from deletion.