Ichthyosaur

"I'm sure that beast never swam in terrestrial waters until a week ago!"

- Black Mesa scientist

The Ichthyosaur, Latin name Xenotherus Icthycanthus, is one of the many alien species that have been teleported to Earth from the borderworld Xen. Prominently featured in Half-Life and its expansions, it has a small cameo at the start of Half-Life 2.

Overview


Although it is named after the extinct marine reptile group, the Ichthyosaurs, it resembles them only in its carnivorous ecology and its general size. When the Ichthyosaur is first encountered in the Half-Life chapter Apprehension, a scientist remarks that while he has been told it was hauled from the Challenger Deep in the Pacific Ocean, he is of the opinion that the creature never swam in terrestrial waters until a week before, possibly the time of its arrival at the Black Mesa Research Facility, the creature being likely from Xen.

In Half-Life, Ichthyosaurs are encountered in several water bodies, including a flooded laboratory and in a reservoir behind a hydroelectric dam. They are often placid at first, but quickly become hostile, especially should the player take action against them. The speed and viciousness of the Ichthyosaur combined with poor underwater visibility make the underwater areas of Half-Life some of the most frightening parts of the game.

The Ichthyosaur also makes a single appearance in Half-Life 2. During a teleport malfunction ("harmonic reflux"), Gordon Freeman is momentarily transported outside of City 17, in midair. He looks down, and falls into the ocean. Underwater, he is almost swallowed whole by an Ichthyosaur before being transported elsewhere. Although this encounter is scripted, when an Ichthyosaur is spawned using console commands or a mod such as Garry's Mod it also attacks the player in the same manner, suggesting that the developers planned on Gordon Freeman encountering them in the game proper.

Behind the scenes



 * The Ichthyosaur was originally referred to as "Muddy".


 * The Ichthyosaur was to appear more prominently in Half-Life 2, such as in the the Coast levels (where he was to fulfill the role of keeping the player from venturing too far into the ocean, eventually taken by the Leech) or at the lake at the start of Ravenholm, its only appearance finally being in the recycled Ravenholm lake seen during the teleportation failure at the start of the game.


 * The Ichthyosaur can be encountered in the playable Half-Life 2 Beta in several coastline maps (such as " ", among others), where it takes the role of the Leech, i.e. keeping the player from venturing too far into the ocean. If the player swims out too far from the land, an Ichthyosaur can be heard and a few seconds later the player dies, while the creature cannot be seen.


 * In the playable Half-Life 2 Beta texture folder for the Bullsquid can be found a texture file called NewBullsquidSheet.vtf, which is actually an alternate skin for the Ichthyosaur. It is also signed by Ted Backman and dated 2003, in his stylized signature.


 * In the WC mappack "marc" folder (referring to series' writer Marc Laidlaw) can be found a map named " ". Based on an old version of the Ravenholm docks where an Ichthyosaur was to be found, the map consists of a surreal/nonsense sequence: three Zombies are standing on a wooden bridge in the middle of a small pond, then an Ichthyosaur jumps from the water and passes above the bridge, killing the Zombies and partially destroying the bridge while doing so. Then the Ichthyosaur returns into the water, then jumps out of it again and starts flying, excreting gibs while flying higher and higher to the end of the map, to crash in an explosion behind a small cliff (the creature also does its whale-like sound while crashing). Above the rocks, right above where the Ichthyosaur has crashed, can be seen the G-Man held in mid-air by a flying crow, who starts fixing his tie in a loop after the creature has crashed. While only the Ichthyosaur's tail can be seen under, it starts eructing an orange gas at the G-Man. The sequence is accompanied by two instrumental tracks, one mysterious (that plays through the all sequence in a loop), another faster-paced (that plays only when the Ichthyosaur first appears), found in the folder "/scripted/stinger/" in the playable Half-Life 2 Beta sound files. They were taken from the Aliens soundtrack (dialogues from the film to be used for the maps " " and " " can also be found in the sound files). After that everything remains the same in a loop. Given the sequence, it is possible that the map name was misspelled and normally named "ickypoop". This recalls the scene at the start of the Half-Life 2 chapter Anticitizen One during which the G-Man can be seen on a television screen with a crow on his shoulder. "Ickypop" may be a test map for that sequence.

Development
Some experiments find that Ichthyosaurs are able to survive on land for limited periods before dying, but also show that they will actually drown if underwater for too long. This latter behavior may indicate that the creature was not fully implemented in the final game, although equally this may be a design feature as it is what might be expected from an air-breathing organism similar to dolphins, whales and even real Ichthyosaur. The latter interpretation is supported by the frequent surfacing of Ichthyosaurs during the game (although this may simply be a ploy by the game designers to attract the player).

Interestingly, most of the sound files associated with the Ichthyosaur contain the prefix "watery death". This is the same prefix used with files and sounds associated with the carnivorous Leech, which suggests that the designers may have originally intended the Ichthyosaur to serve the purpose of the Leech: to appear out of the foggy waters in the ocean, attack the player, and disappear in a similar manner; thus keeping the player out of deep water. Since the "watery death" and the Leeches themselves are included in a large trigger entity in the Hammer Editor, using the Ichthyosaur in this fashion would have made an easy way to keep the player out of water, and may also explain the creature's lack of artificial intelligence. Further supporting this theory is that the Ichthyosaur's attack itself spins the player a full 180 degrees, hinting that it would be used as a warning to stay out of the water, lowering the player's health as well as pointing the player to the shore, allowing for an easy and desired escape. Though it doesn't aggressively attack the player, the Ichthyosaur may suddenly turn or nudge towards the player. It is actually easier to attack the Ichthyosaur, than to be attacked by it. In order to be attacked by an Ichthyosaur, the player must be positioned directly in front of the Ichthyosaur's eyes. The Ichthyosaur attacks when the player is close enough so that he is not able to swim away without receiving damage.

List of appearances

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