Combine Super Soldier

The Combine Super Soldier is an synth enemy cut from Half-Life 2 and one of the several predecessors of the Overwatch Elite and the predecessor of the Strider. It was to be a sort of bipedal Strider in size, with the proportions of a human soldier. It was to be seen in the Weather Control and Citadel chapters.

Weather Control story fragment
This story fragment of the Weather Control chapter given to the developers for design inspiration relates parts of the Weather Control battle, with early names for the Combine units. For example "mech" seems to stand for the predecessors of the Synth, while "mech carrier" likely refers to the Combine Dropship. The text depicts the mech with a "head" in quotes, suggesting that it is strangely-looking. Also, at some point in the text, its head pulses with a faint glow as if powering up for energy, then fires, which is very similar to the Strider's warp cannon, added to the fact that it is brought by a "carrier", the Strider being brought byt Combine Dropships without their containers. Added to the gun located in its head, it also has mounted guns.

"TBot1"


A folder called "TBot1" can be found in the model textures files from the playable Half-Life Beta files, in a folder called "obsolete". This is likely the textures for the early "mech" or (ro)bot from the Weather Control story fragment, a very early NPC, since it bears some similarities with Dog in design, mirroring the story fragment stating that these mechs look like Dog's cousins, but apparently new-minted and flawless. Indeed, early designs had Dog being a reprogrammed Combine robot; these robots would be upgraded and bigger versions, which would be more in the vein of the Combine Super Soldier and Strider size. The textures also suggest a slightly battered robot, shows round eyes that recall the City Scanner's eye, and therefore Dog's head, and is overall yellow-colored and seems to have paws-like feet and two legs, also like Dog. The model is however missing, and it is next to impossible to guess its shape from its texture files. The "1" in the folder name suggests that there was probably other versions, thus other colors or other conditions, for example non-battered textures.

The known Combine Super Soldier model was brown, just like the Strider, while its concept art from Raising the Bar shows it white, like the early Strider and the elite humanoid units from the Combine. This "TBot" however is yellow and seems more mechanical than Synth (sporting several cogwheels and pistons on its bodywork) and the textures are very different, therefore its model was likely an ancestor of the Combine Super Soldier, making it look more like Dog, and more in the "Combine recycling the human materials" mood for the very early Half-Life 2 storyline and very closer to the "mech" from the Weather Control story fragment. Also, since it is likely a very early NPC, is was probably rather "blocky", which fits for a mechanical monster anyway. Other texture files suggest that it had an antenna and was equipped with a flamethrower and that some of its intern circuits were to be visible and blue, like the early Combine Dropship, the Crab Synth and the Mortar Synth. The files also suggest a "collar" made of green fabric, with the same fabric on the shoulders, which seems strange.

Fate


Its big size made it difficult to handle in the Citadel levels and it was dropped in favor to a more humanoid model, the Overwatch Elite.

Trivia

 * This enemy is planned to be included in the mods Sven Co-op 2 and Seven Hour War.