The Destroyer of Worlds | The Strider | FULL Half-Life Lore 

You got it boss

They could be similar species genetically

To me they are most likely different species that lived in a symbiotic relationship, brothers that have been molded into monsters by the combine.

Honestly is plausible. They make similar noises and have a similar leg structure. They also work well together when they are teamed up.

I will talk with my dad he is in charge of youtube

I pray that we are alone in this universe for that very reason.

​@@SkyrionnNah vortigaunts sound amazing to have as buddies and Shock troopers if they ain't hostile

@@Skyrionn Then that is a futile prayer - as combine was an example of an enemy from another universe :P and we already know there are many universes except our own. So even if we are alone in this one - then that still wouldn't make us safe :D

@@krzosu We actually don't know if the multiple universes theory is correct.

just pop a zzzQuil and sleep through it

I always thought it would be cool to see other Earth species besides human adopted into Combine's military force, something like cybernized rhinos used like heavy tanks or birds used for surveillance or bombing

Yeah they strike me as like Something that would live in a marsh or on the shore of an ocean Eating leaves and small shell fish and stuff I am bad at biology so it probably wouldn’t work but still That’s how they feel to me Kinda like a giraffe mixed with a crab

@@user-zq4bn2hu5y unfortunately i don't think any of earth's animals are "special" enough to be integrated in the combine military

​@@GarryTalehippo maybe, also whale idk

@@junahsong130 whales need to be in water to survive so they cant really be used and im not sure hippos could be very useful

Literally. It kind of terrifying.

@@Skyrionn "This is an extermination" - Harlan Ogilvy

To be fair, I think if all ants on the planet decided to deliberately and strategically start attacking humans, we'd be screwed.

Nice a war of the worlds fan

This is no more a war than a war between Men and Maggots or Dragons and Wolves or Men Riding Dragons throwing Wolves at Maggots. - Scary Movie 4

It's terrifying at certain points in the game

@@Skyrionn When he crawls and start coming at you pretty fast it is terrifying

maybe they're earlier just versions

@@germanwarrabbitit does say that half life alyx takes place 5 years BEFORE gordon freeman starts taking on the combine

@@germanwarrabbit But that doesnt make sense, they've been, at least implied to have been in the combine's arsenal for a long-long while

@@commanderpeanut8029 well the M1911 has been in use since 1911 and it's been upgraded lots since maybe the one of Alyx is a different version

​@@commanderpeanut8029 the synth creatures are somewhat believed to be a modified and enslaved species that the Combine came across before Earth, no? HL Alyx could simply be an earlier (maybe just de-weaponized since war takeover is done) iteration of the Striders which is why they have such a different physicality and sound.

They 100% are.

Then you have to encounter 3 dozen mini bosses in a row in episode 2

@@SavorySoySauce magnusen devices made that part easy though

@@quickstergamestutorialsgam3899 Back in my old home town, we just used our hands!...

​@@TheHungrySlugjust use your noggin as a bludgeoning device, its a much more of a challenge! Risk of concussion and all that, but my skull is stronger than theirs! I personally recommend eating the brains inside, as it makes you smarter! (I am living proof of this, and before you go and say "JC, stop eating brains, youre addicted its becoming a real problem!" No i am not addicted and i can stop eating brains whenever i want, they just taste good and make uou smarter) Anyway moral of the story is you should try cracking some skulls open, just try to make it not your own! Hands just make it too easy in my opinion. Those nerds with their fancy guns that launch high tech bombs are probably just too weak and chicken to get their hands and skulls dirty with yellow strider blood XD

Fr bruh, I think a lot of people forget that the combine aren’t just limited to what we see in the game, and that these striders and other synths are just one of many enslaved species augmented to serve a singular task.

Ain't the elites and soldiers humans too? I mean sure, really augmented, but still..

What about gargantuas

This makes playing as Gordan Freeman really feel like a one man army.. he was taking out every single type of enemy.

@@ragnovika377 Gargantuas are not Combine.

I think that is what I love the most about putting these together. I have the perfect excuse to load up each game and explore the worlds for suitable footage.

I feel lucky that I might just live long enough to see all of Half-Life completed.

It's kind of like a car crash you can't stop watching. I love how deep the story goes

Never happen as far as we know. It's a big universe. The idea of us being completely alone is kind of narrow-minded.

Don't be so sure. What planet do you live on?

@@k3digichaos mArS wHY Do yOu aSK?

@@bentheman69thats racist.

All Tomorrows is incredible. I'd also recommend anyone to read it.

Deffo! It kinda makes you feel bad for them

That clash of the titans was one of my favourite parts of Episode 1. I do wish we learned more about them though!

Why didn't they mass produce dogs?

​@@kane357lynchdog is a passion project between Eli and Alyx as she grew up.

@@YoSuey and it showed massive weapons potential

@@kane357lynch I guess the best way to describe it would be list: I: Dog being an AI design no matter how it is done, requires specialized equipment for a brain. We don't know how sentient it is (Which just means the sensory, feeling, rewards systems, etc but also a major component of sapience/a mind/personhood/general intelligence.) entirely, but it displays varying forms of both emulation and imitation. It is robust enough to deal with reality, processing all information without sensory overload and delays, as well as some forms of self awareness. A brain to fit this would need to be beyond conventional computers and architectures/frameworks, and even the concept of dedicated intelligence modules put together into a central system might not be good enough. The closest would be combining that technique with analogue and normal digital/computer electronics. Therefore, being a purely mechanical and digital construct of an entity, it wouldn't be very cheap in half life. For example, if there is no server that copy and pastes templates, the full mind as it develops from one unit, etc, you have to make every single part yourself which could require more development, programming, coding, resources, as well as waiting for any equivalent of a black box for self development let alone anything from sentient aspects to affect it for actual use. You could translate everything in the computer however, and then from this use a skeleton template using certain intelligence types and memories to create a blank slate general intelligence that could be used to make combat units though. II: Dog isn't actually well armored. Some joints are entirely exposed. This is also due to being a passion project of over-time development. It is in various ways inferred that it wasn't this big or exactly in this form and had extra parts and functionality added, the design of the body even if mish-mashed would also affect mental capacities. It would be an awful military unit without extensive modifications. It is also not very versatile, it is more of a brute design. It also uses specialized technology like a miniature gravity gun probably in this case via magnets or weirded maglev on objects combined with brute strength that would come with it's normal metal and bulky form. Even with miniaturization of conventional tech to make the teleporters such as at Eli's lab is far gone by half life II which Dog was made probably somewhere between later developments post black mesa, to a few years before the start of HLII. It would require many alterations to existing tech, finding workarounds etc. They are also a bulky target, more massive in width than height. Even if the metal is coated to handle pulse munitions as well as it does let alone the random mix and mashing of metal and alloys that can handle it, it would inevitably succumb to enemy fire in repeat deployments without constant repair or replacing functional parts due to structural weaknesses from recurrent high temperatures let alone use. If against normal kinetic means, then the joints, solid limb pieces, etc would be usable until shattering. III: The resistance doesn't have factories. In fact the times we see them having heightened technology and it isn't just a move over or functional museum piece it is because all the means were already present. In Episode II you can find a mechanic station which beyond modifying your car with a neat radar imitation, literally cannot do anything and is in a too hostile, swamped out, and rusted out environment to be able to repurpose anything. Things lik the mag device restockers are relatively easier to produce and smaller. Simpler, basic, specialized. All they can do. IV: The resistance is tiny and usually did covert operations better. If they did have the capacity, they would invent up a new form than dog. A mini-dog would be weaker, slower, and more prone to damage than regular Dog would, because all the parts are smaller, more delicate, and mass production implies entirely new parts made up to emulate or mimic better tech to actually work it. It also means due to the situation, lesser quality. If for weaponization, built in weapon systems jam up more, bulkier, easier to detect and track from far off distances, harder to maintain and repair, nearly impossible to reload without having an immense mission-ending weakness, and generally increases the square-cube law which means you'd need new power sources like dark matter energy like the combine to actually run it and it being even bigger, which would demand more actuators and bigger ones to just meet the bare minimum to run the design. Dog would be the superb combat unit in comparison to a better protected, larger, dedicated weapons platform, actually intelligent robot. Scientists even post Episode I seems to have access to things like magnets and medical equipment, which means magnetically levitated turrets, mass drivers of any type, humanoids, and making their own synths would be more realistic as an option to them. It would be faster, lighter, smaller, and more multi-use, higher carrying capacity, and focus on more general design than weaker, more expensive, useless specializations. V: The Resistance, even without having new real tech like bioprinting, can unironically create synths, and purely if we stay in half life, there can be two types of synth if not more. The natural biological animals like humans that you can develop by cell cultures and then tie it into technology until it grows into and connects as well as communicates with bionic limbs and interfaces that would be akin to acts like skull reshaping but now with functionality and artificial means added to it. (Which itself just means unnatural, man-made, or through alternative means. Not the "fake" which implies illusionary.) Alternatively, the cyborg method like most combine synths, which is taking an existing creature and modifying it extensively. Although, if young enough in development, can also function like the first option. Either would take a long time of cultivation, and having a mechanical brain or interface connected into the brain cells themselves would allow you to add in a general intelligence database so most conventional means can come to it faster than needing many years to naturally learn how to move, communicate, identify friend, foe, neutral, etc... Assuming everything was in place technologically, infrastructurally (And the universe takes place in a time split early in our recent history without extra miniaturization to allow CNC-mill SLS printer hybrids for example so still not entirely likely.), as well as sending plans (assuming again Dog actually disassembled and reassembled to what they are now to invent up schematics.), it still wouldn't be likely you would have more than one. As well as base, outpost, etc communication, it is likely only the main cast, or at best the main resistance cells in the regions occupied in and around the footwork of the series so far would be the only ones getting it. It would be easier to just invent a mainframe type in this universe like a regular super computer, analogue digital computer, quantum computer, any type of wetware computer, and set up camera-guns everywhere and reusing Strider warp cannons attached to a high-quality energy source like a dark energy reactor than another Dog. And this option would pretty much mean even a intellectually cut off combine sect can easily find your non-mobile operations base housing it, destroy it or damage it enough to become a mindless indiscriminate weapon of war, and have made the process irrelevant. Most AI is pretty much wasteful currently with storage, processing, hybridization techniques, and thus needs the cloud. This means you actively send out signals and receive them like Wifi/blue-tooth/internet, and thus the combine can locate every single one, hack and control every single one. However, you could turn Dog into a mobile super computer due to their immense structure of form, and then have it both defend itself and other connected entities and drones, and use it as a communications platform to pilot, direct, and observe every other form of machinery. If the brain is capable enough to be so general to be on our level, it is probably already an ASI. And therefore it would naturally need to have something like this anyway. This would allow it to control, influence, and maintain every server, every robot, every piece of information, every single light source, and every single communications means that is within range. If a mainframe Dog for example was connected to another, and they were at the furthest reaches of signal and/or bandwidth range, it could extend the reach of the progenitor unit by using the secondary. And if it was just an avatar for Dog, then whatever commands, inputs, and outputs would be equaled but with less demand or time delays. So it could cover many miles and detect energy signatures of units like dropships. VI: Dog is a self contained AI. Self contained means it is akin to faraday caged. Without specialized attachments outside the protective casings of the brain and still finding a way to connect to it, which is safer and allows things like weakening or entirely removing outside hostility and thus no need for defensive electronic warfare protocols, it cannot emit external signals. If it wants to connect to a computer, it would need to directly connect to it physically like a power line to a laptop. Which would make the mainframe idea I presented also pointless.

I agree. It's adds more of a realistic view of the Combine and how they operate.

No one could have predicted in the earliest years of the twentieth century that HG wells would traumatize @joy-wire

HG Wells truly changed how humanity perceived alien contact

as someone who also was traumatized by War of The Worlds, i can fully relate

Jeez imagine being traumatized by a tripod and then seeing them in a game

Preach - I'll never forget when my parents played Jeff Wayne's musical version and I heard the Ulla of the tripods. That shit freaked me out.

I agree. I think Valve have a true talent when it comes to the creation of their enemies.

And the noise

It literally states otherwise 😂

I'll take a look. They may have been actually!

It was pretty sad

I would love to cover Mass Effect. The algorithm however is very picky on what it likes me to cover. Anything Valve, or Doom related seems to work rn. Maybe one day

@@SkyrionnSCREW THE ALGORITHM POST WHAT YOU WANT BROTHER!!! WE WILL WATCH YOUR AMAZING VIDEOS ANYWAY!

I agree completely. I'd love to see what the Strider looked like before their interaction with The Combine. It would have also been cool to see some of the Xenian creatures adapted into Combine weapons. I'd say a herd of Strider. I had a very similar image in my head of how they would look. Maybe one day.

I would think they'd eat leaves and fruits, as they are tall

You're far too kind! I appreciate you!

Thanks, will do!

I'm just a calm person. I appreciate you watching!

I understand your point completely. I think as a lore obsessed person, I just want all the details.

Is this the same guy as the car cleaning guru?

thank you! I'm also not sure who the car cleaning guru is

Thanks for watching it! They seem to be at the top of most lists of favourite enemies.

I appreciate you watching!

Absolutely an iconic moment

thank you ferret! interesting name there.

I think they're on my list!

They could have been pulled out of reserve, but the top of the citadel was kinda nuked so they were all destroyed

Thanks bud! I tried to be more emotive with this video. Something I'm working on!

That's very kind of you to say! Thank you

Thanks!

I'm glad you enjoy them. It's kinda relaxing putting all of the information together in a timeline, and in one spot. I haven't done G-Man yet. I have so many topics and he's going to be a big one to cover. I'm hoping at some point this year - if not, it'll be next year :)

@@Skyrionn no problem, i look forward to it

They really are. Every creature has an aspect of mystery and has some sort of interesting backstory

Thank you :D

Thank you!

Glad you enjoyed it!

Thank you 🤗

That's super kind of you to say. I'm just glad to be back! Thanks for watching. There is so much more to come.

They're absolutely up there as one of my favourites too!

It has been a while! I'm slowly working through that list of requests.

Hello thanks for replying you’re a great youtuber also i meant I’ve not move @@Skyrionn

There's so many more bricks too. That's just the canon content - the fan content is pretty great and needs to be explored more.

Thanks!

Always great to see you Cody

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! I hope you had a great day.

I think they're on the list :)

I have thought about doing a podcast version! Maybe one day.

Lemme know what you thought!

@@Skyrionn I loved it and as usual with HL2 lore, i want more of it! But having things kept mysterious is half the fun i suppose! Well done :)

I hope it was worth the wait!

One day!

Thank you!

I hope it was worth the wait!

@@Skyrionn for sure, every moment of it

Always a great day when you comment.

Thank you!

I enjoyed putting it together. Thanks for watching it!

Oh I fought them yesterday! We do love some Quake.