Half-Life: Alyx/Unused Characters

This is a sub-page of Half-Life: Alyx.

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Unused Characters

"Worker Bob"

There are numerous textures and assets related to the Combine Workers, including a variant internally labeled "Worker Bob." This variant appears in the final game during the introduction level. However, due to the mask, their faces remain completely unseen. It features very cartoonish proportions and texturing work, it bears a striking resemblance to the character Soldier from Team Fortress 2.

Unused Combine

Combine Soldiers

Referred internally as "combine_soldier_new_content" and "combine_recon" respectively. They are early models of the Combine soldiers, seen in the scrapped "Shooter" minigame from The Lab.
They are rendered as red wireframes due to missing textures. An ArtStation post by artist Max Aristov shows the model fully textured.

"combine_soldier_new_content"	"combine_recon" Material Groups
	Supression	Commander	Shotgun

Combine Recon

Little is known about the planned Combine Recon unit as it was never mentioned nor shown prior to the game's release. A model for the character still exists in the released game files, but it lacks textures. The model's texture definitions point to the missing materials "combine_grunt_gear.vmat" and "combine_grunt_body.vmat", suggesting some relation of the Recon to the Combine Grunt, possibly being an early form of it.

"combine_recon_flare"

"combine_recon.vmdl"	Diffused model	"combine_recon" Material Groups
		Supression	Commander	Shotgun

The model depicts the Combine Recon with a standard Combine helmet (although the filter is on the wearer's right, opposite most other Combine units in Alyx), a lightly armored suit, numerous pouches, and a backpack with a hose coming from inside one of its pouches that connects to a valve on the suit's chest. The backpack's strap going across the chest meant to hold extra gear matches that of the Grunt's. Aside from the model, a few particle effect files named "npc_combine_recon_flare" are present which show a blue signal flare being fired into the sky, an ability the Grunt lacks.

Fast Headcrab

"npc_headcrab_fast"

The Fast Headcrab was planned to appear in Half-Life: Alyx but was cut early on along with the Fast Zombie due to the developers considering their ability to latch onto the player's face so quickly with a little forewarning to be too shocking in a VR environment. The "npc_headcrab_fast" entity still exists in the game, and is fully animated, but due to a broken AnimGraph parameter, the NPC cannot move when spawned or placed on a map using Hammer. While similar to its previous appearance with its thin, spindly legs and slender body, it now has shiny black skin, similar to the original Poison Headcrab, and several rows of sharp teeth. The red tips of their legs glow in the dark. This model contains some of the Reviver's animations showing it burrowing into and reanimating a Zombie, suggesting the model may have been used for the Reviver at some point.

intro_attention_getter

headcrab_walk

headcrab_run

headcrab_rearup

headcrab_drown

The Fast Headcrab can be reenabled in the campaign with the use of community mods.

Miscellaneous

holo_hacking_enemy

Judging by the name and the minuscule size when viewed in the asset browser, it's most likely an early version of the security nodes you need to avoid when hacking a Combine lock.
It uses the same model as the leftover helicopter bomb from Half-Life 2.