The Destroyer of Worlds | The Strider | FULL Half-Life Lore
The Half-Life series has a ton of iconic creatures. The Strider is one of the most important out of all of these. They helped The Combine Empire conquer worlds, and after this, maintain control. Yet - the lore around them is still fairly limited. That was until Half-Life: Alyx released.
How powerful were these creatures? Where did they come from, and what was their connection to the Combine Hunter? In this video, we explore the lore and story behind The Strider in the Half-Life series.
Timestamps
00:00 Introduction
01:28 The Fall of the Ancient Strider
04:10 The War Machine
07:51 The Maintenance Machine
09:50 The Uprising of Earth
15:42 Legacy
16:30 Behind The Scenes
19:01 Closing Thoughts
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Half-Life & Portal Lore Playlist: • The Borealis | Half-Li...
Standard Sources
Game Manuals
Half-Life Series Playthrough Research
Portal Series Playthrough Research
Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar
Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar (Uncorrected Proof)
Half-Life: Alyx Playthrough
Portal/ Half-Life Fandom
Old Valve Forums
Marc Laidlaw's Twitter
Marc Laidlaw Website
Breengrub Twitter
Reddit AMA (w/ HL: Alyx Developers)
Portal 2
Aperture Desk Job
AUDIO USED
Half-life 2 OST: Broken Symmetry
Half-Life 2 OST: Escape Array
Black Mesa OST: Catalyst
Half-Life 2 OST: Lab Practicum
Half-Life: Alyx OST: Severed from the Vortessence
Black Mesa OST: Xen
Half-Life 2 OST: Triage At Dawn
#HalfLife #Lore #Strider
The algorithm hasn't been too kind lately. If you could comment or interact in anyway with the video - that would be fantastic! Do you think the Strider and Hunter come from the same planet?
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
Imagine being in the 7 hour war, hiding in a bunker hoping that no one will find you, hearing nothing but explosions and chaos outside. The thought of being in the 7 hour war terrifies me.
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 like to think the original Strider alien, before all the modifications, was just an innocent herbivore, chillin' and eating leaves, licking moss and walking in water. Perhaps some algae grew on its carapace too. A peaceful animal.
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
“This isn't a war… It never was a war, any more than there's war between men and ants.” - H.G Wells' War of the Worlds.
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
The strider is so awesome. My favorite part of it has got to be its ability to crouch to lower heights. Imagine you only see the legs of this thing approaching a building you are in, then stop and slowly crouch down, pointing a beam cannon right in your face.
It's terrifying at certain points in the game
@@Skyrionn When he crawls and start coming at you pretty fast it is terrifying
One of the most iconic and badass enemies of the half life series. Was a shame they changed its sound in alyx, the way it sounded in hl2 blurred the line between it being a creature/machine
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.
The strider is one of the coolest aliens in half life. They are kinda like mini-bosses if you encounter them.
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
Striders are like the Combine equivalent of Main Battle Tanks. They're the battlefield sledgehammers, devastatingly powerful, but also very vulnerable to properly equiped infantry who know what they're doing unless backed up with smaller, anti-infantry units.
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.
i love the line "many, many terrifying species from across the multiverse" as you pan over a metro cop, the only combine members that are human
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.
This is slightly off topic, but seeing footage of Black Mesa and Alyx juxtaposed to HL2 just makes the series feel more complete. It all looks gorgeous and each game offers a very unique take on the time they're set in. But once you get to HL2 and you see the areas the Striders destroyed, it makes you realize the Vortigaunts had it even worse on their world
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.
The more I hear about Half Life's lore the more it reminds me of All Tomorrows, with the Combine being the Qu. They have so many parallels. I would recommend anyone who likes Half Life lore to give All Tomorrows a read just to understand how disturbing a race like the Combine can be.
All Tomorrows is incredible. I'd also recommend anyone to read it.
The story of Half Life has got to be one of the most interesting Stories in any game. Just seeing Humanity so helpless and enslaved is so scary but also so fascinating. Thats why i love these story games. These stories will never actually happen but you can still experience them and feel with the characters.
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.
The sounds they make, especially the one they make when they die, are some of the best sounds I've heard in a game.
Deffo! It kinda makes you feel bad for them
I love the Striders design. It's imposing and of the most fearsome Combine forces. Still, the awe of seeing DOG take one of them out ripping it's brain out was awesome. Before that, I wasn't aware they were partially organic.
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.
When I was a kid I was traumatised by War of the Worlds. The first time I played HL2 and saw a strider (at age 24) I thought it was a tripod and got so freaked out that I had to go outside for a few minutes haha
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.
Striders always freak me out 😂 very effective concept, design, and implementation.
I agree. I think Valve have a true talent when it comes to the creation of their enemies.
And the noise
Some commentary indicates the Construction Strider was inspired by the idea of a “synthetically reproduced” Strider. I like this idea more then the idea all Striders are built the same way. It implies that the Combine garrisoned on earth had to build their own Striders from local materials/processes until they could finish the Citadel’s Teleporter.
I agree. It's adds more of a realistic view of the Combine and how they operate.
One of my personal headcanons is that all the creatures used by the combine (Striders, Hunters, Gunships, Dropships, etc..) were all species from the Combine Homeworld, and are descendants of beasts of burdens and livestock that were once used by the original species that created the Combine. Brief edit: Of course excluding headcrabs and vortigaunts which came from Xen
It literally states otherwise 😂
I’d love to see you do a video on the combine synth soldier from the beta. They apparently were used in the 7 hour war and are likely the culprit of the humanoid figures in the vortigaunt mural.
I'll take a look. They may have been actually!
It's quite interesting to see the combined arms doctrine of striders with hunters. Really, like any tank, it has to be properly supported in order to be most effective.
The strider's sounds was always the best part to me
It was pretty sad
Striders are amazing creatures made from Valve following by other creatures to me!
I hope, if a real HL3 ever comes out, we get to see what some of the machine-animal hybrids do when not under combine control. Similar to how we see the Xen creatures interacting with Earth life in HL2, in a sort of "natural" state, not under Nihilanth control. Imagine a group (family? pride? herd?) of striders just gracefully walking through a forest, their bodies barely visible above the tree-line. De-armed and not under Combine influence, they could be passive to the player - who would feel scared at first - but then realize they're not aggressive anymore. Maybe even bowing down to let the player climb onto them for a better vantage. Would would they eat? I don't know. I feel like many of the combine "machines" probably have been altered to run on electricity or some other form of power, rather than food and water. But given how Striders still have "blood" (or something similar), maybe they have mouths too? Perhaps their claws double as proboscises, and you could glimpse them standing in ponds and rivers - seemingly doing nothing, but in fact, actually drinking from it.
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
The parallel between the Combine and the Reapers from Mass Effect is a nice one to do. They seek to absorb all inteligent life and make it a part of them. It's interesting that they dont take dogs or pigeons as well as they didn't took other simpler species from other worlds. It could be a nice topic. And i wold love to see your opnion on Mass Effect universe too
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 really like how they were animated, glad to see you mentioning it in the video. Also the dying sound is so iconic I've even had it in my dreams/nightmares. Good job and I hope more people will see this.
Fighting the Strider in HL:Alyx was a truly terrifying experience. A masterpiece in game development.
I understand at the end there how it would be fun to have more lore and questions answered, but I kinda like how there isnt as much information on some of these species before their adoption in the combine as compared to the vortigaunts. It makes sense that the vortigaunts would be preserving their history because they escaped the combine and are resisting it, but it adds to the intimidation of the combine that they pretty much erase the existence of the species they use prior to their modifications and capture
I understand your point completely. I think as a lore obsessed person, I just want all the details.
Im always super excited to watch your new videos! Good voice, great depth in research and good narration skills. Always well done! One of the three content creators I cant wait to support when all my bills get caught up! Well done good sir!
You're far too kind! I appreciate you!
Thank you so much for all these videos compiling all known lore about these games I love, so good to have around
I believe that the combine scanned the striders, turned the ones on their home planet into the war or construction variants, and then made more after
Man I absolutely love your channel and it’s a damn shame this channel isn’t getting promoted by KZhead just now with the 25 year anniversary of Half Life!
your voice is so chill like why u so chill always ! i could listen to you for days , because you're such a good and relaxing storyteller .
I'm just a calm person. I appreciate you watching!
Awesome video as always man! Keep up the great work 😊 love you half life lore videos. Cheers!
I absolutely love these deep dives! Keep up the amazing work :)
Thanks, will do!
this video is nice. since i speak spanish mainly, this video made me improve my english comprehension. i was able to understand most words without needing the subtitles. Great video overall!!
The strider has become my favorite thing out of all the media I’ve engaged in. A mix of of my favorites subjects (entomology, robots, and science fiction) they speak to everything I want out of a design. If I could utilize them in every game I played I totally would, but I’ll have to settle for Lamda Wars and using a mod to make them friendly in Garry’s Mod.
I’ve only just discovered your videos and im in love!! Your voice is so relaxing, i find myself listening to these while resting (probably shouldnt but 😂) Ur amazing Skyrionn ❤❤❤❤❤
Great video, just dawned on me that I had seen watched a lore video about the striders even though they are one of my favourite enemies
Thanks for watching it! They seem to be at the top of most lists of favourite enemies.
Amazing video, great to listen to while working. Keep up the good work
Definitely my favorite synth. I loved it/watched on in horror when dog ripped it's brain out in EP2.
Absolutely an iconic moment
Might be neat if you talked about the Crab Synth sometime. I know there's not much to work with; you only see them once in the Citadel from a distance. But there could be some interesting lore material.
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
I hope that you actually know what a fucking legend you are man. You are the one and only halflife lore channel for me and many many others
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.
i remember the first time i seen the strider they immediately became my favorite enemy so unique and mysterious they walked it the sounds they made all of it made them amazing
Man I've been destroyed for the past week over the outbreak of war in my country, this vid is helping me pick up the pieces. Thank you
Congrats on your new home! I have played Half Life since 1998, and I sincerely appreciate you teaching this old dog about the world I fell so much in love with. Best,
Superb narration, script and edition. It seems like a Discovery Channel episode!
god damn finishing hl2 made me want more and you've provided in the best ways possible
I love how calming your videos are
Is this the same guy as the car cleaning guru?
thank you! I'm also not sure who the car cleaning guru is
the strider i think is my favorite alien in half life 2 except for maybe the headcrab or if you count episode 2, the hunter
Another great vid, I've been a half-life fan since 1998 and put the lore together in a really entertaining way. Correct me if I'm wrong but have you done a GMan vid yet?
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
I want you to know that I absolutely love your voice it's wild how much it ads to your videos don't get me wrong I love the lore and all that but your voice makes it the reason why I listen to these at night to relaxe
great video. thanks for sharing some graphics/lore from the game, with us.
I got extremely exited when I saw this on my feed, cause Striders are my favorite combine synth
They're absolutely up there as one of my favourites too!
Great video as always. Thanks Skyrionn!
I appreciate you watching!
In an interview for The Final Hours of Half-Life: Alyx, Tristan Reidford recalled asking Backman whether Striders were existing creatures subjected to cybernetic modification by the Combine, to which he replied that the Combine scanned the creature that would become the basis of the Strider's design in its natural habitat before recreating it synthetically
I personally appreciate the level of work put in to "fine tuning" the white forest battle. You could tell, on your own, that the sequence was extremely well balanced to be as terrifying and challenging as possible while still being 'doable'. I played it out many times, in many different ways and each time I felt like I had saved the day. Very fun
Yo man you are the best, i can listen your voice many hours.
Thanks bud! I tried to be more emotive with this video. Something I'm working on!
great video like always. what if you did a video on the Overwatch Transhuman Arm (aka the combine soldiers/elites)?
I think they're on the list :)
Many years has passed yet the story still is one of the greatest myths of humankind! I can't waith for you to put another brick to the timeline!
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.
Love the videos, keep them going ❤️
thank you ferret! interesting name there.
Y’know, after the half life Alyx battle, I really don’t think I will ever see striders the same way ever man. I used to just think striders were just “A synth” but after seeing all the real abilities it can do (Cannon, spikey lil’ legs, CLIMBING ON LITERAL BUILDINGS, etc) it’s terrifying for just some random citizen not knowing what to do. And thanks for the video dude, I really didn’t know where the eyes where, and after realizing the reason why they were so accurate because where they shoot from is their eye 😅. I also didn’t notice the striders drawings on garys wall, so uh- thanks for the full analysis.
love you, damn good story telling aswell keep it up!
That's very kind of you to say! Thank you
I really like your videos! I love Half-Life lore and the Striers are very interestingg!
They really are. Every creature has an aspect of mystery and has some sort of interesting backstory
My own head cannon has always been that the striders are about an elephant equivalent creature in their natural form and habitat. Maybe not literal savhanna grazers, but something as large, intelligent, but limited in actions as elephants are. I also figure Hunters are from the same world as Striders due to their physiological similarities, from their tripod builds to their kind kind of warped, booming and squealing synth like vocalizations. Their world though, I think is a different one from the combine homeworld, and the world that I think the Dropship and Gunship come from, which is another world I think they share, and again probably something more akin to an elephant or whale in terms of intelligence and niche. Ultimatley as for the fates of their worlds, I think it is much the same as Earth. The Combine seem intent on gathering and repurposing every single resource they can get, and have mentioned they have difficulty making portals unless they are like the massive, hard to make kind, so I think they drain everything they can from any and every world they can actually reach. This probably means almost the entirty of the biomass,mineral mass, and atmosphere of the Strider world, the Airships world, and likely the orignal Vortigaunt world and Combine Homeworld has been stripped bare and spread out across the Combine's empire, along with any "useful" organisms being alter and repurosed for their own demands. I have a feeling this was much easier with the first two worlds, the Tripod world and the Airships world, as the Striders, Hunters, Dropships, and Gunships are all more so very intelligent animals. It seems the Vortigaunts and the Humans may have been the first and second other species the Combine encountered that could develop and maintain technology, which might explain why they seemed to not quite take the potential threats from either of them to seriously, until a certain trans-dimensional suit was ordered to toss a few monkey wrenches into their gears.
Happy canada Thanksgiving my dad mentioned you videos and how cool it was someone did lore for half-life lmao i didnt have the heart to tell him all of youtube. I grew up on doom and quak Lans. He hates what the internet has become but still loves lans
Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! I hope you had a great day.
I love the Strider so much, it and the Gunship are probably some of my favorite creatures from sci-fi media
Could there possibly be a amazing and detailed video of the full combine lore, just like you did with black mesa incident? I leave here my suggestion, very nice videos!
One day!
Holy crap! All this time I thought the Strider was just a weird organic machine. Interesting lore man. Loving it so far.
This is why I adore the Combine. Had they not been the antagonists of the story, they could bolster humanity's forces a thousand fold. Their unique mesh of bio-mechanical units and technological prowess make them one of the most versatile armies in the world, not to mention their synths and other bio-mechs have some level of autonomy that allows them to act without direct orders from somewhere else. Now I'd like to see a mod where we have one half of the Combine, Rebel sympathizers, and the other half being the Combine Loyalists. It would be a very cool dynamic I'm sure Gaben and co have considered and/or thought of before.
Great video (as usual!)
By far my favorite synth, I love this thing, it's amazing, there are many fights against them (be a mini boss or not) and to me the iconic crouch walk at high speeds; that one got me "haha f u gonna be there" and after it ran into me, crouched I was "WTF" lmao
Hey skyrioon do you have some kind of podcast explaining game lore if not pls make one.your voice is so relaxing i fell assleep to it
I have thought about doing a podcast version! Maybe one day.
Move been waiting for the strider lore for ages
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
every time i think how incredible the resistance is for putting up such a good fight, until i remember what's left on earth is the combine SEKLETON CREW
Sometimes when the cutscenes played it was like watching a movie and I would doze off the control and forget I was playing a game, not watching a movie, like seeing dog fight a strider was probably one of the coolest cutscenes I have ever seen, I love the Half Life Series and I wish they would make another episode
Striders are amazing! One of my favorite enemies. Especially maintenance version
Yes they are! I loved the robotic eye and white shell. It was a nice touch
One correction, in the same interactive book The Final Hours of HL Alyx that gave us the info about Striders being scanned, their designed said that in HL A, they're scan is not perfected yet and still early compared to HL2. This means that the Combine actually started using Striders probably right before the invasion of Earth, maybe even specifically for this invasion.
One video I would love to see is a video on the Crab Synth from the beta, my all time favorite synth
"Gordon took them out with ease" 15:06 - aye, yes he did
Oh man I've always wanted an improved video about these monsters!
I hope it was worth the wait!
Another awesome Video from skyrioon absolutely amazing content
Thank you :D
Arne really should have worked the Strider busters into RPG warheads.
been wanting a remake on the strider video for a while, i really like striders
I enjoyed putting it together. Thanks for watching it!
I would've loved to see how the Magnusson Device would be implemented in Episode 3-onwards to essentially render the Striders a non-issue.
loved the video but just one piece of constructive criticism: i do think the two clips showing the methods the strider uses when encountering opponents in structures, the kick to break down walls, and the quantum cannon, could've been a bit better. honestly i consider myself firmly in the camp of being happy to wait longer for content to come out if it means that what we get is ultimately better. and again, this is just i nitpick. i did really enjoy the video! and also you know what, i think i actually prefer the release version of the strider over what was shown in the concept art. i think what we ultimately got looks more believable as a war machine.
19:57 Yes, War of the Worlds is one of my favorite movies, especially 2005
Really informative! Thank you
Glad you enjoyed it!
I always found the strider to be the most fascinating of the synth mechs, made me feel like I was taking down AT-ATs a little bit, and the tallboys in Dishonored.
"babe wake up, skyrionn dropped a new video"
One interesting detail about the strider is unlike every other enemy that needs rockets to be killed the strider doesn’t explode into pieces when killed. This implies its armor is so strong that your only able to kill it because the head trauma from the rockets is what’s killing it. Gunships, Hunter choppers, and even APCs are completely destroyed when you fire rockets at them but the strider does not. It requires special munitions to be blown up.
I like to think the hunter may have possibly been a strider juvenile but modified and weaponized to the point of being a weapon, but the ides of it also just being a normal strider but modified to be small and aggressive does also make sense as well, or a possible sister species
I have a thought that the Alliance is the Resistance from the future, but they met up with some kind of mind-controlling force, which made them attack other life forms, and, based on this, Half-life timeline is a time loop of some kind.
I really liked that when Striders were on the field, you as Gordon played a completely different game. There was no strafing or running up to it, it was the complete opposite. Striders mulched anything in their sights, the player included. Added so much variation to the game. If there was no cover, you lose, that's the end of Gordon, all it takes is 1 Strider.
Another great video as usual
The ending of episode 2 made me cry my first time playing through it, that’s the first and only time I’ve been so immersed and effected by a game 😂
imagine going to sleep with everything normal and being woken up 8 hours later with a stryder walking down the street.
Bro didn't wake up i the 7 hour war but waked up by an random strider
I'd rather not wake up tbh
@@ELIXFUDIDO Well the war wasn’t fought everywhere on earth at once. But as soon as the war was over you had combine units teleporting in to wherever.
@@jefftaylor1186 Well, i was assuming that after the 7 hours earth had surrender and combine's rule had began, i don't know half life lore that good because i recently had watched the history of the two original games and i didn't watch episode 1 and 2 yet
I always thought the strider & gunship were like organic robots. Not a creature, not a machine, but something in between. Similar to the synthetics in blade runner
Is John Guthrie the level designer the same guy who was involved in Clear Skies 1, 2 and 3? It makes sense since Clear Skies used the half life source engine.
was waiting for Strider lore for a long time
I hope it was worth the wait!
@@Skyrionn for sure, every moment of it
Yaaaay another Skyrionn video about one of my favorite games!
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 :)