HECU Marine
From Black Mesa: Wiki
Contents |
Overview
The HECU ("Hazardous Environment Combat Unit") Marines are among the primary antagonists of Black Mesa. They have been given orders to contain the Xenian invasion and to silence the facility's personnel by any means necessary. They play a huge role in the story, opposing the escape of Gordon Freeman and other fleeing personnel, attempting to control the events inside Black Mesa, and eventually orchestrating Black Mesa's demise.
Marines are human soldiers of average height and build, equipped with body armor and helmets. They are usually equipped with either an MP5 or SPAS-12 to fight aliens and execute Black Mesa personnel. Some may be equipped with Mk2 Grenades and M203 centrifugal-based contact grenades, used to defeat groups of enemies or flush them out of hiding. The Marines bring with them many weapons and vehicles, and install weapon emplacements shortly after their arrival.
Behaviour
Found in many parts of the game after they are first encountered in the chapter We've Got Hostiles, the Marines are hostile to every non-military NPC they encounter.
They use squad tactics to attack enemies, and may throw grenades to flush their target out of an area instead of rushing in. The Marines also dodge grenades thrown by the player, run from mortar strikes, and avoid tripmines and satchels [2].
Sometimes they talk to each other to call for backup [3], and if one marine in a squad spots the player on his line of sight, he will alert his comrades and relay the player position to them [4]. In Black Mesa they do this using their actual voices, as opposed to Half-Life's short-wave radio transmissions [5].
Some of the Marines' common sentences:
- "SQUAD, QUIET DOWN" (when looking for you)
- "STAMP HIM OUT" (when assaulting your position)
- "SHIT, SHIT, MEDIC! SHIT!" (when wounded)
Variants
The Face Creation System lends the Marines a large variety of faces as well as a variety of potential accessories including various ammo packs, berets, sunglasses, varying helmet types [6], cigars [7], night-vision gear, and more. They will not have ski goggles and balaclavas like some did in the original Half-Life [8].
In addition to the standard marine, two other variants are seen in Black Mesa:
- Commander Marine, or Squad Leader: A specific separate entity with better stats and a different voice than the standard marine [9], identifiable by its distinctive red beret [10]. They will have slightly more health, deal slightly more damage, and direct any other nearby grunts. Whether the behavior of HECU squads changes when the commander dies has not been addressed. Commanders are equipped with MP5 or shotguns [11].
- Medic: Contrary to Half-life, they do make an appearance in Black Mesa, and can be seen healing their teammates or Squad Leader as well as engaging in combat. They are equipped with MP5.
All variants can also possibly come in hurt body types (like the security guards or scientists after the Black Mesa Incident), but this has not yet been confirmed [12].
Media
Trivia
- When they die, soldiers and squad commanders drop their berets and cigars (if they have one).
- The HECU leaves behind RPGs in a few different locations in the Black Mesa Research Facility, but they are never seen using them (except in some scripted sequences) [13].
- Though Medics were not seen in Half-Life, they were mentioned by the announcement system. In addition, soldiers would sometimes call out "Agh, medic!" when wounded. Medics were also featured as an ally in the expansion pack, Opposing Force.
- Although capable of avoiding tripmines, Marines will never jump or duck them. [14]
- HECU Medics will drop healthkits if killed while they are healing someone. [15]
Redesign History
Artificial Intelligence
Unlike some people usually think, the Marines do not use the AI from the Combine; however, they use some of the same behavior code (a separate code that can be used by more than one NPC). According to James Kane, the Marine AI "rely on behaviors more than the Combine, so not only other NPCs can share the behaviors, but we have cleaner code too". In comparison, the Combine AI is over 4000 lines of "spaghetti code" where the Black Mesa's Marine contains only 500 lines. [16]
The developers are using as much existing code as possible to avoid redundant code, but they also have implemented custom behavioral aspects which the Combine do not have. The code was built from scrach using Valve's default Behaviors [17]. Marines also use Source's response system to issue context-sensitive commands like the Combine soldiers in Half-Life 2 do [18]. This command is a pre-recorded sentence that is triggered when a special event happens, for example the sentence "SHIT, SHIT, MEDIC! SHIT!" when wounded.
At one point Marines were capable of picking up a thrown grenade and throwing it back at the player, but it was removed due to issues with realistic implementation. [19]
The Backup Weapon: Glock
Initially the marines had a limited amount of ammunition for their MP5s and SPAS-12 shotguns, and resorted to their sidearm, a Glock 17, once they'd exhausted their main ammo supply. This behavior led to playtesters avoiding their fire until they were forced to use the Glock, making them easier to fight. As a result, the use of Glock was dropped, and they now are armed only with MP5s or shotguns with unlimited ammo. [20]
Combat Armor
The design for the Marines' uniform is based on the cutting edge Crye Precision range of body armor/apparel [21] and other real army accessories (for example the armored backplate in the marines' armor) [22]. This is to give them a more realistic and elite feel as opposed to using the fictional Powered Combat Vest that appears in Opposing Force. Over the course of development the developers tried a number of color schemes and settled on the current one [23]. Ironically, the camouflage chosen for the Marines was specifically chosen both for its iconic look and its ability to make the Marines stand out in combat, rather than blending in [24].
Given the way the Face Creation System works, goggles and other accessories are possible but balaclavas are not. So, the "Shotgun-Marine with balaclava" model wasn't added due to a technical decision: if balaclavas were added, all the face variations for human NPCs should be discarded. [25]
Redesign Gallery |
The HECU's Insignia
The HECU's insignia (seen on the Squad Leader's beret) is different from the one in Half-Life, which featured a Black Shield with a Red, White, and Blue stripe headed from the bottom left to the top right. In Black Mesa it is a Green Shield with a lighter Green Horse's Head. This will not be fixed in the final version because of its low relevance, either to the Half-Life story [26] or the mod gameplay [27].
