Half Life: Alyx is a game that I think about re-watching almost continuously, and a short machinima called Protectors makes a strong case that ultimately did it. It’s six minutes long, beautifully animated, and embedded underneath.
No disclosures, partly because there’s so little to spoil, but to give you an idea of what to expect: Protectors tells a very brief story about several citizens of City 17 taking shelter in one place. the hideout was sunk, and some Combined soldiers investigated the aforementioned hideout.
Guardian created by TheParryGod who has some other Half-Life machinima shorts on his YouTube channel.
“The idea for this project has been forming in my mind since around 2011 when I first learned of the work of video editing, piecing together clips from Garry’s Mod in glorious 360p,” reads the description inside. below the video. “Also, I wanted to make it clear that about 75% of the character animations you see are presets made by Valve. I just modified and stitched them together to form a coherent story.”
I played Half-Life: Alyx from start to finish and love it, but I spent a lot of time on it getting scared, shooting at and hiding behind low walls. There’s very little time to appreciate Valve’s animations, or anything other than low wall textures.
On the contrary, Protectors gives you plenty of time to see how great it is. How people shift their weight from one foot to another, or extend their fingers when holding a weapon; it all seems unreasonably detailed and natural. TheParryGod also deserves credit for the way it shoots, edits, lights, and whatever 25% of the cartoons Valve doesn’t do. Those are all lovely things.
