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Editor’s Note: An interesting analysis of a simple sound effect and how it plays into the overall design of an enemy character. -Shoe
I wanted to take a moment to point out one of my favorite sound effects in all of gaming: the Combine “flatline” sound effect in Half-Life 2.
(Check out this fantastic short movie based on HL2, Escape from City 17, to hear the effect I’m talking about.)
The flatline effect is the alarm that sounds when a Combine soldier is killed, and it serves two very distinct purposes. Most players, I’d wager, only consciously pick up on the first and obvious: That soldier is dead.
Oftentimes in Half-Life 2, you find yourself fighting multiple Combine soldiers at once — and frequently at great distances. Without this sound, there’s a good probability that players would be left wondering if a particular enemy was dead. It’s a small detail that greatly enhances the flow of the game.
The second purpose for this sound is much more subtle but is one that it performs just as beautifully as the first. It serves as an excellent counterpart to the overall Combine design — it dehumanizes these enemy soldiers….
You assume the Combine are human because they have human shape: two arms and two hands with five fingers each, two legs, a head, proper height, etc. However, you never see any flesh (save Barney, the one Combine soldier who turns out to be your best friend incognito), and their voice is modified like a protected witness’ in a murder trial. The intimidating mask hides any possible facial recognition and with that, any emotion that these soldiers could be showing.
Compare this to the resistance fighters that you encounter along the way. With the exception of the Vortigaunts, each one has a human face and a human voice. Because of this — and the flatline sound effect — it’s easier to vilify the Combine, and the hero Gordon Freeman is free to heedlessly kill as many Combine soldiers as he needs to get the job done
When the sound goes off, it also illustrates that the Combine care not so much about the soldier’s death, but more about locating where you — the threat — are located. It paints the Combine as a cold, heartless force…one that is more concerned with maintaining its superiority than about human life, and it does it masterfully.