Overwatch Elite

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Overwatch Elite
General information
Type	Transhuman elite infantry
Affiliation	Combine Overwatch
Individual information
Health	70
Attacks / Weapons	Overwatch Standard Issue Pulse Rifle (3 attack damage points) OSIPR secondary fire (15 attack damage points) Weapon butt (15 attack damage points) SMG (developer oversight)
Equipment	Vocoder Gas Mask (With Radio) Hardplate-reinforced personal armor
Game information
Designed by	Ted Backman
Entity name	npc_combine_s

The Overwatch Elite is a specialized, higher-ranking Overwatch Soldier. Sporting a distinctive white uniform and helmet with a single red ocular lens, the Elite is the deadliest of the Combine Overwatch infantry.

Overview

Overwatch Elite with the Gravity Gun.

Overwatch Elites are equipped with improved body armor, made apparent by the larger neck guard and the increased protection it offers. Their helmets are also drastically different from those of regular soldiers, which possibly improves senses, indicated by the two miniature domes located where the ears of the soldier would be. Given its helmet, the Elite may have only one eye left, changed with surgery, making it an artificial cyclops, or they still have two eyes, since some types of real-world night vision/thermal goggles have one lens at the end.

Elites are tougher, achieve better accuracy with their weapons, and inflict more overall damage than regular soldiers do. They typically carry Overwatch Standard Issue Pulse Rifles, and are able to use the weapon's secondary fire Energy Ball. They use this advantage without hesitation and with deadly accuracy.

Elites typically fight in squads of their own kind, but will occasionally operate with regular Overwatch Soldiers or, in rare cases, Hunters. They are generally reserved for more critical combat missions, where their deadly skills and efficiency are required. They also serve as Wallace Breen's personal guards in the Citadel. One of them takes the Gravity Gun from Freeman when he later arrives at Breen's office in the Citadel.

Elites are first seen in the ninth chapter of Half-Life 2 at Nova Prospekt on a security monitor. They are encountered for the first time in person in the following chapter, Entanglement, assaulting the teleport chamber only seconds before Gordon and Alyx teleport out. And they attack the player, Alyx and Rebels first time at one of the Combine Generator located in City 17.

Behind the scenes

The Combine Super Soldier image associated with the Overwatch Elite in the SDK model viewer.

• The Overwatch Elite has had several predecessors during the development of Half-Life 2, such as the Combine Synth Elite Soldier and the Combine Super Soldier, both early elite Combine units dropped in favor to a more humanoid model. It also inherited its helmet from the Combine Assassin. When viewing the Overwatch Elite model in the Source SDK model viewer, its preview image is an image of the Combine Super Soldier. The model and its related files are also named "Combine_Super_Soldier".

• The insignia featured on the Elite's left arm, chest (in a grey variant, with a campaign ribbon under it) and neck guard (inside it) is the only Combine imagery that indicates hostility or threat, displaying a cracked human skull within a straightened up standard Combine "claw" symbol, as well as a "C17", probably different for each Combine-controlled city. While the original symbol does not portray the Combine as horrific, the Elite symbol is a deliberate attempt to show the Elites as brutal and deadly. It was possibly influenced by the Totenkopf symbol used most prominently by the Schutzstaffel (or SS), an organization in Nazi Germany which served as both political police and an elite military formation.

• This insignia is also featured on the Shotgun Soldier's (including their Nova Prospekt Prison Guard variants) left arm, suggesting that it may be a branch of the Overwatch Elite or possibly a higher ranked soldier variant, or a squad leader.

Trivia

• While all Overwatch units have been transfigured by Combine technology, it is possible that Overwatch Elites have been altered even further than standard soldiers.
• On Hard mode, Overwatch Elites can withstand a direct hit from an MP7 grenade.
• At the end of the Half-Life 2 chapter "Follow Freeman!", an ordinary Overwatch Elite equipped with an MP7 can be seen. It is a developer's oversight, since the soldier will occasionally attempt to use OSIPR's secondary attack.
• Like the player's Pulse Rifle, Overwatch Elite's secondary attack can instantly kill human sized NPCs. With the exception of Alyx, Barney and the player.
• The Orange Box Achievement "Think Fast" requires killing an Overwatch Elite soldier with his own Energy Ball.
• During the ambush at White Forest Inn, if an Elite soldier is killed, it will drop a Battery instead of an Energy Ball, this is most likely to balance the attack of the Hunters, as they are very efficient against Hunters.
• The Overwatch Elite cannot be spawned through the console command, as they share same entity as normal Combine soldier. This also applies for Antlion Worker in Episode Two.

Gallery

Concept art for the Combine Super Soldier.

Left arm sleeve and neck guard insignia.

Chest insignia.

Overwatch Elite being killed by an Energy Ball thrown by Freeman's Gravity Gun.

Overwatch Elite heading for Breen's office with the Gravity Gun.

Overwatch Soldiers running in the Citadel, an Overwatch Elite among them.

Combine Soldiers and a Strider attacking Freeman in the Citadel.

Elite being killed by an Energy Ball.

Alyx and Gordon in the Citadel Core, with dead Elites nearby.

Early Episode Two screenshot of Overwatch Elites during the White Forest battle.

List of appearances

• Half-Life 2 (First appearance)
• Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar
• Half-Life 2: Deathmatch (Non-canonical appearance)
• Half-Life 2: Lost Coast (Non-canonical appearance)
• Half-Life 2: Episode One
• Half-Life 2: Episode Two

References

The Half-Life Wiki has more images related to Overwatch Elite.