Hmmm... where were these new species of headcrab in HL?

Brian Damage

Brian Damage

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Well, most of us know from the previews that there are two or more new species of headcrab hanging around in HL2, as well as our old friend, the Original Off-White Greasy Little Lump With Legs (The headcrab from HL).

What I've been wondering is, where do the new species come from? Where were they while HL was happening?

As I see it, they could be:

A. Mutations from Earth's non-Xenian conditions.

B. Genetic experiments.

C. Subspecies from different places on Xen.

D. Different casts within a hive-like headcrab social structure.

Anyone care to discuss?

(And I've noticed a prevalence of beta spoilers around lately, most of which seem to have been ignored by the mods. So I'll say this here, in the hope that any wankers who might post a spoiler save themselves the trouble: NO FREAKING BETA SPOILERS! SPECULATION ONLY! IF YOU'VE PLAYED THE BETA IN ANY DETAIL, BUGGER OFF!)
 
Okay, from the online equivalent of silence, I'll assume most people who've looked at this thread are beta players. Either that, or I now appear "Shouty" to everyone here...
 
Out of those options I'd say sub-species is most likely.
On the other hand I assumed they were just at different stages of the lifecycle (I haven't seen the Docks video yet, just some screenshots).
 
how about , valve = making it more varied, intresting, also spawning new zombie type enemies
 
Wow, I haven't noticed that. Well I haven't even really been around the forums all week, since i've had alot of school work to do and with my net being well... a bitt oofey. So could anyone post a few screens of them?
 
Well:

We've got any number of shots and any amount of footage of the original pasty white crabs in action.

We've seen a skinnyer, yellow, type of headcrab being modelled by a VALVe dude in the student shakeycam vids, and it appears to be the same sort of skinny crab that's taken over those corpses in the graveyard screenshots.

We've seen, in the student vids, a sort of black, speckley, hairy headcrab that seems to be totally hyper.

That concept art of the zombie with the black bubbles in his chest... Some people say that that looks like a new, larger type of headcrab.

And we've heard the previews describing a "Flying headcrab", too...

So, all in all, maybe five different types of crab.

I don't have time to post screenies right now, but maybe someone else can. If not, I'll try to do so tomorrow (ABSOLUTELY NO BETA SCREENS).
 
Hmmm, sounds like they may be different phenoypes of headcrab. ie. like the way you can get hornless or horned forms of cattle in the same species. Probably as a result of discontinuous variation.
*Is revising A-Level biology too much*
 
:|

Okay. I think I understand what you mean ;).

*Hasn't done any biology classes for three years*
 
Flying headcrabs? Dont they just mean when the headcrabs take a 'flying' leap at you?
 
I always thought that concept art was for an early concept of the zombies from HL1. Then again it is in the HL2 concept section. It doesn't seem much larger than a normal headcrab though, I think it actually resembles one of those yellow ones we see on the corpses, oh well I gues swe'll find out in the final game.
 
Natural Mutations due to abandoning their native ecossytem, they had to adapt. or something.....
 
I think that they're just different castes of crab.

My personal guess is that the normal headcrabs were defensive, protecting the Gonarch.

These new ones could be foragers or something. The real clue would be the behaviour, which we've hardly seen yet.

The four types, as were reported, are poisonous, speedy, large and flying.

I'd bet that the black ones are poisonous, the hyper ones/deadcrabs are speed, and the last two have not been revealed yet.
 
The normal ones being defensive would certainly explain why they eventually mutate into the badass gonomes...

Foragers... Could be... Or maybe scouts... Possibly that's what the Deadcrabs/Deadcrab zombies are... they're really speedy, aren't they?

The black ones certainly look poisonous, from what little we've seen of them... They seem realy creepy. Which preview said there were poisonous ones, BTW?

The large ("Beefy", according to PC Gamer) ones could just be normal ones who haven't been able to get a host while young...

Flying's not been very well described, frankly, so I still think there's a possibility that they mistook the manhacks or something for flying headcrabs. Heck, one mag thought that the Striders were three-legged crabs...
 
Maybe they are mutated specimen from after the nuclear blast at Black Mesa.

The Evolution theory seems off, since it takes forever for species on earth to develop, but, these are, afterall, aliens. So who knows.
 
My guess is simply that they are different species which share the same genus (If that's the right word) like the various species of apes on earth.
 
I am in agreement. It would be rather boring to just have the same old slowass zombies from HL1. Well not boring ofcourse, just uninventive.

What i dont get is why the zombies look like they've been in a knife fight. They have big slits down their stomachs yet it is only a headcrab that has turned them isn't it?
 
Hence the moniker "Mawman".

Also, I believe that the zombies we've seen in the vids are only early-stage, as you can see that the "Maw" has currently only got to the stage of being an area of the chest/abdomen where the flesh and ribcage have fallen away. The ribs haven't begun to mutate into teeth yet, and the internal organs haven't yet morphed into a throat (Like they had in HL).

Also, there is the matter of the host screaming... I doubt the host can do that later on, what with the head being digested down to the skull and all, as is visible in the traptown vid and the original HL...
 
I doubt Valve has bothered to come up with a reason why there are new species of headcrab...so we'll have to do it for them. I don't think much of the nuclear radiation mutation theory; the nuke used to destroy BMRF was a tactical thermonuclear one (not much fallout). Scouts/foragers? Far more likely.
 
If you look at the concept art pices for HL which are still floating around, it sure seems like they were trying to make an alien ecosystem which made sense.

I reckon there's a reason. Maybe not a very important one, but still...
 
lolz hmm isnt it possible that there are other unknown headcrab species ?
 
Quite possible. We haven't even seen the so-called "Flying Headcrabs" yet, if they actually exist.
 
hmm i'd luv to have 'em in hl2 i like the imagination of those annoying thingies altough i know they'll drive me crazy ;(
 
I don't think anyone wants to see flying headcrabs more than I do, but, unfortunately, I don't think it's going to happen.

Which sucks because that would've been the perfect evolution of the headcrab.
 
Darkside55 said:
I don't think anyone wants to see flying headcrabs more than I do, but, unfortunately, I don't think it's going to happen.

Which sucks because that would've been the perfect evolution of the headcrab.
Click to expand...

The question is, what would the zombie do? I really hope that flying headcrabs are real, so that we can see.
 
I think the poisionous zombie can be found in one of the HL2 early concept art pics, the one that has a purple dude being "headcrabbisized" by a bigger headcrab.

EDIT: Anyway, what do you suggest headcrabs feeded from when they only lived in Xen? Vortigaunts?
 
Evil^Milk said:
I think the poisionous zombie can be found in one of the HL2 early concept art pics, the one that has a purple dude being "headcrabbisized" by a bigger headcrab.

EDIT: Anyway, what do you suggest headcrabs feeded from when they only lived in Xen? Vortigaunts?
Click to expand...

Yeah. that black-ish headcrab might not be the poison one, for all we know.

And darkside, you have misquoted me! :P
 
It is the poison one.

Evil's on the mark, sort of.

Edit: Quoted for brevity Mecha. :) Er, and I meant zombie. Not headcrab. Of course the flying headcrab would fly...:p
 
In my opinion, the different species of headcrab could quite possibly come from different Gonarches, or something. Makes little sense, but I like the idea.

-Angry Lawyer
 
Angry Lawyer said:
In my opinion, the different species of headcrab could quite possibly come from different Gonarches, or something. Makes little sense, but I like the idea.
Click to expand...

I would definitely like to see a return of Gonarch or a Gonarch variant.
But considering the levels of speculation that just one has generated, I'm afraid to see what adding more to the mix could do. :)
 
Heh, they might not even be new species in the technical sense. The differences could be due to environmental factors, there could be sub-species (like with dog breeds, or mice) or as I said before they could just be different phenotypes of the same species.

The 'broken up' nature of Xen would probably lead to a fair amount of genetic variation... depending on how common those teleporting portals really are.
 
They could even be some sort of mutation engendered by Terran conditions...
 
Here are some shots of the new headcrabs as captured by the Belgian students who went to Valve's offices.

Poison headcrab

Baby headcrab (?)

The black, creepy looking hairy one is the poison headcrab, and the second one there is what I believe to be the baby headcrabs that the Gonarch kept birthing, possibly a little older. It's not as opaque, it seems more defined and stronger somehow, like it's hardening, but it's still slick and slimy like the babies. It's possible that all the crabs start out this way, then mature into a specific type of headcrab. You'll notice they lack any real features of any one particular headcrab, and their legs are even more jointed and spider-like than "normal" HCs, even though it's commonly accepted that the babies grow up to be your standard headcrab.

I wonder where these species of headcrabs were also; namely the black one. Not so much where it was but moreso its purpose. Why would a headcrab need poison? Obviously it isn't intending to live on the victim for a long period of time...why keep a poisoned host? Gonomes can already throw acid so that's out of the question that there'd be crabs who specifically harness hosts to throw poison. Likewise, they're probably not suicidal crabs that fill their host up with poison to have him detonated near enemies.

And that big crab from the concept art, we haven't seen any actual pics of him yet, but a friend and I think those black bubbles might be headcrab...uh...eggs? Well, we think headcrabs might hatch from there. I used to think they were eyes sprouting all over the zombie's body, but this is much more sinister. If you've ever seen in the movie "Gremlins" when they get hit by water, and their backs start bubbling with growths right before more gremlins come out, it's probably like that. It'd explain how there are so many of them without a Gonarch around.
 
Or maybe they just re-modeled the headcrab so it looks better, oh wait, that isn't in depth enough.
 
Uhmmm the whole thing about being a "poison" headcrab if just pure speculation. Someone saw that concept art and said "oh looks like he's being poisoned". Then those shaky cam vids came out. someone saw the black headcrab and said "that thing looks poisonous, like a spider, it must be the headcrab from the concept art.
 
The baby headcrabs are the ones that zombify the dead corpses on the "Monk" video.
 
Dalamari said:
Or maybe they just re-modeled the headcrab so it looks better, oh wait, that isn't in depth enough.
Click to expand...

Problem with that theory, is that we've seen screenies of several different types of headcrabs, all at the same time, and many of the previews describe variation in the headcrab ranks...

[EDIT]: I dunno, dude, the ones in the graveyard seem a little big to be babies...
 
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