But Advisors are a little different, as we've always known them to be the closest to the 'real' combine presence. A more likely comparison would be with the Stalkers, which we saw in the same sequence... but we got round to 'fighting' them a single game later. Plus, Stalkers were always right in your face whereas the Crab and Mortar synths were glimpsed once and from quite a distance. My feeling is that Valve found themselves wanting to add a little more visual variety to the pod sequence, so they put in some failed but modeled synths. They really don't look that interesting to me, and they don't have enough visually in common with the Striders, Gunships and Hunters IMO (though Hunters are themselves quite distinct from larger Synths... if they even ARE synths.)
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