Dog (Half-Life 2)

Dog
Alyx Vance (right) introduces Dog to the player in Black Mesa East.
Game series	Half-Life series
First game	Half-Life 2

Dog (occasionally written as D0g or d0g) is a robot in Valve Software's 2004 first-person shooter computer and video game Half-Life 2. Doctor Eli Vance built Dog to both celebrate and protect his daughter, Alyx, more than two decades prior to the events of Half-Life 2. Dog started out as a relatively small, four-foot robot, but as Alyx grew up she added more and more parts to it – "upgrading" it so to speak – and it now towers ten feet high.

Characteristics

Dog, much like a real dog, is very friendly, loyal and eager to help whenever possible. If the player looks at it while it's idle, it may perform a dance. Dog makes friendly and playful noises such as beeps and whines, as well as less-friendly roars when provoked. The robot's body is constructed largely of scrap metal, hydraulics, and wires, with what appears to be a scrapped Combine scanning system for a head, though it has three flaps while scanners normally have four. He stands and moves with a gorilla-like gait, having large, heavy arms and relatively small legs. Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar states that Dog's design underwent "relatively few changes" from his very first concept sketch and that "Valve artists were inspired by classic movie robots", citing Robby from Forbidden Planet. Dog has a zero-point energy device much like the Gravity Gun to pick up and throw things. Dog also has extreme mechanical strength, and proves very useful through the course of the story, as it can throw large objects (such as vehicles) at enemies or pry open areas which are otherwise inaccessible to Gordon. His strength may also be augmented by the zero-point energy device, allowing him to lift and move objects which appear to be many times his weight. Dog seems to be completely invulnerable to any damage used in-game; it never takes apparent damage from any source including weapons, fire, or explosions. However, Dog is not invulnerable; he simply has a huge amount of health to make sure he does not die in battles he is featured in as opposed to using very fast regeneration of health used for Alyx. It is possible for him to die, but this can only be observed if the player spawns him using the debug console in a combat situation that he would not normally be involved in. Dog does not have any combat AI, and all in-game scenes with Dog involving fighting are scripted. If a spawned Dog is approached by so much as a common headcrab, the spawned Dog will flee. If no enemies are present, he will find any nearby small objects and throw them at the player like he did in the game of catch at Black Mesa East. Dog's character, even though important to the story, also plays a recognizable role as comic relief for the game. His battle sequences are often humorously exaggerated, where players can see him throw large objects (usually vehicles or dumpsters) great distances to stop a single headcrab, or furiously attack disoriented and panicking groups of enemies without caring for consequences nor taking any noticeable damage, whether it is crushing a handful of soldiers or taking a dropship or Strider head-on. Valve commented on the Half Life 2: Episode One commentary that players love Dog, so they made him the first thing the player sees at the start of the episode.

In-game appearances

Alyx converses with Dog in Half-Life 2: Episode One.

Gordon Freeman is first introduced to Dog in the Black Mesa East scrapyard. As a part of a tutorial on operation of the Gravity Gun, Alyx arranges a game of "fetch" between Gordon and Dog, using an inert Combine roller mine as the ball. The game is interrupted by a Combine assault on Black Mesa East. Dog opens the passage to an unused tunnel leading towards Ravenholm for Gordon to help him escape. While Gordon enters the tunnel, Dog stays at Black Mesa East to help Alyx and others defend the lab.

Gordon meets Dog again after he and Alyx teleport from Nova Prospekt to Doctor Isaac Kleiner's lab in the end of Entanglement. The company splits again – when Gordon and Dog set off to find and join Barney, Alyx stays with Dr. Kleiner who refuses to leave without his pet headcrab, Lamarr. As Anticitizen One begins, Dog is quick to leave Gordon behind and charge at a nearby group of Combine troops outside the lab, tossing a ruined car at them and even fighting off an APC. He then tears apart a gate for the player, allowing him to proceed. However, Dog himself goes berserk immediately after and jumps aboard a Combine dropship, departing into the unknown. It is worth noting that this whole scene – unlike other sequences where supporting characters fight alongside Gordon – is entirely scripted, and as such requires no involvement from the player at all. Apparently, Dog eventually manages to find Barney, as Gordon meets both of them in the square toward the end of the chapter "Follow Freeman!" in a scene where Dog, in the heat of the battle, knocks over a large statue of a horse that was the player's goal during the last part of the chapter. As Barney reports to the player, Dog is probably aware of the fact that Alyx is already in the Citadel, and so tries to reunite with her, being completely uncontrollable to others. The last the player sees of Dog is when he, once again, opens a passage for Gordon – this time allowing him to enter the Citadel. Half-Life 2: Episode One opens with the player under a pile of rubble from which Dog lifts him. Dog then proceeds to aid Alyx and Gordon in first contacting Eli Vance and Dr. Kleiner (by using his body as an antenna), and then resolving the issue of entering the Citadel by throwing Alyx and the player across a dividing ravine in a burnt-out van. Dog is told by Alyx to return to her father, and is not seen again for the rest of the game. Dog appears in Half-Life 2: Episode Two. He makes his appearance shortly before Alyx and Gordon arrive at White Forest. He managed to destroy a Strider after it rises up from the wreckage of a dropship. Also, he saves Gordon and Alyx from Advisors at the end of the game.

References