Thought the headcrabs of Half-Life: Alyx were terrifying enough? Just be glad Valve cut this gruesome critter from the game.
We missed this last month but datamining the game seems to have uncovered the Fast Headcrab enemy from Half-Life 2 alive and well in Alyx. Twitter user JaycieErysdren made the discovery, complete with images of what’s apparently a fully-modeled headcrab. While the top side of the red-legged monster isn’t quite as grotesque as the acid-spitting variant seen in the full game, look below the surface and you’ll be greeted with this…
Yeah, imagine those teeth trying to chomp their way into your face. No thanks.
So, why was the fast headcrab cut? According an earlier interview from GameSpot with Valve’s Dario Casali, the thing was just too scary. “Almost immediately we cut the fast headcrab and the fast zombie from Half-Life 2,” Casali said. “The shock of having that guy come around the corner and latch onto you before you’d even know what was going on was just too much.”
Using console commands, you are actually able to spawn the fast headcrab into the game and watch it go through an idle animation. As you can see in the video embedded above, it won’t attack or interact with you, thank god. However, you are still able to kill it and get a good look at the corpse.
The final version of Alyx is very careful to manage its horror elements early-on, reducing jump scares and keeping headcrabs at bay. Anyone that’s met Jeff, though, will know that the terror quickly ramps up towards the end. Still, the addition of fast headcrabs may have made the game a bit too much for me to handle, and I reviewed the thing.
Besides, with mods now coming in hot and heavy, don’t be surprised to see the fast headcrab make a return in some fan-made content. Personally we’ll stick to the happier stuff, thanks.
This article was updated after publication to include footage of the fast headcrab model.
