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Does anyone think that the Vortigaunts in Half-Life 1 look so different because they've been modified similar to Combine soldiers?

Maybe... the theory that they are actually different in Half-Life 2 is only amplified the more you look at the classic Vort design. They got a very slim waist, with the outline of some of their bones being visible, probably because they were the starved slaves of the Nihilanth. And they are also missing skin here and there, revealing... something. I do not know what that is.

I like to imagine it's a combination of the two ideas: they're slightly modified by the Nihilanth, using its knowledge of Combine transformation from its period spent as a slave to them; and they're heavily starved and live in poor conditions, which explains why they look so sickly. Not too hard too imagine a HL2 Vort looking like their HL1 counterparts under such conditions.

I'd like to see one of these mods doing redesigns make the Vortigaunts look closer to the HL1 version.

This one looks pretty promising: gamebanana.com/mods/182677

I just see every design change such as snarks, headcrabs or in this case vortigaunts just to simply be an art style change and updates in graphics. So I imagine everything in the older games would look the same as they do in the new games, in my head canon.

But yeah... if we put those two details aside for a second, it could also be an art style change, much like the ones that happened between Portal and Portal 2. I guess it is simply up to the community to decide /shrug

I just think its an artstyle change honestly

I kinda liked the sort of old Vortigaunts from the half-life 1 art, i think they look more badass. Tho when the vortigaunts where release from the nihilanth -Thanks to gordon freeman- they slowly evolved to earth's sort of unfamiliar natural environment, that's why they kinda look like that way in half-life 2 once the combine slowly started taken over xen of what they are used to being at (aka their homeworld).

I thought I read that those green "bands" in HL1 were like a prison collar.

I believe so myself, but I'd imagine, if Vorts are modified in HL1, that the collars are actually a physical thing that they wear, on top of surgical modifications. Sort of like how the combine soldiers are very highly surgically modified, but their outfit is for the most part, just an outfit.

i like to think it is the different art styles clashing, along with lower ploy counts. but @♥𝗗𝗮𝗻𝗺𝗶𝗡𝗲𝗽 has some good ideas i agree with about it