Alyx Vance

Alyx Vance is the deuteragonist of Half-Life 2 game.

Alyx is a woman in her mid-twenties, and is a prominent figure in the Resistance campaign against the rule of the Combine.

Appearance
Alyx has brown, short hair with streaks of red (a reminiscence of her original fully red hair) a headband and green eyes. She wears worn-out clothes, as most of the Half-Life 2 characters: a brown leather jacket with the right sleeve attached to the rest with duct tape, jeans and brown work boots, with a grey hooded sweater bearing the Black Mesa logo, with the words "Black Mesa" under it. She has black fingerless rappelling gloves and a tensor bandage around her right hand (it is unknown if it is for the looks or if she was previously hurt). She also wears a green belt where her gun and EMP Tool are attached; purple underwear can also be seen from behind. Around her neck is a little box-like jewel, made out of wood or metal, which apparently belonged to her mother, according to the Vance family picture. A birthmark can also be seen at the stem of her neck. At the beginning of Episode One, she gains a small scar above her right eyebrow, presumably inflicted at the end of Half-Life 2 and having been dug "out of the rubble." During Episode Two, her jacket is damaged when the Hunter wounds her, also staining her undershirt with blood.

Personality
Despite Alyx's friendly nature, she shows some hostility towards Dr. Mossman because of Mossman's somewhat patronizing attitude towards her, as well as Mossman's interest in her father. At the end of Half-Life 2, this hostility has seemingly vanished, when Dr. Mossman helps to free Alyx and her father from the clutches of Dr. Breen.

Alyx is also a rather cheerful, optimistic person, showing some sense of humour. This is evidenced by the jokes she makes about various events. For instance, she playfully mocks Gordon's silence at the start of Half-Life 2, telling him "Man of few words, aren't you?" Another example can be experienced in the chapter Lowlife of Episode One, where she and Gordon navigate a series of Zombie-infested tunnels. During lulls in combat she imitates a Zombie growl to scare the player, then will laugh and say "Gotcha!" when they find out it is her. She also attempts another "joke" shortly after when entering a Combine troop train. She spots a dead Overwatch Soldier with a Headcrab over its head and tries to lighten the situation, by naming it a "Zombine."

Alyx is also a very sensitive person, giving some heart and realism to the series. She does not believe her eyes when she sees the state of the Citadel inside, is affected by the Stalkers' fate and behavior at the start of the Episode One chapter Lowlife, and cries over the loss of her father at the end of Episode Two.

Abilities
Alyx is a skilled hacker: she is able to operate and manipulate Combine-based objects such as turrets with the help of her gear, and also wields an EMP Tool used to perform a variety of tasks.

She also "put together" the Shorepoint Scout Car with her father Eli, and helped Kleiner "resurrect" his teleport.

She is also very proficient with a pistol, and hand-to-hand combat, as she single-handedly defeats six Civil Protection officers who almost capture Gordon during his escape from the tenement block at the start of Half-Life 2, and helps fight alongside Gordon briefly during the chapters Entanglement and Anticitizen One in Half-Life 2. In Episode One, Alyx accompanies Gordon for most of the game and demonstrates additional fighting skills previously unseen, using a shotgun and kicking and kneeing off Zombies when they get too close. she is also fairly skilled with the use of Sniper Rifles as seen during episodes 1 and 2, where she provides cover for Gordon using Overwatch Sniper Rifles.

Trivia

 * Unlike other games that feature extremely vulnerable mission-critical characters, Half-Life 2 gives Alyx the ability to absorb a large amount of damage before death (due to the fact that her health regenerates extremely rapidly). It is still possible for her to die during combat however, and at several points the player is required to protect her from taking damage. Her death will result in a black screen fade and failure message, then the game will reload. It takes five simultaneous Overwatch Sniper Rifle shots to kill her, indicating that she can absorb an extremely high amount of damage. Alyx can often successfully defeat several enemies at once without the player's assistance, but she is vulnerable to multiple enemies mobbing her at close range, or to individual Combine Soldiers equipped with shotguns.
 * All games have unique messages when Alyx dies. For example: In Episode One, if she is killed, a message will say, "Alyx died." In Episode Two however, a message will say, "The Alyx Vance has died. Without her we cannot persevere." In Half-Life 2, the message is similar to Half-Life’s message: "Subject: Gordon Freeman. Status: terminated. Reason: Subject failed to preserve mission critical personnel." However, if Barney dies in Episode One after he boards the train (via cheats) the message will remain the same.


 * Just before Alyx and Gordon meet with Barney, a rebel asks Alyx if she is Kleiner's daughter and she sarcastically claims that she is the daughter of Odessa Cubbage, mirroring somehow the early stages of Half-Life 2’s production when she was to be the daughter of another military man, Captain Vance.[4]
 * Unlike other games with NPCs that often engage in repetitive behaviors, Alyx Vance is programmed to engage in more context-sensitive behaviors. For example, when Alyx is in hand-to-hand combat; she and her enemy may preform a certain type of dynamic interaction where she would either struggle or succeed. While Alyx is fighting, she might say easter eggs that are unexpected and satisfying to the player.
 * In the complete darkness areas of the Episode One chapter Lowlife, Alyx will protect her eyes when Gordon directs his flashlight directly at her face (it is also seen in Episode Two). Furthermore, as she cannot proceed in complete darkness without Gordon and his flashlight, she will call in fear when the player turns it off and suddenly moves away from her.
 * At one point during Episode 1, Alyx will comment that "We really need to talk to Dr. Kleiner about getting a new battery for that flashlight.", referring to the fact that that flashlight is dependent on the same energy bar Gordon uses to sprint and breath underwater during both Half-Life 2 and Episode 1. In Episode 2, the flashlight has its own, separate energy bar, which both runs out more slowly and recharges more quickly than the original energy bar. This change can be interpreted as a response to Alyx's comment during Episode 1, even though they didn't actually reach Dr. Kleiner prior to this.


 * Alyx is referred to in Overwatch announcements as the "Vance Subprime."


 * When Alyx and Gordon first meet, she asks him "Doctor Freeman, I presume?", probably a nod to the famous quote "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?".
 * In Dr. Kleiner's lab, on one of the walls, there is a crude image of Dr. Kleiner that Alyx drew when she was very young.
 * With the exception of when she first meets Gordon in Half-Life 2, Alyx always refers to Gordon by his first name.