Alyx Vance

Alyx Vance is a fictional character in Valve Software's 2004 first-person shooter computer game Half-Life 2. Alyx is portrayed as a young, 20-something woman living in City 17, a presumably Eastern European city under the rule of an alien race called the Combine and their Consul Dr. Breen. Alyx's voice is that of actress Merle Dandridge. Her face and body were modeled after Jamil Mullen.

Alyx is the daughter of Dr. Eli Vance, former colleague of Gordon Freeman at the Black Mesa Research Facility. Like her father, Alyx is a member of a resistance group dedicated to fighting the Combine. Although the identity of her mother is not addressed (apart from Eli's regretful mention of her death), it is possible that her heritage is at least partially Asian, especially given the distinctive shape of Alyx's eyes.

She helps Freeman frequently: saving him from Combine soldiers in the first episode (Point Insertion) when he is unarmed and not yet wearing his HEV suit; introducing a new weapon known as the Gravity Gun in Black Mesa East; helping him fight his way through Nova Prospekt in Entanglement; and, finally, guiding him through the Citadel in the last scenes of Dark Energy. She wields a gun with great proficiency and has an immensely strong pet robot named Dog, who stands approximately 3 meters high and is very important to the plot. Dog opens the long-ago closed way to Ravenholm when Combine soldiers attack Black Mesa East and, much later in the game, a hidden underground passage to Citadel.

In Black Mesa East Alyx is shown arguing with Dr. Judith Mossman. Alyx's dislike of the latter is seemingly justified, as Freeman and Alyx learn in Entanglement that she has betrayed the resistance and given away the location of their hidden facility. Nevertheless, in Dark Energy, Dr. Mossman explains her actions (see related article for more detail) and the two women finally make peace.

At the end of Half-Life 2, Alyx is with Gordon Freeman at the time of the dark energy explosion. After the G-Man saves Gordon from the expanding matter explosion, it is unknown whether Alyx is saved as well.

It would seem that Alyx manages to survive, however, since she will be a significant character in the announced expansion Half-Life 2: Aftermath. There had been suggestions that she may be the player character in an expansion, but Valve Software has denied this. The developers of the expansion pack have said that they wish to see Alyx "grow as a character", which is somewhat confusing given that Alyx was one of the most fully-developed charactres from Half-Life 2.

It is worth noting that Alyx's appearance, importance to the story, and mannerisms may be taken as indicative of a new approach to game design on the part of the Half-Life developers. All NPCs in the original game were interchangeable within their "class" (e.g., scientist, guard, soldier) and most were completely expendable. Unlike other games which feature extremely vulnerable mission-critical characters, Half-Life 2 gives Alyx the ability to absorb massive amounts of damage before death. (Compare this approach to that of the developers of the N64 title GoldenEye 007, and its rendition of the character of Natalya.) Considering that not only can Gordon Freeman not fire on friendly NPCs, but is unable to injure Alyx even indirectly with the Grav Gun, the rumors about Alyx's playability in the expansion pack are somewhat understandable.