The algorithm hasn't been too kind lately. If you could comment or interact in anyway with the video - that would be fantastic! Would you leave Jeff alive, or kill him?
Would you hate me if I disliked it to form a controversial metric in the algorithm? I've heard that can genuinely help, but I'm also morally opposed to lying. I don't want to dislike it, but if that boosts your stuff more than a like, I'll happily do it
I never noticed that Jeff's head was literally his original human face split in half. That, and the fact his original face still moves as normally as it can, is uniquely horrifying.
Look at this 9:03 His left half that is still recognizable. You can see Jeff's human mouth close as if he's swallowing and then open wide as his mutated mouth opens, so those two share the same neural pathways. That's just fucking horrifying to me. It's just body horror done right!
@@Skyrionnmy personal take on it, due to jeff being a body taken over by xen flora, the indivigual is likely long gone, a walking corpse, if you will, while the zombies and stalkers still has the orignial mind within to some degree, a terrible fate sure, but whoever jeff was isnt there anymore
@@lotus7781 True. He has no more brain, if he does it was pushed split in two and pushed aside for his head mouth. So he most likely isn't alive anymore, although he might be.
I always thought it was weird how Alyx's reaction to the stalkers was visceral and sympathetic, yet nonchalant and almost sadistic when it comes to the zombies and Jeff, despite them all being innocent suffering humans.
I think what they represent and her environment growing up affect that. Stalkers are a punishment designed to torture and enslave people like her when caught, while head crabs, zombies, and things like Jeff are just a simple fact of life that exists.
Just to point out, there is absolutely NO WAY Jeff is conscious of anything after his head split open. Jeff's consciousness is definitely long gone by that point. Hell the "lips" of the second, inner mouth kind of look like it was made using his brain.
I think (correct me if I'm wrong) the brain being separated in the middle is what was performed in a lobotomy. If true, Jeff would be still conscious to some degree but mentally deprived which is arguably worse than his state before
@@epicrogue2815 lobotomy separates frontal lobe from the rest of the brain. There is another kind of procedure (corpus callosotomy) where the connection between halves of the brain is mostly removed, as a mean to help with severe epilepsy. Both hemispheres remain functional in that case, but they have very limited communication. There is also hemispherectomy which is the removal of one hemisphere, in cases of trauma, or, again, to cure seizures. People are said to function relatively normally in both cases, and the operation is generally considered safe. But it isn't exactly splitting the brain by the middle, it's more like just that wrinkly part of the brain which is predominant on the upper/surface part of it called cerebrum is either removed or the connection between the halves of cerebrum limited. There is more to brain than that.
I think what happened to Jeff started as an accident and from long term exposure. Short term, you cough a lot when exposed to the spores. Long term... well you got Jeff. My theory is that Jeff was working when an accident occurred. Maybe a walkway collapsed and he fell, or something collapsed and pinned him down. One way or another, his suit got torn and worse he was pinned with coughters. Because the coughters grew on his back I'm going to bet he was laying on his stomach as the transformation took hold. Assumed dead, his co-wokers would likely leave him to be recovered later and in that time the spores were pumped into him and took hold. Eventually on another shift, Jeff was able to get up...
To me the thought of getting Eli Vance'd by a Combine Administrator is terrifying. What would it feel like? How long would you feel it? Would you feel it? I wonder sometimes.
@@glaggleenphosogarger Dead Space is definitely more in your face but Half-Life has more subtleties. Like the Zombies screaming "oh god help me" when you reverse their audio. Or the fact that dissidents can be turned into a stalker with almost all signs of humanity removed and forced to be slaves for the Combine.
Man it's a tough one knowing there's still a person in there. However, if you let him live in that Trash Compactor he's left there to suffer for an unknown amount time, conscious of his situation. What happens when someone else other than Larry is walking by and hears something in there that just resembles a human enough that they open it without knowing what they're unleashing. You have to put him too rest; for both him and the safety of others who might stumble by.
@@theunholyadventurer2376 The Combine would probably just throw some more poor schmucks just like Jeff at the problem. They aren't going to waste good soldiers on something that's already mostly contained
I'm happy HLA introduced and brought back a lot of Xen to the world. It reminds me of the old ideas of the wasteland from the beta of HL2. I hope that we can get more of these environments,
The choice to either crush him or leave him trapped is really interesting because both options can be chosen out of both a merciful or spiteful motivation
I dont see any mercy in prolonging jeff's existence. Take one look at him and tell me there is any feasible way to separate him from the tumorous growths he's trapped in. The hypothetical saving Jeff is long gone, not to mention that if you do leave him in there, he festers for over a year before finally being vaporized with the fall of the citadel. Snuffing him out now is the only merciful option.
I'm very surprised that the combine's hazmat personnel keycard wasn't tied to some biometric lock-out to prevent subects like this from escaping confinement. They're obviously aware that the spores are harmful and infectious, hence the high level hazmat protocol. Having a security lockout is just the 'white-collar' side of such precautions. It seems like an obvious security risk, but then again, hindsight is 20-20. Edit: theres also a 0% chance that alyx would avoid spore inhalation by covering her mouth. The girl is supposed to be smart! Have her rig up some sort of improvised breathing filter! You have to cover your eyes and ears as well, and while most discussions on cbrn dont cover this part, genitalia and sphincters are also another set of orifices that require protective covering. After exposure to something like this youd have to very carefully irrigate your body and discard literally everything you were wearing, including body hair. Otherwise youd be a walking vector for exposure
I think it illustrates how despite the Combine’s overwhelming technological superiority & capable military force, even they struggle to deal with the clusterf*ck that Earth has become. All of the lifeforms that have fled from their homeworld to Xen & now to Earth were never part of the Combine’s plan.
lets assume the spore infection to take effect will take at least a couple of days... then alyx' inner and outer contamination has been neutralized either during the discharges in the vault or when she was transported into g-mans pocket dimension.
and that's saying nothing of Gordon "Oh God where's my helmet" Freeman and his trip to Xen... Earth is fated to a new paradigm of Xenian lifeforms and whatever Earth life survives this new filter.
I'm guessomg because alyx only had limited exposure for a limited time, it didn't affect her as much as jeff who has been workin there for weeks or maybe even months.
I don't want to burst anyone's bubble, but concept artists will often add cheeky speech bubbles to their work as a means to keep their own energy and mood high. These speech bubbles don't necessarily mean anything other than the artist thought it would be funny to add them in real quick.
Even now, more than a year after I finished HL:A, I still feel the intense dread to step into that elevator. Jeff is the best designed enemy we have ever had in the history of videogames.
Dude me too. Absolutely haunting. The bastards that put the button where they did.... I have PTSD now. The only enemy that has really come close is the damn spiders from satisfactory.... That could be a me thing though.
I like how he’s one of the only UA-camrs confident enough to say to dislike the video of there’s something we didn’t like about it. We need more UA-camrs like him.
Most UA-camrs will mention it offhandedly, bluffing hard with the hopes their viewer will not care enough to like or dislike the video. With these videos, I couldn't dislike them if I tried, but based simply off of the way he phrases it, I genuinely feel like he'd take the dislikes as an actual angle of critique and think on what people disliked about it, and work on it better.
Imagine a simular town like Ravenholm with such a variation of zombies, Jeff is reacting with sound, elsewhere maybe some creature reacting with light and you are covered by accident with illuminance spores emited from other Xen species... Or just movement, speed limit while walking.. That makes such a place even it's only a idea a nightmare while Ravenholm looks poor! 😂.
your videos cured my insomnia. i put them on every time i’m having trouble falling asleep and it works. this one im not gonna sleep to, though, too spooky. but just in time for halloween!
I remember back in 2020 when I first encountered Jeff in HL:Alyx. Oh God, let me tell you I was on my knees crawling in my room to get past Jeff. It was the most intense Horror I experienced in my life.
Maybe it's just my experiences, but I swear that everybody I know named Jeff/Geoff have experienced significant tragedy or pain... fiction or non alike. Great video, thanks Skyrionn.
Alyx comment says it all - "I Hate you Jeff". Chapter with Jeff is a masterpiece. I don't remember when or if i ever was scared that much while playing a videogame. Adrenaline took over - I pushed a button without thinking about it, and two levels later i realized that i could leave Jeff alive. As always Skyrionn - respect for this awesome material!
Thanks for watching. As a Half-Life fan, I always thought that it would take a lot to top the experience of Ravenholm. With Jeff, Valve managed to do it. Amazing game design.
@@Skyrionn Yes Ravenholm is another great example but it didn't scared me as much like zombies from Thief series. But Jeff has surpassed them - I literally shouted when he got me one time😱
Wonderful video, as always! I enjoy hearing how you present various stories and topics within these games. :) Poor Jeff. :((( It's terrifying to consider that he's fully aware during the infection, especially considering how the inside of the 'flytrap' mouth looks a little bit like the inner part of where the halves of the brain meet each other. Excellent monster design, absolutely terrifying.
Thanks for watching. I appreciate you watching! I really wanted to cover something tragic for Halloween. Jeff is truly what Half-Life is. So many victims have fallen and suffer with similar fates. This is why we need a final game to begin the cleanup to remove The Combine and Xenian flora and fauna from Earth, or at least learn to live and adapt with them.
You're one of the best youtuber out there making videos about lore, half life 2 is pretty underrated and you're bringing alot of nice details to life keep going!
I suspect the xeno infection would probably only take hold if someone was sick or otherwise immunocompromised. Alex could probably handle a wiff or two since she's young
He basically became all of the flora in a human body his head basically became a snapper and he grew those things on his bag to spread the infection so basically the flora used him as a walking carrier of the dicease
I really don't think he would have been conscious, as there isn't a brain to speak of anymore, and I doubt the infection would have the intention or ability to retain his consciousness
I only just recently completed the entire half life franchise (long overdue, had index for years) the jeff chapter was truly an incredible experience and Half Life Alyx as a whole is what a true vr experience should be like. Rip Jeff, you didn't deserve your fate
The amount of effort put into these videos keeps me coming back every week and I can’t believe I’d overlooked these in my recommended for so long too. I pray to the almighty google gods to allow the UA-cam algorithm to once again bless this individual
@@Skyrionn honestly if I had the money I’d be supporting you on patreon but I’m still trying to do my part helping the channel even if it’s a tiny boost
I like to think of xenian infestation as a sort of intelligent species that span several different subspecies. They rapidly evolve to adapt to environments to maximize spread. So sort of like an intelligent cancerous growth. This means that a lot of the fauna and flora seen would be unique to its environment, like Jeff. I'd also like to think that some species such as the headcrab are evolved from the xen species.
kinda wish there was a different way to kill him if you wanted to show mercy and end him quick and painless. a compactor doesnt seem quick or painless. tho perfect if you wanted revenge.
I mean can you REALT be truly cruel to a creature who's conscious brain has been ripped in half to make room for a mouth? It feels like saying frying a mushroom is torture for fungi.
The moment brain started to be reabsorbed and then turned in to new flesh making the inner lining of the mouth, Jeff was not Jeff any more. It probably started as a blinding headache, then dementia like symptoms and his memory, personality all was lost. One would hope that he was far gone before he understood what was happening and last thing he remembered was feeling sick. This is based on head trauma patients.
man it's been like a year since i last watched one of these videos, and im so glad i came back (im pretty sure i watched when the channel had a few thousand subscribers) anyways when i first encountered Jeff I LITERALLY did not understand anything besides that he was an alien (mainly because i was just too horrified) and this video like gave me a FULL understanding of Jeff
Great analysis! I truly appreciate folks like you who help keep this fandom alive. I too feel sorry for Jeff and would rather he be put out of his misery.
I think Jeff may have been infected by a fault in his suit en route to the distillery. Maybe after a days hard work, the team set up what they thought would be a sleeping quarter for them to stay and work feom for the duration of the cleanup. Maybe days or weeks passed by while Jeff continues to grow sicker and sicker until he became hyper aggressive and murdered his crew. There may have been enough of Jeff left to know he couldnt go home, no cure, bringinf this disease with him and the combine would execute him for being sick, killing his crew or most likely disobedience.
Jeff... Good god, I'll NEVER forget that experience. An exceedingly excellent level that I simultaneously love and hate for the exact same reasons. Trap him in the fridge; See ya, sucker! Realize you have to let him back out to power the elevator and he BREAKS THE DOOR; Aww fuck me... Get to the elevator without him following you; See ya, sucker! The alarm in the elevator LURES HIM INTO IT WITH YOU; AWWW FUCK ME. The constant cat and mouse as a result of circumstance was this emotional roller coaster of life and death that I've, quite simply, never previously experienced and don't think I ever COULD have experienced without a VR headset.
I always thought of half-life 2 mods as combine experimenting with multiverse, a practice of taking over a planet with sentient life. So they could conquere planets in most practical manner.
8:44 Ironicly, that would actualy be the least painfull, not only cuz he was already ibfected, probably disabling pain sensors, but most importantly: The brain lacks pain receptors, if you get an axe to the head, you may feel disconfort and wet dripping from your hair, but you got no idea its that severe, its surpriaingly comon for ppl to get stuff stabbed on their skull and yhey dont notice till someone points it out or see it
I honestly think jeff was dead by the late stages of his transformation. I think it's just the xenian life that just pilots the dead body. I'd compare jeff to a wild animal, rather than someone at all conscious
I'd put Jeff out of his misery too. It's also amazing how you can take just one character and make a detailed 20+ minute video about that one character. I challenge you to do the same for Gus the forklift driver
Ya know, it might be a very strange request, a very niche and obscure series/universe to talk about, but... I'd love if you could make videos about the world of Crimson Skies. I feel like that setting should get some love and modern attention, lot of people don't know about it and the setting is a super interesting alternate history.
Did anybody else spot the mini geneworm near the head of one of the early concept designs for Jeff? I did, and I thought it was a nice little throwback to the original half life.
It's rare that I experience a game where I feel like the experience was improved by a developer trying to be the biggest @$$whole possible, plotting my personal doom like a smiling dungeon master without making the game outright impossible to beat. The Jeff section in Half Life Alyx was one of these rare games. It's been a while since I played this one, though I'm certain I looked up at the ceiling and shouted "YOU SON OF A B***H!" at this developer when I realized I had to open the door I had just trapped Jeff inside. I may have been laughing when I did it, I may have placed the word "GLORIOUS" between YOU and SON, but I can't remember for sure.
Pretty sure it’s quite unlikely the original human host is conscious in any way unless it was before his skull split open. Wouldn’t make much sense if any of the original brain was preserved and somehow moved down into the chest considering there wouldn’t be a reason for it. I assume the concept art quote was just a sort of dark joke by the artist.
Due to the combines behaviour if human Jeff didn’t want to go into golden lion he most likely would have been killed by the combine. A damned if you do damned if you don’t situation.
The process of making Jeff: “So, I played last of us, remember the Cordyceps fungus? Well imagine that but WORSE. Like WAY WORSE. And make the victim an unlucky guy in a hazmat suit.”
So if Jeff was an unfortunate human being and concept art was combine soldiers? what if there was a place on earth hidden where dozens of soldiers and synthetics got infected, turning them into there own abominations? If the xenian fauna could do something like that, just imagine what it can do to a strider, or a hunter, maybe something else, like combining with other xen creatures like the bullsquid or hound eye Also I kept Jeff alive because I felt bad, I feel like he is just his own thing, a newly creature confused and agro, so when I opened the hole of the antlion cave, I opened up the trash compactor to let Jeff release himself to be free, roam the wasteland, get captured and documented by the combine, or maybe even live peacefully, roaming blind.
One of the best parts of this segment is that the equipment still works. If you find a gas mask on the ground, you can pick it up and drag it to your face, and Alyx puts it on. This makes you immune to spore clouds while you wear it. Same thing with hard hats, if you pick one up and put it on, it'll protect you from one barnacle.
The algorithm hasn't been too kind lately. If you could comment or interact in anyway with the video - that would be fantastic!
Would you leave Jeff alive, or kill him?
He deserves to be put out of his misery. Just imagine the constant agony he is in.
yeah him and every other zombie in the entire half life universe lol@@Skyrionn
@@r4scal. actually the whole universe
just blow it all up
@@RhaegarATTstarting to sound a little like the combine there friend
Would you hate me if I disliked it to form a controversial metric in the algorithm? I've heard that can genuinely help, but I'm also morally opposed to lying. I don't want to dislike it, but if that boosts your stuff more than a like, I'll happily do it
I never noticed that Jeff's head was literally his original human face split in half. That, and the fact his original face still moves as normally as it can, is uniquely horrifying.
One of the many horrors of the HL universe
Look at this 9:03
His left half that is still recognizable. You can see Jeff's human mouth close as if he's swallowing and then open wide as his mutated mouth opens, so those two share the same neural pathways. That's just fucking horrifying to me. It's just body horror done right!
I would make a splitting headache joke but its too obvious...
took me a while to notice that too and I wish I didn't
aaand you somehow made him even more horrifying, thanks bro😀👍
Jeff became an example that there can be something even worst than becoming a zombie by a headcrab.
I agree completely. I'd say even worse than becoming a stalker
@@Skyrionnmy personal take on it, due to jeff being a body taken over by xen flora, the indivigual is likely long gone, a walking corpse, if you will, while the zombies and stalkers still has the orignial mind within to some degree, a terrible fate sure, but whoever jeff was isnt there anymore
@@lotus7781 True. He has no more brain, if he does it was pushed split in two and pushed aside for his head mouth. So he most likely isn't alive anymore, although he might be.
@@mediocrecontent2449I bélière the virus must use it so it keeps him kinda alimentaire but less than headcrab zombies
Worse*
This guy is the portrayal of all of Half-Life's most horrifying pieces of lore and he's just straight up named 'Jeff'
The perfect guy. The best way to introduce someone to HL tbh
Naming something so abnormal and horrifying such generic name like 'Jeff' or 'Bob' is always going to be funny.
yes
Truly incredible.
Well, with MR. Friendly, that’s nothing to me at the moment.
I always thought it was weird how Alyx's reaction to the stalkers was visceral and sympathetic, yet nonchalant and almost sadistic when it comes to the zombies and Jeff, despite them all being innocent suffering humans.
That's a very good point. Something I hadn't noticed.
Yeah
And honestly
I think the zombies have it way worse than stalkers
The zombies know what’s happening while the stalkers seem to remember nothing
I think what they represent and her environment growing up affect that. Stalkers are a punishment designed to torture and enslave people like her when caught, while head crabs, zombies, and things like Jeff are just a simple fact of life that exists.
@@nighthawk4502 yeah that’s what I was thinking while writing
Like its maybe more of a like
Loss of hope or like
Yeah like a punishment thing
Headcrabs simply control a dead body, while stalkers are still living people.
Just to point out, there is absolutely NO WAY Jeff is conscious of anything after his head split open. Jeff's consciousness is definitely long gone by that point. Hell the "lips" of the second, inner mouth kind of look like it was made using his brain.
I think (correct me if I'm wrong) the brain being separated in the middle is what was performed in a lobotomy. If true, Jeff would be still conscious to some degree but mentally deprived which is arguably worse than his state before
@@epicrogue2815 lobotomy separates frontal lobe from the rest of the brain. There is another kind of procedure (corpus callosotomy) where the connection between halves of the brain is mostly removed, as a mean to help with severe epilepsy. Both hemispheres remain functional in that case, but they have very limited communication. There is also hemispherectomy which is the removal of one hemisphere, in cases of trauma, or, again, to cure seizures. People are said to function relatively normally in both cases, and the operation is generally considered safe. But it isn't exactly splitting the brain by the middle, it's more like just that wrinkly part of the brain which is predominant on the upper/surface part of it called cerebrum is either removed or the connection between the halves of cerebrum limited. There is more to brain than that.
Much like the headcrab zombies, while he might still call out, there's nothing intelligent guiding it.
there so much we know yet we don't know about the brain... its incredible stuff@@MatVeiQaaa
Whatever you wanna tell yourself, bud. Or you could embrace that it’s fiction and can’t hurt you.
I think what happened to Jeff started as an accident and from long term exposure. Short term, you cough a lot when exposed to the spores. Long term... well you got Jeff. My theory is that Jeff was working when an accident occurred. Maybe a walkway collapsed and he fell, or something collapsed and pinned him down. One way or another, his suit got torn and worse he was pinned with coughters. Because the coughters grew on his back I'm going to bet he was laying on his stomach as the transformation took hold. Assumed dead, his co-wokers would likely leave him to be recovered later and in that time the spores were pumped into him and took hold.
Eventually on another shift, Jeff was able to get up...
It does sound like a horror story. The origins of Jeff!
The body horror of the Half-Life games is so underrated. Genuinely some horrific things done to human bodies in this universe.
To me the thought of getting Eli Vance'd by a Combine Administrator is terrifying. What would it feel like? How long would you feel it? Would you feel it? I wonder sometimes.
@@Insipid_Xerxes Getting Advisor tongued looks like a pretty quick death tbh. You get pierced right in the brain.
dead space is way worse, i will never recover from it mentally (real)
@@glaggleenphosogarger Dead Space is definitely more in your face but Half-Life has more subtleties. Like the Zombies screaming "oh god help me" when you reverse their audio. Or the fact that dissidents can be turned into a stalker with almost all signs of humanity removed and forced to be slaves for the Combine.
Agreed. I think that turning into a Headcrab zombie, a Stalker, or becoming like Jeff have got to be some of the worst fates in any video games.
Man it's a tough one knowing there's still a person in there. However, if you let him live in that Trash Compactor he's left there to suffer for an unknown amount time, conscious of his situation. What happens when someone else other than Larry is walking by and hears something in there that just resembles a human enough that they open it without knowing what they're unleashing. You have to put him too rest; for both him and the safety of others who might stumble by.
100% agree
honestly I would leave him alive just so that the Combine would have to deal with him
@@theunholyadventurer2376 The Combine would probably just throw some more poor schmucks just like Jeff at the problem. They aren't going to waste good soldiers on something that's already mostly contained
@@theunholyadventurer2376 pranked
@@vincentthe1stLet's be honest, everyone would pull a prank like that
Poor Jeff indeed. Sad he was just some hazmat guy who got turned into… Whatever he is now…
Something new. Something awful.
@@Skyrionnsomething borrowed and something blue?
@@Grimpy970something mouthy. something moist.
“Something worse… much uglier.” -SGT Forge upon the shield world on first contact with the flood.
We can Call Jeff's mutation The "Skullation"
I'm happy HLA introduced and brought back a lot of Xen to the world. It reminds me of the old ideas of the wasteland from the beta of HL2. I hope that we can get more of these environments,
I loved the Xenian influence too. The Quarantine Zone was an amazing location to explore. I also hope that we see more of this in any future games.
The choice to either crush him or leave him trapped is really interesting because both options can be chosen out of both a merciful or spiteful motivation
I dont see any mercy in prolonging jeff's existence. Take one look at him and tell me there is any feasible way to separate him from the tumorous growths he's trapped in. The hypothetical saving Jeff is long gone, not to mention that if you do leave him in there, he festers for over a year before finally being vaporized with the fall of the citadel. Snuffing him out now is the only merciful option.
I'm very surprised that the combine's hazmat personnel keycard wasn't tied to some biometric lock-out to prevent subects like this from escaping confinement.
They're obviously aware that the spores are harmful and infectious, hence the high level hazmat protocol. Having a security lockout is just the 'white-collar' side of such precautions. It seems like an obvious security risk, but then again, hindsight is 20-20.
Edit: theres also a 0% chance that alyx would avoid spore inhalation by covering her mouth. The girl is supposed to be smart! Have her rig up some sort of improvised breathing filter! You have to cover your eyes and ears as well, and while most discussions on cbrn dont cover this part, genitalia and sphincters are also another set of orifices that require protective covering. After exposure to something like this youd have to very carefully irrigate your body and discard literally everything you were wearing, including body hair. Otherwise youd be a walking vector for exposure
I think it illustrates how despite the Combine’s overwhelming technological superiority & capable military force, even they struggle to deal with the clusterf*ck that Earth has become. All of the lifeforms that have fled from their homeworld to Xen & now to Earth were never part of the Combine’s plan.
lets assume the spore infection to take effect will take at least a couple of days... then alyx' inner and outer contamination has been neutralized either during the discharges in the vault or when she was transported into g-mans pocket dimension.
and that's saying nothing of Gordon "Oh God where's my helmet" Freeman and his trip to Xen...
Earth is fated to a new paradigm of Xenian lifeforms and whatever Earth life survives this new filter.
@@korstmahlergordon is. Just built different
I'm guessomg because alyx only had limited exposure for a limited time, it didn't affect her as much as jeff who has been workin there for weeks or maybe even months.
I don't want to burst anyone's bubble, but concept artists will often add cheeky speech bubbles to their work as a means to keep their own energy and mood high. These speech bubbles don't necessarily mean anything other than the artist thought it would be funny to add them in real quick.
Even without that info, concept art by definition doesn’t always reflect the final product.
Even now, more than a year after I finished HL:A, I still feel the intense dread to step into that elevator. Jeff is the best designed enemy we have ever had in the history of videogames.
100% - I do hope one day, in a new installment, we get to experience something similar again
Dude me too. Absolutely haunting. The bastards that put the button where they did.... I have PTSD now. The only enemy that has really come close is the damn spiders from satisfactory.... That could be a me thing though.
I would like to know who's responsible for this incredible character design and how their intensive psychotherapy is going.
It takes a special person to create something like this
I like how he’s one of the only UA-camrs confident enough to say to dislike the video of there’s something we didn’t like about it. We need more UA-camrs like him.
I'd rather just have the honesty really. The content isn't going to be for everyone but I always appreciate the view!
That's definitely something I can respect, and just makes me like the video more.
@@SysOpQueenyeah the word UA-camr has been ruined
@@Skyrionnthat right there definitely convinced me to like and subscribe
Most UA-camrs will mention it offhandedly, bluffing hard with the hopes their viewer will not care enough to like or dislike the video. With these videos, I couldn't dislike them if I tried, but based simply off of the way he phrases it, I genuinely feel like he'd take the dislikes as an actual angle of critique and think on what people disliked about it, and work on it better.
Imagine a simular town like Ravenholm with such a variation of zombies, Jeff is reacting with sound, elsewhere maybe some creature reacting with light and you are covered by accident with illuminance spores emited from other Xen species... Or just movement, speed limit while walking.. That makes such a place even it's only a idea a nightmare while Ravenholm looks poor! 😂.
Ravenholm 2.0
Considering how Jeff's brain fucking split in two and transformed into a mouth, I'm not entirely convinced he's more conscious than a dead person.
your videos cured my insomnia. i put them on every time i’m having trouble falling asleep and it works. this one im not gonna sleep to, though, too spooky. but just in time for halloween!
I think that's a compliment haha.
The best spooky video for spooky season. I have another video just like Jeff coming next week too!
I remember back in 2020 when I first encountered Jeff in HL:Alyx. Oh God, let me tell you I was on my knees crawling in my room to get past Jeff. It was the most intense Horror I experienced in my life.
Same 100% 😂 😂
Maybe it's just my experiences, but I swear that everybody I know named Jeff/Geoff have experienced significant tragedy or pain... fiction or non alike. Great video, thanks Skyrionn.
I'd agree. Jeff appears to be synonymous with a great pain. In my experience too.
Yeah as a Jeff this hits a little too close to home.
Such a haunting segment. Tyrant-type enemies always hit different
Other Devs : Give a monster cool and complicated name
Valve : His name is Jeff.
"Laughts in Nihilanth"
Other game monsters: Moragord, guardian of the expanse
Half life: jeff
@@BioClone that was beginning goldsrc valve
1:07 this is worse than a weekend at Jeff half-life’s house - Gex
gex night?
I wish we had more Half Life lore simply because your videos on it are just so good
Oh I have so much more content to cover! Thanks for watching
@Skyrionn oh dang! You've gone over so many topics with such detail it I'd hard to believe you haven't covered everything
Pls algorithm bless this man his content cant be matched by any others ive watched ❤
Praise the algorithm!
Amen to that
I love how fleshed out the half life universe is becoming, a horrifying and complex universe.
Oh it is a terrible place to live in. This is just one of the awful universes I intend to explore. Quake is about to join the party.
Looking at Jeff gives endless ideas for creatures from the Half Life universe that can be made and I really want to see more like it
Alyx comment says it all - "I Hate you Jeff". Chapter with Jeff is a masterpiece. I don't remember when or if i ever was scared that much while playing a videogame. Adrenaline took over - I pushed a button without thinking about it, and two levels later i realized that i could leave Jeff alive.
As always Skyrionn - respect for this awesome material!
Thanks for watching.
As a Half-Life fan, I always thought that it would take a lot to top the experience of Ravenholm. With Jeff, Valve managed to do it. Amazing game design.
@@Skyrionn Yes Ravenholm is another great example but it didn't scared me as much like zombies from Thief series. But Jeff has surpassed them - I literally shouted when he got me one time😱
Wonderful video, as always! I enjoy hearing how you present various stories and topics within these games. :)
Poor Jeff. :((( It's terrifying to consider that he's fully aware during the infection, especially considering how the inside of the 'flytrap' mouth looks a little bit like the inner part of where the halves of the brain meet each other. Excellent monster design, absolutely terrifying.
Thanks for watching. I appreciate you watching!
I really wanted to cover something tragic for Halloween. Jeff is truly what Half-Life is. So many victims have fallen and suffer with similar fates. This is why we need a final game to begin the cleanup to remove The Combine and Xenian flora and fauna from Earth, or at least learn to live and adapt with them.
You're one of the best youtuber out there making videos about lore, half life 2 is pretty underrated and you're bringing alot of nice details to life keep going!
Wow, thanks! That's super kind of you to say. Thanks for watching
half life? underrated?? bruhh
I always enjoy a good creature feature/body horror.
Loved the video, man :)
Same here! It seems that they're the most popular topics too
@Skyrionn Your narrations are excellent and make it informative and interesting, not just pure nightmare fuel, haha
I fell in love with this series. Binge watched old episodes today. Nice to see new one appeared 😊
Every couple of weeks or so :) Thanks for the support!
I suspect the xeno infection would probably only take hold if someone was sick or otherwise immunocompromised. Alex could probably handle a wiff or two since she's young
Yeah but why risk it?
*Alyx
@@liubei3058 She had no other option
@@concept5631 Huh? Alyx quite literally gets through it without taking a wiff?
He basically became all of the flora in a human body his head basically became a snapper and he grew those things on his bag to spread the infection so basically the flora used him as a walking carrier of the dicease
It's always a Jeff that gets the worst form of luck possible
Jeff had me so scared, that I would actually hold my breath when playing it. The immersion of VR, and the Jeff chapter work awesome together
I really don't think he would have been conscious, as there isn't a brain to speak of anymore, and I doubt the infection would have the intention or ability to retain his consciousness
I see what you're saying there. I'm gonna stick with him being conscious based on that concept art. Still a horrifying fate!
I only just recently completed the entire half life franchise (long overdue, had index for years) the jeff chapter was truly an incredible experience and Half Life Alyx as a whole is what a true vr experience should be like.
Rip Jeff, you didn't deserve your fate
The amount of effort put into these videos keeps me coming back every week and I can’t believe I’d overlooked these in my recommended for so long too. I pray to the almighty google gods to allow the UA-cam algorithm to once again bless this individual
This is the best comment I've seen today. Thanks for coming back weekly.
The algo Gods are kind today. I hope it continues!
@@Skyrionn honestly if I had the money I’d be supporting you on patreon but I’m still trying to do my part helping the channel even if it’s a tiny boost
The world of Half Life is utterly horrifying and yet so fascinating.
I like to think of xenian infestation as a sort of intelligent species that span several different subspecies. They rapidly evolve to adapt to environments to maximize spread.
So sort of like an intelligent cancerous growth. This means that a lot of the fauna and flora seen would be unique to its environment, like Jeff. I'd also like to think that some species such as the headcrab are evolved from the xen species.
The sign at 4:44 looks like a man going \o/ and I can’t unsee it.
Show jeff mercy please. He deserves a rest :(
100%
kinda wish there was a different way to kill him if you wanted to show mercy and end him quick and painless. a compactor doesnt seem quick or painless. tho perfect if you wanted revenge.
I mean can you REALT be truly cruel to a creature who's conscious brain has been ripped in half to make room for a mouth? It feels like saying frying a mushroom is torture for fungi.
@@kierranbrooks7306one second ima try that to see if it works
Edit: wildfire
8:39 I just realized you can see Jeff's original face and hair overlapping the giant jaw that is his head.
The moment brain started to be reabsorbed and then turned in to new flesh making the inner lining of the mouth, Jeff was not Jeff any more. It probably started as a blinding headache, then dementia like symptoms and his memory, personality all was lost. One would hope that he was far gone before he understood what was happening and last thing he remembered was feeling sick. This is based on head trauma patients.
man it's been like a year since i last watched one of these videos, and im so glad i came back (im pretty sure i watched when the channel had a few thousand subscribers)
anyways when i first encountered Jeff I LITERALLY did not understand anything besides that he was an alien (mainly because i was just too horrified) and this video like gave me a FULL understanding of Jeff
Lovely video as always, tbh up until now i had no idea the mod is already out, so, thanks!
It's an incredible mod. I've linked it in the description :)
Great analysis! I truly appreciate folks like you who help keep this fandom alive. I too feel sorry for Jeff and would rather he be put out of his misery.
Honestly in that position I would believe that death is a mercy
I think Jeff may have been infected by a fault in his suit en route to the distillery. Maybe after a days hard work, the team set up what they thought would be a sleeping quarter for them to stay and work feom for the duration of the cleanup. Maybe days or weeks passed by while Jeff continues to grow sicker and sicker until he became hyper aggressive and murdered his crew. There may have been enough of Jeff left to know he couldnt go home, no cure, bringinf this disease with him and the combine would execute him for being sick, killing his crew or most likely disobedience.
Jeff makes me hopeful we might see more weird Xenian mutants in future installments of Half Life (Let me dream, alright.)
Half-Life: Alyx was a nice surprise. I hope we get another one!
@@Skyrionn hopefully we will get a sequel to HL2EP2 tho
"Sure thing grandpa, lets get you to bed .... "
@@freackedman4153well sucks on you, i am 14 years old because of 2008 i still can get to see another installment.
Iam impressed by how you can keep making interesting videos about half-life. I would think that at some point every topic is covered.
what a fantastic deep dive on Jeff and the level! I put Jeff out of his misery, poor guy.
Thanks for watching! Putting Jeff out of his misery is just the kind thing to do.
Thank you for this I could never ever get enough lore of the universes I love. is a love of the classics man
I honestly cried watching this video. Jeff deserved better 😢 #justiceforjeff
That’s kind of weird ngl
I just played through black mesa and I really enjoy your videos.they provide such a deep look into the Half Life universe.
I appreciate the support. Now it's time for you to move onto Half-Life 2
Great video❤ I love your narrations and lore videos.
Thank you very much! I'm glad you enjoy them.
here to help with the algorithm!
keep up the good work, man!
The best kind of help! Thanks for watching!
Hey skyrion keep up with the content .your vids are great for the background when im doing homework,🙂
Glad you like them!
super well made, and very captivating!
Thank you so much!
Half life lore is so neat because theres no definitive rulers. Its just slaves making more slaves, with no real visable master
I always look forward to seeing a new upload from this channel.
That's very kind. I appreciate you watching them!
Keep up the great content bro!!!
Thanks! Will do!
Yoo you responded thanks man! i love your content@@Skyrionn
Jeff was one of the greatest experiences I've ever had in VR. The elevator was fantastic. You know what I mean. :D
Jeff had a splitting headache
Jeff... Good god, I'll NEVER forget that experience. An exceedingly excellent level that I simultaneously love and hate for the exact same reasons.
Trap him in the fridge; See ya, sucker!
Realize you have to let him back out to power the elevator and he BREAKS THE DOOR; Aww fuck me...
Get to the elevator without him following you; See ya, sucker!
The alarm in the elevator LURES HIM INTO IT WITH YOU; AWWW FUCK ME.
The constant cat and mouse as a result of circumstance was this emotional roller coaster of life and death that I've, quite simply, never previously experienced and don't think I ever COULD have experienced without a VR headset.
I need to replay this game.
100%
Again, thank you for keeping up with the informative n fun content. Keep up the great work! Got my subscription!
I always thought of half-life 2 mods as combine experimenting with multiverse, a practice of taking over a planet with sentient life. So they could conquere planets in most practical manner.
Thanks, cool video and cool mod showcase
8:44
Ironicly, that would actualy be the least painfull, not only cuz he was already ibfected, probably disabling pain sensors, but most importantly:
The brain lacks pain receptors, if you get an axe to the head, you may feel disconfort and wet dripping from your hair, but you got no idea its that severe, its surpriaingly comon for ppl to get stuff stabbed on their skull and yhey dont notice till someone points it out or see it
That makes this somewhat more comforting. Still horrendous though!
I honestly think jeff was dead by the late stages of his transformation. I think it's just the xenian life that just pilots the dead body. I'd compare jeff to a wild animal, rather than someone at all conscious
I won't lie, it took him pointing out his face for me to realize that his head was split in two.
I didn't even notice his vestigial face...
This was the most stressful part of half life alyx
100%
I'd put Jeff out of his misery too.
It's also amazing how you can take just one character and make a detailed 20+ minute video about that one character. I challenge you to do the same for Gus the forklift driver
Make a video about Pyro from TF2 next.
It's on the list!
@@Skyrionn yes! And thanks for the fast reply. Also, I'm the real Pyro.
Ya know, it might be a very strange request, a very niche and obscure series/universe to talk about, but... I'd love if you could make videos about the world of Crimson Skies. I feel like that setting should get some love and modern attention, lot of people don't know about it and the setting is a super interesting alternate history.
Truly a fate worse than jeff 😞
Did anybody else spot the mini geneworm near the head of one of the early concept designs for Jeff? I did, and I thought it was a nice little throwback to the original half life.
I did not but I'll have to check again. I do remember seeing them using the tentacles.
JEFF
It's rare that I experience a game where I feel like the experience was improved by a developer trying to be the biggest @$$whole possible, plotting my personal doom like a smiling dungeon master without making the game outright impossible to beat. The Jeff section in Half Life Alyx was one of these rare games. It's been a while since I played this one, though I'm certain I looked up at the ceiling and shouted "YOU SON OF A B***H!" at this developer when I realized I had to open the door I had just trapped Jeff inside. I may have been laughing when I did it, I may have placed the word "GLORIOUS" between YOU and SON, but I can't remember for sure.
A similar moment I had was with one of the drawers. If opened, a bottle will fall and make noise, so you need to be quick to catch it
This was my favourite level in the game. I hope a new game in the half-life series comes out soon
Pretty sure it’s quite unlikely the original human host is conscious in any way unless it was before his skull split open. Wouldn’t make much sense if any of the original brain was preserved and somehow moved down into the chest considering there wouldn’t be a reason for it. I assume the concept art quote was just a sort of dark joke by the artist.
Thank you so much for these videos! I really appreciate them!
Glad you like them! Thanks for watching them!
This begs the question: Is there a fate worse than Jeff?
I hope not but this is half life we’re talking about
Being turned into a stalker but they fuck it up so you're just in pain constantly
New title for a video. A fate worse than Jeff.
@@Skyrionn hello funny half life lore dude
Due to the combines behaviour if human Jeff didn’t want to go into golden lion he most likely would have been killed by the combine. A damned if you do damned if you don’t situation.
A horrible position to be in. I'd rather just die tbh
his name Jeff (low effort joke I know but I didn't see anyone making it in the comments)
Joke that went wayyy over my head
Wanted to make the same joke
Guess I was too late
He has a nice Jeffussy on his head tho 😳
The process of making Jeff: “So, I played last of us, remember the Cordyceps fungus? Well imagine that but WORSE. Like WAY WORSE. And make the victim an unlucky guy in a hazmat suit.”
So if Jeff was an unfortunate human being and concept art was combine soldiers? what if there was a place on earth hidden where dozens of soldiers and synthetics got infected, turning them into there own abominations? If the xenian fauna could do something like that, just imagine what it can do to a strider, or a hunter, maybe something else, like combining with other xen creatures like the bullsquid or hound eye
Also I kept Jeff alive because I felt bad, I feel like he is just his own thing, a newly creature confused and agro, so when I opened the hole of the antlion cave, I opened up the trash compactor to let Jeff release himself to be free, roam the wasteland, get captured and documented by the combine, or maybe even live peacefully, roaming blind.
Jeff's mutations reminds me of Dead Space's necromorphs: painful and disgusting.
Half Life has such a depressing, yet hopeful story, that it's crazy how Valve managed to pull that off.
Nothing was hopeful for Jeff.
@@Skyrionn Unfortunaly there wasn't.
Jeff got instant entry into the Top10 of bodyhorror monsters. If Xenomorphs had nightmares, they would be about Jeff.
Ok hear me out...
No! Bad..
The Half Life series has some of the best cosmic/body horror up there with Dead Space.
Thanks for enriching my knowledge of the great game. The more I understand the lore, the more I enjoy playing.
Another fantastic video man
Thank you for the subtitles
One of the best parts of this segment is that the equipment still works. If you find a gas mask on the ground, you can pick it up and drag it to your face, and Alyx puts it on. This makes you immune to spore clouds while you wear it. Same thing with hard hats, if you pick one up and put it on, it'll protect you from one barnacle.
I hate the thumb now but then I realize it's the Halloween season. I look forward to getting around to watching this.