Upcoming episodic Entropy : Zero 2 content (Axon Pariah & Progenitors)

Tinbe

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[Full article]


Prior to the official announcement, there was an ARG that gave hints about what is to come. You can find it here.

Axon Pariah is a continuation of the story from Entropy : Zero 2. For those who don't remember, EZ2 has two main different endings, and the canon ending is the one wherein Wilson rescues Bad Cop from captivity. As stated in the article:
Struggle to escape the Athenaeum; a high security Combine research installation built to study the ‘Elusive One'. There are uncomfortable truths to be faced within the cold walls of the facility, along with new dangerous threats.
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Progenitors is a prequel episode taking place nearly two decades before Entropy : Zero 2. While Axon Pariah will put you back into the boots of Bad Cop, Progenitors will let you see through the visor of a new, specialized Combine assassin known only as 2088. Her assignment is to shut down the Progenitor, a rogue precursor unit who served as the template for the Combine’s first soldiers. As 2088, you have a cloaking device, increased agility, and other unique abilities which allow you to bring down enemies that would make Bad Cop angrily blush.
With Progenitors' focus on prototyping and gameplay, their media showcase reflects this as opposed to more complete visual design as with Axon Pariah.
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And I'll place some Progenitors renders at the end of this post, because I didn't feel like confining them inside the spoiler tags. I'll also use this as an opportunity to remind people to go look through the github page, because the ARG is where I'm getting this information from.

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This is 2088 AKA Angel, the protagonist of Progenitors. Strongly implied to have been one of the Black Ops sent to Black Mesa or being of otherwise similar fame as members of the US Intelligence Community (which is apparently an actual term hence why I capitalized it) with skills in disruption and gymnastics.
While taking place 20-ish years before the events of EZ2, 2088's abilities seem to line up with the Combine Assassins added later to the game files. Fast, capable of high jumps and turning invisible, speed and stealth appear to be her weapons of choice.

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This is Progenitor AKA Striker, the antagonist of Progenitors. Which is a funny sentence, isn't it? Anyway, he's strongly implied to be from HECU and bargained amnesty for his comrades. He was sent to eliminate the Peacekeepers by the Combine for anticivil behavior, but appears to have gone rogue himself. Hence why 2088 is sent to eliminate him. He's also mentioned to have heavy weapons training, which probably means he was a machine gunner for HECU, hence the SAW in the poster.

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These are Overwatch Peacekeeping Corps, seeming to have been established early into Combine occupation era, given this whole mod takes place nearly two decades before EZ2 and by extension HL2. As you can see, they are by and large unmodified and regular humans probably drawn from the former military institutions of Earth, which is likely why a detachment of them went rogue and warranted Striker to be sent to eliminate them. Who knows how they feel about said Striker switching sides to them.

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And these are... tbh I'm not sure what their official title is, but I reckon everybody notices the familiar gas masks. This is speculation territory, but I suspect that these are the up-and-coming transhuman arm of the Overwatch meant to replace the Peacekeepers.

"THE PROGENITOR CAME TO ABHOR HIS CHILDREN, AS HE HAD THE PRIVILEGE TO REMEMBER WHAT THEY LOST" as stated in the ARG, which leads me to believe that Striker AKA Progenitor was sent alongside some transhumans to deal with the Peacekeepers, but the transhumans died (hence they're dissected on tables) and were possibly killed by Striker as he went turncoat.

Why these transhumans are related to Progenitor and why he is their template is a whole another can of worms related to the Combine sciences revolving around mind transference and replication that's always been part of EZ lore, but is pretty convoluted to explain. BreenGrub is related material, though, so hopefully that explains why I haven't, well, tried explaining. Hopefully this thread suffices for now.

Oh, and here's an article quote about release date:

When will these episodes be released?​

As with EZ2, we aren’t going to be committing to any release dates until we feel we are ready.

We started developing Axon Pariah towards the end of 2022. We all yearn to see Bad Cop and Wilson's journey continue, and we're confident enough in our direction that we want to make this announcement now.
 
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Toast Lord

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Pretty impressed with the development dedication of these guys, I was expecting 2 to be it and they would've just fucked off, until I saw the post credits scene

Uprising is also slick. Three mods in the Entropy series (One being fan AFAIK) and have been all killer no filler. Bring me MORE
 

Tinbe

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I'll note that the gasmask designs for Combine characters have gotten revisions since the initial announcement.
I've edited the OP to reflect this change, but I've left the OG images in this post instead for posterity's sake.
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Tinbe

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Less than a week apart, both Axon Pariah and Progenitors got November updates!
There's a lot going on in both of them, making it more difficult to condense bits and pieces into this post, so I recommend reading the articles in full when you have the time.
 
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