Odell

Odell/Owen was the engineer on the Hyperborea/Borealis.

Background

Odell was one of the first real characters developed for Half-Life 2, being created in 1999. His role was seemingly to act as a 'leader' AI, guiding the player through the Hyperborea/Borealis.

Sound Files

Odell is unique to other cut characters, as he had a lot of temporary dialogue (voiced by Marc Laidlaw) created throughout Half-Life 2's development.

1999 Era

This era of Odell's character has his voicelines stored in sound/odell, rather than sound/vo. This correlates with HL1-era directory handling, signalling the voice line's age.

File	Transcript	Notes
odelltest.wav	I knew this trip was gonna end in a bad way. Old days you'd never take such a risk with a ship like this, but they were desperate. Runnin' supplies out here to the ice station and that place underneath us. They didn't listen to me- half the crew were scientists anyway, up to god-knows-what. Wouldn't listen when I told 'em it was time to pull out! Captain turned a deaf ear too, guess you can't blame him- desperate times. Once we were ice-bound, we were no use to anybody. Some of the men laid out across the ice, right around then those warships found us. That was pretty much the end.. but they pelted with these.. tick pods that came flyin' down all over the deck. They hit ya, you were dead, that wasn't such a bad way to go considerin'... thought they were bombs- duds, y'know.. 'till they started hatchin'. Once I figured out these sacktick things didn't like the cold too much, I shut off the generator, let the whole ship ice over. That did the trick, mostly- there was no-one left to hang a medal on me. I tried to send a distress call, radios were messed up. Scientists didn't want anyone knowin' we were out here, guess I shoulda known they were resistance.. is that what you are? That outfit assures you ain't no spy.. looks like it hurts getting in to it. Makes this gumby suit look cozy by comparison! Haha.. ha..	odelltest 1-8 are just cut up versions of odelltest.wav, presumably to make lipsync easier.
anyway.wav	Anyway...
catchup.wav	Come on Freeman, catch up!
cheese.wav	Heres that cheese I was lookin' for! Tasty.
hold.wav	Hold on, I'm coming back for you.
stick.wav	There you are. Better stick close.
wassay.wav	As I was sayin'...
where.wav	Hey, where'd you get to?
withme.wav	Freeman - you with me?
striker.wav	(non-quote)	Seemingly for a weapon Odell would wield.

All these sound effects are dated November 16th, 1999.
Something interesting to note is that all of these lines, with the exclusion of the full odelltest.wav, have lipsync. This makes it likely that the focus on facial technology started extremely early in Half-Life 2's development.

Fate

By the time Half-Life 2 leaked, the Borealis had already been cut, and his character model had been thrown into limbo. As such, his model was left unattained, and in the Leak his textures are completely scrambled. However, his face eventually found a home with the Oddessa Cubbage character in the Coast chapters of the retail game, with some modifications to his face texture and attire.