Some Help?

[Catachan]

Hey guys,

I'm new here, and as a starter, I thought I'd scream for help... nice eh?

I've got a few questions, as I've been playing Half-Life and Half-Life 2 now, and am still not sure about the storyline all the way through.

OK, so I get in Half-Life that Freeman opens up a whole can of worms with the testing at the start, and I get that these... creatures... Xenians or whatever, from Xen, start invading earth.

However, I don't get some things...

1. In Half-Life 2, the humans WORK with the Xen people, yet in HL1 they were fighting us.

2. In Half-Life 2, what exactly IS the combine? They seem to have human soldiers intermingled with their biomechanical units, and the Administrator from HL1 is helping them aswell.

3. In Half-Life 1, did the Xen people invade us? Or did we pull them into our world with the accident and they simply turned aggressive because of it?

4. In Half-Life 2, I understand why the resistance are fighting, and I understand why the Combine are trying to suppress things (I think), but why is Freeman dropped into this? Am I a mercenary against my own will in the second game?

5. In Half-Life 2, when you start, the soldiers with the gas masks at the train station seem to be human (when they force you to pick up trash, etc), but the soldiers later in the game, whilst still speaking english, seem to be with the Combine element. Are they all part of the same team? Just different types of soldiers/police?

6. More general question. What relation do the Combine and Xenians have, if any at all?

Thanks for your help guys in advance, and sorry if I seem to flit between the first and second games, I've played them all in one day, so it's all fresh in my head and I have so many questions

 

[UltimaApocalypse]

beware, the following contains many spoilers.

1. The creature named Nihilanth controlled the Vortigaunts, and made them do their bidding. You kill this all powerful being at the end of Half Life 1, and the Vortigaunts go free. (The only Xenian creature on our side are the Vortigaunts). The Vortigaunts hate the Combine, and take the rebellion's side in Half Life 2.

2. The Combine is a highly evolved race that enslaves other races. They have no actual presence on Earth. All soldiers/metrocops you see are human. Metrocops(the ones with the gasmasks), are just normal guys in suits who work for more privledges(Better food, undrugged water, etc.). The soldiers, however, have undergone a vast amount of surgery. They are practicly no longer human. Dr. Breen, the administrator, surrendered Earth during the 7-Hour War. And the Combine made him the leader of Earth.

3. A little of both, I think. At first they were randomly teleported in during the resonance cascade. But they were GOING to invade us later on. At the end of Half Life 1 you see Nihilanth building up an army.

4. The mysterious man in the blue suit (Nicknamed G-Man, but not his actual name), hires you at the end of Half Life 1. You are indeed like a mercenary, but you get nothing in return. G-Man chooses who you fight for. G-Man tells you where to go. G-Man watches you and makes sure you don't screw up. Many forumers here believe that the resistance hired Gordons services to get rid of the Combine, but that is still speculation.

5. See question 2.

6. None, really. (Correct me if I'm wrong, other forumers) I think the Combine just tried to enslave them like every other race.

 

[Catachan]

Thank you UltimaApocalyspe, it's much appreciated. I've got a clearer picture of the goings-on now in my head Man, this Half-Life series has so many turns and twists...

One more question, and it's the final one I promise...(OK, OK, so that's a lie, there's two!)

What's the 7-Hour War? I've heard you mention this in your answers, and I've also seen it in terms of another expansion idea or other things, but I'm not sure. I seem to get the feeling that I should have played this already?

Also, in HL2, why does the Citadel start destroying the city? There are parts in the game where the walls from the citadel start to move in on top of you and you have to move out the way. Are they destroying the city on purpose?

Thanks for your help so far.

 

[ríomhaire]

Hey guys,

I'm new here, and as a starter, I thought I'd scream for help... nice eh?

I've got a few questions, as I've been playing Half-Life and Half-Life 2 now, and am still not sure about the storyline all the way through.

OK, so I get in Half-Life that Freeman opens up a whole can of worms with the testing at the start, and I get that these... creatures... Xenians or whatever, from Xen, start invading earth.

However, I don't get some things...

1. In Half-Life 2, the humans WORK with the Xen people, yet in HL1 they were fighting us.

In HL1 they were slaves (green collars) and in 2 they have free will

2. In Half-Life 2, what exactly IS the combine? They seem to have human soldiers intermingled with their biomechanical units, and the Administrator from HL1 is helping them aswell.

The Combine are aliens that have taken over. The soldiers are modilfied humans are the acting hand of the Combine along with synths(striders, gunships, dropships etc. Basicaly all non-human Combine stuff)

3. In Half-Life 1, did the Xen people invade us? Or did we pull them into our world with the accident and they simply turned aggressive because of it?

It is unkown which is true though HL: Decay suggests that for whatever reason the Resonance Cascade was not an accident.

4. In Half-Life 2, I understand why the resistance are fighting, and I understand why the Combine are trying to suppress things (I think), but why is Freeman dropped into this? Am I a mercenary against my own will in the second game?

To start the rebelion, to overthrow the Combine.

5. In Half-Life 2, when you start, the soldiers with the gas masks at the train station seem to be human (when they force you to pick up trash, etc), but the soldiers later in the game, whilst still speaking english, seem to be with the Combine element. Are they all part of the same team? Just different types of soldiers/police?

The soldiers are modifed humans (as seen in Nova Prospekt). It is generaly believed that the cops are unmodified.

6. More general question. What relation do the Combine and Xenians have, if any at all?

They chased the Vortigaunts and Controllers for their world to Xen.

 

[[RTM]Mobius]

The 7 hour war is hinted at in Black Mesa East. There is a newspaper on a wall.

When the combine came a'knocking. They beat earth in 7 hours. And Dr. Breen got the people that were left to stop fighting and surrender.

But earth was in a bad way thanks to the portal storms which continued to dump things from Xen all over earth.

 

[Asknoone]

T
What's the 7-Hour War? I've heard you mention this in your answers, and I've also seen it in terms of another expansion idea or other things, but I'm not sure. I seem to get the feeling that I should have played this already?

Also, in HL2, why does the Citadel start destroying the city? There are parts in the game where the walls from the citadel start to move in on top of you and you have to move out the way. Are they destroying the city on purpose?

Thanks for your help so far.

After several weeks of intensives portal storms, what was left of the human population managed to flee into several cities. Ultimately the Combine caught wind of Earth due to the intensive energy given off during the portal storms.
They invaded, and sent Citadels into the heart of the remaining cities. Earth tried to fight back with elements of a rag tag military force, but this war lasted all of 7-hours.

Our forces were destroyed, and the Combine were about to pretty much wipe us out. However, Wallace Breen managed to surrender Earth, and save whatever was left of humanity.

The Combine walls have several purposes. Near the end of Hl2, the walls chomp through most of the city in an attempt to push back the resistance, and minimize any bases they may have. They also serve to re sculpt the area into the Combines own dark image, and destroy the human areas. Another suggested theory is that they harvest resources. They also serve to block areas.

 

[[RTM]Mobius]

you really think Breen saved humanity.

The combine had some intrest in us. We were the race that took down Xen, a combine world. Its much more easy to take what you need from earth and humanity and kill the rest of the race with a breeding supression feild.

Breen must have known the combine were coming.

 

[Catachan]

Wow, thank you guys for the information. I could spend hours poring over thoughts and notions on the Half-Life series. I'm glad I bought it now, and I guess I'll be staying

Thank you all once again.

 

[ríomhaire]

The combine had some intrest in us. We were the race that took down Xen, a combine world.

http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=91660

Its much more easy to take what you need from earth and humanity and kill the rest of the race with a breeding supression feild.

I was under the impression that it was easier to kill something outright than to capture it and put it in cities that need constant survalance and poliecing

Breen must have known the combine were coming.

You don't have to have known about something in advance to surrender to it.

 

[kupocake]

you really think Breen saved humanity.

Perhaps he originally intended to. It's a bit like immunisation really. You allow the enemy to attack, surrender before it gets too messy, get inaugerated into their union, accumlate their technology and wait for the normal humans to uprise... then when the second invasion comes, the human race has been trained in how to combat the unknown foe and is far better poised to succeed in repelling them.

 

[[RTM]Mobius]

I was under the impression that it was easier to kill something outright than to capture it and put it in cities that need constant survalance and poliecing.

I don't agree with that. Humans are like cockroachs in a way. You cant kill them all in an attack. The supression feild is a final solution and eliminates humans almost as cleanly as a Neutron Bomb. On a cost benifit side it works for the combine. They give a human controll over their conquered planet Using reasourses already on site to kill the humans while gleaning the good resources from the planet. Its a win for the combine. They dont have to spend the cash when breen will kill us just the same. And it was all going so well till Gordon showed up.

But I still think Breen knew alot more than he lets on. One does not just end up with the power to command all of earth to stop fighting our loveable oppressors. You got to want that power, you have to strive for it. Going from Head egghead to the big taco takes alot. If valve wanted to use this tie-in with HL1 they would need a big real reason to make breen the king.

and to kupoartist I say listen to Breen on Nova Prospect. He knows that he and his buddies are only gonna be saved from the death of humanity if they prove their worth. He knows that most humans are gonna die and he is ok with that.

 

[Asknoone]

I think Breen did begin with noble intentions. He saved his species - but did he actually expect to become Admin of Earth? Was he expecting that? Did he put his own life on the line? They could have just shot him. He had no idea what future lay ahead.

But as the years went on, Breens thirst for scientific knowledge got deeper, and his humanity drained.

*Also, Xen was not a Combine controlled place.

 

[Sulkdodds]

Hoo-whee!
I'll risk total redundancy to provide a (hopefully) exhaustive answer (although perhaps there is no such thing when discussing Half-Life).

1. In Half-Life 2, the humans WORK with the Xen people, yet in HL1 they were fighting us.

In HL1 they were slaves to the Nihilanth - huge baby-head William Hague-analogue you fought at the end of the game. He was, we assume, a dictator with enormous psychic powers and some affinity with the fabric of spacetime which allowed him to create/open portals (either that, or he's hooked into some device which accomplishes this for him). The Vorts, alien slaves, were controlled through the bracelets and harnesses that they wore; after you (Gordon) defeated Nihilanth his control over them was broken. Xen, I think, is either wasted or Combine-controlled; either that or the Vorts are simply trapped on this "miserable rock" as they call it. Either Nihilanth was a tool of the Combine, and in HL2 they are rising up against their oppressor the "greater master or - far more likely in my opinion - Nihilanth was at war with the Combine and they see it as more in their interest to fight the Combine than to get all pissed at the humans who did, after all, free them.

It's quite similar to how during WW2, Germans and Yanks fought each other - but after the war ended, the Krauts were no longer in service of their evil nazi masters and, in the face of the Red Menace/Space Aliens, the German and the American people banded together (in West Germany at least).

2. In Half-Life 2, what exactly IS the combine? They seem to have human soldiers intermingled with their biomechanical units, and the Administrator from HL1 is helping them aswell.

The Combine, or 'Universal Union', are a huge evil crazy imperialistic empire spread across many worlds* who, from their home dimension wherever it is, tear holes in reality to invade others and take over planets, subverting the native population to their own ends. On Earth, they're draining the ocean, probably/possibly for resources, but it's unclear whether this harvesting, this strip-mining, occurs on the other worlds they conquer.

The Combine themselves are the huge slug things that can be seen on Breen's monitor during the Final Confrontation - hopelessly over-evolved, technology-dependent blobs who nevertheless posess a powerful intellect and even more powerful technology. Like the Borg, they seem to harvest the actual genetic material of species that they come across. The mainstay of their forces (note: not their security forces) appear to be Synth: weird biomechanical organisms who are, I reckon, either machines built organically or creatures built out of machine parts.

The forces that they use to keep order on the worlds they occupy are recruited from the indeginous population. HL2's Metrocops, with their white helmets, represent the bottom of the UU food-chain. They're unmodified humans who have simply joined because they believe in Breen, because they are evil sick bastards who like beating people up or maybe just because they prefer a roof over their head and a good square meal to having their faces stamped on by a size-10 Jackboots of Oppression +6, and are prepared to beat up a few innocents in order to retain these priveleges. To an extent, they're an allegory for Europeans who collaborated with the Nazis during WW2, and those who collaborated with the Soviets during the Cold War - much the same way that we Brits had Indian regiments and so on during the colonial era.

The next step up, the Combine soldiers, are in some way modified. Breen calls them 'transhuman' troopers and we see one on an operating table - he has some weird implants.

The Combine Elites can probably not be considered human by any definition which goes beyond mere physical shape.

*as evidenced by Breen's speil at the end of HL2

3. In Half-Life 1, did the Xen people invade us? Or did we pull them into our world with the accident and they simply turned aggressive because of it?

Nobody knows!

It's most likely that we opened a big-ass rift, pulled a load of their wildlife and some of the Vorts through, and this made Nihilanth think 'shit, I'm being attacked'; he then triggered the invasion that we see in the later stages of the game with mantas dropping Grunts all over the place.

4. In Half-Life 2, I understand why the resistance are fighting, and I understand why the Combine are trying to suppress things (I think), but why is Freeman dropped into this? Am I a mercenary against my own will in the second game?

The resistance are fighting, obviously, to free the Earth... dulce et decorum est pro terra mori (or something)!
The Combine are fighting because they are evil and want to control everything.
You, as Freeman, don't have a choice. You're dropped into place by the G-Man, who you are now essentially a slave to after choosing to let him 'employ' you at the end of HL1. He, apparently, wants Breen defeated, or wants the Citadel torn down, or possibly wants the Combine off earth (one of the big mysteries, this, because maybe he wants to give the Combine an excuse to go hammer and tongs with the whole synth-and-kaboodle). He's inserted you in such a way that either you'll meet up with rebels and get their side of the story first, or that you'll get the Combine trying to beat you down and be forced to fight against them; kill or be killed. In fact, it's highly likely that he meant both of these to happen: when the teleport goes a-crazy at the beginning of the game Kleiner can be heard saying 'something is pulling him away'! Despite Lamaar's foolhardly leap, I believe that the G-Man intentionally messed with the teleport so that you'd end up with the Combine after you and be forced to evade/shoot them.

The other big thing is that, being a human of the planet Earth, you'll be inclined against these space invaders from the start; even more so when you witness the cruelty of their regime in the opening stages of the game where you see numerous people getting beaten up and listen to about a dozen different sob stories about lost luggage/husbands/memory/etc. In a way, it makes you think because Valve are deliberately showing you how bad the Combine are so that you feel you want to fight against them in an ideological good-vs-evil crusade - but this very fact, combined with a hell of a lot of hints throughout the game, makes you question if what you're doing is really the right thing to do.

Summed up: Freeman wants to free earth because he's an idealist, but is also told by the rebels how shit the Combine are AND chased around town by Civil Protection to clinch the deal.

6. More general question. What relation do the Combine and Xenians have, if any at all?

Short version:

There are two theories on this.
- Theory One: The Combine and the Xenians have been at war for ages, but before the beginning of HL2, the Combine managed to defeat and occupy Xen in much the same way they did Earth. Nihilanth is the Xenian equivalent of Breen - a puppet dictator for an enslaved and oppressed populace; the Grunts are the equivalent of Combine Soldiers, being heavily modified Vortigaunts. When you went and blew Nihilanth's face open, this kinda attracted the Combine to Earth.

However, I believe there is extremely compelling evidence that the above theory is incorrect and that the theory detailed below is far more credible.

- Theory Two: The Combine and the Xenians have been at war for ages, and prior to HL2, Xen still held out against the Combine, manufacturing the Grunts as a warrior force for the inevitable invasion of the Universal Union. Nihilanth was a brave and proud leader trying to keep his people safe from the Combine (although his methods - ie, slavery - were highly unethical). When you went and blew Nihilanth's face open, it freed the Xenians but kinda attracted the Combine to Earth and/or removed the last block in their way.
Whether they invaded Xen after you took out Nihilanth is an entirely different debate.

Long version:
http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=91660






Phew.

 

[Asknoone]

Sulkytootings, I wubs ye.

 

[Catachan]

OMG Sulkdodds you blew me out of the water with those answers! OK, so you talked about the Combine harvesting the planet's water. Fine. However, thinking of water invariably led me to beaches, and more specifically, Ant Lions...

Where did these things come from? They only seem to be found on the beaches and shores.

 

[UltimaApocalypse]

They were other Xen creatures, who also came through from Xen sometime during the portal storms.

 

[[RTM]Mobius]

And they are mainly at the beach because the sand is easy to tunnel through?

 

[UltimaApocalypse]

I think it's because the sand is the closest thing to their habitat on Xen.

 

[Sulkdodds]

It is a mystery

 

[ríomhaire]

Sulk, you forgot 1 thing,
"We are their slaves"
The Controllers were in charge, not Nihily.