What is the Combine Empire's Overall Goal?

[Garbel]

The Combine advisor looked more like cocoon to me
the striders, gunships and dropships are actually the combine race

 

[Thunderclap]

So...I'm reviving this thread again with the release of Episode 2.

WHAT WE KNOW: Combine control over Earth has been lost almost entirely, despite the Advisors' best attempts. While never stated, there are strong implications that the City 17 Citadel was the only Citadel, or at least the only one capable of alerting the rest of the Empire to Earth's rebellion. Thus with the Citadel's destruction, the Combine have NO (known) way of alerting the Combine Overworld.

EXTRAPOLATED COMBINE REACTION: The Combine have lost contact with Earth, which appears to be an insignificant world resource-wise, but is of interest since the natives are rumored to possess local teleportation. The loss of communications may be interpreted as the Earth Advisor simply missing his monthly progress report, but if Breen got through to the other dimension, and he alerts the Combine well then the Combine are going to come back with a vengeance, perhaps plopping a new Citadel right in the wreckage of the old one. We begin to see the full extent of the Vortigaunts' power, but they are still stranded here on Earth. From what we've seen, the Combine Empire is challenged only by rebellious subjects, not any interdimensional power of similar strength.

NEW QUESTIONS RAISED: By all accounts, Combine power is shattered beyond repair here on Earth. I believe Episode 3 will be the final, grand Counterassault that we've been waiting for since Half Life 2.0. GMan's influence over other characters has been expanded on, reinforcing the sense that we are all just puppets dancing on his strings. To what ends though...well, wait till Episode 3!

 

[Heous]

My theory is that the Combine did manage to deliver their message with the destruction of the Citadel at the end of Episode One. The destruction of the Citadel was also intended to create the gigantic portal twister seen in Episode Two, which would eventually form a new superportal that would re-establish a supply link between the Combine Empire and the Combine forces on Earth. With the end of Episode Two, however, the rocket launched from White Forest closed the twister just before it was able to form the superportal. The Combine forces on Earth are now completely on their own with no hope of reinforcement from the central Combine Empire. Since it seems like the only way they got to Earth in the first place was due to the portal storms created by the Black Mesa incident, it's unlikely that the Combine Empire will be able to make a new portal to Earth.

Concerning the Borealis: Considering that it disappeared from drydock and right into the middle of an ice shelf seems likely that it was due to a teleportation experiment/accident gone awry. Eli knew this, and knew that the ship had the potential to create portal storms like what happened during the Resonance Cascade. It's likely that when the Combine Advisor stuck its proboscis into the back of Eli's skull it gained all of his knowledge, and thus the knowledge of the teleportation capabilities of the Borealis. Episode Three is probably a race between Gordon and Alyx and the remaining Combine forces on Earth to the Borealis, with Gordon/Alyx intending to destroy it and the Combine intending to use it to re-establish contact with their Empire.

 

[SpectreBlofeld]

he Combine have lost contact with Earth, which appears to be an insignificant world resource-wise, but is of interest since the natives are rumored to possess local teleportation. The loss of communications may be interpreted as the Earth Advisor simply missing his monthly progress report,

I'm pretty sure the Combine already know about the uprising on Earth, due to Breen's communication with them at the end of HL2. They promised him a host body after his pending teleportation to the Combine world/dimension/whatever that we (maybe) thwarted at the end of HL2.

Off topic slightly, but I like the oppressive 1984esque-society metaphors and Gordon's transfiguration into an iconic representation of freedom - the interpretation of his last name, Freeman, as the One Free Man. Cool mythology, and fortunate that Valve chose that particular name when they started developing the first Half-Life back in the late nineties, long before they dreamed up the Combine.

 

[Apocalypse89]

Yeah, if you remember the last chapter of HL2, Alyx tries to shut down the Dark Energy reactor but is unable to because "control has been handed over to the other side". Not to mention that they've had a whole week to report to the rest of the Combine empire before Gordon's return, and the transmission that's sent out during Ep. 1.

Also, at the end of Ep. 2, after the rocket is launched but before it's activated, a strange "field" starts forming around the superportal and everyone starts growing alarmed. I think that's the Combine on the other side trying to open it up and send their forces through.