@@southpaw117 that's about what i meant yeah. at certain distances, we shouldn't be able to see it like we do - but i'm okay with sacrificing a tiny bit of realism for more driving in the point of the grasp the combine has on earth
@@JaxontheOkay What maps do you feel Valve made mistakes with? "Follow Freeman!" is definitely problematic from start to finish, but I'm curious to know what you may have issues with.
in 6th grade we got to choose our final report and i chose the combine in a heartbeat 😂 made a 3 foot citadel outta cardboard... Good times my teacher was horrified
"And this is where resistance members get their ruthlessly tortured until they turn into Stalkers! "Very... interesting, Hank. I really, *really* hope that you get accepted into that art school you applied to! I'm sure everyone *really* hopes so as well!"
@@samuelhayden4710 All of HL2 and its episodes had what I would call the best overall sound design in all of gaming history. It has never been matched, not even by themselves.
The Citadels are the “master race” of the Combine. The Dark Energy Core is the beating heart that keeps the thing running. The Advisors act as brain cells, taking in information and processing it into actions. The Scanners (Synth and Robotic) are the eyes and ears, which gather information and send it to the brain. The Stalkers, and captured Vortigaunts are like blood cells, supplying energy to the body and doing repairs when needed. The Overwatch, Striders, Gunships, and Dropships are the Antibodies: purging any illnesses from the system should they arise. Separated, they are Humans, Vortiguants, Shuulathoi, and many other races. Under the Universal Union, however, they all become part one greater being: they become the Combine.
I love this theory. I have seen the idea a few years back that the citadel is actually also a giant alien synth being. Maybe the "citadels" (as the humans call them) are also the true highest leading race of the combine.
Now that is think about it, i guess we have more chance to be invaded by the actual interdimensional empire like the Combine before we get a Half Life 3 game from Valve.
I think the most terrifying aspect of half life 2 is we've already lost. Earth is dying, invasive aliens species have wiped out earth's flora and fauna, or almost have. The sea is a death trap, and without the sea we all die. I doubt the forests are doing any better, they will be out grown but alien flora. With humanity all but wiped out, reduced to subsistence existence, nothing can be done. What are people even going to eat? No meat, no fish, farming is probably a no go again. Half life 3 is just everybody starving to death.
portal 2 is set at least a couple of decades after portal 1 (which is set during half life 2). you can tell this by how plants have grown all the way down to the enrichment center. at the end of portal 2, you see a field of wheat on the surface. this means a couple things. earth's native plants are still doing fine, the atmosphere is intact, and there is still enough water around for more advanced life to exist.
@@bruhsauce644 I think 2 is after the Half Life series ends (some people use a stupid thousands upon thousands of years later estimate but thats just ridiculous). Portal 2 could also be during the final act of the Half Life series; would be cool to have Chell show up.
@@voltairethegoldflame9280 despite apertures insane efficiency, i doubt its thousands of years, but a century or so is totally possible considering the state of the enrichment centre. remember, half life's gameplay takes place over like a week. unless gordon gets plucked by gman again for a couple decades, i dont think portal 2s timeline is gonna merge with half life 3.
The combine may also just think humanity isnt worth the resources,and you still see fauna,water is still there and the aliens could be edible and somewhat tameable. If they aren't then there is still some farmable land which could support the living population
I don't think the C17 citadel actually took 20 years to build, seeing as there are no years on the charts you see in HLA, but only months. So the Combine built that thing really fast for how big it was. Also, I have a theory about the citadels. We know the core was teleported in, but in Raising the Bar, there was an excerpt that talked about complete citadels being teleported in at the start of the 7 Hour War, holding many of their forces. Initially, I thought Half-Life Alyx simply tossed that idea out, but then I got to thinking, you know, for being constructed by aliens, the one we see in HL2 seems like it was built for humans. So my theory is that most of the citadels were teleported in when the Combine invaded, but the one in City 17 was built for Dr. Breen and to act as the center for the Trans-Human Arm. Further support for this is the fact that City 17 doesn't look like it was ever the center for some massive alien invasion that would have leveled much of the city (especially considering the Combine didn't originally intend on subjugating humanity, but simply laying waste to it, taking Earth's resources and moving on).
@@christianmolick8647 This is at least partially true. HLA clearly depicted the Citadel of City17 being constructed, even showing us a diagram of the different stages. Though the core was teleported in. It is unknown as to whether it was the same way for the rest of the citadels, or if they were teleported in in their entirety.
@@eternal7912 I always thought the whole citadel was teleported somewhat in the air, so that it could ram itself a kilometer down the ground when it falls :D
They are the physical manifestation of what "Combine" is. As an idea, the Combine is brutal, overwhelming, massive, cold and efficent which is exactly what the Citadels emit.
Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think those "citadels" that can be seen through the portal to the combine overworld are citadels. I'm pretty sure they are some sort of portal spires that allow the portal to materialize on the combine overworld.
You could also be half correct. Half citadel, half portal spire? You see at the end of half life 2 the immense power and capability the citadel on earth has, being able to open the butt end of the portals that are initially created on the combine homeworld,, possibly from the power of combined citadels on their homeworld that we see in a glimpse through the failing portal at the end of the game
It was an imponent structure and also a representation of the power of the Combine over all their conquer, plus their philosohphy of purely utilitarian and on-the-march architecture.
It baffles me that most people don't realize the sorta "double-meaning" of the word "Combine". A combine in the field is the machine that gathers those thousands of ears of corn and other goods. It can also be seen as something which combines, like 1+1, or human + alien life form.
It has nothing to do with 'combining' things together. They are acting like every other Empire. By your logic, the Roman Empire should've been called the 'Combine,' because they combined things into 1 + 1 = Rome This is called 'pseudo-depth,' of which someone thinks something is deep, but it isn't. It is as if you just dove head first into a puddle on the street. Good job, I pray tell you don't get permanent brain damage
i think it might be called the combine because it combines creatures with machinery, eg. the striders are living things since, in episode 2, we can see the strider has a brain and bleeds when dog rips it out
@@refrigerater It is called the COMbine because of the Combine Harvester., because of their harvesting nature; That is it. You can tell by the where the emphasis is. COMbine vs comBINE. It has nothing to do with 'combing' things together; that is a stupid interpretation Any other 'extra meaning' is just fans adding that meaning.
The coolest thing about the citadel to me is how it's so huge. It's just crazy, especially the moving tiles in the middle of it ( displayed at 22:55 ), I wonder what it's purpose is though.
antlions are NOT native to Xen, they're native to the Vort's home! and Vorts also don't require them to exist, so they did not purposely get them to Eaerth either. they're simply stowaways, from the Combine.
Maybe the vorts did bring some antlions with them to xen, after all they do have those healing showers In the factories. And the water is the same color as the antlion extract
@@mado-wh4jv Actually, the vortigaunts encountered the combine on their homeworld. In a last ditch effort, the last surviving vortigaunts discovered Xen as a way to escape, where they were able to hide until the Nihilanth escaped as well and proceded to take advantage of it's power over them, seeing itself as superior and the rightful ruler of Xen.
I remember seeing the citadel for the first time, wondering how many 1000's more they have on other planets, and if the Combine could actually be defeated at all
I love how HL2 keeps getting re-evaluated decades after it's creation, and the number of mods is staggering. I think it's the "averageness" of the characters that gives it so much of it's appeal. The familiar surroundings of towns with broken infrastructure from years of war, yet well preserved areas that seem almost untouched gives it such dynamics! Many of us older gamers were on the cusp of the computer gaming revolution and truly see HL2's value and contributions to the genre as landmarks. It's so satisfying to see it's still being talked about and in many ways emulated in other games of today. Thanks for the history lesson of HL2!!
Without Half Life, we wouldn't have such inspired independent writers and developers releasing their art. There are such incredible games that give off major half life vibes that wouldn't have been possible without this gane series existing. Check out Industria, freaking wonderful shooter that needs more content or a sequel or SOMETHING, I played it twice and desire more.
I only wish they kept a lot few more elements from the beta. Retail feels a little bit more like a glorified technical demo, but at the same time, you kind of wish for a little bit more. You kind of wish to see the results of the 7 hour war kind of wish to see the millions of millions of bodies that they probably have chucked in the ocean and mass graves. The hostile alien Is flora and fanua on overtaking and fighting the last of earth natives. The general starvation and lack of advanced medical care From the resistance. The state of other nations and what used to be left of them.valve can make spin off games showing these kind of things, and they would make millons.
@@feralprocessor9853 I can not express in words how much i want a spin-off taking place in the 7 hour war, Mainly just to see the species the combine used
That wasn't the force of an atomic bomb, that was the force of a hydrogen bomb, looking at what's shown in the game it looks equivalent to the big ones, the multi-megatons, maybe up to castle-bravo size at 15 Megatons. I'll have a further think about this, seems an interesting problem.
No I believe the ones who kead the combine. Combined themselves with to many machines and aliens their true forms ha e long since been forgotten the have no history because they dont record anything that isn't about conquest and assimilating new technology and aliens.
There probably is one alien race that first "founded" the combine, but now every species under their controll is part of the combine. Maybe these original "founders" are still the highest leaders of the combine or just became a part of it.
I always thought that perhaps the Combine was initially created by an A.I who just began conquering stuff and building an empire. With how coordinated and lethal the Combine is, I highly doubt there's a whole network of bureaucracy. I think that there is no civilian population of the combine, and instead, it's really just a giant military whichs absorbs other militaries into its own military to become even more powerful. Basically I think an A.I created an imperialistic, self-sustaining military that is not in service of a civilian population, but rather exists only to continue to grow itself.
The Advisors seem to be the current master race, but we know they too had been assimilated at some point. My guess, is the Combine got so unimaginably vast and efficient, that the species that started it kind of got assimilated by their own "machine" and are now one of many twisted cyborg lifeforms that the Combine has in their numbers.
According to what I understand, the interior of the citadel is a huge spire which was delivered to earth, the citadel was being built around it, the core arrived, building continued, then the core was moved underground in my headcanon for some reason, I see the citadel as an ever expanding thing, as the combine always expand and assimilate more and more into their "species"
Umm no. The Citadel is not as tall as Mt Everest, that's just another example of why you shouldn't read crap from random reddit posts. You literally can see cars in the city map while you are at the top just before reaching Breen's office. Sorry, but you aren't going to be able to make out cars or even roads from 8.8km high, which is the altitude of Mr Everest. BTW you can't even breath at that altitude either. Stop reading stupid reddit posts. The tower is clearly nowhere near that height, you can see the top of the tower just by standing in the city, it's literally akin to something like the Burj Khalifa, meaning it's 800m-1km in height.
Yeah, a stupid claim. Obviously Skyrionn takes any random reddit thing as the gospel however, he mustn't realise that reddit is 99% full of random kids just typing crap who really have no clue what they are talking about.
@@lordofthebeltsthereturnoft1127 I dont think he got this from reddit, its just fun to speculate Half Life's universe since there are a lot of unknowns, some are caused by tech of the time. But yeah based on the games including Alyx Its seems to be arround 2 to 3 KM, which is rather disappointing.
I think HL:A is a really fun game, but its' retconning of certain things is sometimes an unwelcome change. Before Alyx, the Citadel was a massive super-structure that was presumably just fucking dropped violently and forcefully onto the world as a whole, and was very much hinted to be a sort of synth. The uncanny mechanical screaming and groaning, the weird wires that look like arteries and veins, and the way the citadel movies in an organic way suggests that it isn't just some military super-building that was constructed in a traditional sense, but was actually another alien creature that was agonizingly mutilated and turned into a techno-lovecraftian biomechanical war machine to suit the Combine's purposes. Having the Citadel's only true otherworldly essence come from some imported dark fusion reactor really reduces the intrigue and subtle themes of horror that the Combine are supposed to represent.
I mean, it still can be that same feeling that it's a living creature. Just because it was built and constructed "traditionally" doesn't mean that it can't be a living being still. Much like how every other synth is most likely also just constructed.
@@theunholyadventurer2376 Other synths are not "just constructed". They are all fashioned in the same way an Overwatch soldier is. A pre-existing, entirely organic being that has been artificially and horrifically modified and outfitted with highly invasive procedures in order to serve the Combine's interests, with little regard for the well-being of the creature outside of functional capacity for service. The idea that the Citadel has been 'constructed' suggests that its a traditional structure rather than a half-living (half-life) spear that was symbolically stabbed into the Earth after being teleported from another world.
Seeing the Citadel in Alyx after 12/13 years of wait was like..... being that 11 years old kid playing Half Life 1 for the first time. Mind blowing. VR is perfect for Half Life universe.
Dear god half life 2 is still so beautiful. The ascension to the top is gorgeous, as the sound fades and you _feel_ higher just through good art direction. I know it's just a simple today texture of the city but the transition is perfect, the colour is perfect and the sound is perfect. In case you don't know, all the sound direction and music direction was performed by one man, it's why they all got together so well.
Its strange how combine are trying there best to make the earth in control and i think they also found some good technology like the portal which help them and they trying there best to control humans maybe earth was really helpfull for them
I like to think that literally all they care about is the portal technology, like Earth's resources and humans are just a little extra something to help recuperate costs while they look for the portal technology, and once they get it they're just gonna fuck off and leave humanity to slowly starve to death on their barren world because they're not worth the resources it takes to oppress anymore
The Citadel: A ginormous alien monolith, full of unimaginable horrors, and super advanced technology, as breen puts it, impossible to describe with our limited vocabulary, created only to benefit an interdimensional empire that conquered and enslaved countless other civilizations... Skyrionn: 15:13
20:50 Hey! Never saw that concept art for the organic version! I want to point out that the building with the red star you see is directly inspired by the National Palace of Culture in the center of Sofia, Bulgaria! I've grown up in this city and I didn't expect to see it, but I'm not surprised, because it's Viktor Antonov's ideas for City 17 :)
Full playthrough from black mesa all the way through alex this winter. have to play it during the cold season. somthing about having the window open when its 57 degrees out all bundled up in blankets and covers while playing this game just feels soo good :) oh and snacks
The Citadel is alway cool to see in the game when playing. We have a science lab here where I live it’s a cool looking building. It’s call FermiLab in Illinois. Me and my friends call it the citadel lol. Great video!
Something i hate and love at the same time about half life is the lore, the lore in this game is so interesting, so well written and very original but we barely know anything. I wish we knew more about the Combine.
Loved the video, I always love your lore videos. The first time I played HL2 I was losing my mind in awe of the strange beauty when Gordon is moving up the citadel to Breen's office. And your voice sounded fine, calm relaxed and awesome, as always!
Every few years i replay hl and the episodes. Started recently and then stopped for some reason. These lore vids have given me new motivation. Just, everything about the universe and story are so compelling and grand, yet weirdly relatable. That combined with the actual gameplay makes it, to me, game of the century...so far
Thank you for creating such amazing story and lore exploration for the game fans to enjoy! I really appreciate your calm and objective writing style as well as your narration. Awesome work!
The Combine Winning the war against humanity: Caramelldansen in the Citadel The Other Citadel Hearing and seeing light from the City 17 Citadel: Damn, looks like there having a party.
The blast in city 17 would be much larger than an atomic bomb BTW. City 17 when you go up in the citadel, you can see the ground map portraying the city, it's portraying a megacity essentially, something the size of Tokyo, Beijing, NY, London etc. To be able to destroy all of that, the blast would have to be as powerful as hundreds of atomic bombs actually. Because in real life Hiroshima was only a small sized city by today's standards, it had less than half a million people, and the atomic bomb dropped on that city didn't even destroy the entire city, parts of that city survived if you look at historical birds eye view photos, that's how around a quarter or a third of the people in that city survived. If the atomic bomb couldn't even take out a small city fully, it's not going to take out a megacity like city 17 is portrayed. The blast to destroy city 17 would have to be more akin to that giant bomb that Russia made, the Tsar bomb I think it was called, 50 megaton bomb. BTW China's biggest nuke is something like 5 megaton, so only 1/10th the power of the Tsar bomb. You generally need something around 20-30 megaton to be able to take out an entire megacity.
Ok, I have a theory on how destroy the combine before they go through the super portal, if the rebels can find a number of nuclear warheads or combine weaponry similar to nukes they might be able to push them through the portal, resulting in them exploding while they are inside the combines world.
Where are they gonna find a 'number of nuclear warheads' 💀 And even if the Rebels WERE able to acquire a set of nuclear weapons, how would they 'push' them through the portal?
@@large-turkey well it's quite funny you say that nukes have these things on em that help move it some sort of thing that rockets used what's it called again so I don't think "pushing it" is needed
Wouldn't be too far fetched. In Halo the Covenant take advantage of a forerunner race known simply as engineers. They're quite simple: they see technology and they fix it. The Combine likely do have access to a servitor race that explicitly works on their technology/construction. Lots of peeps in the multi verses.
I love the scene when Barney throw the crowbar while the Citadel goes on full alert. Seeing the insanely huge and brutally powerful structure, the symbol and center of the power of the Combine unleashing its full power while standing there with only a crowbar in hand, makes you feel really small. Like "There is the enemy, here is a crowbar, good luck!"
I don't play or care about half life at all and to be honest I don't have a clue what this video is about really... But if you upload a lore video, I'm watching it. It's as simple as that.
When I think Half Life my mind always goes to The Citadel. An Alien contruct, intimidatingly towering into the clouds. Looming over the remnants of a European city. What few humans are left are essentially shackled and at their overlord's mercy. It's hopeless.
Name a game moment equal to or more cathartic than the gravity gun getting supercharged but the security field and going ham at the Overwatch Elite and watching them just turbo panic. I'm sure there is but memory fails me at the moment
hi Skyrionn, I love every videos you made about HL universe. What about combine/human weapons, all guns. there might be a reason for all of those weapons are used for both combine soldiers and resistance. Please make video about this. How they are produced ? Where did resistance get all of the weapons/guns. Why there is no factory for weapon production ? Why combine still use earth product ? :D Thanks.
It’s funny to think that the Combine need an entire room with large energy beams to serve the same function an Aperture Science Emancipation Grill does on a much smaller scale. Though they may be incredibly advanced, they’re woefully inefficient, and their technology isn’t even at the same level as ours. Black Mesa was capable don’t get me wrong, but maybe Cave Johnson was onto something when he suspected they were stealing from his company. Aperture is beyond either of the two of them when it comes to technological advancement, it came at the cost of morality and human life, but hey even that’s a bit ironic given that the facility is entirely automated at this point, with AI and machines creating new advancements every day.
actually everest is the 2nd highest mountain. the Mauna Kea in Hawaii is 33481 feet high, but it's half-submerged in the pacific ocean. put the two mountains side-by-side, Mauna Kea would be higher.
Citadels from the other regions of the planet definitely serve different purpose with the one in City-17. Because if all Citadels are the same, then why didn't the Combine just destroy the other Citadel to start another creation of the portal storm after Episode 2? The resistance only has one rocket. So I assume City-17's Citadel is the only one capable of sending a package that can open a portal, the other Citadels only serve as main headquarters of the Combine forces.
Imagine during the singularity collapse of the citadels core your a elite damaged laying on a apc. Nothing to help you. Vocoder damaged. You just want your suffering to end.
Maybe modes the Citadel could enter is raid, infection, riot or rogue, so basically raid would be a rebel raid, infection being an infection like headcrabs, riot being well a riot around it, and rogue which is rogue personnel, I do think each Citadel would have different purposes like one for storage, one for transportation, one for communication ETC.
Someone else already pointed out the enunciation-based double-entendre of The Combine's name, that of the Combine (COM-bine) Harvester since they come along and mass-exploit the planets and species they come across, and that of the word "combine" (com-BINE) since they create creatures/machines of synthetic and organic beings. But, a possible third layer to this is that "Combine" (COM-bine) can also be used to refer to groups of companies/corporations that, economically, function as a single unit. Considering the discussion of contracts, advisors, administrators, etc. over more typical government terminology, this adds another layer of meaning to The Combine's name. At least, in my opinion, that is.
Half-Life lore is perhaps the most interesting in terms of events for me. Would really love to see how this story ends. At least one more game. The same with the old Freespace games. So many unanswered questions.
I believe that the combine advisors ARE the combine species. The lack of any major arguments besides the visitor which allows them to see and the mask to allow them to breathe but the arms seem to be a separate attachment that goes underneath the clothes. The clothes seem to have a caller with text on it but the text looks less harsh than the text we see on the posters and the insignia of the combine units. And thats why I believe that the combine advisors are the combine species.
19:30 my theory: on the other side of the portal Bellow the portal is on a citadel sized structure and those other towers are much higher than that said structure
If you want to have a look at an alternate Citadel design, just look at the Citadel from Lambda Wars which functions as the main headquarters of the Combine faction. All other Citadels in the story are probably smaller guard towers with spotlights or just Combine Depots for local control.
So there is a citadel in every city created after the 7 hour War? How many citadels are on Earth and which is the center? I always figured when I first played H-L 2 in 2005 that the citadel was unique Mostly becuase Breen was there, and Freeman appeared from nowhere So does anyone know the lore as to how many cities and citadels were created after the 7 hour War?
We don't know how many Citadels there are, but there are probably more than one. Dr. Kleiner in HL2: EP1 says that there's a linked network of Citadel reactors. I think that there's one Citadel per city, but City 17 was chosen as Dr. Breen's base of operations for an unknown reason.
I've heard a theory that says that the citadel is just a giant thumper, to prevent antlions from going into the city, and when in episode 1, since the citadel got pee pee poo poo'd it got turned off, and antlions came into the city. what reminded me of this theory was the things outside of the citadel and in the underground part, the things that rise and then fall down, just like giant thumpers
They could still use the organic citadel at some point. If there is ever a return to Half Life, and a reinvasion from the Combine, The first tower was metal for the sake of control and automation. But now with the combine angered, they switch to the the more organic to represent they simply want to infect and consume humanity.
