The Combine's Horrific Prison | Nova Prospekt | Full Half-Life Lore 

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The way you describe the all your Half-Life lore videos is almost like watching a History Channel Documentary on Black Mesa and the 7 Hour War Events. Keep up the good work.

You should do "The Lore Behind: The Quarentine Zone" or the units that patrol it.

Seeing Gordon in 3rd person will never not be weird.

Nova was amazing and creepy at the same time. If the prison walls could talk. Great work as always.

Valve knew they would eventually need to put the player back into some remote, concrete installation with lots of ventilation shafts, automated security sytems and security checkpoints, and various hazards he would have to navigate through. At the very root of it, this would also have to be a place where the _soldiers_ , an iconic enemy from the base game, would seemingly be in control and use their advantage against the player, who up until this point, should be sufficiently adapted and equipped, to tackle such a challenge. From my personal experience, I'd say that they exceeded all expectations and executed everything absolutely masterfully. From the previous chapter, where the player is forced to breach the installation firts in order to even beginning with his mission, fighting off humanoid enemies, that are well armed and well organized, even rocking in their own unique uniforms, to the eventual gunships, which arrive as a measure of last resort to neutralize the player's attempts to enter the prison, it is very clearly signalled to the player, that this will be the fight of his life. What happens later, is a sequence of very well thought out and executed mini chapters, with the second Antlion Guard boss-fight and learning how to disable security system. But it's not until the first security checkpoint with automated sentry turrets, which Gordon is able to place down, that the chapter truly shows what is yet to come. Eli is still far from the player's reach and by the time Gordon arrives to sector D8, the actual main event begins! I love the holdout segment and played through it dozenz upon dozens of times, and to this day it is easily my most favorite combat segment out of all HL games.

When i think of nova prospekt that one side hallway always comes to mind thats right after you turn off that big fan. I like how there are four combine soldiers there, two are firing behind the corner where you cant see and two are hiding in front of you. Then the other two retreat into your view and a huge swarm of like 30 antlions slaughters all of them in 10 seconds. It does a good job of portraying how dire the situation was for the prison guards in nova prospekt

I really thought it was cool how nova prospect was foreshadowed at in the very first scene of the game, right before you meet Barney. In smod tactical, I like it even more as it utilizes invisibility cloaks on the combine, and equips them with pulse rifles that are instead laser rifles. The music is really iconic too

As someone under exposed to HL lore Nova Prospekt sounds really interesting, and involved with the world from your description I'll probably be in for the 3rd Nova Prospekt video :j

I think it's difficult to tell whether there's something worse than being turned into a stalker, as we don't know much about their nature, specifically, whether any consciousness remains, because if not, it's functionally the same fate as simply dying but having your body be kept working artificially. Either way the one fate worse than that is probably being the original writer for HL:A and have the whole team be like "yeah no it's not half-lifey enough, scrap all that". If' I'm allowed to give a bit of criticism on this otherwise very well made video, I feel like it's this slight bit blown out, with details like "they had *special terminals* to control the force fields", as if it's noteworthy that the force fields can be shut down, as opposed to walls, or what feels like a solid minute explaining the what trains are. The first half of the video is almost as if you're trying to sell the idea of Nova Prospect to the Combine XD

You are the best RU-vidr, for Half life, this is better than switching TV channels where you want to eat

I've been waiting for so long. This is better than cake and ice cream.

What's interesting in this chapter is that a Combine train goes past when you get to the depot. When you meet with Alyx there is banging on the metal door. When the teleportation is happening elite guards come during the last few seconds. It's as though the elites were sent by train from the Citadel and arrived only to have to find a way into the chamber

I think what made this part great in this game was the fact it was at night, the dark vibes were awesome

The some kind duality of half-life 2 plot, I mean at first glance player think that is saving the humanity or at least creating some kind of rebellion, but after deep thinking each action against combine costs tons of humans life. Genius lore and Nova prospekt is this very moment in game where consequences are really catastrophic for common citizens, Combine is pure genius creation.

I am pretty impressed at the time making all of the shots, edit them and telling the whole story! Nice work!

One of the best storylines of any FPS game I've ever played, I wish we had a Half Life 3. I also wish I still had a PC so I could play Black Mesa and Half Life: Alyx. 😢

i wonder what happened to the remaining guards within the nova prospekt after the destruction of it

its not feasible to rescue each and every person in nova prospekt. their fate was already sealed there was nothing gordon could do for them

Sandtraps has always remind me of HL1's Surface Tension, both have the following similarities; 1)Both chapters are surface/outdoor levels, then become indoor/underground missions with close quarter combat in the next chapter. (lambda core) 2)Walking around a cliff. 3)Fighting air assets with a rocket launcher. 4)Trying to find your way into a mysterious complex, which was mentioned several chapters before, and the game builds its story during your fight your way into unknown. 5)Both chapters have following chapters which include teleportation. 6)Both teleportation parts put the player into last stand situation, he must survive long enough to escape the overwhelming enemies. 7) There is no coming back once the teleportation completes, both places get destroyed forever. The teleportation fields are prepared by an another character. 8)Both are relatively long but fun chapters.

I really love your videos, your dubbing is super good and I actually really like all the info these have, which I didn't expect. Thank you so much

This has been my longest stay on the throne but... I can't say it wasn't a very interesting one, loved the video!

I love listening to these videos before sleep, the way you narrate to the story is fantastic, super immersive!! 10/10 keep it up

Not to be "That Guy" but you used the wrong Nova Prospekt guard for the thumbnail, I have goofed with stuff like this when making crap in Gmod, it happens to the best of us, it's very unnoticeable, it took 3 months for me to discover, keep up the good work with the Portal and Half-Life lore.

Amazing video, it feels like i'm watching a documentary made like 100 years after the combine rule or something, to teach the new generations of what happened

nice video als always, plz never get rid of this song. Also the reason why the combine want to know how local teleportation works is because this knowledge is the key to find out how traveling through time works, like when Gordon and Alyx were send to the future by accident or what happened to the Borealis. This is the only reason the Gman interferes

What an amazing storyline to this day half-life 2 is still among the best games I've ever played

Amazing description! Can wait to see what's next, sub earned.

We need "Evil" Skyrionn. That says "Now, Combine Member, would you-"

Your voice is absolutely heavenly, you should be narrating audiobooks, my guy. Sheer brilliance!

My new favorite Half-life content channel ❤️ I have loved Half-life since i played it for the first time back in 1998 on my old Olivetti computer 😅 I found my best friend through Half-life, I have spend thousands(!) Of hours playing every single Half-life game (every game by Valve set in the HL-universe) and i CAN'T get tired of them, they mean so so much to me. Even if i know most of the lore and BTS of everything, i still love to see videos like this. Thank you man for making these videos! You rule!

Ahh yes, it's evening, done with work, I made a nice cup of tea and watching your videos. The little gems in life.

I’m still amazed with your resonance cascade explanations the variations. I hope to see very very many more of them in the future

I love your videos about Half Life 2. I’m learning a lot about it, and I’m definitely a half life 2 fan! You keep up the good work, I can’t wait for more to come out.

I played half life 2 when I was in 3rd grade and that prison was always so spooky to me at the time. Had weird childhood memories watching this😂

Listening through I'm haunted by the phrase "Failure will result in Permanent Off-World Reassignment". I used to imagine a civil disciplining and shipping off to some awful work camp Until I realized one day it actually meant execution.

This, & your other videos, are very high quality! Wow!

Originally I was happy to see Nova Prospekt destroyed, but watching this video and realizing that countless prisoners were also killed just makes it a tragic event. At least their deaths were not in vain.

as always, excellent work. thank you for continuing to contribute to the HL2 community. ❤️

Excellent video, man! You covered Nova Prospekt and its implications quite well, it really is an eerie place with nefarious purpose. I have to agree with you as well- I'm not sure there's a fate worse than being a Stalker save maybe being turned into a grub. Speaking of, a video on Epistle 3 would be quite interesting! It's a LOT to unpack for such a short story, to say nothing of how it perfectly wraps up Half-life- and how it now appears to have been retconned.

Nova Prospekt story finally here! Nice one Skyrion!

i love the lore in valve's games so much. your commentary and cinematic editing make it 100x more cool

Very well done and nice dialogue!

Half Life Dark(est ) Theory : The Combine came in peace and we did this to ourselves No one is certain how much time Gordon Freeman spent on Xen after the Resonance Cascade scenario , but it was enough time for head crabs to convert scientists into zombies and other Xen captured creatures to escape their prison cells in Black Mesa and reek Havok and all the phones where out . When doctor Rosenburg sent Barney Calhoon to Xen , he had a minimum of control and ensured that there is a device for Calhoon to return to Earth . Gordon had no such device . He was meant to be stranded to an uncertain fate . Perhaps Gman s plan all along was for Gordon to enter Xen and start from Xen his journey to defeating the Nihilant . but the Vortigaunts sent him to his point of origin after he was safe from harm . The G man could do nothing but watch and tried to lead Freeman to his path back to Xen Gordon had a unique attribute above fighting skill and intellect : He could never tell The Truth and he was always there to listen The entire Black Mesa incident was to prove to a higher authority , that humans are intelligent enough to capture animal like creature and put them back if should they escape . It was an invitation from Earth , for the higher intelligent species to come to Earth and talk business . It took Wallace Breen 7 hours to send a message to the combine that stated Earth Surrender to the xenian life forms . And what the combine did was to capture all or most xenian life forms that caused panic through out the world . As a thank you , The World Leaders offered to have their minds probed but in fact it was a transfer of conscience where The world leaders minds took over the combine minds and created Half Life 2 Utopia. Finding new ways to punish humanity and challenging them to fight and be obedient , accepting any kind of reality they see fit as in air exchange or joining Civil Protection just to eat Gordon Freeman was spared to participate in sick mind control games , However , The G man is doing the same to Gordon while trying to find another way to stop them for good

Nice vid, i hope to see more

I love your videos, been watching then a lot, HL lore is so good

The teleporter in Nova Prospekt is so underrated it looks so cool

Been waiting for this one. Thanks for the content.

back with a great video!

man, ur videos are priceless. keep it up!!

You just make the best content IMO :) I hope people find your channel!

I always loved the fact that the player could almost tame the antlions to fight with him

Nova Prospeckt is one of the few places in a video game that honestly creeps me out. No matter how small the crime, you'd be sent here to the literal middle of nowhere. Where even if you did break out, you'd have to contend with the wildlife outside. As the coastal areas are so under populated, the combine will find you fairly easily if you escaped. I may be stating the obvious but: The prison is like Alcatraz... but 100 times worse. Its only when the player ventures inside that we see torture of vortigants, but strangely, not of humans. This could hint at humans being turned into Stalkers or being sent off world to Xen or another planet altogether. That, or its a processing facility for combine soldier recruits who are seen in this location through a monitor near the end of the chapter. Maybe its not a prison at all, but it's used as a guise to keep the general population under control, seeing as we do not see every single area. Seeing as its only described as a prison, it can be assumed that no-one really knows of this places true intentions, afterall, the place is largely devoid of convicts or detainees altogether, if there were detainees here... are they in those pods we see near the end of the chapter, or are these not prisoners at all but rather from other cities across the globe awaiting their fates? We'll probably never know as the location is destroyed.

Thankyou so much for these videos

Fantastic video! Great explanation.

great video bro

"They say a trip to Nova Prospekt is a one way trip."

Ah yes another Half-Life Lore video. Keep up the good Work!

Good work, thanks for sharing!!

Watch, The colony on Netflix. Serious half life 2 vibes.

My time at nova Prospekt was terrible, it’s a good thing your doing a video on it!

Holy shit, the resistance symbol at 5:05 - i just realised that the Half-Life Lambda symbol is an arm holding a crowbar. I've never noticed that before.

Man I love this channel.

fantastic stuff!

For a fate worse than being a stalker, possibly becoming a head crab zombie comes to mind

excellent video!

I can tell this video is going to be great

Loved the detailed Lore.

this is kinda why I dont find the epistol 3 ending makes much sense, like the whole series we see the combine has weaknesses and can be beaten, and then epistol 3 is like "actually the combine are too big to stop cuz they made a dyson sphere" like it was really a limp ending

Finally another video!

Cool as always :)

Absolutely love HL2 Lore stories great job

I think The CItadel would be an interesting Lore Subject!

I've just finished Half-Life 2 for the first time and now i'm on a binge watch of hl2 lore videos.

Dude i just found you out and i subbed after the vid can you do a lore over the combine overlord and chains of command? Its gonna be interesting too find out how they operate and work

I love your Videos, thank you. Best to COMBINE with my food.

I think all of them bc first it was a new prospect after that it had a new perspective and lastly it was a hope

I love this channel as of recently discovering

Valve are so good at making game universes that feel immersive. A Half-Life movie would be really cool. Wouldn't even have to feature Gordon Freeman or anything, the Half-Life universe is interesting enough on its own

Thank you!

love Ur lore video's they explains so much to me

you are so severely underrated

The part of ALL this, that's never made sense to me, is that The Combine couldn't figure out in universe travel, and humans "did"...they didn't, they literally hopped over to zen, setup a relay, then used said relay to instantly hop back wherever they wanted. It's NOT in universe travel, it's the dimension hopping equivalent of a u-turn. This "advanced" civilization couldn't figure that out??? Now if we're talking aperture, yeah, that one makes sense, because that's ACTUALLY in universe travel.

They have been keeping Half Life 3 in Nova Prospekt

Thank you for contributing to the Half-Life 2 community.

Useful knowledge

This channel is awesome, Half-life 2 is one of the coolest games ever.

awesome vid thanks

Eh man this is really well put together d2_prison_01 -5 are my favorite maps

Wow your video gave me a whole "nova prospekt"

Nova Prospect - Nova Perspektiva , Novi Plan (Serbian) - New way of looking at things or a new plan, depending of the context of the rest of the sentence. So it kind of fits both ways in the context of the story. I would also like to add that the architecture style used in the game is called brutalism, popular in Serbia during the era of Balkan communism. A lot of building in the game are really similar to the ones especially in Belgrade but based on the writings in the game i am guessing that its non of the countries of Ex Yugoslavia since our language does not include some of the specific characters that are in the game although most of them are the same. This includes written languages from Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia/ Hercegovina and Montenegro from my personal experience and knowledge of my neighbours...

Gordon is more of a natural disaster than a scientist

God tier content, You're doing the Lord's work 🙏

prospekt is also avenue btw in the literal sense of a long, wide road in a city

Cant wait for the beta thingy! I love the beta so frikin much man

You should have made a book because your storytelling is the best. If you had converted all your movies, following the game series, into a book it would have been a bestseller in the game franchise.

dude i never ever saw a guy like you know all of this about half life i thought tyler mcvicer is that guy but in comparisson with you no way you are amazing man.. ♥♥♥♥

23:26 knew you had a northern welsh accent! wrexham area?

Ok so you are the Zeltik for Half Life. I dig it.

You aren't alone before you meet up with Alyx, you have your antlion brethren.