City 17
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| City 17 | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Constructed |
Before the Seven Hour War (later modified by the Combine) |
| Destroyed | |
| Location | |
| Usage | |
| Era(s) | |
| Faction | |
| Game information | |
| Designer(s) |
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- "Welcome to City 17. It's safer here."
- ― Wallace Breen[src]
Prior to the Seven Hour War, City 17[1][10] was a grand city in an unknown Eastern European region.[11] Later taken over by the Combine as one of their numerous Cities, it was their main headquarters on Earth, home to Earth's administrator Dr. Wallace Breen.[1] Dominated by the imposing Citadel and surrounded by the desolate Wasteland, it is one of two major locations in Half-Life 2 and the only location of Half-Life 2: Episode One and Half-Life: Alyx.
Contents
Overview[edit]
Architecture[edit]
City 17 visually resembles a post-Soviet harbor city featuring mostly Eastern European architecture.[2] It features architecture styles dating from pre-World War II neoclassicism, post-war classical designs, Soviet modernism, and post-Soviet contemporary designs.[11]
Upon the Combine's arrival on Earth, many new structures were constructed using their own style of architecture,[1] with the possible intent of restricting Citizen movement throughout the city.[source?] This created a distinct aesthetic style for the city, of Eastern European architecture juxtaposed with the cold, monolithic Combine technology.
In addition, large screens were installed in several public areas to address Citizens regarding the Combine through Breencasts.[1] At the heart of the city was the Citadel, a giant skyscraper which served as the hub of the Combine.[1]
Design[edit]
The core of the city consisted predominately of wall-to-wall buildings, with blocks of clustered low-rises made out of a variety of old and new buildings. Soviet-style project apartment blocks also had a prominent appearance in the city. Under Combine rule, some city districts were divided into semi-isolated precincts and many residential buildings were used as accommodations for citizens.[1] Conditions in such housings were typically poor and effectively bordering on slums, with very few luxuries and constant inspection and raids by Civil Protection.[1][12] However, some city infrastructure, such as power plants, were maintained by the Combine, and electricity was made widely available from both traditional sources and Combine generators.[1] The Combine themselves occupied some former government buildings, such as the Overwatch Nexus, to help keep control over the city.[1]
The city was large enough to provide all necessary needs for the citizens before the Combine's occupation. This is supported by the appearance of a hospital, several cafés and restaurants, office buildings, and underground city systems; much of said infrastructure was still relatively intact but disused.[1][13][14]
The outskirts of City 17 featured industrial districts and additional project apartment blocks,[1] most of which are seemingly considered off-limits to Citizens. The industrial districts are seen linked to the city via railway lines and canals.[1][13][14]
As there was little emphasis in maintaining non-essential parts of the city, many areas of City 17 suffered from urban decay prior to the Citadel's explosion.[1]
Transportation systems[edit]
City 17's transportation system had considerable variety. In addition to highways and city streets, City 17 included underground road tunnels that traveled beneath the city; during the Resistance uprising against the Combine, portions of the tunnel could be seen, badly damaged, with areas flooded with toxic substances.[1] Several railway lines ran throughout the city, with at least two large train stations connecting City 17 to other Combine controlled cities.[1][13] The Combine maximized the use of these transportation systems, developing ground-based APCs to patrol roads while utilizing pre-invasion trains and their own form of trains to transport citizens and goods in and out of City 17.[1][13][14] The presence of unused tramways on a street also suggest that the city once provided tram services before the Combine rule.[1]
A network of canals was also prevalent in and around City 17.[1] Much of the inner city canals, however, were made defunct after the Combine's draining of large bodies of water around City 17 left much of the area's canal system dry.[1] However, the industrial district canal systems remained usable, albeit shallower, with certain portions of the canals contaminated with hazardous materials.[1]
Appearances[edit]
Half-Life 2[edit]
Gordon was pulled from stasis by the G-Man and left standing in a train pulling into a station. Leaving the train after hearing the other passengers comment, "I didn't see you get on," Gordon faced a large screen monitor with the administrator, Doctor Breen, smiling calmly down at the depressed citizens and welcoming them to City 17.
After failing a security check, Gordon was taken away by a Civil Protection officer for interrogation. Fortunately, he was delivered to an undercover Barney Calhoun who helped him escape from the train station. Exiting the station, Gordon finds himself in a plaza, with the ever-imposing Citadel far ahead, and further evidence of the Combine's power in the city. Gordon's brief journey through the city revealed the level of repression by the Combine, and the level of fear and dread among citizens.
After stumbling his way into a building being raided by Civil Protection, Gordon is identified as a "miscount"[15] and is pursued by Civil Protection units over the rooftops and ledges of buildings before being rescued by Alyx Vance. Alyx brings Gordon to Dr. Kleiner's lab in a nearby building. There, Gordon is fitted with an HEV suit and is set to be teleported with Alyx to Dr. Eli Vance's lab in Black Mesa East. While Alyx successfully arrives at the destination, the teleport malfunctions as Gordon is about to be teleported, sending him to several locations (including Doctor Breen's office in the Citadel), and eventually back to City 17, just outside Kleiner's lab.
After being given a Crowbar from Barney, Gordon is advised to venture along railway lines, canals, sewage systems, and the wider canal routes to leave City 17 and reach Black Mesa East. Along the way, it is learned that parts of the route are also under attack by Combine units. An alert was put out from the Citadel to capture or kill Gordon after the teleportation incident at Breen's office. As Gordon reaches the wider canals, an Airboat is prepared by rebels to transport Gordon out of the city. As he rides the Airboat, Hunter-Choppers and additional Combine units pursue him once more, but are eventually evaded and defeated as he reaches Black Mesa East and escapes the city.
After Gordon and Alyx's failed attempt to rescue Eli and associate Judith Mossman at Nova Prospekt (in which Judith ends up teleporting Eli to the Citadel), they attempt to teleport back to Kleiner's lab, but find that they have reached their destination a week later in time, although it seems to Alyx and Gordon as though their teleportation was instantaneous. They learn that Gordon and Alyx's attack on Nova Prospekt sparked an uprising among City 17's citizens that sent the city into chaos: Combine units and citizens are fighting against each other, and powerful, more lethal weapons and equipment are being deployed in full force, damaging much of the city. While Gordon and Alyx race to the Citadel to rescue Eli, Alyx is knocked out, captured, and brought to the Citadel. Gordon eventually reaches the foot of the Citadel, with the aid of Barney and Alyx's robotic pet, Dog, and enters the structure to rescue Eli and Alyx and to confront Doctor Breen.
The final stage of the game reveals that Gordon, upon releasing Eli and Alyx and damaging the dark energy reactor that would power Breen's teleportation off of the planet, was about to trigger a massive explosion of the reactor that would "bring down the whole Citadel" and destroy the entire city. At the moment of the reactor's explosion, however, the G-Man reappears, stopping time, and transports Gordon back into stasis to await further assignment.
Half-Life 2: Episode One[edit]
Half-Life 2: Episode One takes place against a backdrop of a mass exodus from the doomed city, at the heart of which the Citadel has become a ticking time bomb. Hoping to open a portal to send valuable information back to the Combine leaders, the surviving Combine soldiers inside the Citadel deactivated the containment system for the Citadel's core. Though Gordon and Alyx managed to reactivate the system, it only bought a short amount of time. As they moved farther away from the Citadel, they witnessed its condition deteriorate.
The city itself, especially the regions closest to the Citadel, had been damaged beyond recognition by Striders following the events of Half-Life 2, though regions farther out, such as a hospital and the train station, were still intact. Most of the railroad infrastructure was undamaged, though any train leaving the Citadel was subject to falling debris. Antlions roamed the city unchecked, and the remaining Combine forces struggled to keep order in the ruins. The security was so downtrodden, in fact, that many Combine Soldiers were attacked by Headcrabs and transformed into zombies themselves, being dubbed "Zombines" by Alyx.
The citizens of City 17, heeding the warnings of the Resistance, were all but gone during Gordon and Alyx's flight from the city. Only a few remained, pinned down by any surviving Combine troops and Civil Protection units. Thanks to the efforts of Gordon and Barney Calhoun, the last of the city's citizens were evacuated via train, despite the best efforts of the surviving Combine forces.
When the Citadel detonated, the explosion was powerful enough to send debris flying for miles and landing outside city limits.
Half-Life 2: Episode Two[edit]
- "We made it out of City 17!"
- ― Alyx Vance[src]
In a scene from Half-Life 2: Episode Two, the remains of City 17 can be seen from the countryside. A tornado-like vortex can be seen rising from what was the Citadel, and the center of the city is scattered with pieces of the Citadel. The outskirts of the city appear no less damaged and it is doubtful that there is anyone left alive in the ruins.
Half-Life: Alyx[edit]
Set five years prior to the events of Half-Life 2, City 17 is the main location and setting of Half-Life: Alyx, the majority of time being spent within the Quarantine Zone. The Citadel is still under heavy construction at this point, and the streets are under strict Combine control with many new structures being built all around. Various propaganda posters, more humanist in nature, can be seen scattered around the city. These posters make reference to unseen Combine hierarchical entities labelled the "Ministry of Civil Protection" and the "City 17 security council." The certainty of whether these organizations exist or are entirely fabricated for propagandistic reasons remains unclear.
Behind the scenes[edit]
- The Half-Life 2 leak texture files contain several worn-out vintage posters used in many WC map pack maps. Originally fruit crate labels, they were directly taken from the "Fruit Crate Labels" page of the Encore Editions website. Another is also found here.
- The Half-Life 2 leak files feature several models that were to be featured in City 17 but were ultimately cut. They include fire items such as an alarm bell, a fire hose and a fire hydrant, parking meters, a U.S. Mail mailbox, or traffic lights.[16]
- To construct the destroyed city portion of the game, designers built low-detail buildings in the world editor Hammer, then took them into the Softimage XSI and "destroyed" them, breaking them up and adding details like rebar and cracks.[11]
- To help with the design of City 17, photographic reference material was collected from Bulgaria, Russia, and Romania.[17]
- In Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar, City 17 is described as being in an Eastern European setting:[2]
- "One of the reasons that we liked Eastern Europe as a setting was that it represents the collision of the old and the new in a way that is difficult to capture in the United States. You go over there, and you have this collision between all of these things, the new architecture, the old architecture, the fall of communism...there's a sense of this strongly-grounded historical place. We left out the Gothic themes associated with Prague and vampires and looked into a different aspect of the region."
- ― Viktor Antonov[src]
- When responding to a question in a Reddit AMA [1] about whether he researched any Eastern European cities for City 17, Viktor Antonov wrote that "it was based on [his] childhood city Sofia", and that "it had mixed elements" from Belgrade and Saint Petersburg.
- During the development of Half-Life 2, Valve made many reference photos of the larger Seattle area where Valve is based, including, among others: Airport Way S (for decrepit brick building textures), Macy's on Pine Street (for the Manhack Arcade), a USCGC ship in the harbor as a reference for the Borealis, magnetic cranes in west Seattle and the Queen Anne radio towers for the antenna near the Manhack Arcade.
Gallery[edit]
Half-Life 2[edit]
Pre-release[edit]
Reference images[edit]
A real-world reference image for City 17.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Concept art[edit]
Concept art based on the skybox of Vertigo.
Ditto.
Electrical props.
Tanks.
An early rough sketch of City 17 as a more decayed and dirty place.
Ditto.
A ruined City 17 building.
Attic from Half-Life 2’s first chapter.
Colored version.
Another view of the attic.
Cropped and colored version.
The Citadel among skyscrapers.
Concept art for the Combine Smart Barrier near destroyed buildings.
Destroyed buildings.
A skyscraper towering over a building with a dome, based on a photo of the HSBC Building in Hong Kong.
A destroyed City 17 skyscraper.
Colored version.
Ruined apartment buildings overlooking the Canals.
Ruined buildings.
Ditto.
Concept art for a Breencast device in the City 17 Trainstation.
Ditto.
The Citadel.
Ditto.
Combine Barricade concept art in the Combine Factories area.
Combine Smart Barrier concept art.
Combine door.
Concept art of Combine Door Towers.
Concept art of children working on an unidentified machine.
Ditto.
Children working in the Cremator factory, located in City 17.
Gordon arriving at the foot of the Citadel.
The Citadel.
Inside the Manhack Arcade.
Ditto.
The stenographer's chasm.
A train in City 17.
Shelter in the City 17 Trainstation.
Inside the City 17 Trainstation.
Ditto.
Vorti-Cell concept art.
The very first Half-Life 2 menu background, featuring a Manhattan-inspired City 17.[18]
Screenshots[edit]
The very first Half-Life 2 test level, simulating a street war between rioting citizens and the Metrocops sent to contain them.
Fixed
city_test03, the closest map in the WC map pack to the Get Your Free TVs! demo.
Ditto.
The rooftops of City 17.
One of the first versions of the Manhack Arcade.
Ditto.
The radio tower near the Manhack Arcade.
Ditto.
The radio tower near the Manhack Arcade.
The second version of the Manhack Arcade with a different facade.
Column plaza near the Manhack Arcade. Behind can be seen the Arcade itself, the radio tower and the Citadel.
The third version of the Manhack Arcade.
The third version of the Manhack Arcade with a different facade.
A police station near the Manhack Arcade.
Bullsquids in the Canals.
Outside City 17.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Attic in a prefab City 17 battle map.
The first version of the City 17 Trainstation.
Ditto, the second version.
Ditto, the third version.
A road near an early City 17 Trainstation.
Early Combine Soldiers stationed in City 17, based on artwork by Viktor Antonov.
A Breencast device hanged to a Civil Protection building near the Manhack Arcade.
A Combine Door Tower in an early City 17.
Citizens in the small room of the Manhack Arcade.
Elevated railway and pipes in the Combine Factories area.
Combine Door Tower nearby.
The street passing by an early City 17 Trainstation that will become the Terminal Plaza, and then the Trainstation Plaza.
Early City 17 in the bus ride map.
Ditto, with the skyline visible.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
An early City 17 street with a canal in the middle.
Ditto.
Ditto.
An early brush train bringing Gordon to the City 17 Trainstation.
The top of the Skyscraper, Palace version, with the Citadel on the right.
The top of the Skyscraper, Palace version.
The Skyscraper, Vertigo version.
The pool in the Skyscraper, Vertigo version.
Inside the Skyscraper, Palace version.
Ditto, with vases in showcases and Breen busts.
Ditto.
The most recent 3D skybox of the Skyscraper chapter, Palace version.
Ditto.
The
d4_streetwar_01map.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
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An early Combine Bridge.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Early war-torn City 17.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
The Terminal Plaza.
Ditto.
Ditto.
The City 17 Trainstation in the same map.
Fleeing gas mask Citizens in the destroyed City 17.
The streets among the Combine Factories, featuring an elevated railway on which a Razor Train is passing by.
Xen Light Stalks in the sewers under the Combine Factories.
Early City 17 apartments.
The tiles version of the Citadel.
A prototype Citadel inner wall.
Ditto.
The ongoing battle at the foot of the Skyscraper, Vertigo version.
An early City 17 district.
Ditto.
Ditto.
A scenery based on a concept art.
Overview of the City 17 map
c17_old07.
The WC map pack map
cremator_039.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Early concept of the large chasm at the foot of the Citadel.
Ditto.
Ditto.
The old underground path to the original Kleiner's Lab in the WC map pack map
subt, reused in the leak mapd1_under_03.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
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Destroyed buildings in the WC map pack map
cremator_street02.
Parking lot in the same map.
A government building.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
The stenographer's chasm.
A tram in the E3 map
c17_02, where it delivers a group of Rebels before they engage in a battle with two Striders.
Fixed map of the Vance Headquarters.
Ditto.
The old Antlion Guard model on an early Point Insertion roof.
Ditto.
Ditto.
The early Point Insertion roof.
Cut models[edit]
Undetermined sign featuring a Combine logo. It is used in the cut E3 demonstration map
e3_strider, where it is destroyed by a Strider.
Fire hydrant.
Fire hose, to be hung over a wall. It can be found in the maps
e3_industrialandd1_garage_01, in the Cremator factory.
Alarm bell, to be hung over a wall.
U.S. Mail mailbox.
Traffic light variant.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Crosswalk warning light.
Parking meter.
Ditto (top only).
Retail[edit]
The City 17 logo featured on several Combine devices.
The Trainstation Plaza.
Citizens watching for incoming Metrocops as a Breencast is broadcast.
Citizens talking about the Civil Protection raids in a City 17 street.
Civil Protection officers guarding a door.
An empty playground in City 17.
Citizens being searched by the Civil Protection officers.
Aftermath of the uprising in the City 17 streets.
A hotel in City 17.
The Citadel towering above City 17.
A City 17 street, with a mixture of modern and traditional architectural designs.
City 17 apartment buildings.
A City 17 tunnel.
Horse statue, with the Citadel in the back.
A collapsed bridge.
Striders roaming the streets while Rebels and Combine Soldiers fight.
A connecting bridge now fallen under heavy gunfire.
Half-Life: Alyx[edit]
Concept Art.
Ditto.
City 17 alleyway.
A Citizen looking at the van crash from a balcony.
City 17 Quarantine Zone streets near the Northern Star.
Ditto.
Abandoned apartment in the Quarantine Zone.
Ditto.
City 17 vista from the Golden Lion Distillery.
City 17 vista from the processing plant.
Ditto.
City 17 vista from Alyx's Hideout.
Ditto.
Logos and posters[edit]
List of appearances[edit]
Main games[edit]
- Half-Life 2 (First appearance)
- Half-Life 2: Episode One
- Half-Life 2: Episode Two
- Half-Life: Alyx
Other[edit]
- Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar
- Half-Life 2: Deathmatch (Non-canonical appearance)
- The Final Hours of Portal 2
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 Half-Life 2
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar, page 166
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar, page 238
- ↑ DamarcusWorks
- ↑
Half a life: Laura Dubuk on her 12 years at Valve on YouTube
- ↑ Matt Wright's resume
- ↑ Danika Wright's resume
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 WC map pack
- ↑
City 17 on LinkedIn
- ↑ Breencast
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar
- ↑ The Half-Life 2 chapter Point Insertion
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 Half-Life 2: Episode One
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Half-Life 2: Episode Two
- ↑ The Overwatch Voice in the Half-Life 2 chapter Point Insertion
- ↑ Half-Life 2 leak
- ↑ Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar, page 168
- ↑ View from the Wollman Rink, Central Park, Manhattan, New York City on Flickr
| Preceded by N/A |
Half-Life 2 story arc journey (1) | Succeeded by Canals |
| Preceded by The Coast |
Half-Life 2 story arc journey (2) | Succeeded by The Outlands |
