Combine City
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| Combine City | |
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| General information | |
| Constructed |
Before the Seven Hour War (later modified by the Combine) |
| Location | |
| Usage | |
| Era(s) | |
| Faction | |
| Game information | |
| Designer(s) | |
Combine Cities, also referred to as urban centers by Dr. Wallace Breen, are major human settlements on Earth that are occupied and heavily modified by the Combine.
Contents
Overview[edit]
Following the Seven Hour War and the subsequent surrender of Earth's governments, the Combine took over the remaining cities and renamed them with generic numbers, i.e. "City #". The cities are then modified with various technology to accommodate the Combine's needs. These modifications include walls of mobile barriers circumscribing the perimeters, outer defense mechanisms to deter alien creatures such as Antlions, countless Force Fields and barricade checkpoints dissecting streets to strictly limit citizen movement, ubiquitous propaganda screens mounted on buildings, possible Quarantine Zones set up to isolate and clean incursive Xen infestation, and a towering Citadel structure pinned in the center of the urban area, acting as the headquarters of governance. Some old constructs are also converted into Combine facilities, for instance, the Overwatch Nexus and Nova Prospekt. Many other parts of the cities, however, are left uninhabited and in general disrepair, often providing a haven for hostile wildlife and cells of Resistance. For this reason, the Combine bombards these places with Headcrab Shells, creating areas infested with Zombies to deny access.
Cities maintain a large Metropolice force to ensure absolute conformity of the residents, as well as transhuman and synthetic garrisons to deal with pacification missions on larger scales. Geographical areas on Earth are partitioned into distinct "sectors" with a city at the circumcenter, which shares the same serial number. Areas within these cities are labelled with generic code names and a number from one to nine typically describing its state or function. Such code names are residential, distribution, production and station block. Human citizens are constantly transferred from one city to another, presumably to prevent close relationships and rebellious thoughts among residents from forming. They are given the lowest standards to survive, and are under sustained surveillance and examination.
Only one Combine city, City 17, is ever featured in the Half-Life series, where it acts as one of the chief settings of Half-Life 2, Episode One and Half-Life: Alyx. It is one of the most prominent cities on Earth and the place where Administrator Breen's government and one of the Citadels[1] are located, as well as where the later Uprising took place. As seen on the schedule found in the Trainstation waiting hall, Cities 8, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 24 and 27 are linked to City 17 by railway, making them the few other cities known to exist. Additionally, a citizen in the station mentioned Breen appearing in City 14, hinting that the Administrator has a presence in different cities, likely through means of his broadcasts.
Behind the scenes[edit]
City 40 and 49 are mentioned by Samuel in the vignette Now Arriving: City 17 in Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar, in which he states that most of the towns are identical from afar and that only inside is it possible to see how they were "before" (i.e. before the Seven Hour War and the Combine occupation).[2]
In modding[edit]
In Entropy : Zero, the player character, Bad Cop, ends up stranded in City 10 after his Razor Train derails. As explained by the creator, Breadman, City 10 was chosen as it is missing from the train schedule in HL2, leading them to speculate that something made the city uninhabitable.[3]
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
References[edit]
- ↑ PC Zone magazine, November 2005.
- ↑ Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar, page 164
- ↑ Breadman lore and development Q&A on Steam Discussions
