Advisors

Half-Life Series
#81

Ah, science-fiction and worm-like leaders are never far apart (Dune, nuff’ said). I never really understood why the Combine would station multiple Advisors on Earth. If they were really that important, why would you need like 20 of them? It seems that if your inter-dimensional trip was a one-way affair, you would leave your most important assets behind to facilitate the logistical aspects of the invasion. I always liked to think the Advisors were hive-minded, slaved together to amplify their latent telepathic and telekinetic abilities.

It was awfully shortsighted of the Combine to invent a teleportation device that can only go to other dimensions and not to different points in the same dimension. If a bunch of monkeys with MIT grads could figure it out in a few decades, how the hell could an advanced inter-dimensional empire like the Combine not invent it first? Plot holes, plot holes…

#82

I don’t know if I would call that a plot hole, maybe our scientists went in another direction of investigation than the combine. Its entirely possible our scientists were able to come up with something that the combine hadn’t figured out yet.

#83

Or that the resources required were not available from wherever the combine are from. I agree that it’s sketchy as well, but not necessarily a hole.

#84

Or, it’s that Lost and HL are actually related and the Island taught them how to do it. After all there’s that station in White Forest… :stuck_out_tongue:

No, but seriously, I agree. It could easily be explained by the humans making accidental discoveries (or, discoveries directed by the G-Man, after all he did bring them that crystal), or else the resources were more available.

As far as the whole “Advisor” title thing goes, I wouldn’t read too much into it. If my theory is correct then they could’ve just taken the title to themselves as a mean joke (as in, ha ha, yeah we say we advise you but we’re really ruling you). I mean, just look at the name Civil Protection…

When we find out the whole story it’ll probably be a good story, but it could be quite simple for all we know. Whatever it may be, the true appeal of Half-Life, what gives it that special ominous feeling, is being kept in the dark. Not knowing what’s really going on and having to learn things in tiny steps makes it infinitely more intriguing than just being told upfront. You could make the worst plots great with this method, and make the best plots mind-blowingly amazing.

#85

This. I’ve always appreciated HL2’s orwellian use of 1984 newspeak.
They just use the words and titles as a subtle form of control.

#86

Breen contacts them on numourous occaisions to give a report…so to speak.

wouldn’t that demonstrate their leadership qualities?

#87

If you think about it, on their original planet they probably had different resources which needed different ways to use than what we have, resulting in different areas of investigation and expertise than humans.

It’s not a plot hole at all, how can you expect a race from a different universe to act the same way we do?

#88

I think that would fall under doublethink more than it would Newspeak, although Half-Life 2 seems to have some of that as well. Calling themselves ‘Civil Protection’ while acting in a way that does the opposite; definitely doublethink.

Agreed.

Can you imagine how boring Half Life would be if we were given the full background about everything as it happened, 100% of the time? Imagine, after seeing Gman for the first time, being told, in detail, everything about him, his motives; everything. It might be okay, but I doubt he’d be nearly as memorable as he is now.

I don’t think it would be a stretch to say that most Half-Life characters, enemies, and locations would be significantly hurt if this method of storytelling wasn’t employed. Valve knows how to ease the player into something, storywise and gameplaywise. I’d go as far as to say it’s one of their strongest points.

#89

I wonder why so many people seem to stumble on the fact that there are a handful of Advisors on earth…that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re valueless.

I’m of the opinion that the Advisors are the original progenitors of the Combine - the “starting species” that controls it all. And that’s just it - they’re an entire species. It’s not so far-fetched to say that they have classes - a ruling class, a lower class (though still obviously above everything they control.)

It seems to me that the Advisors on earth are probably something of overseers fairly low on the Advisor chain of command. Something like captains in the military, for example. They’re still members of the Advisor species, but they’re low enough in the chain of command that putting them into the field doesn’t matter very much.

#90

I really hope episode 3 takes us to their homeworld so we can delve into their main HQ and see what their head honcho(s) looks like. And see who has been calling the shots with all the colonization and genocide in other worlds.

#91

Episode 3’s almost confirmed to be taking place in the Borealis with all the hints and bits of concept art. Half-Life 3’s going to take place more in Xen, by my guess.

#92

They cut Xen from HL2 because everyone hated it so much in HL1. Why would they make HL3 set entirely in Xen?

#93

I didn’t know. I guess I should do more research on these things…

#94

I thought I saw somewhere that Valve said that EP3 was going to be the last HL game… Well, I can’t find that article anymore so it’s anyone’s guess.

#95

They said it was going to be the last episode of Half-Life 2.

Here’s an article to reaffirm my statement.
https://www.thegamereviews.com/story-1423-HalfLife-2-Episode-3-to-Debut-at-E3.html

#96

After reading what Valve said about them;

Combine Advisor:
“In designing this character we wanted to suppose that an organism, not unlike humans, began to depend on technology that was originally created to improve it’s quality of life. Over the course of its evolution, it became grublike, with limbs no longer able to support its own weight, eyes to feeble to see without aid, a body now incapable of movement, fully dependant on the technology that is created. It was, however, incredibly evolved in its ability to reason, invent, and dominate the minds and cultures of other beings. This design was also in part inspired by the writings of Frank Herbert.”

…it seems to me that the advisors are in fact, not raw Combine at all. Like all other races the Combine have ‘enslaved’, the ‘Advisors’ were probably conquered primarily to make use of their unique ability. By having control over such a powerful, intelligent entity, the Combine have yet another extremely useful tool / weapon in their arsenal.

They have Striders for heavy land combat, Gunships for air combat and now Humans for small-scale combat (such as in buildings) - which is also why the Hunters would have been used. I wonder if they will have an enemy for water combat in EP3? You could see a shimmering silouhette moving below the ice; before it smashes through in all its’ cinematic-physics glory. Now that would be cool and creepy, knowing that something below the ice has been watching you…

#97

Nothing from what you quoted suggests that.

#98

I don’t know you, but I think the concept art tells us the ice would be one think layer. It would be impossible for anything to swim in there.

Further more, I’d like a garg synth more, because it’d be more like a worker synth, used to melt the ice and stuff, which would actually be more interesting to see than another combat synth. Th garg should have some combat purposes though.

Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.