I hate how people latch on to throwaway jokes from Portal 2 and insist they’re proof that G-Man is really a time-traveling mantis man with peanut water for blood.
sounds legit, it’s a videogame we are talking about
No it doesn’t sound legit at all, it’s a retarded theory based on a developers joke. It’s a video game, but it’s not a completely fucking retarded one. As I’ve already said, Portal is the comedy relief of the series, DO NOT start intertwining it’s comedy into the regular Half-Life universe. It becomes boring, tedious and annoying.
On the contrary, I’m fully convinced the Combine knew very well of the resistance in the city, and in fact Breen moved his main operations here directly BECAUSE of that.
You see if the Combine are after the last of the scientists who know of teleport technology, they’ll know full well they’d rather kill themselves than give it up to the Combine. Hence a full frontal assault, ripping through every building finding them would be far too dangerous in regards to their end goal.
When Freeman arrives however all of this changes.
The only real secret kept from the Combine, and kept well, is the direct location of the labs and White Forest.
In regards to Aperture, I’m unconvinced the technology is a sign of Combine contact. Obviously it was much easier for Valve to reuse assets from HL-2, and I doubt they wanted the tech to so closely resemble Combine tech aesthetically, So I try and come up with alternate theories to explain it.
Personally I simply see it as extremely archaic versions of Combine tech naturally developed by the science staff. Thinking about it, similar Combine tech is eons ahead of anything at Aperture at seemingly much less cost.
The Health charger I was actually unaware of until you pointed it out. I’d say though that it seems more plausible to me that AS tech was simply used by the Combine for their new human forces, slightly upgraded, it being the best for the job. It is literally the only one ever seen pre-invasion, and thus could of been developed at another AS R+D center, state of the art at the time.
As for the Borealis, I think you’ve got it the wrong way around. The reason we see this video is because the Combine have captured it whilst tracking Mossman ( perhaps she was bugged without knowing it ). Eli had not heard from her since her departure.
Thus the Combine attached this and the location files to the packet they were sending with the portal codes for their reinforcements.
They most likely knew there was something going on in the general area, yes, but not the extent or specific locations, e.g. the underground railway. One of the Overwatch announcements during the canals says “Local unrest structure detected”, implying it had only recently been uncovered. Also, what Breen knew and what the Combine knew aren’t necessarily the same thing. He may well have kept some information from the advisors until he had enough to show his hand. Anyway, point is, the Combine do have some history of not being that observant, so I wouldn’t put it past them to miss some folk from Aperture until Gordon’s actions got their attention. After all, it’s like the US military not noticing an ant colony under their base.
Regarding the other things, those are pretty good alternate explanations, and like I said there are other (probably more sensible) theories, I just think it’s interesting how there does seem to be something of a link between Aperture and the Combine. Especially when you consider the Borealis and how that holds such a major significance to them.