so as im sure as many of you have asked yourself, where does half-life 2 take place? well after playing all of the games again i realized that there are signs everywhere in the game, but there not in english, there in russian. So does it take place in russia, or in ukraine, or what?
It takes place in the fictional city of City 17.
Somewhere in Europe. Although Russia sounds possible.
I never quite understood the jump from New Mexico to what appears to be an eastern part of Europe.
It is a fictional environment, only based on real life references. go read Half Life 2: Raising the bar.
On a side note, I can confirm that the vehicle models almost completely match cars and trucks manufactured in Soviet Union.
Also the roadsigns 'n stuff are in russian. As they were in the whole USSR.
Blame wikipedia for the png
Well duh… i meant where do you think city 17 is
I can also confirm that, considering i used to live there
Hey look, yet another thread for something that was already discussed ad nauseam before…
i used search, didnt find any thread, but search on this forum isnt very good anyways so…
Ever since HL2 was officially announced, the location of City 17’s was a subject that has been discussed to death. The general consensus is that it is located somewhere near the Baltic sea.
“Some fans believe City 17 to be Sofia, Bulgaria, the hometown of the art director of Half-Life 2, Viktor Antonov.”
“Another possibility is that of St. Petersburg, Russia.”
https://www.statemaster.com/encyclopedia/City-17
[edit] “Latvian SSR-made Rīgas Autobusu Fabrika minivans” Hell yeah!
Nope. Trust me, I live here.
The fact is that City 17 + outskirts combine things from all over Europe.
There are signs from Russia, gas-meters from Norwegian area, manhole covers from Italy.
The thing is, don’t overthink it. It’s a GAME.
From all you know, it could be a de-frosted area in Northern-Greenland.
Actually, from what I can remember, the cars are just general eastern Europe stuff, but none or maybe just a few are actual soviet made. IIRC they rather resemble trabants and wartburgs, both made in former Eastern Germany, and maybe even some Dacia which is romanian.
I’m not debating whether City 17 is somewhere in the current Russia or not, especially since the roadsigns are still in Russian (or at the very least in Cyrillic, I can’t speak Russian). Just that based on the cars, it could still be anything.
These might not be the exact models, but I couldn’t be arsed to search for more precise pics.
P.S. Some (or most) of these are made after outdated models of other manufacturers, for example Fiat.
There can be only one explanation for this…
Now bear with me folks, but could it be that Half Life 2 is actually set in…
johnyo,
duh… such peaces of scrap
those make me feel quite sorry for my country ^_^’
OP: HL2 atmosphere seems sooo familiar to me.
In Soviet Russia Aliens enslave you!
I think it may be in USSR since you pointed that out. I saw the screens of soviet vehicles & they do resemble the in-game ones, plus signs in Russian do point there too. And it could also make sense that its there since Ep. 3 is part arctic if not whole due to the concept art. By god he’s onto something! 
the language on the signs and billboards
it looks like it happens in russia, but i remember an interview with gabe when HL2 was released. he said that they were in czech republic near praha to take photos for the game.
My only point was, that they do resemble ANY eastern Europe cars, not specifically Russian ones. Without any visible brand signs in game (or one that I remember), they could be anything that were very popular around here. Just because they look crap, doesn’t mean it must be soviet.
I played HL2 since quite long ago, so the cars I mentioned were only the ones I can still remember… sort of.