They’re the enemies in a shooter game.
Stop overcomplicating simple things.
Yeah, but geeking out over the story is half the fun.
Can I haz my Flamethrower for the job?
Interestingly enough, an energy being was a concept enemy / obstacle from very early on, they were called Particle Storms. Valve likes to reuse old concepts, so we’ll see how it goes. Although original Particle Storms were “wild” and just as dangerous to the Combine as they were to us.
“If you’ve never been out there before, I have one piece of advice; At the first flicker of green light, you run! First storm I saw I made the mistake of stoppin’ to study it, that’s… how I lost my leg. I’ve seen them take out whole squads, reeling in Soldiers, tearing Gunboats to bits! Some say it’s only an electrical disturbance but if you ask me, there’s an intelligence in there somewhere. If only we could communicate with it-t, a force like that on our side… Now that would be a powerful ally.” -Eli Maxwell
I know this thread is old, but I love this sort of thing so I’ll contribute my two pence.
The Combine isn’t any one race, but a collection of races. So, in that sense, the human forces are as much the Combine as the synths or the advisors or anyone. It’s implied that the advisors might have been the original race that started the Combine, but that’s all conjecture.
It’s possible, but I doubt it. That’d be too cliché and judging by what we’ve seen it seems more appropriate that there is no central leader but merely a collection of advisors. Human empires require a leader (at least thus far), but Combine is very definitely not human, they seem more like an ant colony or even a single entity.
I’m not sure I’d even say the advisors are “leaders” in the traditional sense. If you think of the Combine as a single living organism (which appears to be how they view it by the medical terminology that’s used) they’re more like the brain cells of the larger creature.
The advisors make the decisions, but not out of self interest or a desire to lead or even out of any ideological support for the empire, it’s just the function that they’ve been designed to perform, just as the function of the synths is to invade and fight insurrections, and protect the brain. Without the brain, the body can’t survive.
I believe it was confirmed that they hadn’t gotten into Xen because the Nihilanth was keeping them out? That’s why it wanted to take over Earth, so it had another universe between it and the Combine. After Gordon killed the Nihilanth that broke down the “barrier”, and allowed them to get into Xen and by extension this Universe. So by this point they probably have invaded Xen, unless the G-Man is keeping them out somehow.
As I understand it, the only way to earth is through Xen; it’s intrinsically linked to our universe somehow, as indicated by the fact that it’s so heavily involved in local teleportation.
But then, why does Nihilanth looks so… transformed, unnatural. Compared to the other alien controllers, it’s like it’s legs got cut down from the knees and it’s got transplanted with a big device like a synth
He was tortured and controlled by the Combine once?
IIRC Laidlaw said that Nihilanth was never under the Combine’s control. Which is a bit of a shame IMO, it would have been an interesting dynamic.
That’s what I thought, although when I went back and looked at what Mossman said about teleportation in Black Mesa East it sounded like they were going through directly from their universe, and the resistance teleporters worked by basically bouncing off Xen and back to another point in our universe (which the Combine hadn’t thought of).
Yeah she says the Combine are reliant on conventional transportation once they arrive in our universe. Having local teleporters is one advantage the rebels have. From the events of Episode 2 though, it seems like if the Combine get their hands on the Borealis they might negate that advantage by repurposing Aperture’s teleportation technology. I’m guessing that is, or was, going to be a major part of the next installment, though who knows at this point.
A question about Nihilanth’s head, is that weird thing inside a brain? 0_o doesn’t seem as such.
Well, that explanation still works if the combine had to tunnel through Xen on their way here.
There was also that scene in Xen in OP4 where you can see race X coming out of a portal in Xen and going into one that leads to earth, IIRC, so that would support it as well.
It was intended to reflect the crystal in the test chamber, that causes the resonance cascade. It was probably more of a callback than anything meaningful.
Don’t ant colony have a Queen?
Ok, but how did the humans reach Xen and the Combine is way more advanced than the human race and humans reach Xen, but not the Combine
Weird, no?
I think he’s confused about the concept of a Hive Mind.
The Queen doesn’t lead the colony, she’s just a birthing factory. The colony itself actually has no leader - what it does is a result of the decisions of all the ants in the colony.
Probably because the Nihilanth wasn’t expecting anything from that direction. It might be able to prevent incursions from one universe or set of universes, but not all at the same time. Its plan in HL1 was to get through the dimensional breach the scientists created and invade our universe, so it could be even further away from the Combine - so it makes sense that it’d leave other entrances unguarded so it had a chance to do just that.
Also, the humans do have better teleportation tech than the Combine in some ways, that’s why they needed Mossman and Eli.
Vorts are enslaved by Nihilanth and supervised by Controllers, yes, but Nihilanth is also enslaved himself (amputated legs, assjet, grey bracelets, surgical scars…) - who enslaved him if not Combine?
AFAIK it was the Combine who enslaved him and killed off his race (He says “I am the last” just before you enter the portal to his lair).
EDIT: Just read Pettifog’s post about it.
Maybe this concept art from 2008 shows us a “hatched” Advisor?
https://images.wikia.com/half-life/en/images/8/86/Episode_Three_Concept_Art_Leaked_Mid_2008_EP3_Xen_4.jpg
That would be cool. I hope all those leaked concepts end up in the game in some form, or at least their spirits.
I’d love for Half Life to pick up a new aesthetic after nearly a decade of eastern European doom and gloom.
I mean, HL1 to 2 was a huge stylistic change. They can (and imo should) do it again.