Because the Advisors aren’t necessarily soldiers. They have psychic powers and such, but they run at the first sign of a problem, as they’re not made to fight. The Combine made synths out of the Overwatch because it would (supposedley) make them stronger (it really didn’t in comparison to the HECU). It made the Hunters synths because just look how much damage they cause. The point here is that the Advisors are not strictly the Combine leaders, but hold a position of importance within the Combine hierachy, and so are not synths, as they are not fighters like the Overwatch and Hunters.
This thread had a pretty in-depth discussion on the nature of Advisors and their role in the Combine. If you haven’t read it I suggest you do before you continue on this line of thought. Evidence and all that provided within.
That’d honestly make it boring though, beating an evil overlord, just to discover another overlord, rinse and repeat.
As for your HECU>Combine Overwatch: That’s because it’s for balancing purposes, it doesn’t have anything to do at all with storyline.
I still don’t understand why Valve had to make the hybrid enemies less powerful than regular Marines. Were people complaining about how many bullets the HECU took before going down, and the realistic tactics employed in combat? They were highly-trained Special Forces Marines with power armour and heavy weapons, what did they expect? That’s what makes it fun.
A little too realistic if you ask me. Sure, some people find it fun, but not everyone’s good at it. Basing the game only on a pro gamer’s perspectives ruins it IMO, because it only boosts elitism.
But whatever, that’s not what this thread’s about.
Remember when games used to be hard? Have you ever played the classics like Contra, Battletoads, and Mega Man and thought, “This game is really hard, but it sure is fun”? Games have come a long way, and I’m not saying they should be ridiculously hard, HL1 was a challenging game, but not an overly frustrating game. HL2 was easier, but it’s action was more fast paced with more of an emphasis on explosions and intense fights with soldiers and gunships, not to mention gravity. They’re both good in their own ways, and I don’t find too many flaws in all of the games’ designs. I wish the Combine would use better tactics, though.
On topic, it just wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense for the Advisors to be the leaders. Did you see how many Advisor pods there were in the bridge scene in the Episode 2 mission ‘Freeman Pointifex’?
Yes. So? Leaders can’t be numerous anymore, is that it?
How many presidents of each country are there? While we’re at it, how many members of the presidential cabinet and the Congress are there? This is the thing. Having so many leaders would lead to multiple and conflicting ideals and ideas that could ultimately lead to chaos within their ranks. This is something else that makes it very doubtful that the Advisors are the leaders of the Combine. They must answer to someone or something more powerful. An Overlord or an inner circle of Overlords is a logical answer.
Or just, you know, they don’t have one powerful overlord and all have just as much power, which sounds less cliche and boring than defeating the leader, which then turns out not to be the leader, happening more then one time.
I apologize if I was a little overly harsh, P&R, but what do you expect when you start with this:
(does this perhaps come across a little disparaging to everyone else? as well as seeming like a “I’m right, you’re wrong” argument? Pot calling the kettle black much, hmm?) and then use HALF of a quote to “prove” that breen died, even though the very most it accomplished was allowing the POSSIBILITY of his death, and is actually DISPROVED when you use the WHOLE quote?
I wasn’t trying to insult you, but not only were you wrong, you were BADLY wrong. I was trying to explain what points you went wrong so that you could avoid making those same mistakes in the future. The comparison to religious trolls was not meant to insult you personally, but to draw a direct comparison to what exactly was flawed in your argument; using partial quotes, out of context, using a possible interpretation of that quote as “proof”, even though the full quote in context proves the complete opposite.
Maybe I misinterpreted the quote, so I was wrong there. Regardless, I don’t think the Combine found Breen useful anymore. Whether he died right away or was left to die on Earth. Whatever the case, he screwed up, and I don’t think the Combine like so many errors. He even said himself that the Combine leaders were coming down on him for being unable to take out Freeman.
Argh! you’re doing it again. Do you really think the president of the united states has some sort of unilateral power over everything? All he can do is approve or deny laws that congress makes, which consist of a whole bunch of people (over 500 in fact). If any ONE of them died, EVEN the president, that person would just be replaced by the next person in line or have an election to bring someone new into the position that was left vacant. In order to do anything permanent to the US government, you would have to kill all 500+ people in congress, and the president, probably all the supreme court judges, as well as everyone who would succeed the president. (VP, cabinet, etc)
So the example you brought up just now not only doesn’t prove your point, but proves teh exact opposite of the point you’re trying to make.
He is dead.
You hear him while you are destroying the dark energy core at the top of the citadel, and he screams in pain and then is silent.
Breen is dead.
That’s actually the point I’m trying to make about the Advisors, in that they are the congress to the overlord or overlords. I know it’s cliche, but most bad guy organizations have one central leader or maybe a few, but not 500 of them. Speaking of the Combine, don’t they answer to or take part in the Universal Union? This could suggest that there are worse bad guys at the top of the ladder, worse than the Combine leaders.
No, you don’t. You hear him shout “No!” followed by a distorted “You need me.” No signs of pain or anything more than simple disappointment.
Yeah, except if anything, the president is under the jurisdiction of congress, not the other way around. They make the laws, he just approves/denies them, and can’t make any laws on his own except possibly for very specific circumstances.
Obviously, but most bad guy organizations aren’t a psychic borg/ID4 style alien race. the way the psychic powers work hint at a sort of biological prerogative towards groupthink, where there is no focused leader (even though startrek decided to be a bitch and create a “borg leader”)
The universal union is the name for the combine that Breen has been trying to push.
That is one thing that I know for a fact doesn’t happen to Breen. But this could be he knowing he’s going to die, and having a few last words. All the bad guys do it. It’s all the rage these days.
Didn’t Breen’s voice-actor die? Valve will probably keep the character dead because of this, rather than disappoint fans with a sub-par sound-a-like. :jizz:
Well, if he is in the body of an advisor, the voice acting issue could be moot, seeing as how the advisors don’t seem to communicate the same way humans do.
If he was brought back as a human, they could have it so that he took some damage that altered his voice a bit. Not the best way, but it certainly is an option. Look how well it worked for Darth Vader.
Most bad guy organisations are made up of humans. Advisors brains probably work in a different way and are likely much more advanced cognitively, so there’s no reason why they can’t all work together without having a single leader.
I noticed that after not doing anything in the battle long enough you lose the game. there’s also the reason why: Dr. Breen was teleported.
If you don’t lose the game it means that he wasn’t teleported… Thus he died a horribly painful death (after falling the whole way down the citadel)