The GMan isn't, however, necessarily a bad guy at all, really.
Correct you are Mr. Anderson....
I dont assume the Combine are in fact human or have evolved from the humans, . Mabye very close to it, but what I assumed that giant ...Blob.... Breen was talking to was some sort of important figure of the combine. And breen claims he would be galaxies away (or universes i dunno which 1 he said) at the last few minutes of the game. So i feel that the humans signing up for Civil Protection were the lowest class of the Combine Military rankings, thus poorly equiped fed (im sure small portions of food) So the Combine would have the conquered planets own people patrolling it for the good of the Combine. So the Combine could focus on other galaxies, planets, etc rather then have their "elite" soldiers patrol a scum, small, planet like Earth which they assumed werent a threat, until gordon came into play >:D.
[snapback]34226[/snapback]
Don't mistake the benefactors and the combine. The combine are the grunts, the troops, the soldiers. They're the converted humans from Nova Prospekt, along with the weird "slaves" they also have in the citadel. The benefactors are the huge slug like things you only see on the video screens.
I'm not sure where the combine name came from, but if you look at a few definitions. Firstly, combine, as in to combine, as in merge, this could be one reasoning for the name as it merges both alien technology and human biology. Another way to look at it is a combine harvester. The harvester theory is backed up by the fact that the citadel is constantly expanding. It destroys the human architecture as it grows and converts it to a cleaner, combine space. Also, a combine harvester reaps and cleans the grain as it progresses across the fields, a fitting analogy to the combine in HL2 sweeping the globe and cleansing the human population. :)
EDIT: As to poorly fed, the humans in city 17 are already poorly fed, if you speak to one of the citizens in the train station, he wishes he was in the civil protection so he could get a good meal. So there's that idea out of the window. :) They're fed poorly so the insentive is there to be recruited into the combine.
The combine are humans, at least on earth they are, humans enslaved by "the benefactors" and converted in Nova Prospekt to combine.
[snapback]34211[/snapback]
Hmm, I don't know if they all are. Does it specifically say that, or is there a hint to that? Wouldn't they need "real" Combine troops at least in the beginning?
wtf happened at the end. All i see is the thing blow up, the portal close, and then time freezes. G-man comes in to say some shakespeare and then mr freeman is left in the dark :blink:
[snapback]34240[/snapback]
The common theory is that the G-Man stores Gordon in a place where time does not go by for him (Gordon). The G-Man will bring Gordon out for the next assignment or mission. No one knows if this is true though.
Very good link there Sonic.
[snapback]34383[/snapback]
^^, I just emailed the guy to congratulate him.
Somebody just linked this in the #redorchestra channel, it's a pretty good read :)
http://members.shaw.ca/storage_4/hl2story/ (http://members.shaw.ca/storage_4/hl2story/)
[snapback]34319[/snapback]
Some misinformation there though. The combine aren't also known as the synth. The synth are another race that the combine has already absorbed. It was from them that they got the striders, the gunships, and the odd creatures you briefly see in your tour of the citadel. The only actual member of the combine race that you see is on the view screen at the end (or the very beginning during the teleport mishap). You can noclip out to where he sits in a little dark room and get a better look at the model. Little grub with stubby arms. If you hit him, he'll try and whack you back with his little arms. :D
If so... were Race X units in HL1 considerably... Combine Units?
(not literally their own units, but elite Xen forces combined with biotechnology and mechanics?)
[snapback]34528[/snapback]
Race X, I'm assuming you mean from Opposing Force, may or may not be considered an official part of the story. The was gearbox and not Valve, so they can pretty much choose to include it or completely ignore it. That said, I'd love to see an HL2 expansion with Corporal Shepard. :D
maybe the g in g-man stands for gordon or something.
[snapback]34535[/snapback]
"G-man" is just the model name, a nickname that stuck. The real name of the character has never been divulged. And I've heard theories along the lines of 'OMGZ maybe G-man is Gordon from TEH FUTURE!!!' but I seriously doubt it. To me the G-man seems to be acting as a representative of a much greater force that is, for one reason or another, opposed to the Combine forces (maybe for domination of the whole universe, who knows?) and prefers to work from the shadows instead of come out and fight for themselves. Gordon is an example of this work. However, I seriously doubt that the G-man's people or 'employers' or whatever have humanity's best interests at heart. The liberation of Xen and of Earth from Combine control was likely just a nice side effect to them striking a blow at their Combine enemies. I get the feeling that if the G-man's side ever found their desires opposing those of humanity, they wouldn't hesitate to turn around and start attacking us. That could make for a very interesting game somewhere down the line...