post combine life (end of episode 3) ????????

[Kevin]

Fight mental with mental.:naughty:

 

[ferd]

While the Combine and the aliens seem to be the most apparent problems to mankind and Freeman right now, I think it's obvious that something way even bigger is happening.
I mean regarding everything I know about the events in the HL games the G-man seems to be the strongest and on top of everything all the time. He knew Breen was gonna sell out Earth to the Combine before the resonance cascade, and by putting you in City 17 he pretty much caused the uprise of mankind.

So I wouldn't wonna upset the Gman and apparantly (according to interviews) that's exactly what's gonna happen...if only we knew what he stands for

So I think the Gman is going to become our biggest concern

 

[ríomhaire]

I mean regarding everything I know about the events in the HL games the G-man seems to be the strongest and on top of everything all the time.

Have you played Episode One?

He knew Breen was gonna sell out Earth to the Combine before the resonance cascade

Where's the evidence for this? (Tip: The Half-Life Story Saga website isn't canon)

 

[Cheomesh]

Yeah the Saga site is kind of...eh. Doesn't make sense.

 

[Laivasse]

I really don't know why people think it would be 'cool' for the story to have Freeman go off and destroy the Combine on their non-existent 'home planet'.

Don't people get that the whole idea of defeating the Combine on earth is based on humanity getting lucky? 'The right man in the wrong place'; the Combine underestimating Freeman; their being caught off guard with a caretaker presence; the Gman shadowing you and influencing things in unknown ways; the gravity gun going nuts in the citadel; being saved at the end so that you can fight another day - these (and more) are all lucky breaks (most likely all well calculated by Gman) not things that came about through brute force or humanity's military prowess. As such, we couldn't just randomly decide to carry the fight to the combine, even if they WERE some lamely designed enemy with a single weak point which could be destroyed to take down the whole empire.

You won't see Gordon fighting in outer space either. Part of the reason that Gman can make such an effective pawn of Gordon is that he puts Gordon in situations where Gordon (the player) assumes that he's fighting in his own interests. In HL2 Gman starts off by dropping Gordon into an environment where he immediately sees the oppression and brutality of the Combine regime, and is soon forced into combat against it for, we're led to think, his own sake and that of his friends - but we don't initially realise that Gordon might have been hired as a mercenary, or even that the Gman might be initiating some sort of fight between humanity and the Combine for his own ends.

As such, you're not going to see Freeman randomly chucked into an alien environment that has nothing to do with him, in order to fight an intergalactic war against the Covenant, or whatever.

In fact this could lead to some interesting story theories: Gman knows that in order for Gordon to be dangerous against an certain foe, he needs to have a vested interest in fighting them. Could it be that one of Gman's methods is setting up humanity for attack by an alien force, in order to make them a viable target for Gordon? HL1 example: Gman (possibly) orchestrates the resonance cascade -> earth comes under attack by Xen forces (and is later ruined by them, but Gman doesn't care about that) = consequence(ie. Gman's possible goal): Nihilanth assassinated by Gordon. OR you could also say that it was all part of a larger plan to start the portal storms and attract the attention of the Combine.

Anyway, as is obvious I think Gman is the true antagonist of the series, not the Combine.

So I think the Gman is going to become our biggest concern

I agree with this point, if not the detail of your post which, as riom points out, seems to be influenced by the inaccurate Half-Life Story Saga site.

The best that humanity can hope for is to destroy the Combine on earth alone, and even that is a big ask. I think we might either see the Combine dimensionally 'locked out', or that they come to decide that earth is simply too costly a battleground and cease operations here. I think the latter scenario is pretty unlikely, since before the Combine ever reach that conclusion they'll have to have taken a battering all over the world, not merely in C17.

Once the Combine are off earth (perhaps leaving a ? over their return), and after some form of showdown conflict between Freeman and Gman/Gman's backers, I think it will be relatively easy to return to business as usual on earth. Barnacles, headcrabs, antlions... they already seem to be part of the background fauna of earth by now, as at home in this environment as many of earth's own species - many now presumably extinct - ever were. Earth might have been changed for ever, and things might be much more dangerous than they were before the resonance cascade, but humanity will just have to cope and carry on.

 

[Cheomesh]

Yeah I'm for seeing games (or major mod projects) taking place after HL2's story is "told". Even if we hypothetically destroy the combine presence on earth, like Laivasse said we'll have to deal with so many things (Antlions being the biggest threat IMO) not native to earth, in addition to the fact that we're f*cked as our oceans are somewhat drained (and who knows what else?). Even if the Combine rout from our planet, I'm pretty sure there will still be a presence on earth in some form -- some yahoo/group of yahoos manages to claim control over stranded Combine forces, begins producing new soldiers, etc. We don't even know how many other Citidels are out there, and what they're up to, even.

 

[KillerFrogX111]

a crazy idea i want to put out is maybe the combine are the good guys. and that they were makeing us syths to combat a bigger enamie thats attacking them. maybe the G-man is that bigger enamie, or working with/for it.

 

[Atomic_Piggy]

Laivasse, thats got to be one of the greatest half life related post I have ever read. Seriously good work.

 

[Asknoone]

I really don't know why people think it would be 'cool' for the story to have Freeman go off and destroy the Combine on their non-existent 'home planet'.

Don't people get that the whole idea of defeating the Combine on earth is based on humanity getting lucky? 'The right man in the wrong place'; the Combine underestimating Freeman; their being caught off guard with a caretaker presence; the Gman shadowing you and influencing things in unknown ways; the gravity gun going nuts in the citadel; being saved at the end so that you can fight another day - these (and more) are all lucky breaks (most likely all well calculated by Gman) not things that came about through brute force or humanity's military prowess. As such, we couldn't just randomly decide to carry the fight to the combine, even if they WERE some lamely designed enemy with a single weak point which could be destroyed to take down the whole empire.

You won't see Gordon fighting in outer space either. Part of the reason that Gman can make such an effective pawn of Gordon is that he puts Gordon in situations where Gordon (the player) assumes that he's fighting in his own interests. In HL2 Gman starts off by dropping Gordon into an environment where he immediately sees the oppression and brutality of the Combine regime, and is soon forced into combat against it for, we're led to think, his own sake and that of his friends - but we don't initially realise that Gordon might have been hired as a mercenary, or even that the Gman might be initiating some sort of fight between humanity and the Combine for his own ends.

As such, you're not going to see Freeman randomly chucked into an alien environment that has nothing to do with him, in order to fight an intergalactic war against the Covenant, or whatever.

Word.

 

[Dr0ndeh]

maybe the gman started the war between the resistance and the combine by plonking gordon in C17 to excellerate portal and/or teleportation techology experimentation and discovery. if portal is tied directly to the gman like many of us suspect he obviously has an interest in it for whatever reason. both the combine and the resistance have started focusing on teleportation as their #1 technology in order to get the upper hand on the other, much like other technologies were massively researched and developed during the 1st and 2nd world wars by both sides. is this what the gman has wanted all along?

 

[Cheomesh]

We'll see about that...