Repairing What Has Been Damaged (spoilers!)

[Kangy]

Okay, suppose Kliener, Eli, Alyx and Mossman all survive. We can take these guys as the key movers and shakers of the whole Resistance. Let's also consider the Combine beat. The Citadel lost it's power, so it cannot make new troopers (implant them etc.) or make Striders and Gunships. The figurehead, Breen is basically screwed. If he lives, Barney is going to find his ass and give Breen his Black Mesa resignation letter, if you catch my drift.

But Earth is still in tatters. The weather seems kinda off (always sunny? Canals drying up? In Eastern Europe?) and there's all kinds of alien creatures thriving.

So, what're the Resistance meant to do? I'm going to assume most species of Earth creature are still living, just in small numbers (cats are still around, as are birds of all kinds) and in hard to reach places (the Amazon jungle, deep under the Artic tundra).

They go into slow teleport for as long as it takes for the Earth to repair itself. I'm sure eventually, things would slowly go back to normal. Species would repopulate, aliens would be out adapted (ant lions couldn't live anywhere but beaches, so what if the world flooded? Ant lion wipe out.) and the weather migh slowly get back to what it was.

But how will this leave Gordon? How long will Gordon have to be in stasis for to meet them again? Could the next time we see Earth be in a few 1,000,000 years?

Discuss/pick apart.

 

[Klyka]

that's the biggest question i asked myself while playing through the game.

i saw so much damage to the ecosystem,so many cruelty towards the humans. everything lay in ruins, shattered into oblivion...

and all i could bring the people as gordon was "hope".

i wonder if it will really be enough.

but i think the people will adapt. they seem to have food (who says headcrab doesn't taste like chicken) and something to drink. as long as they stay in relatively safe, confined areas, they will be ok.

but once they start to "re-conquer the world", there will be LOTS of action with the different species now inhabiting the planet.

leeches and giant fish in the oceans. headcrabs and those crazy ceiling-aliens EVERYWHERE. zombies:fast,slow and poisoned. and i think there are a lot of other not seen aliens on earth now.

for the normal animals: i think most of them are wiped out. thousands of species killed by the more predatory kind from xen.

like i said the only thing we players gave the people of earth was HOPE. nothing more and nothing less.

 

[Cpl_Facehugger]

But then again, hope is perhaps the thing that humanity needed most at that time. They certainly didn't have anything else, and hope was the only thing keeping the resistance going.

 

[Klyka]

well, maybe it was enough at that time.

but will it be enough in the future? if there IS a future for humanity, after this uprising?

i really wonder.

something which made me think for some time:

this game kept a very thoughtful touch. i mean, i thought about things and felt things while playing the game. i didn't just say "WHOOPASS I FRIED A FLYING WHALE!", the game didn't make me think that.
everything in this game, the atmosphere and EVERY GODDAMN FIGHT threw something right into my face: "it doesn't matter what you do, it doesn't matter how many you kill. everything is lost."

somehow, i lost fath in doing "my job" throughout the game.
i mean, i took everything i had and marched forward, i fried stalker after stalker, combine after combine. but it all made me feel emptier inside the more i marched on.

i don't know why, but somehow there aren't many games that can make me think about something like that. RPG's like the Suikoden series or Final Fantasy come to mind.
somehow, Half Life 2 did one thing no over FPS did for a long time (if ever): i was NO shining hero in armor. i could TRY to make myself feel like that, but the game never symbolized me as the "bullet-time using one-man-army". of course people called me "saviour" and "last free man". but i didn't want them to call me that. i didn't FEEL that i was what they really hoped for.

something to think about for you people.

or to flame about, if you like calling me a nerd

 

[Messermeier]

very true .. it felt like playing a hopeless game.
there where bright spots, however - your friends. one shouldn't abandon all hope as long as someone is still alive ..

then came the ending and the explosion. now i don't know if there is still hope - yet i hope there is :|



btw, the world needs more nerds!

 

[Rupertvdb]

the end is a ocnfusing full stop to the game, blowing up a dark fusion reactor = big bang?

I just wonder what happened to everyone after that event! Let alone the agonies of reclaiming the earth.

 

[Mechagodzilla]

Lots of stuff probably is extinct. There are still cats though.
Or at least there were before Kliener started experimenting on 'em.

 

[Headrattle]

It won't be easy, but Humanity will survive. We have a tendency to do that even in areas that are almost inhospitiable. As long as everyone knows what to look for, there won't be a problem.

There will be Headcrab hunts, to get rid of them. Maybe even eaten. It is obvious that the Combine took efforts to keep the infestation out of the city. And with the right equipment Headcrabs aren't that hard to deal with. So... hand guns for everyone with all of the dead Combine there are enough. Kids don't wonder around alone (but that is a few years down the line.)

And I agree with the person above... Antlions might be a good source of food. Headcrabs as well. I don't know where the Heacrabs come from but I can see people fishing for Antlions by disturbing some sand and then killing what pops out. And don't forget some of the older aliens like the Houndeyes and Bullsquids and things like that. I think that the Hound eyes would be the best prospects for a docile food animal. If the citidel doesn't explode and assuming that the others fall easily because their main source is down. Even if they don't they would have a hard time invading City 17. Hell they could retreat from the area and settle somewhere else. Just not Ravenholm. People are survivng some how in the outside world. It would just require a settlement again. Shouldn't be too hard to find a nice defensable area. Black Mesa East could be cleaned up. Humanity is down. But it isn't out. As long as there isn't another major event they won't have a problem getting back ont heir feet.

I have no clue what is in store for us Next. I never got the the "hopelessness" feeling, but I do know that what lies ahead won't be easy. The Combine is cut off. They have no controller. It isn't hard to say that what happened to the Vorts won't happen to the rest of the Combine left on Earth. There will still be resistance, but as appearent in HL2, Humanity isn't completely hopeless.

Thank of Striders and Gunships and Transports working with the Humans now instead of against them. That would help matters.

But then HL3 has to be interesting right? I would say that there will beanother invasion that you will take part in helping defeat, and in the process travel to the Combine Home world.

Just my thoughts.

Edit: Think of the opening scenes of the third installment. This is all hypothetical though. You arrive in city 17 5 years down the line, and you see a big statue of Gordon in place of the horse. The City is doing good. the Combine Transports are used as civilian transports (I say this because I am told that the book refers to them as aliens.) Everyone thought that you were dead, and everyone knows you because you are the savour. They might give you a debriefing this time instead of believing that you already know what is going on. Then either the Combine invades or, more interestingly, the Humans invade the Combine.

But I am talking out my ass now.

 

[cleckmoon]

Actualy, if you ask me, I think HL3 is going to have alot to do with the breeding issue. Humanity, as of now, can not mate. They cannot reproduce, thanks to the Combine's magiky things in the sky. Gordon might have to go all space-ninja and shut that down so that humanity will continue for the next billionish years.

 

[Headrattle]

I figured those started to fail once you blew up the citidel.

 

[GL1]

Actualy, if you ask me, I think HL3 is going to have alot to do with the breeding issue. Humanity, as of now, can not mate. They cannot reproduce, thanks to the Combine's magiky things in the sky. Gordon might have to go all space-ninja and shut that down so that humanity will continue for the next billionish years.

But without an ecosystem, it won't matter how many kids get popped out. There will be no air, food, or clean water.

 

[hero!n]

hmmm i guess its all possible but i think there many cities left and much combine to kill but maybe you start at messed up black mesa where you must find the portal into xen or something...hmm or valve makes another story wich is very friggin mystirious...

 

[hero!n]

who knows ? not me....i never lost control...face to face with the man who sold the world...= quite suitable for half life 2...(the man who sold the world from david bowie )

 

[don_johnson]

to much thinking for me

 

[jimmyjam]

I don't think it really can be repaired, but it's not as bad as it seems
poor air, little water...but there's a whole lot less humans left
new ecosystem...it's more dangerous, but it's still food and so forth

 

[PILMAN]

Yeah I got that hopeless feeling to especially while going through the countryside along the bay seeing empty destroyed houses and highways destroyed and destroyed cars. City 17 felt like you were in the holocaust or something like a prisoner. I also liked the waterboat level reminds me of a lot of areas when I lived in Chicago with the polluted waters and just how everything looked heh.

 

[Muhwi]

IIRC it's been said that there is a Citadel in every major city. Bringin down the one in C17 struck a blow but I don't think the Combine's done with. Actually things could get worse with Breen's influence gone; he was the only thing between full-scale Combine invasion and Earth, after all he managed to save mankind from extinction. Slavery and all the bad things we see were the price to pay.

 

[OD-Black_Fire]

There is more than one citadel, I've heard it before. And I can bet city-17 isn't totaly un-taken over. I can also bet another citadel will arive to take place of the old one. I hope HL3 will take place in the Combine worlds and your mission is to stop the new citadels. Yay.

 

[Jintor]

Ah, but, first and formost: Every Combine Troop are slaves. Stalkers? Slaves. Striders? Genetically Modified Slaves. Gunships? Synthetic SLAVES.
If Mr. Freeman hadn't come along, the combine civ protection, thier soldiers and elites would eventually be modded so highly they'd be cyborg SLAVES.

With one citadel gone, and the knowlege of what to expect, you can do a lot of damage in the time it takes to build another.

 

[mrkab00m]

Wow.
I too, was, hrmn.. touched by my travels in City 17. Especially in the citadel. My teeth were clenched, not even taking cover, but walking right into the combine soldiers, firing my manipulator as fast as I could, fighting as though there was real reason to my actions, fighting for my hatred of Dr. Breen, fighting for the dead civilians and the trust they place in me... those times when he talked to me on the screens in the citadel-I muttered my replys under clenched teeth to his words then promptly obliterating the screens with the grav gun. That was the first time in my LIFE that I had played through a game where I fought with MEANING. All throughout the game my hatred for the combine grew and grew-how unsatifyed I was destroying everything in my path at the citadel to reach Dr. Breen... I didnt care how I did it but right then.. I ****ING HATED HIM. And for that, I thank VALVe.

 

[Solver]

And that's why HL series are so great, you actually develop feelings while playing. I was attached to Alyx, hating Breen, etc.

Oh, and the Citadel in every major city is from the part of the script that didn't make it into the game, so it's not canon.

 

[Asknoone]

Earth is in a real state indeed.Hardly any population...only a few remaining cities...each of which are combien controlled...

The country side and most of the world is inhabited by xen wildlife...we got the sea drying up...

Earths still in a real state after half life 2, all they did was cut the combines connection with earth...the overwatch have lost power (whatever happened to breen, if you ask me,i say he did teleport) and have no control or command...

 

[Epsi]

I worked out about how big the citadel is, by importing the object into hammer, and seeing how big it was, then multiplying that by 16 because that's how big it's shown in game.

It comes to 3 km high. The investment in building something that immense, and then teleporting it into another universe, even for a race like the Combine, seems immense. I'm not sure it's worth the effort for them to bother sending another one. Especially as C17 is probably a smoking ruin.

 

[friend]

Look in my thread ofr the weather thing. The Combine transformed the atmosphere through the Air Exchange.

 

[Artie_Bucco]

My theory is that there are many citadels all across the world. The destruction of the Citadel at City 17 could spark a massive insurgency with major popular support across many of the remaining cities in Europe if not the world.

 

[cleckmoon]

Yeah I got that hopeless feeling to especially while going through the countryside along the bay seeing empty destroyed houses and highways destroyed and destroyed cars.

I remember going through the buggy levels, and pausing a lot to look at the countryside. It reminded me a lot of The White Cliffs of Dover. I kept thinking, 'This is where I would want to build a house one day'. And then you get pulled back to the 'reality' of the situation. Everyone who lived here is either dead or enslaved. Everything that has been built here, lived in for generations, is destroyed. Hell, in some of the empty houses, I would see the dust flickering in the sunbeams through a window. That always reminds me of bright summer mornings when I was little, going to wake up mom, and ending up snuggling with her for an hour instead of going on with the whole process of dragging her out of bed. And I saw these fragments of memories played before me in a vision of apocolypse.

Sobering, to say the least.

 

[Artie_Bucco]

I loved the Battle for City 17 it felt like a futuristic Warsaw uprising. I hope they make an expansion where you play as resistance.

 

[operative lm]

I got around to thinking (while looking at this thread), if HL3 does take place far in the future (with children around but still with aliens), wouldn't it be horrible to see a zombified child? I don't think I'd be able to kill it. ;(

 

[mrkab00m]

Wow. Thats awsome-I would LOVE to see a zombified child in HL3 (not because I'm wierd, but because HL would be one of the few games were putting one in actually left a sort of an impact.) Kinda like the broken doll in the rusted playground-never any children in HL2 though...

 

[WacK]

I like cake...!

 

[Mediocrity]

I like cake...!

I bet Zombie cake would be pretty horrific.

On topic: Yeah, the situation on earth is most certainly FUBAR; the seas have dried up, the air is polluted, the spectre of further Combine attack remains (whether from their universe or from other earth-based citadels that have been hinted at in removed cutscenes). All-in-all, the perfect setting for an interdimesional war.

 

[doomed14life]

I don't think they would put something like a zombiefied child into HL3 since it would probably spark a lot of controversy

 

[cleckmoon]

They did it in Resident Evil, though.

 

[agentD]

They wouldn't do zombie children, because in some countries it's illegal to depict the killing of children (I remember reading it as the reason there were no children in Arcanum). They wouldn't want to deny themselves the bucks of citizens of said countries, not to mention potentially stirring up the hornet's nest of overly-pious types.
HL2 is yayful!

 

[Counterspy]

I found myself feeling the same way to the extent that the story got uselessly repetitive and unfulfilling. The worst piece of writing I think I've encountered in a long time.

Counterspy

 

[Sid Burn]

Well, I think the combine hasn't been defeated yet... since there are more Citadels throughout the world. Anyway, I think putting water back in the oceans is almost impossible.

 

[Asknoone]

Well, I think the combine hasn't been defeated yet... since there are more Citadels throughout the world. Anyway, I think putting water back in the oceans is almost impossible.

Theres no evidence to citadels all over the world, in an original script there was, but nothing saying there is...we'll see

 

[Sid Burn]

well, breen only chosed the Citadel on City 17 as the main Administration that's why its the only Citadel we've known. Anyway, its pretty obvious that there are alot more Citadels on every city.

 

[Kingreaper]

well, breen only chosed the Citadel on City 17 as the main Administration that's why its the only Citadel we've known. Anyway, its pretty obvious that there are alot more Citadels on every city.

Am I right in thinking that city 17 was the site of the main interdimensional gateway?

There's almost certainly still an uncontrolled one at black mesa, but without the one at city 17 they might find it impossible to controlall the slaves well enough to prevent uprisings

 

[CAUT10N]

Look at parts of Europe that were pretty much rubble some 5 or 6 decades ago due to WWII. Entire areas were reduced to nearly nothing. They are thriving now.

Look at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Look at what, after 20 years of warfare, survived in Afganistan (in terms of historic sites, what is left is quite amazing, although sadly much is lost).

Or other areas, like in Egypt, where for thousands of years of on and off war, struggle, corruption, occupation, uprisings of all sorts, there are modern cities and ancient artifacts.

Just a perspective on how it's worth it, even if you only save a few lives here and there to keep on going.

Here's what I think

- Combine nuetralized "threat" countries with an opening they couldn't defend. Pretty much wiped the nation states off the map.

- Combine spared some infrastructure in cities around the world where people are somewhat passive due to their history of opression (China, Former USSR, Etc.) and set up Citadels to process them.

- We see "english speaking folk" in the resistance becuase people from countries like US and England were left alive, moved in for processing, then escaped to fight back.

They did escape the cliche plot/ending of other pop culture tales where a "small resistance" overthrows an opressor only to find that "hey so did everyone else around the world at the same time" (we need a montoge!) and the earth is all green and happy thing


yay

I can't spell!