Why Europe?

[Costin]

I mean after the 7 Hours War what happened with America both Nord and South,Asia,Australia?Why is Europe the battlefield of Half-Life 2 and for the upcoming episodes....Any ideas?

 

[A True Canadian]

Basically, it's just an interesting location to set the game in.

 

[Tagaziel]

Europe has a variety of believable settings, influenced strongly by it's *very* long story.

Plus, what better setting for an oppressive alien empire, than a continent, whose eastern part was under the boot of the communist regime?

 

[Wally_Breen]

Eastern Europe has some good times like Pope John Paul II.

 

[Darkside55]

It has to do with the fact that Breen is located in Eastern Europe, having found the location a beautiful place to set up his headquarters. Since Breen is there, that's where the resistance gravitated, placing their main scientists and fighters in that area.

 

[AJ Rimmer]

And game developer-wise it's because europe and eastern europe in particular has a sort of coming together of old and new, plus the whole Soviet-oppression feel already there. Which makes the combine presence feel more real, as the combine theme is very much ultramodern equipment merging with old human stuff.

 

[Costin]

But America really seems a realy good location to place the game...And something when VALVe is planing to make a game about 7 Hours War????

 

[AJ Rimmer]

But America really seems a realy good location to place the game...

I thought eastern europe was a nice and original change of pace. And also, it's possible that America was particularly badly ravashed by either the Portal storms or the Seven Hour war and thusly most surviving people were transferred to Europe.

 

[ríomhaire]

Raising the Bar, Page 166:
"One of the reasons that we liked Eastern Europe as a setting was that it represents the collision of old and the new that is difficult to capture in the Untied States. You go over there, you have this collision between all of these things, the new architecture, the old architecture, the fall of communism...there's a sense of this strongly-grounded historical place. We left out the gothic themes associated with Prague and vampires and looked into a different aspect of the region."
-Viktor Antonov

 

[AJ Rimmer]

Raising the Bar, Page 166:
"One of the reasons that we liked Eastern Europe as a setting was that it represents the collision of old and the new that is difficult to capture in the Untied States. You go over there, you have this collision between all of these things, the new architecture, the old architecture, the fall of communism...there's a sense of this strongly-grounded historical place. We left out the gothic themes associated with Prague and vampires and looked into a different aspect of the region."
-Viktor Antonov

Aaaaaaaand there's my post three ones above

 

[Costin]

1.Where i can get Raising the bar??
2.And City 17 is Prague or a another city in Eastern Europe? I think is Kiev.

 

[Wally_Breen]

I think they used City 17 because '17' was Mark laidlaw's favorite number.

 

[ríomhaire]

1.Where i can get Raising the bar??
2.And City 17 is Prague or a another city in Eastern Europe? I think is Kiev.

1: Amazon
2: It is no specific city, FACT!

 

[Wally_Breen]

Rather than having HL2 in a fictional city in eastern europe, they should of had it in Moscow Having a Citadel in redsquare would look so kewl.

 

[bbson john]

City 17 is set in Europe for political correctness. Valve doesn't want people think it is mocking at the human rights in the USA.

 

[Atomic_Piggy]

Europe FTW.

 

[Costin]

Rather than having HL2 in a fictional city in eastern europe, they should of had it in Moscow Having a Citadel in redsquare would look so kewl.

And in Red Square should be a big screen TV that broadcast Breen casts-not a bad ideea...
"Dear Comrades...the Combine is our friend....."

 

[Dodo]

City 17 is set in Europe for political correctness. Valve doesn't want people think it is mocking at the human rights in the USA.

nahh.. that sounds stupid, otherwise people would think they were messing up human rights in europe, its all the same. It isnt about human rights. Valve did it because of what they sayd a few post up... the new and old architecture bla bla...

i actually think they also did because of the simpelnes of the architecture, east europa has the architecture you can build in a few brushes in hammer with the right textures...

-dodo

 

[Ravioli]

Plus, there are already so many games set in America and other counties/continents, but not that many action games takes place in Europe. Dont take me wrong, there are alot, but they are all mostly from WW games and such. Red Alert series was nice because you actually get to destroy the Paris tower and fight on very famous modern places in Europe, it adds that extra feel.

 

[AJ Rimmer]

nahh.. that sounds stupid, otherwise people would think they were messing up human rights in europe, its all the same. It isnt about human rights. Valve did it because of what they sayd a few post up... the new and old architecture bla bla...

i actually think they also did because of the simpelnes of the architecture, east europa has the architecture you can build in a few brushes in hammer with the right textures...

-dodo

That's true, and again an excellent reason, you can fill the city with big, blocky ugly soviet-post era, easy to map buildings, but you can also put in big old beautiful churches without them being out of place.

 

[Ophiguris]

(first post) Europe is full of much beautiful architecture... I also believe that it's for making up to the European countries... I read that VALVE was going to put in children... but some european countries have laws against kids in violent video games... by putting HL2 in Europe >despite the questions raised< Valve could make up to those specific countries... Wally Breen's Moscow Idea is AWESOME!

 

[Midnight Cowboy]

Yeah, Europe kicks ass. Beautiful cities/atmosphere/ambience just compound the aforementioned ass-kicking.

 

[Llama]

Also, the US was probably demolished by the Combine due to the high amount of weaponry they had before the seven hour war.

 

[KomradePedrovsk]

The game is probably somewhere on the coast of the Black Sea near Odessa in Ukraine. I just make this assumption due the the references of Odessa via the Captain Odessa and the city Little Odessa.

 

[Psychosis]

Seeing as how the Black Mesa incident occured in the US (New Mexico, right?) the Xen aliens probably ripped it a new one. I can just imagine the Houndeyes raiding the Whitehouse. Or Cheney going down while trying to take on a Gargantua.

 

[cquinn]

City 17 (set in what was Eastern Europe?) also represents a setting that is just about as far away from Black Mesa as you can get and still be on the same planet.

Which makes it an ideal location to continue the Half Life story, without worrying about the player trying to associate everything they encounter with the events of the previous game.

 

[Solver]

It's also a nice change of setting for many American gamers. Given how many games are set in America, of those that are set on Earth. For me, it was quite special playing a game set in a location very similar to where I live. When playing it the first time, I thought several times "hey this is so similar to [insert street/building].

Plus, it indeed makes sense story wise. The Black Mesa incident obviously took place in the US, and since it all started there, it's quite likely that America has been affected the most. Perhaps Europe's the only inhabited continent anymore, and America is a nuclear wasteland.

At the start of the game, Breen mentions "one of our few remaining urban centers". That clearly indicated that there aren't many cities remaining in the world.

 

[Ridge]

Yeah, no doubt the Combine tore the US a new one, due to all the weapons and gun-toting hillbillies...

 

[Ophiguris]

The US obviously couldn't handle a massive epidemic of Xenian creatures... For after Black Mesa, Xenians spawned world wide and eventually overan most of the Earth... until the combin (attracted to all the teleportational activity) arrived.

 

[Costin]

The US obviously couldn't handle a massive epidemic of Xenian creatures... For after Black Mesa, Xenians spawned world wide and eventually overan most of the Earth... until the combin (attracted to all the teleportational activity) arrived.

Is about tehnology-in the game it was post-war so the tehnology,so we have a little understanding about the weapons is the 7 Hour War.Maybe one Combine bomb could wipe a entire state.Not to say almost have passed two decades-how was the world after the WW2-two decades after?

 

[Ophiguris]

Is about tehnology-in the game it was post-war so the tehnology,so we have a little understanding about the weapons is the 7 Hour War.Maybe one Combine bomb could wipe a entire state.Not to say almost have passed two decades-how was the world after the WW2-two decades after?

well, after WWII, the cold war began, if We (humans) won the 7 hour war, we'd prbably have another cold war, where Russian (if existing) and the US (if existing) would have some 'race' to fully manipulate the Combine tech.

 

[kupocake]

I think it's a great setting, wouldn't change it for anywhere else in the world. Yes, I AM European, but I don't think i'm biased. Most Sci-Fi FPS games (set on earth) are set in the US and Europe is a battleground reserved for historical battles: Half-Life is a series that challenges Sci-Fi cliches somewhat by being only slung forward a a decade or two in the future and having a smattering of zany technology thrown in. Rather than continue to emulate the Independence Day cliches of America Vs the Nasty Aliens, they chose to take the fight somewhere overlooked.

Mind you, I would quite like to see Half-Life stories set in other corners of the globe, and it's not like Europe is the least explored FPS setting (it is surely the third favourite after "some fictional planet" and "America"). Some part of Asia would be interesting: you'd get similar themes out of somewhere like China perhaps, or you could get a completely different feel from Japan. Africa is about as under-done as you get in FPS terms, and it'd be interesting to see humanity fighting back in such a large space with lesser resources. A Middle Eastern Half-Life could throw up many challenging situations if valve were to hypothesise what would happen if the current troubles of the time were overlaid by Alien invasion (Because really, I can't imagine the middle eastern world being too chuffed with America bringing several alien races to earth). Pick any place on the globe and you'd get an interesting story out of it IMO. Unfortuantly, I guess FPS developers believe gamers go in for outlandish or american settings over all.