The Half Life Saga.

[psycho]

I notice a lot of people have a skewered version of how Half Life canon really is. This website is a good tool to get the basic run-down on the entire Half Life canon and in chronological order.

http://members.shaw.ca/halflifestory/timeline.htm

Some important parts people often ask questions about or are confused about:

The Combine Overlord orders some transitional tasks, above and beyond Breen's power. First of all, the Overwatch enact a Suppression Field to prevent humans from procreating. (In particular, protein chains important to the development of an embryo were specifically blocked.) They do this so no new humans can be born, and that the humans left on Earth will be the final generation of them. They also put a biochemical in the water supply to make people gradually forget the past, and so they can more easily comply with Breen and the Combine - to forget why they hate them. Finally, the Combine begin to drain Earth's oceans. These tasks show that the Combine are preparing Earth for new residents.

The Combine's purpose with Breen is also simple. His purpose now is to prepare Earth for an eventual total Combine migration. His job is to eliminate any resistance to the Combine. Using controlled raids and a "civil-protection" force, Breen captures and converts any resistance to stalkers [for definition, see Expanded Info section], human slaves. Additionally, the Overwatch attempt to re-enslave the Vortigaunts, with some success. The Combine's ultimate purpose is to convert all of humanity into stalkers, and all of the vortigaunts into the slaves they were before Gordon freed them.More important minds are taken to Nova Prospekt, where they are stored in containment and experimented on - the Combine want to get as much knowledge out of humanity as they can before they destroy it. All of these things are leading to a drastic change in the purpose of humanity - it is about to become a slave race.

Unfortunately, though Black Mesa has been obliterated, Earth has yet to feel the brunt of this disaster. "Portal Storms", a seeming side-effect from the resonance cascade, form a dimensional rift between Xen and Earth. These Portal Storms spread outside the confines of what is left of Black Mesa and throughout all of Earth, providing temporary, chaotic, and destructive links between Xen and Earth. Aliens (from Xen) of all types are teleported into suburbs. Headcrabs crawl along the aisles of grocery stores while others teleport into swimming pools and homes. Utter chaos erupts on Earth. The freed Vortigaunts use these storms as a ticket out of Xen and onto Earth, fleeing from the Combine.

A huge population shift occurs as people move into the cities, protected by soldiers and barbed wire fences, to escape the monsters. A feeling of safety comes over the people of Earth, as they can once again live normal lives within the confines of the cities, as the alien species continue to infest the outside world. Vast networks of ant-lion nests are formed throughout the Earth's crust, housing millions of new species.

A lot of people think that the Combine killed people who were old and weak, or babies, etc. That may be true, however it is more than likely that they simply didn't survive the portal storms. A large majority of the human race during the portal storms, because it was aliens directly teleporting themselves into suburbs, grocery marts, etc. Imagine you're just chillin' in your room playing some GMod and an antlion walks in and eats your face off.

Yeah, a lot of people didn't survive.

The few who did by some ungodly miracle manage to survive made it to an outpost the United States Military would have provided. At this point, the military would have started making outposts across the continent to keep the aliens from Xen out. This was the beginning of the "Cities" that the citizens live in today.

When the Combine took over, they took the cities that the military started and made them better. Citizens stayed there of course under the ruling of the Overwatch because outside the cities was pure chaos, until the Vortigaunts allied with the resistance forces. However, there were still zombies, antlions and headcrabs rampant outside the city.

OverWatch units were a common tact that the Combine used, which they also used in Xen. The Combine used a tactic when taking over other worlds which involved finding the most dominant species (In earth's case, Humans, and in Xen's case, the vortigaunts. However, the Combine did not finish with the vortigaunts as Gordon interupted), and turning them into a "Super Solider", which is a mix of Combine technology, and the Human body. And that is how the OverWatch Transhuman Arm was formed.

The Combine's hope for the end result is too get as much information as possible out of the earth, then turn everyone either into a slave (Stalkers) or become a part of their army (OverWatch).

[MOOcow]

So the Overwatch is made up of humans?

This was good to read, very detailed and showed how the HalfLife and Portal stories ran in parallel, which I had always wondered about.

[psycho]

So the Overwatch is made up of humans?

This was good to read, very detailed and showed how the HalfLife and Portal stories ran in parallel, which I had always wondered about.

Yes, hence why it is called the Overwatch Transhuman Arm.

The basic overwatch unit is 50 percent human, 50 percent combine technology. This means OverWatch units will of course have no emotions or sense of control over their body, etc, but they do function similar to humans. Eg. they (probably) have eyes, ears, and all the other senses.

And yes it was helpful to me too when I first found it.

[Statua]

Thats why theyre called combine. Theyre humans combined with synthetics or ailean or something.

[psycho]

Thats why theyre called combine. Theyre humans combined with synthetics or ailean or something.

While it sounds like a good theory it actually has nothing to do with it. They were called Combine before they even started processing OverWatch.

In 2010 the Combine alien race invaded earth, and started turning densely populated areas into the cities. It wasn't until 2011, a year later, that the rise of the Combine OverWatch transhumans started.

[[CG] Rekyit Merlo]

Thats why theyre called combine. Theyre humans combined with synthetics or ailean or something.

Actually, I believe the term Combine, relates to the Combine Empire, a COMBINATION of different superior races who could enslave and unite other species together and forming them together as the perfect super species. Thus, the Overwatch Transhuman, are augmented with the superior parts of other species and keep the parts that make them more suitable allowing for them to retain human shape and form, yet perform at the capabilities of much more advanced species.

[Statua]

Thats why theyre called combine. Theyre humans combined with synthetics or ailean or something.

Actually, I believe the term Combine, relates to the Combine Empire, a COMBINATION of different superior races who could enslave and unite other species together and forming them together as the perfect super species. Thus, the Overwatch Transhuman, are augmented with the superior parts of other species and keep the parts that make them more suitable allowing for them to retain human shape and form, yet perform at the capabilities of much more advanced species.

Thats what it was. I couldnt remember. Lol.

[Reimer]

Hopefully the saga will become a trilogy in my lifetime, I want HL2 ep3.

[-¤lζ|2�§§¤-bandcrsh]

Thats why theyre called combine. Theyre humans combined with synthetics or ailean or something.

Actually, I believe the term Combine, relates to the Combine Empire, a COMBINATION of different superior races who could enslave and unite other species together and forming them together as the perfect super species. Thus, the Overwatch Transhuman, are augmented with the superior parts of other species and keep the parts that make them more suitable allowing for them to retain human shape and form, yet perform at the capabilities of much more advanced species.

Well Over watch isnt combined with other species as they are augmented with the Combine's technology made clear from the section of http://members.shaw.ca/halflifestory/expandedinfo.htm talking about the over watch. So think of over watch as ever changing to fit their landscape so ones for other planets are different to best suit the environment.

[Lawdee -]

I found this image interesting:


It shows the combine soldier memory replacement device, at first I thought the brainwashing thing was something made up by HL2RP servers but apparently it actually is a thing.

[Statua]

I found this image interesting:


It shows the combine soldier memory replacement device, at first I thought the brainwashing thing was something made up by HL2RP servers but apparently it actually is a thing.

Thats an actual prop named props_combine\soldier_bed.mdl so its probably nothing more then a stasis unit.

[UnKuT]

Damn, and I thought I knew everything regarding the HL2 Cannon already. This is both disappointing and great at the same time. Nevertheless, thanks for the great reading and source!

[Statua]

Damn, and I thought I knew everything regarding the HL2 Cannon already. This is both disappointing and great at the same time. Nevertheless, thanks for the great reading and source!

I've been studying the HL2 canon since April 2011 and I still dont know everything. Sure I know almost everything but I dont know everything.

[-GuN- Snack-a-licious]

I never thought of Overwatch to be humans. Thanks for the information.

[UnKuT]

Damn, and I thought I knew everything regarding the HL2 Cannon already. This is both disappointing and great at the same time. Nevertheless, thanks for the great reading and source!

I've been studying the HL2 canon since April 2011 and I still dont know everything. Sure I know almost everything but I dont know everything.

That's the whole beauty of it. It's so complex and big, that even when you think you have mastered it, you still haven't.