| List Of Humanoid And Synthetic Combine In Half-life 2 |
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HUMANOID COMBINE The primary military force of the Combine on Earth is the humanoid Combine Overwatch (referred to by s. They are the most frequently-encountered foes throughout ''Half-Life 2''. Civil Protection ''First Seen: Chapter One, Point Insertion''
Civil Protection, referred to in brief as ''CPs'', and also commonly known as ''Metro Cops'', police inner-city areas and keep citizens in line through the use of intimidation and physical force - ranging from random beatings, questioning and "inspections," to outright murder. They also patrol the canals outside of the city for escapees. Based on quotes heard during the game, Civil Protection appear to be nothing more than humans that willingly join the Combine for privileges and better life standards, such as adequate food. Unlike Overwatch Soldier s, they do not appear to be modified or enhanced in any way, although they wear respirators. In the first few chapters of the game, the Civil Protection are armed with H&K USP Match pistols and stun batons. However, later, they will occasionally carry H&K MP7 sub-machine guns. It is seen by some gamers as an amusing jab at Heckler & Koch since the company primarily sells to government entities only. Some cops are also outfitted with deployable manhacks, which they will release at opportune moments, while other cops have the ability to call in reinforcements by launching flares (typically from Combine Watchtowers ). The tactics that the Civil Protection employ are basically strafing to avoid enemy fire or hiding behind cover when they are wounded. When a Metro Cop is killed, its radio emits a prolonged tone (reminiscent of the sound of a " Flat-lining " EKG ), and any other cops nearby will usually start chattering on their radios. The presence of Civil Protection forces can usually be detected by telltale radio chatter in quiet areas. Civil Protection officers are typically talked to by A Dispatcher-like Female Voice over their radios (voiced by Ellen McLane). She will inform them of mission objectives, reward reminders, downed units, and a variety of other information to keep the officers informed and up-to-date. Certain radio transmissions heard over the Civil Protection's radios suggest that they are rewarded with sex, or at least a simulation of it ("non-mechanical reproduction simulation" in the words of the dispatcher) in return for good job performance (note that ''Raising the Bar'' mentions the Combine has used the human race's negative traits such as cruelty to aid them in conquering other worlds, so it is also probable that the Combine is using the human race's sexuality to manipulate them); normal citizens cannot have sexual intercourse due to the Combine's Suppression Field . Other radio transmissions suggest that additional privileges are gained if the personnel have their memory replaced. It is possible that the Civil Protection personnel work their way up the ranks by having more and more human features and characteristics erased. Civil Protection are generally kept separate from Combine military units, such as Overwatch Soldiers or Synths, and stay in a policing role within the cities. They travel in APC s and Dropship s, and are often accompanied by scanners or manhacks. Resistance members have been noted wearing vests salvaged from Civil Protection officers as protection. Overwatch soldier ''First Seen: Chapter Four, "Water Hazard"''
Overwatch soldiers, also known as Combine soldiers, are intelligent Infantrymen that work well in a team and use a variety of attack methods. While Civil Protection has jurisdiction over the relatively minor affairs of policing the city, Overwatch soldiers can be found everywhere, and form the backbone of the Combine military occupation force. In this role, they are also the most versatile units the Combine have at hand. Combine soldiers will commonly travel using dropships or APCs. They are typically armed with either an H&K MP7 sub-machine gun, Franchi SPAS-12 shotgun, or an Overwatch Standard Issue Pulse Rifle, and usually carry a supply of grenades. Certain soldiers will use Overwatch sniper rifles, although they are less common (see below). Combine soldiers also serve as the pilots and gunners of the Combine's Hunter-choppers . '' but the soldier can also be seen in-game on a monitor in Nova Prospekt.]] Combine soldiers are initially found mostly in the coastal wasteland outside the city, patrolling the highways for resistance activity and staffing Combine outposts. They can, however, be found anywhere the Combine requires direct military action, as soldiers can be transported from the Citadel to a desired area via dropships. Overwatch soldiers are also tasked with guarding very high-security areas, monitoring Stalker s in the Citadel and serving as staff in Nova Prospekt . Nova Prospekt's guards wear special blue-and-yellow uniforms, but are otherwise identical to their grey-and-white counterparts. Also, standard soldiers have blue goggles, while their Nova Prospekt counterparts have yellow ones. New types of Combine soldiers, which wear olive-green uniforms with orange goggles, can be seen in some '''' background screen. On a related note, Valve stated that certain ''Episode One'' content will make it into ''Deathmatch''; the new Combine soldiers are most likely to become a new player model. Combine soldiers are confirmed to be humans that have undergone extensive modifications including, but not limited to, brain surgery, chest surgery and implantation of various mechanical devices in the throat and around the abdomen, and are likely to have their memories replaced. This procedure is carried out at Nova Prospekt. Some players like to think of Combine soldiers as a human version of the Synth . Despite the extensive surgery and modifications they receive, Overwatch Soldiers still appear to have certain human characteristics - for instance, they will grunt in pain when attacked, and during the Nova Prospekt chapter, Doctor Breen is giving what appears to be a morale-boosting speech to them, indicating that they still have human emotions to a certain extent. They also communicate over radios, but unlike Civil Protection officers, are not spoken to by dispatchers. Based on announcements made over the public address system of Nova Prospekt, punishments for failing to achieve objectives include "permanent off-world assignment". The threat of being reassigned to what may be the fringes of the Combine empire is apparently an effective method of motivating soldiers to succeed. The following combat tactics are true for both Combine Soldiers and Combine Elites:
Overwatch sniper ''First Seen: Chapter Six, "We don't go to Ravenholm..."''
Overwatch Sniper s are highly trained soldiers who hide themselves in high, concealed locations that offer a good field of view. The only way to detect a sniper is by the blue sighting beam and the distinctive crack of his sniper rifle. Typically, these snipers are so well-entrenched that they can only be killed with a well-thrown grenade or other explosive device. The explosion will typically blow the sniper out of his hiding spot, but his weapon never seems to fall to the ground for the player to collect. If spawned during play using console commands, it is possible to see that the sniper doesn't actually carry a weapon; this is probably due to the fact that snipers are usually not directly visible. Combine snipers also seem to take the doctrine of "''Shoot anything that moves''" quite literally; aside from their fellow Combine, they will fire upon anything that moves, including Crow s, Headcrab s, Pigeon s and Headcrab Zombie s. Combine snipers can be seen shooting any breakable items around a hiding target, in order to eliminate the amount of additional cover that the target can use. It is likely that the player was intended to use a Combine sniper rifle during the game, but that the concept was dropped during the development of ''Half-Life 2'', in place for the resistance-built crossbow. Early concept art of the snipers reveals that they might have been female at some point, much like the human Black Ops assassins from ''Half-Life''. This version wore a similar stark-white outfit worn by Combine Elites, but was much less bulky to make movement easier, and make less noise which might alert the target to its presence. Another concept that was not utilized was the idea of the sniper being a much more robot-like combat synth with three eyes. Overwatch Elite ''First Seen: Chapter Nine, Nova Prospekt''
Sporting a distinctive white uniform with a single red ocular lens, the Elites are the deadliest of the Combine Overwatch infantry, and are theorised to be altered even further than standard soldiers. They use similar combat tactics as regular Combine soldiers, save for a few improvements. The Elite soldiers are tougher, have better accuracy with weapons, and inflict more overall damage than regular Soldiers do. They are always armed with an Overwatch Standard-Issue Pulse Rifle, and are the only units who seem to have access to the weapon's secondary-fire energy orb. They use this advantage without hesitation and with deadly accuracy. The orbs they fire, however, can be caught by Gordon Freeman's gravity gun, to be used as he sees fit. The orb, though, will explode after 4 seconds, whether flying freely (it is not affected by gravity, and can bounce off anything it doesn't kill instantly) or if left in the gravity gun's field. Elites typically fight in squads of their own kind, but will occasionally lead squads of regular soldiers. Elites are fewer in number than regular soldiers, and are thus reserved for the more critical combat missions, where deadly tactics are required. They also serve as Doctor Breen's personal guards. Early conceptual work on the Combine Elite had emphasized their alien features: early Elite concepts had them as more ambulatory versions of the Combine Advisor, a Strider synth grafted down into the proportions of a human, and an asymmetrically proportioned cyborg synth, typically with a human face visible. The more conventional looking Elite, partly based off the concept for the unused female Combine Assassin, was chosen over the early concepts to avoid overshadowing the remarkable nature of the Citadel and to keep the Combine as a more elusive and transparent enemy. Stalker ''First Seen: Chapter Nine, Nova Prospekt''
The product of extreme, brutal Combine engineering, stalkers are humans who have had their higher brain functions severed and their bodies physically altered. Their limbs have been removed and replaced with mechanical extensions; most organs, excess fat, as well as muscle have also been removed and what appear to be metallic augmentations added to parts of their body. Stalkers appear to be in constant pain, as their loud wheezing indicates. A stalker can't talk, and instead can only make beastly roars, most likely because its Vocal Cord s, or perhaps entire Larynx , has been removed, as the metallic hole in their throats suggests. The lack of higher mental functions would also prevent them from talking. For ease of maintenance and to bring a physical dependence on the Combine, the stalker's digestive tract has been removed, resulting in the stalkers surviving solely on a Saline Solution that the Combine provides. Stalkers would originally have to work to gain the metallic legs, proving they could be trusted with additional movement. All stalkers appear to come from male human beings, as they have facial hair stubble. Humans are turned into stalkers at Nova Prospekt , and are then transported to the Citadel to do slave labour for the Combine. They are transported by Razor Trains , and are confined in pods during the transportation. Despite being seen in Nova Prospekt and the Citadel, stalkers are never actually engaged in combat during the game. However, it is possible to see and battle against them in ''Half-Life 2'' modifications such as GMod . It appears that the citizens of also makes the comment, "He was about to board the express to Nova Prospekt!" at the start of the game. All comments indicate that the citizens know about stalkers, as well as Nova Prospekt. Stalkers, when spawned using the console, shoot lasers from beneath their feet at the player, treating the player like an enemy. This is unfinished code originally intended to be in ''Half-Life 2'' - the laser was originally supposed to be fired from the tools attached to the stalker’s head. The laser might have also been intended to fire out of the small blue nodule on its chest. If the player kills a stalker the game will crash, as the model does not have a "ragdoll" state. Some mods have successfully avoided this problem. On an additional note, stalkers were originally intended to be enemies, using fast leaping attacks in a similar way to the "Leaper" (Fast) Headcrab Zombies ; they had little armor and were easily killed. The idea was dropped in the final version, most likely because the developers preferred only having zombies possess such startling abilities. It has been confirmed that the stalkers will be making a more prominent appearance in the ''Half-Life 2'' expansion, '''', as enemies. Their new capabilities are currently unknown. It should be noted that there was, before ''Half-Life 2'', a very similar concept (even down to the name) in the novels of Philip Reeve of a Stalker , a mechanically modified human. COMBINE SYNTH Synths are creatures that, over a course of imposed evolution and adaptation by the Combine, have come to fit a particular niche in the Combine military. Once self-replicating, organic, but robot-like creatures spread across different worlds, they were enslaved and assimilated into the Combine to become the backbone of their military. Various types of Synth have been brought over to Earth by the Combine, but other types of Synth are likely to exist. The total number of different Synth is unknown. It is likely that Synths were the primary forces used by the Combine during the Seven Hour War , as the human-derived Combine units, as well as technology such as hunter-choppers and APCs, would have only started appearing after the Combine's rule on Earth had been established. Gunship ''First Seen: Chapter One, Point Insertion''
A powerful, autonomous aircraft that combines aspects of an airplane and a helicopter with Synth technology, the gunship is the Combine's most versatile combat aircraft. Gunships are used to attack enemies not normally accessible to ground forces, or in remote locations where air power would be more convenient. They are also sometimes used in a support role, called into specific trouble spots. Gunships are powered by an array of different jet engines, visible on their belly, and a single, large, rotating insect-like wing at its rear that works similar to a helicopter rotor. Dragonfly -like Compound Eye s are positioned directly behind the gunship's pulse gun, and it is likely that they aim the weapon. The chassis itself has one large exposed compound eye on each side, which it might use to "see" or detect enemies under normal conditions. It should be noted that the aforementioned "dragonfly" eyes can be viewed in the ''Half-Life 2 Model Viewer'' as being able to extend downwards and sweep left and right, probably to maximize its chances of finding a target. Although lacking the hunter-chopper's explosive mines and intelligent pilots, the gunship surpasses the hunter-chopper in maneuverability and accuracy with its pulse gun. Like most Combine Synths and vehicles, the gunship is invulnerable to small arms fire and can only be damaged by heavy weapons like Rocket-propelled Grenade s. Because of this weakness to explosives, gunships will give any incoming explosives, such as rockets, a priority over enemies, and will attempt to shoot them down. If there is more than one gunship, they will all attempt to shoot down an incoming explosive in order to protect each other. Gunships are also equipped with a "belly cannon" which releases a matter disintegration blast, similar to that of the suppression device, directly beneath the gunship. This attack is never used during the single player mission, but additional gunships spawned by players have been witnessed using such an attack. Analysis of the single player missions that were released in an uncompiled format reveals that the gunships were deliberately set not to use this weapon. Dropship ''First Seen: Chapter Four, Water Hazard''
Resembling a crab-like creature with ten limbs, the dropship serves as the primary aerial transport unit of the Combine, they are used for any situation that requires fast air transport, mostly for attacks on remote locations. Dropships are also used as minelayers for deploying Rollermines . The front and two rearmost pairs of legs contain the engines that give the dropship lift and movement. The front two legs also hold retractable wings, used for maneuvering. The middle four legs are tipped with large gripping pads, and are used to carry various forms of cargo. Dropships can transport most Combine forces, and they have been seen transporting Combine APCs, striders, rollermines as well as both Civil Protection and Overwatch soldiers in troop-carriers. Gordon Freeman 's Dune Buggy is also stolen and carried away by a dropship after the battle at Lighthouse Point. The Overwatch soldiers and Civil Protection are transported in large, streamlined containers, equipped with a powerful, and highly-accurate mounted pulse gun. Other than the troop-container's gun, the dropship has no weaponry, no means of attack, and is neutral to the player. It compensates for the fact that it has no attacks by being the most armored Combine unit. It is invulnerable to all forms of attack during the game. The cargo being held, however, is unshielded and open to damage. More often than not, though, the dropship's speed and the resilience of most cargo allow for a safe delivery before taking too much damage. Strider ''First Seen: Chapter One, Point Insertion''
An extremely deadly and effective assault unit, the Strider is perhaps the most powerful, and the most feared of the Synths brought over to Earth. Striders are essentially walking autonomous tanks, consisting of a beetle-like shell and three massive legs. The underside of the segmented shell holds the strider's external mechanics and two guns. The smaller of the two is a powerful and highly-accurate pulse gun, while the larger is a high-power "warp cannon" or "singularity cannon" able to punch significant holes in the thickest concrete and vaporize enemies in a manner similar to the pulse rifle's orb, or suppression device fire. The firing of this weapon is signaled by a strange distortion of the light around the cannon's muzzle, a loud hum, and a smaller initial beam that indicates where the full force will hit. This process takes only a few seconds, leaving little time to react. Their powerful legs are also tipped with sharp spikes, which they use to impale weaker targets and kick debris. Individual striders are used to patrol off-limit city streets and provide combat support for groups of soldiers. However, in major combat, striders are used in a role similar to manhacks on a city-wide scale, destroying possible shelters and flooding an area as a means of removing all enemies. Because of their greater effectiveness and value, they are used mostly in a defensive role. Striders fit this task well due to their destructive ability and remarkable maneuverability on even the harshest terrain. When unleashed, a strider can, and will, destroy an entire building in order to strike a handful of targets inside. Conveniently, their long legs can climb over any resulting debris or any barriers of up to several meters high. They can even crawl through very small traffic tunnels and parking garages, if need be, "digging" through barriers using their "warp" cannon. Striders are also armored against all but the most powerful weapons, making non-explosive rounds useless against them. Luckily, striders tend to follow specific patrol routes when tasked with defending a limited area, making them easy to avoid, so long as Shield Scanner s are not being used. When shield scanners do accompany a strider, they function as spotters for it, searching inside buildings and other places of concealment for targets the strider would otherwise be unable to see. Striders also work with Combine dropships, folding their legs into a compact shape that allows them to be transported. As a side note, striders closely resemble the " Tripods " described in H. G. Wells ' '' The War Of The Worlds ''. Shield scanner ''First Seen: Chapter Eleven, Anticitizen One''
The successor of the City Scanner , the shield scanner appears for a brief time in later chapters of the game. It is very similar to the city scanner in terms of function and capabilities. The shield scanner features a stronger, and more blinding search light, and is equipped with a large pincer arm, which is kept concealed behind an armored hatch at its front, along with several additional sensors and parts. The shield scanner, unlike the city scanner, has minor combat roles. A shield scanner uses its pincer arm to efficiently pick up and deploy Hopper Mines , giving it the additional combat support roles of a miniature equipment transport and minelayer. Shield scanners are also used as target-spotters for striders, alerting them to the presence of enemies hiding inside structures, or in other areas that might be used for concealment. Crab synth ''First Seen: Chapter Thirteen, Our Benefactors''
This Synth is seen only being transported on a conveyor belt in the Citadel during Gordon Freeman's second pod-ride, and is never encountered in a combat situation. Its capabilities are unknown, but it appears to be a large ground-based combat unit with a weapon that resembles a minigun. No other information is available. ''Half-Life 2'' storyline writer, ''. Mortar synth ''First Seen: Chapter Thirteen, Our Benefactors''
Like the crab synth, this creature is seen being transported on a conveyor belt in the Citadel during Gordon Freeman's second pod-ride, but is never encountered in a combat situation. Its capabilities are unknown, but it may be an airborne attack unit that launches solid, energy, or explosive projectiles, judging by its name and the catapult-like structure on its back. ''Half-Life 2'' storyline writer, ''. SEE ALSO
REFERENCES # ''Half-Life 2 (PC)'', Valve Software, 2004. Official Website |
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