The Combine, also referred to as the Universal Union, is a fictional multidimensional empire, which serves as the primary antagonistic force in the Half-Life video game series, developed by Valve Corporation. The Combine consist of alien, synthetic and human elements, and dominate Earth. They are regularly encountered throughout Half-Life 2 and its episodic expansions as hostile non-player characters as the player progresses through the games in an effort to overthrow the Combine occupation of Earth.
The Combine are frequently shown as harsh rulers over the citizens of Earth, suppressing dissent with brutality, policing using violence and using invasive surgery to transform humans into either soldiers or slaves. Throughout the games, the player primarily battles with transformed humans as well as synthetic and mechanical enemies that are the product of Combine technology. The atmosphere generated by the dystopian Combine state has been praised by reviewers, although the artificial intelligence of the transhuman Combine characters was thought to be inferior to that of other characters in Half-Life 2. In addition to their role within the Half-Life series, the Combine have been adapted for machinima productions and one synthetic enemy character of the Combine has been made into a plush toy by Valve.
Read more about this topic: Creatures In The Half-Life Series
Famous quotes containing the word combine:
“We begin with friendships, and all our youth is a reconnoitering and recruiting of the holy fraternity they shall combine for the salvation of men. But so the remoter stars seem a nebula of united light, yet there is no group which a telescope will not resolve; and the dearest friends are separated by impassable gulfs.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)
“There is always a present and extant life, be it better or worse, which all combine to uphold.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)
“The problem, thus, is not whether or not women are to combine marriage and motherhood with work or career but how they are to do soconcomitantly in a two-role continuous pattern or sequentially in a pattern involving job or career discontinuities.”
—Jessie Bernard (20th century)