The Combine's Brutal Police Force | The Civil Protection | FULL Half-Life Lore

The Civil Protection are the human force of The Combine Empire. After The Seven Hour War, humanity struggled to survive in a bleak world, and as such, were forced to turn against their own species to make their lives easier.

Who were these people before they joined? What exactly led them to betray their species, and were all of these bad cops, or just desperate refugees that had had to make a tough decision? In this video, I explore the lore and story behind The Civil Protection in Half-Life.

Timestamps
00:00 Introduction
00:50 The Seven Hour War & Foundation of The Civil Protection (Before HL2)
02:11 The Formation of The Civil Protection (Before HL2)
07:01 The Rise of The Civil Protection (Before HL2)
13:35 The Fall of City 17 (HL2)
18:13 Legacy
19:31 Development & Behind The Scenes
21:11 Closing Thoughts & Ending

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Standard Sources
Half-Life series playthrough research
Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar
Half-Life: Alyx Playthrough
Portal/ Half-Life Fandom
Old Valve Forums
Marc Laidlaw's Twitter
Breengrub Twitter
Reddit AMA (w/ HL: Alyx Developers)

AUDIO USED
Half-Life 2 OST: Lab Practicum
Half-Life 2 OST: Triage at Dawn

#CivilProtection #Lore #HalfLife

[Skyrionn]

Would you join The Civil Protection or The Resistance?

[Walternity]

11:37

The "Pick up that can" cop actually says "Reporting citizen summoned to voluntary conscription for General Public Service Detail T94-322" once you put it in the trash can, meaning it's possible he actually helped raise your reputation/score as a citizen afterward and it wasn't all for nothing.

[iceheart]

Idk those 2 local civil protection officers on my block are pretty chill, think their names are Mike and Dave

[SethTheProphet]

To answer the question of this video, a quote.

"It will amaze you what a human being can do, when they grow _really_ hungry."

[Fxrrxtx]

Being like Barney would probably be best case scenario, the benefits of being CP and working with the resistance at the same time. Probably very stressful at the same time though, trying not to get caught.

[DaRealBruner]

8:38 On the topic of scanners, in the 2003 leak there is dialogue from Barney about a "human index" which I assume is like an archive of every single known human on Earth. If a checkpoint camera or city scanner were to snap a photo of your face and it wasn't recognizable and didn't trace to anyone in the index, you'd be in trouble. I believe this "human index" concept was still used in Retail and was the main reason Civil Protection pursued Freeman at the start of the game. The human index from what I know isn't documented anywhere, any wikis, not even the Combine Overwiki.

[JaySBruh]

Something I’ve never heard anyone address is the legal system implemented by the combine. During at least the water hazard chapter, signs can be seen with administrative codes warning people to stay out. Additionally, during Point Insertion, citizens can be heard saying things like “they can’t keep getting away with this” in regards to the mistreatment they are receiving from Civil Protection.

All this makes me wonder if there perhaps actually is something resembling a judiciary system in place. Even if it ultimately is a shame that rarely benefits the citizens.

[thepumpkin]

“When I look out there it makes me glad I’m not you” -GLaDOS

[jasohavents]

During the Uprising Barney does mention the 'Chicken Sht Metro cops' who stuck with the combine.
I'm imagining due to the sheer number of resistance members with CP Armor, there was probably quite a few turncoats who joined the resistance and probably even emptied the CP armories. Since almost none of the resistance members before Black Mesa East have armor.

[ElTazaconvideos]

I was so happy to see these guys after going through ravenholm and the mines

[Omega-jgoq]

Combine are such a fresh air to me cause after fighting against so many Zombies and some Vortigans and Xen creatures in Half life 1, it's makes me feel comfortable and feel more human again, I don't know how to explain it, but that's the way it is

[Ninz]

It's time to confirm my status with my local civil protection team immediately

[awo]

even though Entropy Zero isn't technically canon, I wish you'd one day make a video on Aiden Walker and his backstory, Wilson, and the "Arbeit Communications" complex.

[thatdudemetro]

Always loved the way the cps are organised, their actual organisation is a mix between police and security forces, you can even notice that in the actual game as civil protection raided black mesa east themselves, basically anything that is inside the city and directly is a danger to the combine the cps will take care of it, just like you said if cps cant handle it then the transhumans will be sent. Ironically the cps have lines for antlions, either antlions would play a bigger role or cps are defending at the border of the city against them. Either way video is amazing, i love the duality of a cp, the reassons why people join and all that.

[irishgerman]

One time when I was asked to pick up the can, I actually tried to take the can all the way to the other side of the room and make a long shot like how Gordon does it in Freeman’s Mind 2 Episode 1 but the cop just chased me down and kept hitting me with his stun stick for not putting it in the trash can 😂

[Scuba-Ry]

Just a small detail to add thanks to Valve's subtle story telling about CP living conditions that I notice during play throughs, particularly during the uprising levels - CP's lived on the upper levels of buildings with bridges connecting these levels to different buildings.

If you think about it, it makes sense to house CP in these places as they can survey civilians from height, move ammunition/weapons and officers to locations around the City more efficiently and above all (pun intended 😅) it was a far better place to safely rest and sleep away from headcrabs, zombies, antlions radiation etc more commonly found on ground levels and just below.

It could have also been a hierarchical status feeling of being closer to the combine meant being safer too in some almost religious way maybe?

It's not much but it's just a tiny bit of detail that is so easily missed and yet explains so much. 😁

Love your channel btw 😎

[caroline]

I've always had the theory the Overwatch was a more primitive version of Portal's GLaDOS, a lot of Aperture tech is used by the combine: turrets, force fields, reactors and energy orbs, laser bridges, orbs turned into bombs, etc.

[im-alwaaayzwatching]

I have watched every single one of your Half Life lore videos and I am very grateful for a YouTube creator like yourself because others don't go into as much depth as you and you are very easy to listen too as well, so thank you.

[EmperoroftheVoid]

13:22 shout out to the rebel who got his hands on the toolgun.

[theblackcoat]

There‘s not just super-supression to the combine. In HLA, we can see citiziens living somewhat norma lifes and apartments eve being custom decorated. My thoughts are that the combine were far less strict before G-Man escaped custody in the Vault. His escape signaled them the strength the resistance truly had by freeing him with *one person* so they cracked down on ANY form of humanity.