Half-Life: OVERWORLD - The Combine World Animation

Welcome to the Combine Overworld!
Until Valve reveals their next Half Life game, I tried to imagine what a trailer for a sequel to Half Life 2 Episode 2 would look like... Welcome to the Combine Overworld, and their next attempt to regain control of Earth.

Almost every visual asset in this short film (concepts, models, textures, rigs, animations) have been designed and handcrafted from scratch. Exceptions: (G-man, and Dr. Breen's Face)
No generative Ai assets have been used in this project, even for the concept stage... if that even matters to anyone.

I wanted to thank the Half Life subreddit for all their support and and even suggestions during the design process and a friend who helped with retopology of the bear and the "mother" creature.

Inspiration/references:
Half Life 2 Artbook "Raising The Bar" has been used as initial inspiration for the many original concepts I had to create but at the same time, other media has influenced the design process in many areas. "Alien", "Prometheus" "Scorn - game" and Denis Villeneuve sci-fi movies are some of the them.

Voice lines:
Dr. Wallace Breen by Robert Martin Culp 1930–2010
Half Life 2 and HL2 Episode One

Music
Half-Life 2 EP2 "Dark Interval" Slowed down and reversed.
Half-Life: Alyx "Anti-Citizen"

Some more from me?
Game I'm working for
My Artstation
Instagram

Thank you for reading this far!
As a reward, here is the Nova Strider 3D animated asset free to download and use
in your HL fan projects.
Also... you can meet another one of the designs in the film, in this upcoming Half-Life 2 mod

Software:
Blender,
Embergen

[joedredd]

Dr. Gordon Freeman with 25 HP, no shield, and armed only with a super gravity gun: "They don't stand a chance."

[invalid_user_handle]

It's something to consider. We've never actually seen the true extent of the Combine Empire. As far as we know, Breen's descriptions of it were likely literal. Who knows what kinds of horrors they have under their control, what sorts of incomprehensible power they truly managed to unleash during the 7 Hour War that we don't see from the 'backwater police force' that was left behind.

[Taijan]

Best thing ive seen all year, Breens got a very Dune God Emperor feel to him in this. now ambigious G-man cameo too, would be really cool if the Gordon starts upgrading his HEV suit with combine Tech, that would be really cool to me. There is SO much they can do in this, its Staggering to think of the possibilities!

[sensei]

Bro you nailed the combine aesthetic so well. Biomechanical beings + some unfathomablely large architecture + sharp and assymetric edges = Combine

[bLEKI]

So, this is how that 'permanent off-world reassignment' looks like.

[TheHouseAlwaysWins]

I like the part where the combine casually invaded probably another planet like it’s just another day as usual. really gives off that earth was just another number to the combine

[dragonhunter]

That headcrab bear was... An interesting concept. One helluva miniboss.

[mac]

not sure if was intentional, but I love how you made it feel like how all the synths were just 'part' of the overworld, like cells in a unimaginably massive body, fitting with the combines use of medical jargon when dealing with humanity. Showing the combine isnt really an alien empire, but a single organism that is never ending in its growth, an organism so huge that it has to spread through universes to keep itself alive.

[ponds]

Screw a return to ravenholm or the borealis, the combine overworld would be sick as an episode 3 or 4

[Gubbus.]

wow the combines home world looks like such a bright ray of sunshine

[MajinMist]

2:30 Past Breen: " Is it worth it ?!?!? "
2:32 Present Breen :

[fyraltari]

0:33 Everybody's favourite alien bureaucrate spotted!

[nsv]

MAN! This captures the essence of Half-Life 2 and draws up on it in such a perfect way! Incredible new creature designs, showing how truly alien the Combine are, and that even with their humanity removed, the soldiers we fight in HL2 are the most human part of the Combine we could ever see, and that the desolate streets of City 17 are the most cozy and familiar place humanity can inhabit; the sense of scale, in which even the enormous Citadel dwarfs in comparison, showing how the force we fought was merely a policing garrison. And the last scene showing Gordon's POV making us imagine what Half-Life 3 could have been...

Also, this feels a lot like the alien homeworld scene in Pacific Rim (In a good way!)

[GavinMakesVideos-xmdd]

I love how there's almost no humans present, and just original alien combine synth designs, and I love the giger aesthetic for the overworld bio-structure things

[teagan]

I just love the organic feel of this combine overworld, all the strange creatures walking on the walls, with smaller synths climbing on larger synths and strange Pitcher Pot Ant like synths dangling from antenna and other things, its all just so good, like this machine is alive, like the planet they are on is alive. everything is alive

[UnknownDino]

Finally after roughly 5 months of work, here we are!
Which was your favorite, part/element/design?
How did it differ from your expectations?

[DoubleRealitian]

This is fucking VALVE quality animation, this is BEYOND amazing.

[teamclown]

'It'll be the Seven Hour War, all over again. Except this time we won't last seven minutes...'

- Eli Vance

[ydkk]

1:40 *portal opens*
Combine troopships:
"LET'S FUCKING GOOOO!!"

[sinclair]

was really skeptical about this video because fan projects that usually try to capture the deeper and more alien aspects of the combine miss the mark or make them too familiar. but this was absolutely amazing. practically perfectly captures the disturbing, unimaginably massive, alien aspects of what make the combine so interesting. great work!