

Due to the resonance cascade cause by Black Mesa in the original Half-Life, The Combine were able to find Earth. For the past two decades, however, the planet has been under the tyrannical control of The Combine Empire. Both he and the player only meet the Combine a few minutes after he is awakened from this stasis. After beating the boss of the original Half-Life, Gordon Freeman is frozen in time for 20 years by the mysterious entity knows as the G-Man. However, the player knows next to nothing about them. The Combine first appear at the very beginning of Half-Life 2. They are one of the most brutal examples of a dystopian society in gaming. Ruthlessly inhuman, The Combine come off as especially intriguing and disturbing for their extreme level of scrutiny in their oppression.

Since the series' second entry, Half-Lifeplayers have taken up the mantle of Gordon Freeman to combat the interdimensional alien empire known as The Combine.
