Games - List of Combine combat technology in Half-Life 2

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	Games - List of Combine combat technology in Half-Life 2

This is a list of combat technology employed by the Combine empire
in Half-Life 2, a 2004 first-person shooter.

Overview

The Combine, since gaining dominance on Earth, has invented a large number of devices and machines, some of which are offensive, and others which are used in the day-to-day policing and surveillance of the general populace. A majority of the Combine's technology present on Earth is actually nothing more than human technology re-interpreted and re-made by the Combine, using its own materials. Technology such as helicopters, turrets, and wheeled vehicles are all human technology, re-made by the Combine.

City scanner

First Seen: Chapter One, Point Insertion

Health total: 30
Weapon damage: Dive (25)
Entity: npc_cscanner

City scanners, often referred to simply as scanners, are piranha-like, flying security cameras used by the Combine to monitor City 17's citizens. They are equipped with a built-in camera and a blinding searchlight. City scanners have no weapons, but the blinding searchlight and the photographic flash emitted can temporarily stun a person. They are lightly armoured, and can easily be destroyed by launched objects, gunfire, or by simply being smashed with a hard object. When a city scanner receives critical damage, it attempts to crash itself into its attacker in hope of doing damage to them. They are powered by a single Combine battery, and a destroyed one will occasionally drop such a battery.

As the name implies, city scanners are used primarily in the city, rather than in out-of-city locations, such as the canals or the coast. It appears that city scanners are mass-produced in the Citadel, as they serve many purposes - including the obvious surveillance role, as well as reconnaissance, and the hunting of missing or wanted individuals. City scanners will typically accompany Civil Protection personnel and almost always work with other Combine units, but are typically not directly used in combat, and only have the role of informing other, more combat equipped Combine units about citizens and their locations, should there be need for combat. City scanners rarely travel alone, so the sight of a city scanner is usually an indication that there are other Combine forces nearby. In cases of emergency, city scanners can be mass-deployed in hundreds or thousands from the Citadel, to perform a city-wide, and possibly out of city search as well. One such example of this is during the conversation with Barney before acquiring the crowbar, in which under zoomed vision the Citadel appears to be dropping massed groups of city scanners in an effort to find and detain the player.

It also appears that a city scanner was used in one of the latest "evolutions" of Dog, the robot built by Eli Vance to protect his daughter, Alyx, while she was young, as both machines maintain a similar "facial" design.

Manhack

First Seen: Chapter Three, Route Kanal

Health total: 25
Weapon damage: Sawblade (20)
Entity: npc_manhack

Manhacks are flying, gyroscope-like devices, slightly smaller than city scanners. They have three razor-sharp blades which constantly spin at extremely high speeds. The blades's spinning produces a high-pitched whine, which can be used as an indicator of a manhack's presence nearby. The manhack's blades are powerful enough to instantly slice through wood planks and fencing, but are unable to slice through stronger materials such as metal or concrete. Semi-intelligent, they have very little concept of self-preservation, careening off walls and through objects in the single-minded pursuit of their target.

Manhacks are deployed by the Combine (who call them "viscerators") and are used to scout areas too dangerous for city scanners. Manhacks never travel alone, and are usually deployed in groups of at least four or more. Some Civil Protection troopers carry them and can deploy them in an emergency.

They appear to be fairly armoured against gunfire, and are more easily destroyed by being smashed with a hard object, which will cause it to become disoriented, and stop attacking for a couple of seconds as it re-stabilizes itself. The Gravity Gun is also very effective against them. Once in the gravity gun's field, they can be launched into walls, other hostile forces, or can be used as a chainsaw-like weapon.

Originally, a section of the game was designed where the Combine allowed citizens to, what seemed to them, play virtual reality games in something known as the "Manhack Arcade." The citizens playing these games had no idea that they were, in fact, controlling manhacks in real-life, and killing fellow citizens with them. This is perhaps a reference or inspired by the film Toys, where in one part teenagers unknowingly controlled remote-controlled military robots in a vast arcade with varying games to "play." The concept never made it into the final version of the game.

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