Best Game Locations: Half-Life 2’s City 17

City 17 is the main setting for Half-Life 2, and probably one of the best-realised locations in gaming history. The city is imposing, at once threatening and claustrophobic, and the iconic image that endures is of Combine Civil Protection squads policing the streets and suppressing the population with brutality.

Through Half-Life 2 you see City 17 in many states: firmly under Combine control when you arrive, in the midst of the inevitable bitter war between the oppressors and the oppressed, and finally from the air when you ascend the mighty Citadel for the final battle.

 

“Welcome. Welcome to City 17.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fw43eNGl1S4

Arriving by train, after a hallucination-like introduction from the series character G-Man, your first glimpse of City 17 is the train station. It’s big and echo-filled, an automated message booming over the video screens. As you disembark, a flying robot momentarily blinds you with its camera flash, and your sense of unease begins to build. Where on Earth am I?

Making your way through the station, the other passengers are a mixed bag of worried and fearful people. One mumbles to himself about trains never leaving, two others are trying to psyche themselves up to pass through a checkpoint, one even warns you not to drink the water because “they put something in it, to make you forget”.

And as you make your way through the checkpoint, alarms scream into life and gates slam shut. You’re led away down a dirty corridor past interrogation rooms, and into a holding cell of your own. Uh oh, oh no, panic rises. Then the guard reveals he’s none other than Barney Calhoun – the guard from the first game – undercover and here to rescue you. Well, that’s a momentary bright spot in this dystopian hell of a world.

 

“One of our finest remaining urban centres.”

When you eventually see daylight, the scale of City 17 is hinted at to begin with, and your adventures reveal more as you progress. It’s a big place, consisting of a railway station, a ruined canal system, underground road tunnels, and multiple slum-like living quarters and buildings. The architecture has often been compared to former Soviet cities in Eastern Europe – very apt considering the iron rule of the Combine. It also happens to be the main base of operations for the Combine on Earth, with their Citadel forming the headquarters of Wallace Breen, the human puppet-administrator – he’s the guy on all the video screens spouting propaganda.

The oppression is everywhere, and City 17 is a masterclass in a game environment telling a story. Stepping out of the train stations and walking through the square reveals the sheer scale of the occupation, beatings, brutality, and alien war machines stamping through the streets. Lasting memories.

But it’s the blend of alien and human tech that really strikes a chord. The alien tech is almost insect-like, it seems to be attaching itself to our world and consuming it – its shimmering force-fields and shiny black metal restricts human movement, almost choking the city. And right in the middle, towering over everything, is the starkest reminder of how our world has been subjugated.

 

“Thoughtfully provided by Our Benefactors.”

The Citadel, a huge, towering, skyscraper-like structure – so tall it disappears into the clouds above – stands like a monolithic watchman over City 17. This is the main base of the Combine occupation of Earth – home to the majority of the alien empire’s armed forces, and the collaborating Wallace Breen.

It is sleek and powerful looking, with odd angled and ribs protruding from its sides. When you first see it, huge bay doors hang open for ventilation and it looks like it’s in a passive state. But when your presence is verified, multiple bay doors retract, altering its shape, giving it sharper edges, and swarms of drones and helicopters are released. Barney even comments that he’s “never seen it lit up like that”.

As the story progresses, you venture closer to the Citadel and see that not only does it extend high into the sky, but deep under the ground. It’s also surrounded with a moving mechanical wall that appears to be consuming the city around it – for what purpose is never revealed – but the Citadel’s perimeter is expanding leaving only bare, scorched ground behind it.

Inside, the Citadel is all gleaming surfaces and computer screens, strange alien technology and scary sights around every corner – exactly what you expect. It feels incredibly jarring from the city proper, and quite right too. Without that contradiction, the Citadel’s insidious nature and its effect on the city below would be poorly realised.

 

“It’s safer here.”

Except that it’s not. Not for the people who live there. And definitely not for you.

City 17 deserves its place among the best realised game environments purely because it gets across the fear and despair of living in a city under strict martial law. From the early game, where the Combine forces are firmly in control, to the later stages, where it’s clear they are losing control of the situation once the humans begin to rebel, City 17 is a vital storyteller in itself. It’s brilliantly realised. And even now, you can play the game and still be amazed by the effort that has gone into creating this game space.

So, I call on all of you to applaud Valve one more time for creating this incredible city, then get back to shouting at them for Half-Life 3 still being stuck in the wilderness.