City 17




 * "You have chosen, or been chosen, to relocate to one of our finest remaining urban centers" - Wallace Breen

City 17 is a city in an unknown location (though it is almost certainly Eastern Europe) and is the headquarters of the Combine on Earth, dominated by their imposing Citadel. Almost all of the gameplay in Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode One takes place in City 17.

Location and Architecture


City 17 is visually described as a large Eastern European city, possibly the Bulgarian city of Sofia, being what appears to be the post-Soviet harbour city it is featuring mostly Eastern European architecture dating from pre-World War II neoclassicism, to post-war revival of classical designs, Soviet modernism, and post-Soviet contemporary designs. In addition, many abandoned and unused vehicles scattered throughout City 17 are based on Soviet-marketed Moskvitchs, Zaporozhets, Volgas, Kamaz trucks, East German Trabants, Czech Avias, and Škodas, dating back to the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s; such vehicles were commonly seen in many countries of Eastern Bloc.

“One of the reasons that we liked Eastern Europe as a setting was that it represents the collision of the old and the new in a way that is difficult to capture in the ''United States. You go over there, and you have'' this collision between all of these things, the new architecture, the old architecture, the fall of ''communism... there's a sense of this strongly-grounded'' ''historical place. We left out the gothic themes associated'' with Prague and vampires and looked into a different aspect of the region.” - Viktor Antonov

Combine Rule


With the Combine domination of Earth, the Combine would go on to construct black monolithic architecture in the city, in the form of watchtowers, barricades, mobile walls and door locks, all serving to restrict citizen movement in the city. In addition, large public television screens, which current puppet administrator of Earth, Doctor Wallace Breen, would use to broadcast his many prepared speeches ("Breencasts"), are installed in several public areas to address citizens regarding the Combine. At the heart of the city lies the Citadel, a giant skyscraper which serves as the hub of the Combine. From this, City 17 can be viewed as the world's capital.

As there is little emphasis in maintaining non-essential parts of the city, many areas of City 17 suffer from urban decay, and damages seen before the uprising of the Resistance suggests that the city may have come under Combine attack during the Seven Hour War. During the uprising, much of the city suffered extensive damage from either battles between the Resistance and Combine forces, or the advance of mobile walls, which typically destroy any building in their path.

Clues in City 17's train station indicate that other inhabitable cities under the similar naming exist alongside City 17. There is a mention of a "City 14" by City 17 citizens during Gordon's tour of the latter's train station, while train schedule boards suggests train services to other cities (labeled "C8," "C15," "C27," etc.). Breen also indicated that City 17 is one of Earth's "finest remaining urban centers" and that he chose to establish his administration in City 17, implying that he had "other areas" to pick from; this also implies that other cities have been destroyed since the Combine "invasion" or have been overrun by Xen wildlife. In Half-Life 2: Episode One, it is revealed that Citadels also exist in other cities.

City Design


The core of the city predominantly consists of wall-to-wall buildings, with blocks of clustered low-rises made out of a variety of old and new buildings. Soviet-era apartment high-rises and public housing are also seen inside the city and on the outskirts, with taller varieties standing out in a city consisting of mostly low rises. Under Combine rule, certain residential buildings in the city were used as accommodation for citizens, and conditions in such housings were typically seen as poor, with few luxuries and constant inspection and raids by the Civil Protection. However, the city is still supplied with electric power, as televisions and lights are still in use, even in citizens' homes.

The city was large enough to provide all necessary needs for the citizens before the Combine attacked. This is supported by the appearance of a hospital, several cafés and restaurants, office buildings, and underground city systems that the player fights through in Half-Life 2 and Episode One. Most of these buildings are still intact but are abandoned. The Combine has taken over some office buildings to keep a strong hold on the city, but the hospital has been left to zombies and headcrabs. That could be however because the player comes upon the hospital in Episode One and by that point headcrabs from Combine artillery have spread, and are beyond Combine control. Buildings that were formally government buildings, such as the Overwatch Nexus, are in use by the Combine.

The outskirts of City 17 features industrial districts and additional Soviet housing, most of which are considered off-limits to citizens. Industrial districts are seen linked to the city via railway lines and canals, although it remains to be seen if they remain in use by the Combine, given that most of the industrial structures serve little economical use for the Combine.

Aside from the deployment of mobile walls, the Combine has left much of the city layout untouched before the uprising of the Resistance, preferring instead to use low-tech but effective barricades and walls, as well as patrols in and around the city, to block and restrict access of certain streets from citizens.

Transportation Systems


City 17's transportation system had considerable variety. In addition to highways and city streets, City 17 included underground road tunnels that travel beneath the city; during the Resistance uprising against the Combine, portions of the tunnel could be seen, badly damaged, with areas flooded with toxic substances. Several railway lines run within the city, with at least two large train stations connecting City 17 to other Combine controlled cities. The Combine maximized the use of these transportation systems, developing ground-based APCs that are designed to travel on existing roadways for patrols, while utilizing pre-invasion trains and their own form of trains to transport citizens and goods in and out of City 17 using the railway lines. The presence of unused tramways on a street also suggests that the city once provided tram services.



A network of canals is also prevalent in and around City 17. Much of the inner city canals, however, were made defunct, after the Combine's effort to drain large bodies of water around City 17 left much of the area's canal system dry. Nevertheless, Resistance members continue to utilize the network and sewer tunnels to escape the city and reach the industrial canals, where they will head to Black Mesa East. Much of the industrial district canal systems remain usable, albeit shallower, and with certain portions of the canals contaminated with hazardous materials. With large bodies of water and wide spaces, air boats have been suggested to be a preferable mode of transportation for Resistance members during their journey through the industrial canals.

Half-Life 2
City 17 is first introduced to Gordon Freeman (the protagonist of Half-Life 2) by the G-Man. Gordon is brought into the new world without knowing what has happened in the previous years after the Black Mesa Incident and starting work under the G-Man.

Gordon is then pulled from stasis and transported by the G-Man, left standing in a train which is pulling into a station. Leaving the train after hearing the other passengers comment, "I didn't see you get on," Gordon faces a huge screen monitor with the administrator, Doctor Breen, smiling calmly down at the depressed citizens of City 17. He begins to read one of his many "Breencasts" to the rest of the city, through monitors positioned throughout the city.



Barney Calhoun, disguised as a Combine Civil Protection soldier, eventually finds Gordon and aids in his escape from the train station. Exiting the station, Gordon finds himself in a plaza, with the ever imposing Citadel far ahead, and further evidence of the Combine's power in the city. Gordon's brief journey through the city reveals the level of repression by the Combine, and the level of fear and dread among citizens. As the Civil Protection arm of the Combine Overwatch identifies him as a "miscount" in a building, he is pursued by Civil Protection units over the rooftops and ledges of buildings before being rescued by Alyx Vance, who brings Gordon to Dr. Kleiner's lab in a nearby building. There, Gordon is fitted with a HEV suit, and is set to be teleported together with Alyx to Dr. Eli Vance's lab in Black Mesa East. While Alyx successfully arrives at the destination, the teleport malfunctions as Gordon is about to be teleported, sending him to several locations (including Doctor Breen's office in the Citadel), and eventually back to City 17, just outside Kleiner's lab.

As Gordon meets Barney once again, he is advised to venture along railway lines, canals, and sewage systems and the wider canal routes to leave City 17 and reach Black Mesa East, adding that renegade citizens are residing along the area and will offer assistance. Along the way, it is learned that parts of the route are also under attack by Combine units, including the deployment of "manhacks" as an alert was put out from the Citadel to capture or kill Gordon after the teleportation incident at Breen's office. Several citizens in the area are killed, and bodies are also found along the way. As Gordon reaches the wider canals, an airboat is prepared for use to transport Gordon out of the city. As he rides the vehicle, hunter-choppers and additional Combine units pursue him once more, but are eventually evaded and defeated as he reaches Black Mesa East and flees the city.



After Gordon and Alyx's failed attempt to rescue Eli and associate Judith Mossman at Nova Prospekt (in which Judith ends up teleporting Eli to the Citadel), they attempt to teleport back to Kleiner's lab, but find that they have reached their destination a week later in time, although it seems to Alyx and Gordon as though their teleportation was instantaneous. They learn that Gordon and Alyx's attack on Nova Prospekt sparked an uprising among City 17's citizens that sent the city into chaos: Combine units and citizens are fighting against each other, and powerful, more lethal weapons and equipment are being deployed in full force, damaging much of the city. While Gordon and Alyx race to the Citadel to rescue Eli, Alyx is knocked out, captured, and brought to the Citadel right away. Gordon eventually reaches the foot of the Citadel, with the aid of Barney and Alyx's robot pet Dog, and enters the structure to rescue Eli and Alyx and to confront Doctor Breen.

The final stage of the game reveals that Gordon, upon releasing Eli and Alyx and damaging the dark energy reactor that would power fleeing Breen's teleportation off of the planet, was about to trigger a massive explosion of the reactor that would "bring down the whole Citadel" and destroy the entire city. At the moment of the reactor's explosion, however, the G-Man reappears, stopping time, and transports Gordon back into stasis to await further assignment.

Half-Life 2: Episode One
''You two have to get out of the city, the Citadel could blow at any moment now. - Eli Vance



Half-Life 2: Episode One takes place against a backdrop of a mass exodus from the doomed city, at the heart of which the Citadel has become a ticking bomb. Hoping to open a portal to send valuable information back to the Combine leaders, the Combine survivors inside the Citadel deactivate the containment system for the Citadel's core. Though Gordon and Alyx manage to reactivate the system, it only buys time. As they move farther away from the Citadel, they witness its condition deteriorate.

The city itself, especially the regions closest to the Citadel, have been damaged beyond recognition by striders following the events of Half-Life 2, though regions further out, such as a hospital and the train station, are still intact. Most of the railroad infrastructure is still maintained, as well, though any train leaving the Citadel was subject to falling debris. Antlions roam the the city unchecked, and the remaining Combine forces are struggling to keep order in the ruins.



The citizens of City 17, heeding the warnings of the Resistance, were all but gone during Gordon and Alyx's flight from the city. Only a few remained, pinned down by any surviving Combine troops and Civil Protection units. Thanks to the efforts of Gordon and Barney Calhoun, the last of the city's citizens were evacuated via train.

When the Citadel detonated, the explosion was powerful enough to send debris flying for miles and landing outside city limits.

Half-Life 2: Episode Two
In a scene from Half-Life 2: Episode Two, the remains of City 17 can be seen from the countryside. A tornado like structure can be seen rising from what was the citadel, and the center of the city is scattered with pieces of the citadel. The outskirts of the city appear no less damaged and it is doubtful that there is any one left alive in the ruins.

Background and origins of City 17
In Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar, City 17 is described as being in an Eastern European setting. Some fans believe City 17 to be Sofia, Bulgaria, the hometown of the art director of Half-Life 2, Viktor Antonov. This is based on both City 17's general resemblance to Sofia and the frequent appearance of Bulgarian words (written in Cyrillic characters) on signs and graffiti throughout the game (although some of these are words in other Slavic languages as well). One clear example is "цимент" ("cement") written across the top of a large building in Ravenholm - the only language that spells the word in this way, using the Cyrillic alphabet, is Bulgarian. Furthermore, near the beginning of the game a newspaper entitled "Работническо Дело" (Rabotnichesko Delo) can be seen - this was the most popular newspaper in Bulgaria during its Communist period. Hints of the city containing elements of cities from the Baltics or Baltic countries is also evident with the presence of signs reading "Café Baltic."

Other speculated locations from which City 17 is inspired include:


 * Riga, Latvia. This is based again on the strong similarities between the game and the city. Interestingly, part of Riga, known as "Old Riga" is strongly reminiscent of Ravenholm (though one should note Ravenholm is not part of City 17, but a distinct community). Riga is also a coastal city with a coastline that closely matches that shown in Raising the Bar. Its skyline is dotted with many buildings of a similar style and color as seen in City 17, and the area is famous for its Art Nouveau influences. Old Riga is an area that is also dotted with tramlines and churches, any of which would fit with Father Grigori's character. Most interestingly, however, is the number of spires on the skyline (especially the suspension bridge) and Riga Castle - all of which cluster around "Citadale Street" - a possible inspiration for the Citadel in Half-Life 2.


 * Vilnius, Lithuania, as the narrow streets in Half-Life 2 are similar to the ones in Vilnius, and that the city is located in the Baltic region, supporting the presence of "Cafe Baltic" in the game. The difference is City 17's addition of canals.




 * Belgrade, Serbia, based on the nearly identical resemblance between the Parliament of Serbia building and the Overwatch Nexus in City 17.


 * City 17's name itself, which is thought to be a reference to the Soviet practice of numbering secret closed cities rather than naming them, as in Arzamas-16, Krasnoyarsk-26, Tomsk-7 and numerous others.


 * St. Petersburg, Russia. This could explain the abundance of canals and an ever-present chain of Café Baltic shops. St. Petersburg also has a large street called Nevsky Prospekt, which phonetically resembles Nova Prospekt, the ex-prison turned into a Combine facility. Further evidence lies in the fact that Gordon travels westward out of the city in Half-Life 2 (the sun sets in front of him and slightly to the right), which places the coastline to the north- suggesting the Baltic Sea.


 * Odessa, Ukraine, capital of the Odessa Oblast. Close to a large body of water, with similar architectural styles and heritage, and the same name as that of the character of Odessa Cubbage, and the resistance hideout in which he and a group of rebels live, called New Little Odessa, it could certainly apply for candidacy.

coastlines depicted in the two maps shown in-game of City 17 and the surrounding area.
 * Sevastopol, Ukraine, has also been suggested, mostly due to geographic location. While the architecture of City 17 itself clearly is tied to the previously mentioned cities, the costal terrain immediately outside of City 17 is very similar to the shores and coast of the Black Sea around Sevastopol. As a tourist destination for much of the former Soviet Union, the variety of Cyrillic languages used in signs and text in City 17 also becomes logical. The strongest evidence in favor of Sevastopol, however, is mainly the similar contours shared by areas of coastline on the Crimean peninsula and the


 * In addition to incorporating Eastern European elements, examples of Norwegian, Swedish, Romanian, Italian, Polish, Finnish and French influences also exist, suggesting that the setting is something of a montage of European locations.


 * The city was originally to be surrounded by a desert called the Wasteland or the Scrapland. It to be a dangerous and barren place filled with Antlions, Bullsquid and Houndeyes. The area was recycled into the Coast levels.