Why do combine and the overwatch speak english???

[Oblivion]

Aren't they an alien race?

[untmdsprt]

Seriously? Everyone and their brother wants to learn English. Why not aliens? Besides if you lived in a foreign country, wouldn't you be speaking your native language at home?

Didn't Alyx, Russell and Eli all live at one point in the states at Black Mesa? That was in New Mexico so they could have escaped to City 17 before/during the events with Gordon Freeman.

[MXK]

You people way over-analyze the whole thing! It's a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ video game for 1st of all English speaking audience by English speaking developer. Even though it's Virtual Reality, let's keep it simple and leave some things in actual reality. I can only imagine the out cry if half of the game was not understandable due to gibberish.

[The 65th Warrior]

The real question is, should they be speaking Russian or Bulgarian? Where is City 17 even?

[Brucecat]

İlk olarak JohnChronic420 tarafından gönderildi:

The real question is, should they be speaking Russian or Bulgarian? Where is City 17 even?

If you look at the globe in the beginning you can see that Alyx has circled a bit of the globe which I'm guessing is where she is

[Daddy Shark]

Because you couldn't understand them otherwise.

[Cunnah]

Its generally assumed that the combine have herding humans into C17 and then on to Nova Prospekt (based on in game conversations and the like). So the fact that Americans are now arriving in C17 and that the combine speak English in order to deal with the new arrivals is no surprise.

The real question is what happened to the eastern Europeans?

[Brucecat]

İlk olarak Cunnah tarafından gönderildi:

Its generally assumed that the combine have herding humans into C17 and then on to Nova Prospekt (based on in game conversations and the like). So the fact that Americans are now arriving in C17 and that the combine speak English in order to deal with the new arrivals is no surprise.

The real question is what happened to the eastern Europeans?

America is apparently gone as seen in the globe in Alyx

[Muse Snooze]

None of this matters because the game has multiple languages last I checked. They can all speak ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ French if they want.

[adam,.... (CANNOT FLY LOACH)]

İlk olarak ppeccin tarafından gönderildi:

Aren't they an alien race?

Combine are humans. They were born as humans and willingly joined the Combine, probably for benefits. In Half Life 2, it's explained that they're Transhuman, which probably means that they've been heavily augmented. In Half Life 2, you can even see an un-suited combine soldier, which is clearly human yet clearly heavily augmented.

So, they speak English because they're humans, not Aliens.

[Pr|cedisman]

İlk olarak Muse Snooze tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak Sheogorath tarafından gönderildi:

There's a dead Combine soldier without the mask in sewers. Its head is all brains with no eyes. I'm not sure how they even are able to speak. They're definitely not humans.

They're definitely humans. They are surgically changed. This is well established lore, and is hard cannon in veeery expensive Half Life texts that literally will run you 200 bucks, with concept art and everything. https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/half-life/images/0/03/Stripped_combine_soldier.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/284?cb=20090527202937&path-prefix=en

I find it funny you don't know this very very very basic piece of info known since 2004 in HL2, where all of this was depicted within the game. But hey, true half life fan, VR bad, you remember righhhht?

this guy got banned for speaking the truth

[Gray Phantom]

In Half Life 2, the Civil Protection are normal humans and the Overwatch soldiers are explicitly referred to as "transhuman forces", they are people probably selected from Civil Protection based on performance and subsequently fitted with augmentations to the abdomen and brain, alongside having their memories wiped & vocal cords are removed and replaced with a vocoder so they can continue to communicate if their lungs should be damaged. These of course only started showing up after the Combine had already subdued humanity, during their initial invasion in the 7 Hour War their forces were entirely alien.
A lot of fans have assumed the Combine's main footsoldiers in the 7 Hour War to be the same as these fellows cut from the Beta of HL2: https://half-life.fandom.com/wiki/Combine_Synth_Elite_Soldier

İlk olarak Brucecat tarafından gönderildi:

There modified humans I'm guessing there prototypes to the ones in hl2 due to them acting more human

My guess as to why they joke around more in Alyx is the same as this. They probably hadn't perfected or fully implemented memory wiping on the Overwatch soldiers.

[Gray Phantom]

İlk olarak Cunnah tarafından gönderildi:

Its generally assumed that the combine have herding humans into C17 and then on to Nova Prospekt (based on in game conversations and the like). So the fact that Americans are now arriving in C17 and that the combine speak English in order to deal with the new arrivals is no surprise.

The real question is what happened to the eastern Europeans?

Initially Laidlaw wanted City 17 to be very multicultural, the only reason they didn't have people speaking Russian and such is that they didn't have the budget or scope to hire many voice actors who knew different languages. You can just imagine in your head that not everybody in the HL2 saga is actually speaking English and that would be accurate to the original vision of City 17. I don't know if there are restorative mods that address this however.

Alternatively, you can just infer that it has something to do with the Combine's frequent relocating of citizens, and the fact that the Americas are implied to be completely terraformed by Xen so they would seek refuge in the Eurasian subcontinent.

For a immense multi-dimensional authoritarian organization with godlike minds like that of the Shu'ulathoi leading it, I don't think learning & using English and other human languages is a particularly herculean task for the Combine regardless.

[Takashi Strauss]

These combine are humans.

[adam,.... (CANNOT FLY LOACH)]

İlk olarak Kyle Calhoun tarafından gönderildi:

These combine are humans.

This

[MXK]

İlk olarak ppeccin tarafından gönderildi:

Aren't they an alien race?

Dude.... it's sci-fi so by definition you can make up ANY nonsensical excuse you please, including, but not limited to:

Civilization so advanced they can learn ALL the languages of the world in split second.
Telepathic learning
Visiting us cloaked for years and learning our culture until major invasion happened or Black Mesa events accelerated Earth's take over.
[insert random excuses here]

You limiting your imagination to what only humans can achieve.

EDIT: ooops, I have just realized I have already addressed this topic! YIKES!