u/Every-Result-4219

I did a lot of research and I think I may have determined what pre-seven-hour war country Half-Life 2 takes place in!

I started first by looking at the writing we see on some posters and graffiti. Throughout the game. Some are written in Cyrillic. We also know, thanks to the White Forest Resistance Base, that this country was once occupied by Soviet forces during the Cold War. This narrowed it down to 16 countries: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova, Latvia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Estonia and Kazakhstan, along with the Soviet satellite-state of Mongolia. Some countries not listed (Georgia, Lithuania, Latvia, Armenia, and Estonia) did write with Cyrillic but primarily used Latin characters so I ruled them out. Azerbaijan had also used Cyrillic but had made the transition into Latin in 1991, about a decade before the seven-hour war so it is also eliminated.

Next, I looked to see which of these countries bordered a large body of water, since a good amount of Half-Life 2 is along the coast. Russia borders thirteen seas and three major oceans (Arctic, Pacific, and Atlantic), so it is in the running. Ukraine borders the Black Sea. Uzbekistan borders the Aral Sea. Turkmenistan borders the Caspian Sea along with Kazakhstan. We now have five possible countries!

Next, I looked to see which of these countries had maximum-security prisons in the late 90s and early 2000s, since the Combine prison of Nova Prospekt is confirmed to have existed before the Combine takeover. Unfortunately, all these nations have prominent prisons but then I remembered the Nova Prospekt is along the coast and only Russia and Turkmenistan have coastal max-security prisons during the end of the 90s and beginning of the 2000s!

Finally, I looked at the map/globe from Half-Life Alyx which has a specific area of Eastern Europe circled. While close, Turkmenistan is just below the circle, eliminating it (also, it is mostly agreed that HL2 takes place in Eastern Europe and Turkmenistan is technically in Central Asia). This leaves us with Russia as the most likely location of Half-Life 2!

Here is some more examples that back up this theory:

- Father Grigori has heavy Russian accent and has a Russian surname

- Architecture resembles that of Russia

- Turkmenistan doesn’t have large forested area like in Half-Life 2 Episode 2 but Russia has many

- Turkmenistan does not have rocky coasts like Russia