The Borg, Cybermen, Combine, or Zombies. Who do you join?

[Invictus ChiKen]

The Combine seems the best chance to live a normal life when this is all over.

[Tasoth]

If I remember HL2 correctly, and it has been a while since I've played, the Combine just don't come by and subjugate you, they strip mine your planet. There are points in HL2 where the stages are supposed to be shore lines where the ocean has receded severely from where it was. The stacks of storage pods in the old prison which may have potentially been full of humans coupled with the constant disappearance of citizens from City 17 also point that they see humans as a resource to be exploited. Doesn't The Combine also inhibit humanities ability to reproduce also?

[kouchpotato]

The Borg would be complete assimilation of your personality and individuality. They're far from the most powerful faction here so joining them is really a matter of giving up everything that makes you, you just to die anyhow.

The Cybermen would have similar problems. You lose your individuality and personality unless you're very, very lucky. You would have extremely strong armor and weapons. Cybermen have been observed to be killed by explosives and heavy weaponry, so they are far from invulnerable.

Zombies, you go through an extremely painful transformation process to become a mindless shambling meat sack that poses no threat to any of the other factions. Next!

The Combine are unique. Most of the Combine faced in the game are occupation forces, and the synths, which are the biggest threat, are what they used to conquer Earth. The standard weapon on a synth is as powerful if not more powerful than anything the next strongest faction, the Cybermen, possess. You don't automatically use your personality when you join up, and have the best chance of victory.

I'm going to have to go with the Combine.

[Kamakazie Sith]

The Borg would be complete assimilation of your personality and individuality. They're far from the most powerful faction here so joining them is really a matter of giving up everything that makes you, you just to die anyhow.

The Cybermen would have similar problems. You lose your individuality and personality unless you're very, very lucky. You would have extremely strong armor and weapons. Cybermen have been observed to be killed by explosives and heavy weaponry, so they are far from invulnerable.

Zombies, you go through an extremely painful transformation process to become a mindless shambling meat sack that poses no threat to any of the other factions. Next!

The Combine are unique. Most of the Combine faced in the game are occupation forces, and the synths, which are the biggest threat, are what they used to conquer Earth. The standard weapon on a synth is as powerful if not more powerful than anything the next strongest faction, the Cybermen, possess. You don't automatically use your personality when you join up, and have the best chance of victory.

I'm going to have to go with the Combine.

I would agree with you if there wasn't a Cube in orbit. Take away the Cube and the Borg lose some serious staying power.

[Korgeta]

I'll go with the borg because at least (in a somewhat twisted sense) humanity may be preserved, heck if it's the voyager borg series then I may get lucky enough to have my subconscious merged with some rogue collective ultramatrix or whatever it was called but if that doesn't come about then at least i can go round assimilating everyone else. hey one can only hope Lore makes a return and turns the borg into pyscho rebels once more!

[RowanE]

Since the borg have a hive mind (i think) that's going to be the closest thing to keeping my personality. And since there's a massively powerful ship in orbit to give fire support, and beam up enemies to assimilate, it wouldn't be all that difficult.

Since the borg are trying to acheive perfection - "your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own" - i'd expect after assimilating/trying to assimilate the one cyberman, they'll hopefully start making similarly armed and armoured borg bodies. If not, i'll just hope not to be the ones in the line of fire.

[TC27]

Combine but I would only want to be a cop - the soldiers are surgically altered and probaly have a brainwipe and it all looks unpleasent (I think this is what you see a Nova Prospekt).

Also the combine cop suits seem to give the wearer orgasms if you do good which is no bad thing.

[Werrf]

I'd go with zombies, thanks. Think about it - all the others get defeated in the end. Only zombies ever end the film/game/whatever victorious even occasionally

[loomer]

The Cybermen's military record is not inspiring. I don't know enough about the combine guys, though I seem to recall that they're outright sadists, so, Borg it is. It sure beats being a zombie.

Sadists? They're into transhumanism very heavily, but you can work for them and retain yourself completely. Notably, Barney was working with the Combine for years, and held some small degree of authority without any obvious negatives. They have some sort of scheme going where you volunteer for memory replacements, and then you get given a higher rank just like that. Presumably this is to instill loyalty in their higher ups and so on, but it's entirely avoidable.

Militarily, huge open question as to whether the combine could take the Borg. They're interdimensional and very high tech, but with no obviously quantifiable abilities. But I'd much rather be a part of the combine than part of any of the other factions, that's for sure. At the very least, I could be a Metrocop and abuse my powers to make people pick up cans and shit.

They're sadistic as well - the CPs have beating quotas, if we're to believe Barney, and they see nothing wrong with using torture for interrogations and just plain punishments in their prisons.