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Youre not the only one who has this Headcanon Me and a few others I knew Also think Its fun to imagine or Interpret BETA concepts as Early-Occupation-Period stuff, or just remain unseen as they're sent off world or wasteland duty. Theres a lot of potential to enrich Half Life's Combine lore. As Breen puts it, the Combine is "Impossible with our limited Vocabulary." Gordon is also only ever been in City 17 and White Forrest, but the rest of Earth? There may be other interesting and unseen abominations and tech. Like for example: Right after the 7 Hour War, the air quality must've been horrible, so temporary gas masks may be issued to citizens. Air Exchange may be a proposed Idea, but Breen begged not to and negotiated, so they settled with Water Extraction and Extensive Mining instead. The Hunters arent even seen by Gordon right up until he left City 17 in white forest. The Crab Synths and Mortar Synths are seen being transported in the Citadel, but we never fought them, which opens up a huge possibility that a lot of the Synths that are cut or unused, either in the Leak or Concept Art are indeed used, but are sent off world or wasteland duty after the Combine achieve total control, and the newly Overwatch Human Unit/Branch is being massed produced. As Russell puts it "They've already won this War, Alyx..." The Cremator is a similar case to the one above. Or heck maybe the Supressor are sometimes outfitted to be on "Cremator duty", equipping an Immolator instead of a Pulse LMG as seen with the Alyx Concept Art. Elite Metrocops may still exists as squad leaders in the Metrocop Ranks, or Grunts acting as Squad Leaders (As seen with Grunts questioning Civilians after Alyx's escape), possibly being "human" enough to be in the Metrocop Ranks. Unused Overwatch Human Soldiers camo designs and insignias may just because they're on different squads, specialist squads, sent off world, discontinued, or merged with other units.

That would mean the Combine actually improved things.

Speaking of head-canons, I still can't remember if the Consol of the beta was still Dr. Breen. I always thought that if not, then the Beta could be a different timeline where either Breen died or otherwise didn't become the Administrator, thus not being able to negotiate with "Our Benefactors" for better conditions under Combine occupation. So, my head-canon is that the Retail or Beta timelines occurring can potentially be dependent on whether Breen survives and/or becomes Administrator.