>>36187its just general dystopian schlock, 1984, Anthem, Fahrenheit 451, all lib dystopias look the same because they're lacking in material analysis.
i do find the combine really interesting however, they have ostensibly replaced currency with rationing, and abolished private property within their direct control, but it is clear they have some kind of class system of different species/engineered bureaucrats (the advisors). they have a pseudo military rank system with the citizens at the bottom, the civil protection in between, and the trans-humans at the top (of the human clade) but even the highest ranking trans-humans, the overwatch elite, effectively serve the same purpose as any other trans-human, suggesting the combine are only interested in assimilating other species insofar as it contributes to their bio-engineered hyper specialisation and division of labour.
the developers definitely did take the aesthetics of post-soviet countries into account when designing the combine, (see the beta poster in picrel) however i sincerely doubt this was done with any conscious political intent, but was a side effect of them changing the setting of the game from an american style city, into a post-soviet eastern bloc inspired city early into the development, they had done this specifically because they already decided that the citadel would be the site of the final confrontation, and they wanted it to stand out from the scenery around it so it would always look ominous, looming in the distance. because of this the art director who was from sofia, bulgaria, suggested they based city 17 on their hometown because it had no skyscrapers at the time and so would have a nice contrast of the giant citadel against the skyline. i imagine the eastern european and post soviet influences on the art direction simply continued from there.
also i would like to point out that the architecture actually created by the combine themselves, rather than assimilated from previous owners, is much more alien and not particularly comparable to any real world counterpart, certainly not a soviet allegory.