You make some good points. Of course, they contradict your earlier "Gordon is you" points, as you can discern things about his character that are independent of the player. If nothing else, he's the type of person who can graduate MIT with a Ph.D, so if that doesn't describe me, then Gordon is not me. Others have said that they like Gordon because he's an academic, but this is a part of his character, not their own. However, that's exactly the stuff I'm looking for.OlasDAlmighty said:
Indeed, it makes sense that, fresh off the train with no idea what's going on, Gordon would listen to his more experienced friends. The problem is that's all he ever does. Even as Gordon gains experience in the world, he never begins to act of his own volition, he never goes from being a follower to being a leader (of more than a couple ragtag rebels), and he never takes a single meaningful action of his own initiative.
You're right in saying this doesn't have to do with his silence. That's the point I was trying to make by comparing Gordon to other silent protagonists. I said I would like to see Gordon gain a voice, but I can think of ways to solve the above problems without one.
For instance, the game design itself could lead Gordon through events that turn out to have a massive impact on the outcome of the game, without the input of another character. As an example off the top of my head, Gordon could find himself stranded and cut off from his comrades, when, looking for a way out, he comes across a Combine prison camp, which he proceeds to liberate. In the process, he could find a crucial ally, or gain crucial information, or acquire a crucial weapon that turns the tide of the rest of the game. The player would, naturally, be led through these events by the game design and have no actual say in the matter, any more than they have a say in the matter of going to Nova Prospekt--but when it was done, we could say, beyond a shadow of a doubt, "Gordon did that. No one else--that was all him."
This could even have made its way into the game as it stands. What if, coming out of Ravenholm, Gordon was not contacted by Alyx? He would have no instructions and no idea whether the residents of Black Mesa East were alive. Perhaps Gordon could hear in the rebel outpost that survivors were most likely taken to Nova Prospekt, and decide himself to go there and look for them. The rebels could act skeptical of whether he can make it, or even tell him his plan is suicidally stupid, but their reactions could suggest Gordon was insistent, even though we never hear a word of his. We could go all the way from Ravenholm to Nova Prospekt without knowing whether Alyx and Eli are alive, and when he does find Alyx and joins up with her, even if he proceeds to take her advice from then on, we would know that he's there of his own initiative, leading, not following.. When Gordon is in the company of a supporting character like Barney, dialogue could be written to suggest that the latter isn't sure what to do but is following Gordon's lead, making Gordon the leader instead of the follower, even though we never hear a word of his.
Or how about this? In the finale of the last game in the series, Gordon breaks his chains. Through some explosive climax, Gordon makes it clear that he will no longer be anyone's pawn--not the G-Man's, not the Resistance's, not the Combine's, not the Vortigaunts', not anyone's. In the very last moment, Gordon could lay down his guns and walk away, leaving us with some view of a landscape so we can imagine for ourselves what he'll do next. If this were to happen, then I would forever remember as Gordon's most triumphant moment the moment he walked away. The man's life has been a never-ending firefight ever since he put a Xen crystal into an Anti-Mass Spectrometer, we all know he deserves this much.
This is all assuming, of course, that Gordon is not intended to be a pawn of powers beyond his control throughout the game. People in this thread have said this is a major theme, but I can't buy it for reasons I explained earlier. If Half-Life wanted to present helplessness as a major theme, then they should add some moral ambiguity to the way the Resistance uses Gordon. When Gordon is "rescued" by the Vortigaunts at the start of Episode One, he (and the player) may feel grateful at first, but this should be followed by an "out of the frying pan" feel accompanied by the slow realization that the Vortigaunts are no better than the G-Man. The episodes as they stand contain no such thing--in fact they employ every trick and illusion to hide their supposed major theme.
All this would serve to give Gordon a more independent character, without his having to say a word. But it would put an end to the illusion that Gordon is you. You and I are in agreement that Gordon's actions define him to an extent. But these are actions I may not have taken were I in his place--I was led through them by the game's design. Gordon is already not me, so he's better defined as a character, whether he's one who speaks or one who does not.
You're right about Half-Life 1. You'll notice I included it alongside Doom in my list of games where I feel a silent protagonist works--as you say, Gordon is acting on his own for most of the game. The problems begin in Half-Life 2, where Gordon gains a group of friends who tell him what to do from the start of the game to the finish. Most--if not all--of that game is Gordon acting at the behest of other people.
The key difference between Gordon and other silent protagonists is this. In spite of Link's lack of a voice (and with a little help from the postman), he manages to be insistent enough to get the pirates to support him in his assault on the Forsaken Fortress--not the other way around. Though he spends much of the rest of the game following the advice of the King of Red Lions, the King asked Link in the beginning whether he was willing to take up the quest, and Link said yes--whereas no one bothered to ask Gordon whether he wanted to take up his quest. Chell's break out of the test chambers in Portal 1 is entirely her own doing, no one else's. The Kid goes to places the Stranger didn't tell him to, or even told him not to, and in the end, he makes a couple crucial decisions that are in the hands of the player and that I won't spoil. The Doomguy invades hell and installs himself as its new ruler because he's just that badass. But there's nothing in Half-Life 2 or onward that we can say is entirely Gordon's doing. The most we can say is that he chose to follow the orders of the Resistance when he could have defected to the Combine.
This is to say nothing of your apparent stance that one word out of a video game protagonist shatters your immersion like a bullet through a window pane. If that's truly how you feel, then I'm sorry, for you must be unable to enjoy a great many of the great games out there.
