Why is Gordon Freeman so popular?

[Callate]

He's never said anything stupid.

Everyone who meets him seems to instinctively know that they can count on him to get the job done and do the right thing.

He's "The One Free Man."

He's an unlikely hero, unlike most- no military background, no superhuman abilities, didn't even come in to work that day with the intention of doing much more than his job as a scientist. Perservered anyway.

And, of course, he's in one of the best designed and paced games every created. Doesn't hurt.

 

[aztec coyote]

i did play the game. 1,2, and episode 1 so i have played it first hand. i like the atmosphere, and most of the story, but i don't like it's exaggeration of terms of weapons carried. i read most of the stuff from the link you added, but in no way do you have to adapt on the fly in terms of weapons. you can easily save your stronger weapons when you need them and waste all ammo found on the ground on the weaker enemies. sure, the beginning is difficult and ammo really is scarce, but later on you are practically carrying an armory's worth of firepower it's games like halo where you have to adapt. out of ammo for your trusty rocket launcher? too bad. switch it for a plasma pistol left by a fallen friend or enemy to save your but or do things the hard way and hope your other weapon will be enough to save you. and i played both games on their hardest difficulty. with halo it really is you against all odds. with halflife its not exactly a walk in the park, but not hell on earth either.

 

[CheckD3]

Because Half Life is a popular franchise in which you play as someone as mysterious as Mr. Freeman. Plus he's silent, but has a face and name, so he's remembered for that...

 

[Branches]

I mean comparatively, how compelling is Master Chief? A guy who runs behind the nearest rock until his imaginary shield recharges and he charges right back into the fight. But shit, for everything Gordon's got, he still cowers like a three year old in a battles against huge odds and relies mainly on chairs, saw blades, and pistol rounds to even get through a level.

As Gordon Freeman, you're backtracking through entire levels for a lucky batch of health, or a desperately needed power pack. As 'Roach' in Modern Warfare 2, you can find weapons littered across the entire level in some of the most precarious places and even on your enemies. Even then their are 300 nicely packed magazines next to the gun, totally unlike Gordon Freeman, you can't pick up a headcrab and hope to use it against the enemy, next thing you know their ripping off your face after you open your pack to pull your RPG.

Half-Life isn't all these other FPS's, where everything you need magically appears around the corner, or the AI Director drops it in strategic places across the map, nor does it allow you anything but what you can find. And That's good. We like that. Because in the end, we're all about the strategy of survival. The guy never speaks, and that's honestly the best. If Gordon Freeman said anything besides "UGH" or "*Breath,breath,breath*" It'd ruin him.

Could you imagine? Friggin Freeman speaking and saying something like "Tentacled" as a scientist is pulled away or "That's what I thought" as he blows up a strider. No. You make your own quips. Your own observations. And in the end, You try your best, and you CONSTANTLY fail.

It's almost an advertisement to that section of the gamer population that believes that when zombies, aliens, or super powered mutant comes, their fat asses will still swing a sword like Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai. Just because you don't have to reload a sword, doesn't mean you're not going to lose a leg to the thing.

When the chips are down, and Gordon Freeman's out of ammo, out of options, and out of health. He'll hold his Gravity gun or Crowbar up as the sounds of enemies draw closer, the glow of mechanical eyes or even Gorgonauts lasers draw near, and he will use the last bits of ammunition, the last ounces of strength and determination, all that he has left to hold out just one second longer for that door to open, or that hack to finish. And in the end, He's only as good as the man behind the curtain.

 

[Pegghead]

He has a fantastic design, he is a fantastic hero of the people and how many other FPS characters can you name (From BEFORE the incredible popularity of half life) who had glasses, a beard and were a scientist?

Plus half life 2 is so fantastic that, well...(In Ellis voice) If tha laws of nature would persist I would bare that games children.

 

[Random Argument Man]

He's a face. That's it. A face. Valve decided to give a silent protagonist a face.

The actual character doesn't really have any impact. It's the world around him that defines him. Everybody in Half-Life 2 describes as the hero that will change the tide of battle. The people of the Half-Life universe describes him as some hope. Everybody just has a positive image of him. There's also the G-Man that seems to have chosen Gordon for some reasons.


I only played Half-Life 2 and I don't understand what the fuss is about. I also don't know much else. Therefore, you may correct me at anytime.

Note* Then again, the fanboys do needs a figure to stand with. I doubt they would do a flamewar against Master chief with a random headcrab. (Although, I would watch it for the "lulz").

2nd Note* Can someone explain me how an MIT learned to use a Assault rifle, alien weapons and others with precise aiming?

 

[Therumancer]

I've been wondering this for quite a while now. Can someone please explain to me what the obsession with Freeman is? As a character he's about as generic as they come. I fail to see why this one silent FPS character has become so much more popular than the countless others. Is it just because the Half-Life games are good?

Actually he's fairly original as far as such things go. He's like one of the guys who would normally die in the first fifteen seconds of this kind of a game/scenario before the real heroes (the traditional military types and wisecracking heroes with wooden hair) make an apperance.

You have to consider that Half Life has been around a LONG time now, that means it's spawned imitators and in many cases the original can look generic compared to them when you forget who tends to be imitating what.

For example the engineer "Issac Clarke" from "Dead Space" seemed like an attempt to do the same basic formula. Create a hero that wasn't military in the kind of scenario normally with a space marine, who does all the same stuff. In that case for example it didn't work as well, where with Gordie it did.


As far as the lack of voice work, well I will say that I think people have an unhealthy obsession with it. Truthfully in many cases I prefer a silent protaganist, both because it lets me associate myself with the character somewhat, and also because half the time when moving the plot along it makes me feel like the main character is stupid. I mean if you need a dissertation to explain things, it works better without the protaganist acting like a reject half the time.

I look at say Mass Effect 2 as being the biggest offender here to an extent (and I like that game more than Half Life). People praise it for having all this dialogue by "Sherpard", but in most of the situations you have no real control over what is going to happen. What seem to be the logical things to say or do are not even options, and in many cases what you wind up selecting isn't even close to what comes out of the character's mouth. If I'm going to get railroaded, you might as well just use a cinematic or give my silent protaganist a dissertation with a good/evil button. Right now we simply don't have the technology to create a truely interactive dialogue system, and as time goes on the novelty of the character I control having a scripted voice is beginning to wear kind of thin.

Plus to be honest with a character like Gordan I don't think he could be properly voiced to be honest. In doing so they would either turn him into a stereotypical tough guy hero, or into a complete nerd and the game into a parody. In general what makes for a good concept on paper does not nessicarly work when you have it acted out. This is one of the reasons why certain characters go through such radical changes when a book is adapted to a movie or whatever. Simply put you can't do it "right" and get properly cinematic results. I think Gordan is an example of that in gaming.

 

[RobCoxxy]

Because everybody loves the strong, silent type.

 

[duchaked]

He always gets into bad situations. Wrong place at the wrong time.

hahaha that just about sums it up

The beard.

and yes, this (beat me to it) lol

 

[humantis]

Gordon Freeman is dynamic. Each player is presented with an opportunity to speculate his personality. These speculations are rarely contradicted by cut-scenes, dialog and game play. Thus allowing the player to mold a character to their needs and wants. Obviously there must be a standard to be followed. Which is why appearance, age, gender and education is factored, the rest can be player generated.

 

[alinos]

I mean comparatively, how compelling is Master Chief? A guy who runs behind the nearest rock until his imaginary shield recharges and he charges right back into the fight. But shit, for everything Gordon's got, he still cowers like a three year old in a battles against huge odds and relies mainly on chairs, saw blades, and pistol rounds to even get through a level.

As Gordon Freeman, you're backtracking through entire levels for a lucky batch of health, or a desperately needed power pack. As 'Roach' in Modern Warfare 2, you can find weapons littered across the entire level in some of the most precarious places and even on your enemies. Even then their are 300 nicely packed magazines next to the gun, totally unlike Gordon Freeman, you can't pick up a headcrab and hope to use it against the enemy, next thing you know their ripping off your face after you open your pack to pull your RPG.

i dunno about you but i never had to backtrack for health sure sometimes i ran out of ammo occasionally

bah MC is the stupidest universe ever you have your Atomic Bomb Gun(Halo 1 Pistol) and then once you get to the second game u just say #$%@ it i wanna have to hide

 

[Gauntes]

Well, you have to take him as a whole into consideration. Gordon's childhood consisted mostly of quantum physics and worshiping Einstein and Stephen Hawking. He graduated from MIT with a Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics. The dude is more than just a nerd, but a flat out genius scientist. In fact, I'm pretty sure he was the youngest scientist in all of Black Mesa. When you looked at everyone else in that compound, almost everyone was pushing 50, at least.

and yet they shoved him in Black Mesa as "Research Assistant"
bah

 

[Angryman101]

It's because Gordon Freeman can't talk and annoy us with retarded shit.

The post you got put on probation for was really, really funny.
He's a player insert. He's...you, basically. Your thoughts and your feelings are his thoughts and feelings.

 

[Nazulu]

I think it's because the games made such a big impact and the fans need an icon.

 

[SMILEYkyle21]

because he's a highly relate-able, well developed, deep protagonist who.......... not sure where i was going with that

 

[Souplex]

The fact that he doesn't speak means his dialog doesn't have to come from Valve's writers.

 

[SomeBritishDude]

Because he's a huge nerd who beats the living shit out of the kind of guys who gave him wedgies on the playground.

Personally I don't get what the big deal is. Silent protagonists are non-characters in next to all cases. Gordon isn't a character. Or Chell. Or Samus. Or Link to a certain extent. They're ultimately just blank slates to paste your personality onto.

 

[Wolfram23]

Easy enough, while he himself is fairly "bland", the game really puts you in his shoes. So Gordon Freeman = you, and you are a friggin hero. So really the love of Freeman is simply people loving how the game made YOU Freeman. When you play the game, it's like everyone's getting your name wrong. Of course, it also helps that with the immersion and gameplay is an absolutely fantastic and epic story.