Gordon Freeman is not the good guy

Half-Life Series
#1

He kills hundreds of soldiers, human and alien, who are only following orders, mostly unwillingly, from superiors who are only trying to protect their species and work for the greater good. He is given a chance to surrender to the HECU marines, but doesn’t, and keeps on killing. He makes a deal with the devil to escape an accident that may have been partially his fault. He murders Breen, who is simply a figurehead bureaucrat who seems to have good intention for humanity, even if he is a little misguided, and has not directly hurt anyone.

I’m not saying that Freeman is a bad guy, he’s just not a total hero sometimes.

“Tell me, Dr. Freeman, if you can. You have destroyed so much. What is it, exactly, that you have created? Can you name even one thing? I thought not.”

#2

yeah, not to mention that those humans just want to toss you grenades filled with cake, aliens want to hug you, headcrabs want to pat your head, and the best of all, when the HECU wants to make friends with you, they catch you on suprise and beat the living shit out of you. Not to mention that your true friend, Dr. Breen, hires metrocops just to protect the citizens from the Overwatch.

Freeman is the good guy, why? He quickly drops anyone who wants to harm him
and also he enabled humans to have secks again, and you dare to say that’s bad!

#3

It’s cooler when he’s a bad dude. He even has a slick mullet with a ponytail in HL1.

#4

He was a bad guy when the game was still Quiver.

#5

Maybe so, but wouldn’t you want to survive yourself? The HECU and aliens, all want him dead, i don’t know about you, but i’m sure if I were in his shoes I’d do the same, and i’m sure anyone else would do the same.
Doesn’t make him bad, hes just trying to survive, mostly, it’s all self defence.

#6

The Marines were ordered to kill every single living being in Black Mesa. And what do you think would happen to Gordon if he actually surrendered to them? Their superior would just put a bullet in his head. Simple as that.

#7

I must admit, Valve could do worse with an ending. Seriously having Gman or the Combine tell you that you’re evil, would break down the moral feeling you have been having. It would certainly cause some emotion.
Regardless, it’s not the ending I want. I wanna fight gman to the [COLOR=‘Red’]death!

#8

So you think Mathematicians are better in dealing with Alien Invasions ?

#9

I completely disagree; the game could have been a completely plotless shoot-fest ending in the President of the United States meeting you and saying “Congraturation soldier you did it” and it would be better than that.

Telling the player he’s been doing something evil with absolutely no choice involved in his part is just plain dumb. I feel like every single “arty” indie game recently has been doing it, and the only one in which it halfway made sense was Braid. In Cave Story, it accumulated to so much bullshit I just stopped playing entirely.

Besides, the one ABSOLUTE REQUIREMENT of a video game’s storyline is that the player’s actions must have a positive impact on it. Otherwise, they feel like it was a waste of their time to play. YES, there are games that break this rule, and yes those games are stupid.

[color=black]By the way, this MAY mean that when I finally get around to playing it, I will be very contemptful of Shadow of the Collossus. I acknowledge that.

#10

Well, who the fuck cares? There are waay too much videogames with good guys already.

#11

No videogames have good guys
It’s the truth

#12

hope

#13

I was actually thinking G-Man is neutral, not the devil. His motives (or the motives of his boss) are unknown. Sure he shows up in crazy situations, but he’s always simply observing. And he specifically mentioned that he had a job for Gordon. That wasn’t a deal with the devil, it was work. And a good, honest days work I say! :smiley:

Freeman is just doing what he’s forced to do. He isn’t a hero in the true definition because he isn’t selflessly sacrificing himself for the good of others…he’s just trying to survive.

Yes he’s saved people’s lives directly at times, but again he was forced. In the trainyard of Episode One Barney wouldn’t let him move along until all humans had gone first. Damn you Barney, you aren’t paying us!

#14

That’s the one thing I always liked about HL’s story. All combat is self defense, really. If you look at the big picture, you’ve been killing repurposed POWs (that are prisoners of something Gordon unleashed) for the most part. Thinking about it, I’m not sure if there even is a good guy or bad guy in the HL universe. Just people with different clashing intentions. I bet we’ll find out the combine are only taking other worlds to save their dieing orphan children or some shit like that.

#15

Or just trying to get power. Like Hitler :stuck_out_tongue:

#16

“GORDON! WHAT DID THAT STRIDER EVER DO TO YOU EXCEPT STOMP ON YOUR BUDDY?”

#17

You stole that quote from me. :expressionless:
But yes, he has created hope; think of the scientists in BM, or the oppressed masses of C17.

#18

I never played Braid, & I loved Cave Story, but I don’t remember that ever happening. The only time I remember A game doing anything like this is Bioshock, which probably doesn’t count because it seemed less like ‘you’re the bad guy’ and more like ‘you’re a tool’

Edit: maybe you just didn’t play far enough into the game.

#19

This. No one in Half Life comes across as particular good or evil except for the Combine, although we don’t actually know any of their motives. Xen seemed evil in the first game until you learned more about their motives. So I wouldn’t rule out them not really being evil.

#20

What about the HECU? They slaughtered scientists by the hundreds and most of them complained that they were too easy as targets.

Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.