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Gordon Freeman
From HalfLife 2 Knowledge Base
Personality and skills
Facts known about Freeman include that he is 28 years old at the time of Half-Life, has no dependents, and is a graduate of MIT, having earned a Ph.D. in theoretical physics. His thesis was entitled Observation of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Entanglement on Supraquantum Structures by Induction Through Nonlinear Transuranic Crystal of Extremely Long Wavelength (ELW) Pulse from Mode-Locked Source Array. A native of Seattle, Washington, Freeman harbored an early interest in theoretical physics, such as quantum mechanics and relativity. After observing a series of teleportation experiments conducted by the Institute of Experimental Physics, applications of teleportation became Freeman's obsession.
Eventually, he became disappointed with the slow pace of teleportation research in academia and began to search for a job in the private sector. By coincidence, Freeman's MIT mentor Dr. Isaac Kleiner had taken charge of a top-secret research project at the Black Mesa Research Facility and was looking for some associates. Freeman was an obvious choice. He accepted the job offer, hoping that at least part of the immense funding would go towards civilian applications of astrophysics and quantum computing.
At the start of the first game, Freeman is employed and lives at the top secret, integrated research facility known as Black Mesa Research Facility, located somewhere in New Mexico. He is assigned to the Anomalous Materials department, located deep inside the facility, doing nuclear and subatomic research. Quite humorously, while having obtained a Ph.D from the prestigious MIT, what work that the player actually does as Freeman (pressing a button and pushing a cart) does not require any intellectual expertise at all. Barney Calhoun pokes fun of this in the beginning portion of Half-Life 2, when Freeman performs similarly "technical" assistance.
Freeman is bespectacled, wears a goatee, and is quite athletic. Although seeming to be an expert with weapons and explosives (depending on who is playing the game, of course), Freeman had actually not handled any weapons until the Black Mesa incident (aside from the butane-powered tennis ball cannon he constructed at age 6). What separates Gordon Freeman from other games heroes is that he is a scientist – a rather unlikely kind of hero when compared to past characters such as Duke Nukem, or the generic soldier types in many other games. This fact was poked fun of in Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory.
Appearances
Half-Life 2 begins with the G-Man speaking to Gordon. The scene is somewhat psychedelic, with the G-Man's face in extreme close-up fading in and out of visibility over backgrounds representing scenes from the original Half-Life as well as scenes he will visit in the course of Half-Life 2. The G-Man delivers a typically cryptic speech, concluding by telling Freeman he must "wake up and smell the ashes." (It is presumed that Gordon accepted the G-Man's job offer on the train at the end of Half-Life, since refusal brought certain death.) At the beginning of Half-Life 2, Freeman wakes up on a train with two citizens being "relocated" to City 17.
Freeman nevertheless starts without the suit. After a visit to Dr. Isaac Kleiner, his former professor, Freeman gets a new HEV suit, this time a Mark V. New features include a zooming capability, sprinting capability, and the capability to use Combine power nodes to charge the suit. Unlike the Mark IV however, the Mark V uses only one auxiliary power source for flashlights, sprinting and oxygen supply. In addition, the long-jumping module is no longer a feature. (The characters occasionally refer to this suit as Gordon's "old suit", indicating that it may simply have been upgraded.)
During the course of the second game, Freeman battles Combine forces in order to free humanity from its grasp. Periodically he meets up with, and fights alongside, organized resistance freedom fighters such as Barney Calhoun and Alyx Vance. Half-Life 2 "concludes" just as cryptically as its predecessor did, with perhaps even more questions unanswered.
