Poll Question 116 – Would you like to fight against Gordon Freeman in a mod?

22nd March 2009

Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3

I was chatting with Your Evil Twin this week testing my Skype recording system and as we were shooting the breeze he mentioned a mod he had start a long time ago called Critical Mass.

If the mod had been finished and released it would have allowed the player to actually fight AGAINST Dr. Gordon Freeman! I found this idea interesting becasue I have never heard of a mod that planned to do that.

Personally I didn’t like the sound of it, in the same way I don’t want Freeman to ever speak. Precedents have been set and breaking them now would break a spell for me. I don’t mind playing against the rebels sometimes but to take the ultimate step and kill Freeman is too much, at least for me.

What about you?

The Poll

26 Comments

  1. While it could be fun to fight him as a boss, I don’t really like boss battles, or putting Gordon Freeman into mods without a reason. But if anyone made it, I’d give it a try. I voted no.

  2. I would love a chance to fight against him. Especially if I could beat him only with a crowbar.

  3. Ricki

    You can fight against Gordon in mod for HL1 (don’t know exact name but I think something like BlackOps)
    I think it’s on PP too.

  4. Anonymous

    isn’t that the idea of “opposing force”?

  5. isn’t that the idea of “opposing force”?

    Yes, but you never actually get to fight him.

    You can fight against Gordon in mod for HL1 (don’t know exact name but I think something like BlackOps) I think it’s on PP too.

    Hmm, can you kill him?

  6. mastercman333

    I think it would be cool, just because it would be a challenge, well, if his AI is coded good.

  7. It would be awesome. He is so tough. We should fight him and if we can endure him until the end of the fight, he should knock us out. THen he goes away and we go to our own way. This is for a HL universe mod of course. If it is not it can be a very tough boss fight. I’d love to have a fight against freeman.

  8. WizardExt

    I don’t like the idea of fighting against Gordon Freeman. He is a hero and fighting evil in a world of chaos. In the Half-Life universe I don’t see how it would be a good thing to battle against Gordon. Why would the player want that?

  9. I know for a fact that Gordon Freeman has died thousands of times… what’s one more? 🙂 Seriously, it might be a challenge for a modder to give Gordy some respectable AI, but I’d certainly love to play such a mod if it was done well. fighting against Alyx or Barney would be much more difficult for me, but Gordon is fair game in my book.

  10. Straven

    If a modder could give this concept a great story then fighting Freeman would be a good thing.
    EXAMPLES:
    1.Real Mod:You fight him in a HL2 mod called HL2 old school,(here on PP) and the reason for this is that he is an evil clone created to fight you, or at least so it is implied by the scenery.
    2.Story Idea: You have to fight Freeman from an elite combine perspective first at the beginning of a mod and he completely dominates you and for some reason knocks you out and then you wake up some time later and swear revenge and you then fight him again at the end of the mod in an epic boss fight and you win
    3.Story Idea: You’ve been working to the goal of finding a combine secret weapon/rebel weapon gone bad, and you find out it’s a Freeman cloning project and you have to fight one to destroy the facility/project.

  11. Ricki

    Hmm, can you kill him?

    Of course! After you kill him you continue in story.
    As I remember he’s reskinned Barney with colt,and has about 200 health.
    I killed him with slowmotion effect you can use in this mod.
    I think it’s this:
    /posts/black-death-half-life/

    1. I don’t think I have played that mod. The reviews don’t seem too promising!

  12. Kyouryuu

    I don’t have any real problem with fighting Freeman, but I think in trying to stay within Valve design sense, fighting him indirectly would probably be the preferred way to go. That is, instead of getting into a one-on-one deathmatch with him personally, maybe he is controlling a machine or manipulating things in a level to get in your way. Passive engagement, in other words.

  13. There is an HL2 mod called Combine Combat that does this, except you’re chasing him, and don’t actually battle him (tho I was looking forward to doing so). I think it would be a cool thing to do.

    1. Yes, I did think of CC when I wrote the poll but since you don’t catch him I didn’t mention it.

  14. Ade

    Yeah, it doesn’t have to be a one-on-one thing, you could have different purposes and go through the entire mod pushing buttons, solving puzzles in parallel, or fighting a war but never actually facing him. Or it could turn into a psychological, mind twisting thing like you fight yourself, or your alter ego. Too bad I can’t be technical about how exactly this could be implemented.
    The question does not specify: as whom do I fight against GF? I could also be Barney, fighting for Alyx or sumthin. In that case, sure, I’d go for a one-on-one, only if I have the chance to outsmart him in a big, complicated map, because I know that face to face, my chances are slim if he’s not weakened first.

  15. Anonymous

    you were shooting the breeze like smoking some pot? I would fight dr gordon because hes a nerd, and in the middle of the rebels if it wasnt for the suit people would kick his ass soon

  16. PP, you should try Combine Combat, you might like it.. the sniper rifle alone is worth it.

    1. I’ve played CC, where do you think the screenshots come from and how did I write my review! BTW, I didn’t like the sniper rifle. Lastly, chasing and fighting GF are very different.

  17. isn’t that the idea of “opposing force”?

    Indeed, the original concept of my Critical Mass mod was that it was essentially a sort of Opposing Force 2. I thought it was a real cop-out that Opposing Force’s description said that you were one of the soliders sent in to kill Freeman, yet in the game you only got to see Freeman for about two seconds, and you didn’t even get to fight any Black Mesa civillians. You didn’t feel like part of the “Opposing Force”.

    At the time Valve hadn’t released info on the story of Half-Life 2. In Critical Mass the G-Man was part of a cabal within the government that posessed teleportation, nanotechnology etc and which reckoned they were the only ones responsible enough to use such technology.

    The plot was that G-Man would seemingly “release” Adrian Shephard but would actually use him as a pawn in a scheme to shut down a new military project, and then attempt to eliminate him when he outlived his usefulness. He’d fool the US military into thinking you were a threat, send special Black Ops teams to assassinate you, and even teleport in Gordon Freeman.

    Gordon Freeman was intended to be a recurring boss character. Essentially, he would be The Terminator. He’d teleport in, attack you with an aresnal of powerful weapons, and you’d have to try and survive and wear him down. When you injured him enough he would escape, only to come back back later even more heavily armed.

    The mod was supposed to have multiple endings. In one, you’d stop the scheme and destroy the headquarters of the sinister government agency, but G-Man would escape and Freeman’s fate would be unknown. This was intended to be consistant with any future Half-Life game.

    In the alternative ending, you’d ignore the agency and go to G-Man’s mansion to get revenge on him personally. In the final showdown, he’d appear to be unbeatable thanks to his advanced technology, but Freeman would see that he was vulnerable and turn against him, and aid you in the final fight. Together, Freeman and Shephard would destroy him once and for all.

  18. I’ve played CC, where do you think the screenshots come from and how did I write my review! BTW, I didn’t like the sniper rifle. Lastly, chasing and fighting GF are very different.

    Egh, I figured you got one of your little enslaved vortigaunts to get the screencaps for you, and then give you the Cliff’s Notes for the summary. :-p

    Fuddy-duddy. 😉

  19. my Critical Mass mod

    Dude? Where?

  20. It’s the mod Phillip mentioned at the very top of this page. The mod was never finished (only a few levels were made for it, and only half the coding done).

  21. y.e.t., why are you sitting here yammerin” when you could be finishing the mod??? GET BACK TO WORK, YOU…

    😉

  22. GeorgeC

    At first I thought it might be fun but then realised that, the AI wouldnt be good enough.

  23. If it’s going to be done, it has to be done well. It also has to have a good reason. Otherwise don’t bother.

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