


In Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Eli Vance indicates that he also knows the G-Man, referring to him as "our mutual friend". They restrict his abilities to manipulate Gordon through a purple barrier allowing Gordon to exit stasis and return to City 17. In the introduction to Half-Life 2: Episode One, the Vortigaunts are able to directly confront him. During the final chapter of Half-Life 2, Doctor Breen speaks to Gordon Freeman, stating he has "proven himself a fine pawn for those who control him", and informing Freeman that his "contract was open to the highest bidder". Presence Īt the start of Half-Life 2, a Vortigaunt is seen speaking to the G-Man on a television. Freeman in this situation, but then give a slight smirk or smile at the end to keep you guessing about his sincerity." Before animating the G-Man's facial expressions, Wood spent weeks in front of a mirror practicing the expressions on himself. I would have him express an apologetic look toward Freeman as he 'regretted' to put Dr. When developing the G-Man in Half-Life 2, animator Doug Wood stated, "I wanted the player to never quite know what side the G-Man was on. The G-Man exudes a calm, almost uninterested demeanor – in situations in which other humans panic and flee, the G-Man can be seen calmly straightening his tie or brushing his suit lapels with his hand. His odd manner of speaking, along with his appearance, alludes to the behavior of the men in black in various reports, and the apparent age and physical status of the G-Man does not seem to change in the time that passes between Half-Life and Half-Life 2 (which, according to the Episode One website, is nearly twenty years). It is common for the G-Man to elongate "S" sounds. At the end of Half-Life 2, the G-Man emphasizes the word "time" repeatedly as well, most likely referring to the fact that moments before, he seemingly stopped time. The G-Man speaks in a slow, raspy yet commanding manner, with a certain accentuated low-key moroseness to his tone, sometimes placing unusual stress on syllables, stressing the wrong parts of words, making unneeded pauses, inhaling sharply and audibly throughout his speech, and awkwardly changing the pitch of his voice, sometimes in the middle of a word. The book Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar states that his appearance in Half-Life 2 is based on Frank Sheldon. He is conservative in appearance, dressed in an ordinary gray/blue two-piece business suit. The character has the appearance of a middle-aged, light-skinned male with a tall and thin physique, pale/chalky skin, dark brown hair shaped in a military-style crew cut with a prominent widow's peak, blue-green eyes, a purple tie and usually holding a briefcase.
HALF LIFE BLUE SHIFT CHARACTERS SERIES
The G-Man appears throughout the series either in monologue scenes that occur at key points in the story or in live gameplay, where he can be seen briefly in far-off background areas or locations that the player cannot access until later in the level where he has disappeared. Doug Wood, who designed the facial expressions of the Half-Life 2 G-Man model, wanted the player to never quite know what side the G-Man was on by giving him ambiguous facial expressions. It was chosen for the G-Man's appearance after Bill Van Buren created a modified image of Sheldon, with chopped-off hair and a scaled-down face shape. This title was later retconned to refer to Wallace Breen.įrank Sheldon, the person on whom the G-Man's Half-Life 2 model is based, was originally slated to be the model for Dr. His name has been confirmed and referred to in documentaries featuring Valve employees, as well as in the voice-actor credits for Half-Life 2 and in the book about game development: Raising the Bar.Ī description of the G-Man's nature is given in the comment section of the file "npc_G-Man.cpp" in the Source SDK file "sourcesdk.gcf": "// Purpose: The G-Man, misunderstood servant of the people." In the official Half-Life audio script, the G-Man is referred to as "Administrator", suggesting he is the one overseeing experiments. His name is derived from his Half-Life model and entity name and has since been reused in subsequent games of the series.
HALF LIFE BLUE SHIFT CHARACTERS CODE
However, within the Half-Life games, he is identified by this name only in the program code and the multiplayer profile menu as a default name option, not within the story itself. The G-Man's name comes from " G-man", an American colloquialism meaning "government man".
