Poll: Would you like it if Gordon Freeman talked in future Half-Lifes?

[exxxed]

Nope, because Gordon Freeman ain't a character to begin with, he's just an identity for the player to experience the world/atmosphere in the game more personally, suddenly making a character out of him would ruin some of the appeal the series garnered up to this point.

When I enter Half-Life I am Gordon Freeman.

Cheers!

 

[chozo_hybrid]

I'd like them to give him a voice, but he'd have to sound like Christopher Lloyd though!

 

[Zhukov]

Jarring.

I'm not a big fan of silent protagonists, but once you've started with one I'd prefer that you bloody well stick with it.

Besides, Valve have shown themselves capable of pulling it off well.

 

[Evonisia]

I think it'd be the same as giving a voice to Samus Aran in Metroid: Other M. It's likely to fail but it's not a bad idea in principal. Thankfully Valve knows to write and voice characters, so I think Gordon would be alright, and hopefully he won't speak too much to show off the fact that he can talk.

 

[Vegosiux]

IF he talks, I want his first line to be...

"Okay, so I've been quietly putting up with this all the time now, but this, this is so outrageously, incredibly stupid, that I simply can't stay silent anymore."

 

[Goofguy]

Nope, keep the status quo.

Regardless of the VA, a good percentage of people would have a problem with it. It'd detract from the rest of the game once you'd have people complaining about Freeman's voice.

 

[GoaThief]

Hell no, keep him (me) silent.

Games like Dishonored are better for having silent PC characters, I wish more would take stock. Especially RPGs, Dragon Age 2 is a classic example of how to ruin a franchise by adding a voice to the PC.

 

[Nomadiac]

It would've been better if they'd just made the character voiced to begin with.

As it stands, however, Gordon Freeman is a silent protagonist, and I imagine voicing him would cause all sorts of problems for people's conceptions of him - who he is, what he acts like and what he sounds like.

 

[MysticSlayer]

No, I'd much rather him remain silent. The nature of the Half-Life games means that the voice acting will have to be done more in line with how they did it in BioShock Infinite, as there are no normal cutscenes to have the voice overs in. I know I used to want more voiced protagonists in FPS games, but after Infinite, I really don't. It is just so awkward to play an FPS protagonist that talks as much as DeWitt does, as it becomes hard to really immerse yourself in the character when he is so independent from you in his thoughts and speech. It works in a third-person game or in an FPS with third-person cutscenes, as there's already a minor disconnect from the character that allows you to accept that you're really following their story, not your own story, no matter how immersed in the game, its world, and its character you may become. The nature of an FPS requires that extra sense of immersion that comes with believing that this is your own story, not someone else's, no matter how linearly set the story is or if the protagonist has a name. Voice acting really just takes you away from that experience.

Maybe there's a way to do it properly, and BioShock Infinite just really messed it up, but I honestly find it hard to see how Half-Life could do it any better than Infinite. If I had to compare the most annoyingly silent protagonist I've ever played (Alcatraz from Crysis 2) to DeWitt, I'd still prefer the silent protagonist. Consequently, I'm sure that I'd much rather see Freeman remain silent in future Half-Life games.

 

[bafrali]

It would just be a jarring and awkward addition to the franchise by this point. It may be a trivial change as far as the game play is concerned but it would completely destroy any kind of investment in the franchise as it becomes someone else's story (at least for me). Unlike other games in the franchise I would have given up on it after one playthrough because if I can't immerse myself in the post apocalyptic wastelend without Freeman butting in, what is the point?

 

[Rariow]

No. No, no, no, no, no. No no no no.
No.

The reason I love Half-Life's story, as little as there is, is how open Gordon is to intepration. Is he doing this for the lolz? Is he begrudgingly being pulled into everything? Does he feel the Gman is good or bad? Maybe he actually agrees with Breen, thinking himself a monster? Every playthrough, I interpret what Gordon can be feeling differently, depending on how I'm feeling myself. Gordon spelling it out for us would be simply annoying to me. I wouldn't enjoy that part where the first game is kinda horror-ish if Gordon started gibbering to himself about how scared he is, or if he started pulling one-liners. Can you imagine the end of Episode 2 with Gordon talking? I can, and it could only turn out badly.

Is there space for a game with his type of plot with a talking protagonist? Hell yeah. But as I've always said, if you want to make that game, make a new IP. It's the same attitude I take to the new Fallout games: I love them, I just wish they hadn't come at the cost of traditional Fallout, they should've just been a new IP. If Valve wanted Gordon Talkman, just do some kind of parallel universe thing, or even just a similar game.

That said, if Gordon Freeman talked in future Half-Lifes, I wouldn't protest, because it'd mean the bloody things are coming out already. OK, who am I kidding, I'd ***** and moan, but at least not on release day.

Maybe on the evening of release day.

 

[Esotera]

Only if they make the voice acting absolutely hilarious, like this:


Otherwise I think they should just stick with the silent protagonist, it works well.

 

[Dandark]

Only if his lines are copy pasted straight from Borderlands 2 Kreig. Only then may freeman be allowed a voice.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

i've never liked those games in the first place anyways, but one of the biggest disconnects for me was being a floating camera and having the entire story sort of wrap around me like i was a rock in a river, i had absolutely no interaction with anything, hell he doesn't need a voice in the slightest, just being able to have some sort of dialogue or input occasionally would help connect with the fact that gordon IS a person and not just a floating camera.

but as mentioned by some, i'm sure i'm in a minority since i didn't care for the games in the first place.

 

[Chester Rabbit]

He does, and he sounds like Vegeta from DBZ Abridged.

 

[BrotherRool]

I don't like silent protagonists and I don't think Gordon Freeman is great and it leads to some very weird situations with how the people in his world interact with him but I still think he shouldn't talk. Because he's already established in people's heads and removing it would create a huge scandal pointlessly and do more damage than it helped with.

The solution is, when Valve next make an IP (if they ever really make a new IP =D) to not do the same thing, but it's too late to correct it for Half Life. Chell works because you never interact with people at all in the Portal world (And I like to think she's canonically mute in Portal 2)

 

[Evonisia]

Hell no, keep him (me) silent.

Games like Dishonored are better for having silent PC characters, I wish more would take stock. Especially RPGs, Dragon Age 2 is a classic example of how to ruin a franchise by adding a voice to the PC.

Really? I thought Dishonored's Corvo was awful because he was silent. Why give the character a face, history and a name, but not only keep them silent, but give them dialogue options? Make's it quite creepy how Emily's so happy to see you and how everyone respects you.

 

[Rose and Thorn]

It would kind of ruin the rest of the series for me a little. Just a little though, I think I would still love the games. It would just be weird if he just started talking out of nowhere. So I would say I prefer it if he didn't speak.

Only if they make the voice acting absolutely hilarious, like this:

I used to love watching that series!

 

[Doom972]

No. Giving him a voice (and therefore a personality) in future games would just break immersion for me and I won't enjoy it as I would have otherwise. Unless there's a way to turn his voice off and have the dialogues still makes sense, I think that it's a bad idea.

There's no way I'll ever want to hear his v-

Well, tell me something. Is asking for the Freeman's Mind guy out of line?

I guess there's an exception for everything. Yes, let's do that one.