| Mazty said: I do see what you are getting at and I do appreciate the angle that Valve took. However, with CoD 4, you feel like you are a soldier, part of a war, whereas in HL2 you are just an old-school Rambo. As I said, when I play the game I feel like I'm just a charactless entity running-and-gunning my way around a different world, rather than being part of a bigger picture. Take for example Quake 4, where you felt part of an actual invasion fleet, taking on an alien race, rather than a super-charged Rambo. |
Rambo didn't have a PhD in Physics 
. And I don't think he's meant to be Rambo-like. More like someone that's been forced into a tough situation and makes the best of it as he will. I mean in Half-Life 1 he was just a plain scientist desperately trying to survive. In Half-Life 2 people herald you/Freeman as a saviour but I always felt that it was more a case of someone desperately strugling and surviving against the odds rather than a single guy against the world. A case of "Why are all these people sayign this stuff when all I'm trying to do is what's needed to survive?". It was more he'd become the way he was due to past experience. Just a humble scientist in a tough situation, but the general populace of the game don't know that. He was never fully combat trained (just some basic training at Black Mesa). I always felt that Freeman was the underdog barely managing to get by, yet somehow succeeding.
Btw, later on in Half-Life 2 you do get to lead teams and interact as part of a war, more in line with CoD.
Anyway, that was my take on Gordon Freeman.
