Half-Life 2 is the game of the DECADE!

[Mazty]

Scoobes said:

Mazty said:

Most of the game you aren't anywhere near Alyx...
Now you are just skirting the issue that filling in the blanks isn't a legitmate excuse for characters acting as if the silent protagnist has spoken. Imagination is good for books, but not for a post-2000 FPS. You weren't filling in gaps left on purpose, you were making do with what the tech provided. Having Gordon silent was a choice made by the devs rather then something that couldn't be helped. 

If I wanted to use my imagination I'd read a book. Plus with that reasoning you could argue that every game is a masterpeice by just using your imagination to conjure up the necessary scenarios required to make the game brilliant. 

Now on the contrary I'd argue that SotC does a much better job with a silent protagonist partially due to the simplicity of the story, which makes it all that more believable. One guy and his horse, out to save a girl/woman for a mysterious reason. Due to the lack of others in the world, it makes sense why you are silent, plus it also fits the vast beautiful scenery very well. 

Yes it's on purpose and a design decision. Gordon Freeman is an avatar of yourself, so your imagination is simply to fill in his personality with your own. It's not a big leap in logic considering it's always kept in first person perspective. You aren't conjuring up scenarios.

As for SotC, I'm not entirely sure Wanda counts as silent. He has one companion in the game and he calls his name relatively frequently. Considering the relationship of trust between Wanda and Agro, I actually think that's fairly important in the grand scheme of the game... even if it is only one name/word, the relevance is huge.

Bzzt. Wrong answer. You are not meant to fill Gordon with your own personality, otherwise you would have much more freedom. If you were a narcissistic power greedy lunatic you wouldn't be helping them would you? And Alyx wouldn't take a liking to you either...

Freeman isn't an avatar for yourself in the way that Commander Shepard is. It's meant to be seen that you are Freeman, a scientist saviour out to help the good folk on earth. 

He also whistles for Agro...I can't see how you can fill in the gaps for non-existant conversation but say that calling for a horse somehow breaks the silent protaginist idea? If you are imaging conversation then Gordon's anything but silent...