Characters / Half-Life: Player Characters

Half-Life Character Index
Player Characters | Supporting Characters | Xen Aliens | The Combine | Other Antagonists

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Dr. Gordon Freeman

Dr. Gordon Freeman

Appearances: Half-Life | Half-Life: Opposing Force | Half-Life: Blue Shift | Half-Life 2 | Half-Life 2: Episode One | Half-Life 2: Episode Two | Half-Life: Alyx

Breen: "The man who you have consistently failed to slow, let alone capture, is by all standards, simply that: an ordinary man."

Age: 27.
Education: PhD in Theoretical Physics, MIT.
Employer and Position: Black Mesa Research Facility, Research Associate.
Assignment: Anomalous Materials Laboratory.
Clearance: Level 3.
Administrative Sponsor: Classified.
Disaster Response Priority: Discretionary.

We owe a great deal to Dr. Freeman, even if trouble does tend to follow in his wake.

— Dr. Kleiner, whose description about Gordon's situation is reasonably accurate.

Voiced by: Nobody.

The main hero of the Half-Life series, Gordon Freeman is, at the point where Half-Life begins, a recently graduated scientist who is about half a hour late for an experiment, taking place deep within the Black Mesa Research Facility. If only he had known that it would soon become the least of his worries that day...

Finding himself at the ground zero of a disaster, trapped between an invasion of aggressive creatures from the dimension Xen and a shadowy military force that wants him and his colleagues dead, Freeman manages to battle his way across the facility in the span of two days, staying alive against all odds, aided by his HEV suit and staunch determination. He is eventually teleported to Xen, where he takes on the leader of the aliens, after which he finds himself face to face with the mysterious G-Man, who offers him a job.

Displaced by G-Man in time and space, Gordon suddenly finds himself in the so-called "City 17", in some undisclosed part of Eastern Europe two decades after the events at Black Mesa. He discovers that Earth has been conquered by an alien empire called "The Combine", who rules their new colony with an iron fist, and he quickly manages to run afoul of them and is soon hunted by their military. But he also finds out that some of his old friends from Black Mesa have organized a resistance group that fights against the regime, and that he himself has become a revered and famous figure for the rebels due to his actions at Black Mesa. Together with the resistance fighter Alyx Vance, he ignites a full-scale rebellion against the Combine and manages to bring down their central control-center on Earth.

In the wake of the overthrow of the Combine control, however, Gordon and Alyx, along with the rest of the rebels, soon find themselves engaged in an even more bloody and desperate struggle to defeat the remaining Combine forces on Earth, and, even more importantly, preventing them from contacting the empire proper for reinforcements.

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• The Ace: A brilliant scientist who was hired by one of the most prestigious research institutions in the world before the age of 30, quickly becomes expertly skilled in almost all conventional and unconventional weaponry despite no prior military or weapons training (other than a basic run-through on the use of MP5 in the Hazard Course), and consistently successful when fighting against overwhelming odds. When the Rebels have lost all hope and need an army to turn the tide, they look solely to Gordon. And he succeeds.
• Action Survivor: Despite his legendary reputation come the second game, he was really just an Average (really smart) Joe minding his own business at a government job who was really good at adapting when the Incident happened. Even when he wakes up in the Combine era, he applies his resourcefulness despite not really knowing what's going on.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: Inverted in Alyx. While Gordon is still a pretty handsome guy, his features have been changed slightly so that he looks less like a typical action hero and more like a cool scientist.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: By the time of Half-Life 2, he doesn't have any definitive rank in the rebellion, but he pretty much commands any rebel squads he comes across, who are all too willing to Zerg Rush a position if he so much as looks at it, all because he's good at killing things.
• Badass Bookworm: He's a graduate of MIT with a PhD in Theoretical Physics; his doctoral thesis is ludicrously titled "Observation of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Entanglement on Supraquantum Structures by Induction Through Nonlinear Transuranic Crystal of Extremely Long Wavelength (ELW) Pulse from Mode-Locked Source Array". In laymen's terms... looking at teleportation effects on crystals when you fire lasers at them. Which suspiciously sounds like the experiment you are conducting at the start.
• Badass Normal: Despite no prior military training or any superpowers, he regularly fights his way through highly trained special forces, augmented transhuman soldiers and super powered aliens.
• Beware the Nice Ones: He's quite noble and heroic, and usually kind to the various security guards and rebels he meets on his journey. He's also killed about 1500 creatures, according to this post.
• Bilingual Bonus: Possibly. Since he was in Innsbruck, Austria, he may or may not have learned German to communicate with Austrian students and scientists. Considering his intelligence and the necessity of German in Austria, it's heavily likely he did.
• The Cameo: He pops up a couple of times as an NPC in the Gearbox expansion packs.
  • In Opposing Force, Shephard catches up to him just as he makes the jump into Xen.
  • In Blue Shift:
    • Gordon is in the tram right behind Barney's at the beginning of the game.
    • If Barney monkeys with the security cameras, he can see Gordon make his way to the lockers to pick up his HEV suit.
    • At the end of the game, Barney witnesses the HECU soldiers drag Gordon to the trash compactor due to a teleporter malfunction.
  • "'A previous hire has been unable--or unwilling--to perform the tasks laid before him...'" And he shows up again in the stinger—as the player character.
• Child Prodigy: According to his original biography, he constructed a butane-powered tennis ball cannon at the age of six. He began his career in science very early in life; he's earned a PhD in Theoretical Physics, despite being only 27 years old at the time of Half-Life.
• Color-Coded Characters: Orange. While it doesn't fit his personality very much, it ties in to the HEV suit's purpose: to provide safety in dangerous environments.
• Cloud Cuckoolander: More than a few characters seem to think he might be something like this when they snark about his Heroic Mime nature, but one of the few hints of things he did before Black Mesa firmly lands in this territory when Alyx talks about old stories of how Barney and Gordon would race through the air vents when Kleiner locked himself out of his lab again.
• Crowbar Combatant: He uses a red crowbar he found in a tool kit at Black Mesa as his melee weapon of choice, and is associated with it to the point he provides the trope image.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: For the standard First-Person Shooter protagonist like 'Doom Guy' and 'BJ' which had characterised FPS games up until the debut of Half Life. In Half-Life 1, Gordon Freeman isn't a badass supersoldier at the start: he was little more than a theoretical physicist of slightly above-average fitness who just happened to found himself at ground zero of a science experiment Gone Horribly Wrong which caused the whole mess. He had no real goal at first beyond just getting out of the facility alive and getting help, and only ended up becoming Humanity's last, best hope of stopping an Alien Invasion after he slaughtered his way through two armies (one of which is Human) and acquired enough firepower to do the job, and most of the time he did this out of self-preservation and protecting his colleagues. And being a scientist instead of a soldier, he relied as much on his wits as he did his arsenal of weapons to figure his way out of impossible situations as well as strategize how to best fight his opponents - and there are plenty of such obstacles and enemies around where he simply cannot defeat by running in guns-blazing like traditional FPS protagonists. And thank goodness Black Mesa just happened to develop the incredibly protective HEV suit which he wore and is filled to the brim with health and power stations/packs with which he could replenish/recharge his body health and suit power, as well as having many helpful security guards and scientists who are also trying to survive and working to end the catastrophe. And then, of course, there's that mysterious Humanoid Abomination in a blue business suit who keeps helping him out of tight spots for his and his 'employers'' own inscrutible reasons...
• Dented Iron: A look at his full model◊ from Half-Life: Alyx shows his HEV suit (presumably from the ending of Episode Two) to be quite battle damaged, including a sizable hole in the torso's midsection with his bandaged body visible underneath.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?:
  • At the end of Half-Life 1, he takes down the Nihilanth, the Big Bad commanding the Xenian forces and a powerful being with god-like powers.
  • The Rebels' reaction when he takes down his first Strider, and in Episode Two where he takes out an army of them.
• Divine Intervention: Well, more like "reality-altering shapeshifting alien intervention" — as much of a badass as Freeman is, there have been a few times where he could or should have died only for the mysterious G-Man to intervene and keep him alive for his own reasons.
  • Alternatively, the Vortigaunts believe he is guided by the Vortessence, acting as their savior and liberator, while Father Grigori seems to believe Gordon is watched over by God. The Resistance in general seems to view him as Divine Intervention, a messianic figure delivering them from the Combine, something Dr. Breen mentions in one of his speeches.
• The Dreaded:
  • He steadily builds up a reputation throughout his adventures in Half-Life; by the midpoint of the game, the marines know exactly who he is and are actively hunting for him specifically. By the end, the Nihilanth is able to directly address him by name.
    Nihilanth: FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEMAAAAAAAAAAN...
  • By the second game, his fame has grown to such proportions that the mere sighting of him by Breen via accidental teleport hopping is enough to justify mobilizing the entire Combine Overwatch and yet they still underestimate him and get slaughtered in droves as a result.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Despite being little more than an ordinary man fighting for his life with special equipment, Gordon's exploits throughout the series quickly earn him a legendary reputation. It often has more of an effect than he does by the time of Half-Life 2 and its expansions, with others’ accounts of him inspiring and rallying the Resistance long before and during his time as an active participant in their fight.
• Expy: In a way, of Zane Zaminsky. Both Zane and Gordon are bespectacled scientists with trim beards who end up targeted by alien forces and government cover-ups, though Gordon deals with his set of problems in a considerably more direct manner.
• Extremely Short Timespan: While the events themselves from the Black Mesa Incident, the Portal Storms, and the Combine occupation to Freeman's return, the global Resistance uprising and the fall of the Citadel occurred as separate events over a twenty year time period in-universe, due to being placed into stasis, from Gordon's perspective the events of Half-Life 1 and 2 all took place over the course of roughly five days.
• Famed In-Story: Has become utterly revered by the time of Half-Life 2, and he gains several names from the resistance.
• Featureless Protagonist: Although Gordon has a consistent appearance in official art, as a playable character, there is no point where Gordon's appearance is portrayed or even mentioned. While Gordon has a 3D model in the original Half-Life and its expansions, he is a First-Person Ghost in Half-Life 2 and its episodes. This is finally averted in the ending of Half-Life: Alyx during the G-Man's speech, where he briefly shows you Gordon in-game, albeit in shadow.
• Genius Bruiser: The guy who blows up (or beats down) every hostile Xen and Combine thing he sees happens to be a graduate of MIT, with a doctorate in Theoretical Physics no less.
• Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: In promotional artwork, his HEV suit doesn't have a helmet, unlike those worn by the bodies of the other dead scientists found scattered around Xen. Whether this is the case in gameplay or not is something that the fans have disputed for decades. When the G-Man shows Alyx a vision of Freeman cloaked in shadow, he is clearly bareheaded.
• The Hero: The scientist who thwarts two alien invasions and is also the central hope against the Combine for humanity and the Vortigaunts.
• Hero Antagonist: To the HECU, and by extension the player character Adrian Shephard in Opposing Force. He's just a HEV suit-clad scientist attempting to survive and put an end to the Xen invasion, but this puts him in conflict with the HECU and he ends up being their most hated adversary when he starts killing them in droves.
• Heroic Mime: The whole time, which is also Lampshaded in the second game.
  • Exception would be when he was breathing during the Black Mesa Incident, if that counts.
  • In Half-Life 2, Gordon also utters mild grunts of pain sometimes when he's on fire or falls from leg shattering heights.
  • Alyx lampshades it early on when they meet: "Man of few words, aren't you?"
  • A developer explanation for this is that Gordon isn't actually standing there creepily staring at other characters in silence throughout the game, but they felt that giving him a voice would detract from players immersing themselves in his shoes and making his personality what they wanted it to be. Does Gordon talk? What does he say? It's up to you.
• Hope Bringer: In Half-Life 2, Gordon's incredible feats have inspired both humanity and the Vortigaunts to form La Résistance against the Combine. In fact, the Resistance members fight alongside with Gordon late in the main game and its following Episodes.
• Icon of Rebellion: In 2, his exploits have made him an almost mythological figure to the Resistance.
• Implacable Man: Gordon Freeman didn't really mean to save the world by slaughtering hundreds of soldiers and aliens at Black Mesa. They were just in the way of the exit.
  • According to Valve, this is played around with in the first game, where the player has the freedom to make Gordon either a typical action hero or complete psychopath, gibbing friends and foes with his crowbar while bunnyhopping through hallways. It's up to the player whether Gordon means well, is just trying to survive, or just wants to blow shit up. With the second game taking a more serious tone, they settled for making Gordon more of a straightforward hero.
• Informed Ability: Gordon is a theoretical physicist, but the most technically complex things he does in the games are plug machinery in and solve rudimentary physics puzzles. Barney hangs a lampshade on that in the second game.
  Barney: Good job, Gordon. Throwin' that switch and all? I can see your MIT education really pays for itself.
• Ironic Name: Gordon Freeman spends most of the series as a puppet of the G-man's machinations.
• Irony: All his papers and the game manual info taken into account, Gordon's only been at Black Mesa for maybe some odd couple of weeks or so, and his resume inclines that he wrote a thesis about studying the effects of shooting energy at crystals; by all means, fresh MIT graduate or not he's a green-behind-the-ears nobody that got a special recommendation by Kleiner to be where he was at the definitive ground zero of the Resonance Cascade, bordering on Almighty Janitor since he didn't even know any bigger details of the project whatsoever and was little more than a hands-on chore guy for the experiment. And he was late to work, earning more than a few ribbings from his co-workers. And yet in spite of all of this, that "nobody" ends up defining himself as one of the deadliest beings on Earth.
• Lightning Bruiser: He can take quite a bit of punishment, thanks to the suit, but can also run at ridiculous speeds and carry more firepower than the entire 2nd Armored Division.
• Living Legend: In the second game, as he was put into a statis by the G-Man. Most of the resistance knew him through passed stories, until he was placed in City 17 after years passed.
• Living MacGuffin: Partway into Half-Life: Alyx, Eli and Alyx come to believe Gordon is the one being held in the Vault and set out to release him. Gordon is not the one in there, though.
• Meaningful Name: The Resistance and Vortigaunts often call him "The One Free Man", the name serving as inspiration in their own fight for freedom.
• Memetic Badass: In-Universe and out! Many characters from the second game easily associate him with his "expertise" in crowbars.
• Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds: The entire Black Mesa Incident, specifically being told to force an alien crystal, that appeared out of nowhere, into the test chamber that led every bit of the planet down under. Oh, and he killed off the Load-Bearing Boss that was actively preventing the Combine from invading the planet.
• Nerd Action Hero: Gordon is a theoretical physicist by trade, earning his doctorate before even pushing 30. He only becomes an Action Survivor due to a freak lab accident, and aliens and the U.S. military just wouldn't leave him alone.
• One-Man Army: While his suit is a big part of it (it gives him about 4 times as much health as a regular soldier when fully charged, can automatically reload his holstered weapons, and applies morphine and other assistance to keep him going at full strength even when badly wounded), it is still pretty amazing considering he is just a scientist. The best example is probably at the end of Episode Two. The rebel's main headquarters comes under attack from multiple directions. Dozens of Combine Elite Mooks storm through the roof on dropships and set up numerous defensive positions, a bunch of Hunters break in to support them, and a dozen striders, each supported by 2-3 Hunters, start attacking the base. After the rebel personnel is completely slaughtered, they just send Freeman, thinking that he's all they'll need to repel hundreds of heavily armed and armored dark energy rifle wielding super soldiers, and a bunch of giant tripod death machines supported by dozens of other, smaller tripod death machines. They're right. Completely.
• One Riot, One Ranger: By Episode Two the Resistance sees him as nothing short than an unstoppable god amongst men, and he's often sent into the fray alone or with minimal help — not because of Resistance laziness or cowardice, but because Freeman consistently wins and thrashes the Combine in the process single-handedly.
• Powered Armor: His rechargeable HEV Suit, which provides damage mitigation, a Geiger counter, ammunition counter. The second game improves this by adding an Auxiliary power used for sprinting, oxygen monitoring, neurotoxin application, and a zoom-in feature like a binocular.
• Red Baron:
  • Starts being called "The One Free Man" by the Vortigaunts and rebels.
  • "Anticitizen One", to the Combine.
• Right Man in the Wrong Place: The Trope Namer, as described by the G-Man, but not a straight example, because he's being manipulated by the G-Man.
• Science Hero: Played With. According to the backstory, Gordon has an MIT doctorate in theoretical physics, but he doesn't use his scientific knowledge to save the day. Instead, he uses his intelligence to solve puzzles and his weapons (usually the trusty crowbar and Gravity Gun) to fight the bad guys. It doesn't help that Gordon and the other Black Mesa scientists unwittingly caused the Resonance Cascade, which is planned by the G-Man. Bottom-line: Gordon is this trope in-name and lore, but a straight forward Action Hero in-game, even if he accidentally messes things up.
• Sell-Out: To one of Black Mesa's security guards. Gordon sported a ponytail at some point, and cutting it off - presumably to please management - earned him this title.
• Slept Through the Apocalypse: He misses out on the Seven Hour War and subsequent two decades of Combine oppression, no thanks to the G-Man keeping him in stasis.
  G-Man: Wake up, Mister Freeman. Wake up and smell the ashes.
• Specs of Awesome: Gordon wears a pair of eye-glasses and he single-handedly defeated a psychic Eldritch Abomination (although doing so caught the Combine's attention), a dreaded tripod, and an entire army of said tripods!
• Took a Level in Badass: Before that fateful day, he was just a normal, if very intelligent, scientist working for Black Mesa. The moment he picked up that crowbar, though, he became an absolute force of destruction against the HECU, Spec Ops, Xen aliens and the Combine.
• Training from Hell: His first combat experience saw him go from being a mild-mannered scientist to becoming an Action Survivor of a bloody catastrophe that left many of his friends and colleagues dead whilst pitting him against the United States government, hordes of savage monstrosities, and an entire extraterrestrial empire.
• Underestimating Badassery: Breen hardly seems to think he poses much of a threat, given that he is just a scientist without formal combat training, and is rather surprised that the Combine Overwatch are having such a hard time fighting him.
  Dr. Breen: How could one man have slipped through your force's fingers time and time again? How is it possible? This is not some agent provocateur or highly trained assassin we are discussing. Gordon Freeman is a theoretical physicist who had hardly earned the distinction of his Ph.D. at the time of the Black Mesa Incident. The man you have consistently failed to slow, let alone capture, is by all standards simply that: an ordinary man.
• The Voiceless: Implied. It's actually left ambiguous whether or not he can talk.
• We Do the Impossible: From researching, developing and testing portals and teleporters, to saving the planet from two invading alien races that came forth from dimensions opened by said portals.

Barney Calhoun

Barney Calhoun

Appearances: Half-Life | Half-Life: Blue Shift | Half-Life: Decay | Half-Life 2 | Half-Life 2: Episode One

"Good luck out there, buddy. You're gonna need it."

^{Click here to see him during the events of Blue Shift} Rosenberg: "Thanks to you, however, we were actually able to pull off this half-brained idea. We made it, Mr. Calhoun. We made it!"

Age: Unknown.
Education: 2 years Martinson College, Undecided Major.
Employer and Position: Black Mesa Research Facility, Security Guard.
Clearance: Level 3.
Disaster Response Priority: Preservation of facility equipment and materials
Secondary Priority: Welfare of research personnel
Low Priority: Personal safety

Voice Actor: Mike Shapiro (English)^note Other Languages: Olivier Deslandes (French), Erich Redman (German), Han Choi (Korean), Oleg Miroshnikov (Russian - SDL dub), Dmitry Filimonov (Russian - Buka dub), Javier Alcina (Spanish)

"About that beer I owed ya! It's me Gordon! Barney from Black Mesa."

The player character in Blue Shift, Barney Calhoun was a security guard at Black Mesa, and arrived to his duties at the same time as Gordon. Unlike Gordon and Adrian, he was the only player character in the first Half-Life not to have a special suit, and the only main character to escape from Black Mesa on his own, along with a few scientists.

In Half-Life 2, Barney, posing as a Combine Civil Protection security guard, saves Gordon from heading to Nova Prospekt. He helps Gordon fight for the Resistance in City 17, and in Episode One, he helps some of the residents evacuate. Last seen boarding a train outbound from City 17 by the end of Episode One with the help of Gordon and Alyx, his whereabouts are unknown in Episode Two.

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• Accent Slip-Up: While wearing his speech-distorting Civil Protection mask, he slips into a noticeably Southern U.S. accent in a few lines of dialogue, while rarely if ever doing so when not wearing his mask. This may be an intentional part of his disguise, or may simply be a natural accent that just rarely comes through.
  "I'm gonna need me sum' privacy fer' this!"
• Achievements in Ignorance: Barney somehow manages to remain out of range from the G-Man and his employers despite not even being aware of them. Although it could simply be possible that the employers have little interest in hiring and/or detaining him, as the text simply says "no further comment" at the end of Blue Shift.
• Action Survivor: His character arc in Blue Shift is simply surviving the incident and escaping the facility with some of the scientific staff. He faces less opposition than Freeman or Shephard (mostly fighting only Xen wildlife, Vortigaunts, and Marines, with only 4 Alien Grunts and 4 Controllers ever crossing his path), and there's not even a Final Boss for him to fight. He does manage to take out a tank at one point, though.
• Ascended Extra: From being a stock security guard in Half-Life 1 to the star of Blue Shift to a major character in Half-Life 2.
• Badass Normal: Moreso than any of the other player characters. He went through Blue Shift with only security guard equipment, and unlike Gordon and Adrian, he isn't under surveillance by the G-Man.
• The Big Guy: In Blue Shift, he is this to the team of scientists led by Dr. Rosenberg. He is the only one of the lot without a doctorate, but conversely he's the only one who can knock down aliens and soldiers left and right.
• Call-Back: In Half-Life, Barney invites Dr. Freeman to join him on the firing range and grab a beer with him. In Half-Life 2, he mentions he still owes Freeman a beer.
• Color-Coded Characters: Blue.
• Composite Character: Barney Calhoun is a combination of the protagonist of Blue Shift (the security guard seen banging on a locked door midway through Gordon's tram ride) and the random security guards throughout Half-Life; he mentions owing Gordon a beer at the start of Half Life 2, a reference to random security guard chatter from before the Resonance Cascade.
• Conspiracy Theorist: Opening his locker in Blue Shift reveals that he's currently reading two books. One is actually titled Conspiracy Theories, while the other is about aliens.
• Crowbar Combatant: Like Freeman, he stumbles across a crowbar during his trek through the wrecked portions of Black Mesa early in Blue Shift. He uses it alongside his trusty pistol for most of the early segments of Blue Shift. And it's implied that it's this same crowbar from Black Mesa that he hands over to Gordon at the start of Half-Life 2.
• Deadpan Snarker: Probably the biggest one in the entire series.
  "I've been working undercover with Civil Protection. I can't take too long or they'll get suspicious. I'm way behind on my beating quota."
• Deep Cover Agent: At some point after the Seven Hour War, Barney enlists with Civil Protection, the brutal human police force of the Combine, working shifts and apparently attending to routine policing duties, albeit much less harshly than many of his coworkers. In reality, he's a Resistance spy working to sabotage the Combine's efforts and aiding as many citizens as he can.
• Early-Bird Cameo: He's the Security Guard seen knocking at a door when you're passing by with the tram at the very beginning of Half-Life.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Compared to the other protagonists at least. In Blue Shift, he manages to leave Black Mesa with the Dr. Rosenberg and two other scientists early during the incident, and escapes the G-Man's grasp. And at the end of Episode One, he escapes City 17 safely by train before the city is completely destroyed by the explosion of the Citadel's core.
• Escort Mission: The later half of the "Follow Freeman!" chapter requires the player to escort Barney to Combine security consoles so that he can open them, since his Civil Protection status still allows him to access them. Thankfully, Barney has regenerating health and the various rebels encountered are willing to accompany them. Barney's also willing to lampshade it.

Barney: "Uh-oh. Turrets. You've got the HEV Suit, you deal with them!"

• First-Name Basis: In stark contrast to Blue Shift, everybody, even common rebels, refer to him by his first name.
• Frontline General: He serves as the de facto field commander of all Resistance forces during the Uprising, and isn't afraid to personally battle the Combine on the streets. By the time Gordon finds Barney again, he's deep in enemy territory and pinned down by snipers.
• Heroic Mime: Like all Half-Life playable characters save Alyx, he never speaks a word under your control. That doesn't mean he's not communicating, however, as the scientists he meets during the search for Dr. Rosenberg react to him as if he's asking for him.
• Hero of Another Story: After we got his own experience of the direct aftermath of the Resonance Cascade in Half-Life: Blue Shift, he became one of the most active members of the Resistance against the Combine, working for years as a mole within the Civil Protection to exfiltrate citizens of City 17 to the outskirts and protecting Kleiner's lab. After Freeman reemerged and destroyed Nova Prospekt, he led the Resistance troops in the battlegrounds of City 17 for over a week, and in Episode One, helped organizing the evacuation of the remaining residents of the City before its annihilation by the Citadel's destabilized core, then left on a train to an unknown location, presumably continuing his adventure somewhere else.
• The Lancer: Fills the gap for Alyx in Half-Life 2 during the chapter Follow Freeman!
• Last-Name Basis: In Blue Shift, he's only addressed by his surname and even his profile in the intro refers to him as "B. Calhoun".
• Nice Guy: A trait he shares with most of the good guys.
• Not Worth Killing: Or, not worth putting in Xen stasis. Unlike Freeman or Shephard, he manages to escape Black Mesa without ever encountering or drawing the attention of the G-Man despite his own astounding heroics. He may have not been noteworthy enough for the G-Man to interfere with his fate, or the G-Man - who was already supposedly disobeying his "superiors" - may have not wanted to risk taking on a third "employee" against their wishes, or he may have simply lacked the power to do so.
• Old Friend: Of the helpful and genuine variety. Good drinking buddies back at Black Mesa, Barney's chance meeting with Gordon in City 17 keeps him from getting shipped off to Nova Prospekt, setting off the rest of the events in the story and likely saving Gordon's life.
• One-Man Army: In Blue Shift. In particular, he has a firefight against a very large group of Marines in a freight yard that easily matches any combat Freeman got into during his journey through Black Mesa.
• Precision F-Strike: Gives one at the end of the chapter noted above. Of course, it's censored by Dog closing the entrance into the Citadel that you just entered, but the dialog is intact in the game files. Also, the subtitles censor a different portion of the word "fuck" than is covered by the audible crash.
  Barney: And if you see Doctor Breen tell him I said "FUCK YOU!"
• Properly Paranoid: Barney's misgivings about Lamarr turn out to be not entirely unfounded when the little pest ends up screwing with Kleiner's teleporter, resulting in Gordon Freeman being seen by Breen and the Resistance being found out. In the end, lots of innocents are killed and entire rebel bases are wiped out thanks to the actions of Kleiner's "head-humper".
• Put on a Bus: More accurately, the second-to-last train to leave City 17 at the end of Episode One.
• The Mole: Works within Civil Protection and uses it as a means to help civilians escape from the city.
• Rebel Leader: He seems to be the rebels de facto field commander, behind in rank only to Eli and maybe Gordon.
• Suddenly Voiced: As typical for protagonists in the series, he's a Heroic Mime in Blue Shift, but he talks as an NPC in Half-Life 2.
• Took a Level in Badass: Barney handles himself well in Blue Shift (even surviving through Xen, for one), but when we meet up with him in the second game, he's one of the leaders of the Resistance, their mole in Civil Protection, and once the revolution hits the streets, a competent field commander.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: He really doesn't like headcrabs, calling them "head humpers", and unfortunately for him, Dr. Kleiner keeps one named Lamarr as a pet, and Barney wishes Kleiner would just get rid of it.

Corporal Adrian Shephard

Corporal Adrian Shephard

Appearances: Half-Life: Opposing Force

Age: 22.
Training: United States Marine Corps, Special Forces.
Assignment: Hazardous Environment Combat Unit, Santiago, Arizona.
Mission: Classified.

Voiced by: Nobody.

The player character in Opposing Force, Adrian Shephard was one of the marines assigned to Black Mesa to do a full containment, taking out the witnesses, and finding Gordon Freeman. However, his transport was ambushed and shot down before he was given his mission, which leads him to work together with Black Mesa's scientists and security guards despite them becoming increasingly distrustful of him as the game progresses. In some of his attempts to escape and regroup with any members of his team, the G-Man both helped and hindered him along the way.

He was ultimately detained by the G-Man in Another Dimension at the end of Opposing Force, now pending further evaluation.

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• And I Must Scream: His fate at the end of Opposing Force has him trapped on a helicopter in the depths of an unknown dimension, with no outside contact with anyone. And yet, according to the G-Man, this is actually the best option for Shepard that doesn't involve certain death.
• Badass Normal: As with Freeman and Calhoun. In his case though, he manages to fight through and survive against a unit of highly-trained Black Ops agents and two simultaneous alien invasions. His military training likely helped with that.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: One of his diary entries from the game manual of Opposing Force has him saying that he wants to be part of a special reassignment and for a piece of action. And considering what happens once he's in Black Mesa, it's heavily implied that he regrets thinking this...
  Shephard: Another typically hellish day at base camp... I'll be glad when this is over and I can get assigned a mission. There has been this really weird civie spotted at the base. Rumor is he's from some government branch looking to recruit; others say he's with some secret research group. I would jump at the chance to join. It would be cool just for the change and the adventure.
• The Big Guy: Is this compared to Freeman and Barney, as shown by the fact he starts with a slower, heavier hitting pipe wrench and punch-packing Desert Eagle, rather than the fast swinging crowbar and high-capacity Glock the other protagonists get (although he does get the Glock later on, he doesn't have access to the revolver). He's also apparently strong enough to make Vortigaunts explode with one sufficiently charged overhead smash from the pipe wrench.
• Breakout Mook Character: In the main Half-Life game, the marines were just enemies to shoot at. In Opposing Force, you play as one.
• Cold Sniper: He receives training in the use of the M40 Sniper Rifle during boot camp, and manages to acquire one from the Black Ops late into the Black Mesa incident. And being the Heroic Mime he is, all his kills with the weapon are done without him ever speaking a single word.
• Color-Coded Characters: Green.
• Deus ex Machina: Early in the game, Shephard is trapped in a room which is increasingly filling up with toxic waste. The only reason he doesn't die is that the G-Man opens the door for him so he can escape.
• Diabolus ex Machina: After fighting his way through hordes of aliens, Shephard finally reaches the evacuation point. The only reason he stays behind is that the G-Man closes the door to prevent him from escaping.
• Expy: Marine Corporal forced to take command whilst surrounded by hostile alien monsters? "Someone wake up Hicks."
• The Faceless: Has only two character art pictures of him, both with his gas mask on. His multiplayer image is also the HECU gas mask soldier.
• Gas Mask Mooks: Based on his picture, he's constantly wearing a gas mask. His in-game 3rd person model is also the generic gas mask soldier, as his face is never seen.
• He Knows Too Much: The G-Man knows Shephard has probably witnessed too much, which is why his employers wanted him dead, but G-Man just detains him.
• Late to the Tragedy: Unlike Gordon or Barney, who witness the Resonance Cascade and its immediate aftermath, Shephard is sent to Black Mesa a few hours later, only to be knocked unconscious when his transport is shot down by Xen Manta Rays. Worse still, he only awakens just as the HECU is withdrawing from Black Mesa, essentially leaving him clueless and wandering almost aimlessly about in search of an exit. Worse still, near the climax of the game he's among the very few surviving humans still in Black Mesa, with everyone else either dead or having escaped, leaving him wedged between even more aliens than what Gordon and Barney had to fend off.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Played with. Unlike all the other squads, Shephard and his squad never receive the order to silence Black Mesa's surviving personnel. That being said, it's very likely that he eventually figured it out on his own. However, given he might also knew the HECU is pulling out by the point he's inside, the order is pointless. Being caught in a Mêlée à Trois between two different alien invasions and squads of Black Ops assassins who have similar orders to silence you didn't leave him much of a choice but to fight for his life.
• Long Bus Trip: Despite the facts that Opposing Force ends with Shephard in a state from which he could easily be brought back, and Gabe Newell himself having stated that Valve is planning to "bring him back one of these days", no mentioning of him has been made in any of the Half-Life sequels.
• One-Man Army: Carved a bloody path through Black Ops assassins, fought two simultaneous alien factions, and carried more weapons than Barney, Gina, Collette or even Gordon.
• Powered Armor: His Powered Combat Vest, or PCV, which is more or less a military adaptation of the HEV. Like the HEV Suit used by Freeman and the Black Mesa Science Team, it protects its user from radiation, fire, toxic chemicals, blast damage and blunt force trauma, and also requires recharging from a compatible power supply station, though the PCV is compatible with anything that has a plug-in, even civilian ones. Unlike the HEV Suit, there is no Computer Voice notifying the user, as it presumably gives away its user to the enemy. The same reason applies to why the PCV uses night-vision instead of a regular flashlight. In his training, the drill instructor even demonstrates this by having a Marine fire a shotgun at him almost point-blank while he wears a fully powered vest. While mechanically it is the HEV, though, the PCV only covers the chest like your average body armor and doesn't have a helmet either, so technically it is of questionable effectiveness against the HEV.
  "As you can see, you are not dead!"
• Put on a Bus: Albeit not by his own choice. At the end of Opposing Force, the G-Man "detains" Shepard in a helicopter within an unknown dimension place where he cannot harm or be harmed by others, due to him having witnessed too much of the Black Mesa incident to be kept running around on Earth. The only reason he isn't killed at the command of the Employers is because the G-Man likes Shepard, and convinces them to keep him preserved until the time is right.
• Semper Fi: Like the rest of the HECU, he's shown to be extremely determined with regards to fighting the alien threats and trying to find a way out of Black Mesa.
• Slept Through the Apocalypse: He's rendered unconscious at the start of the game and only comes to around the same time as the HECU decides to pull out of Black Mesa, which is during the second day of the invasion. Shepard then gets detained by the G-Man shortly after the end of Opposing Force, meaning he never gets to see Earth fall to the Combine.
• Space Marine: Downplayed. Adrian Shephard is only ever in space when he teleports to Xen. While his branch of the Marines is explicitly reserved for fighting aliens, he and his comrades remain planted firmly on Earth for the most part.
• Suicide Mission: After G-Man hinders his one chance of escaping from Black Mesa, he ends up going deeper and deeper into the bowels of the facility. In the end, he goes to fight the Gene Worm despite knowing he will probably die.
• Talking Weapon: One of his weapons is a Spore Launcher, which is a infant Shock Trooper, one of the Race X mooks, that he uses to shoot spores at enemy aliens. If the player is standing still long enough while equipping it, Shephard will actually pet it, with the Spore Launcher purring softly. Ironically, the Spore Launcher is one of the best weapons to use against Shock Troopers, as at least three shots can kill them.
• Villain Protagonist: While it's rather hard to call Adrian a "villain", he was actually working for HECU in order to annihilate not only the aliens, but also the Black Mesa staff, the witnesses and Freeman himself. Regardless of the actual orders, he wasn't assigned any, and by the time he wakes up a day later the HECU is getting ready to cut their losses and pull out. Being left behind, he probably figured his actual orders but wasn't in the exact situation to obey as their main priority is to escape, given the threat posed by Xen/Race X aliens and Black Ops. The fact that the trailer for Blue Shift expansion pack features him with the text "You played the villain" may probably help, though...
• Walking Armory: Over the course of his journey, he acquires a pipe wrench, a combat knife, a Laser Sighted Desert Eagle, several alien Living Weapons, an M40 sniper rifle, and various other guns.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Shephard inevitably gets snarked at by the scientists by the time it's clear the HECU wasn't sent there to save anyone.
• Wrench Whack: His initial melee weapon is a pipe wrench. Compared to Gordon's crowbar, it swings slower, but deals more damage and has an alternate attack that allows him to charge his swing for extreme damage.
• You Are in Command Now: Shephard finds himself the senior surviving NCO when encountering other marines who were left behind in Black Mesa. He can then lead them in skirmishes.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Subverted. The Employers wanted this to happen to Shepard, but the G-Man is able to convince them that he has potential for the future, and so detains him instead.
• You Remind Me of X: G-Man uses variant 1 towards Shephard, and mentions his ability to survive against all odds as the main reason. G-Man also mentions that it is why he saved Shephard's life and argued against his employers' wishes to kill him.

Gina Cross

Dr. Gina Cross

Appearances: Half-Life | Half-Life: Opposing Force | Half-Life: Blue Shift | Half-Life: Decay

Age: 25. ^Note31 in unused files.
Employer and Position: Black Mesa Research Facility, Research Associate and Hazardous Environment Supervisor.
Education: PhD in Bioengineering and Mechanical Engineering, Caltech. ^NoteApplied Physics in unused files.
Clearance: Level 4.
Administrative Sponsor: Richard Keller. ^NoteClassified in unused files.

Voice Actor: Kathy Levin

Dr. Gina Cross is one half of the protagonist team in Half-Life: Decay and a Black Mesa scientist. What happened to her after the events of Decay is unknown.

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• Action Girl: She battles her way through Black Mesa and kicks just as much ass as Gordon, Shephard, or Barney.
• Ascended Extra: A hologram of her as the Hazard Course Instructor appears in Half-Life and Opposing Force. She can also be seen on security camera footage in Blue Shift, and is one of the original multiplayer characters.
• Color-Coded Characters: Beige.
• Continuity Snarl: In her Blue Shift cameo, she can be seen wearing an orange HEV suit while pushing the Xen crystal sample. Her appearance in Decay would recolor her suit beige.
• Decomposite Character: Downplayed. Dr. Mossman was conceived as a character separately from Gina, but her final in-game appearance shares her hairstyle, general look and beige color scheme, perhaps calling back to her in ways the other characters do.
• Distaff Counterpart: Originally, there were plans for Half-Life to be a sort of coop game where the player switches between Gordon and Gina (his spouse at the time). However, these plans never came through and Gina was Demoted to Extra. Still, in Deathmatch, Gina essentially serves as a female Gordon model.
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Has a PhD in Bioengineering, Mechanical Engineering, and applied physics. Not coincidentally, all three are required for designing and improving the HEV suit that she's apparently involved with. On top of that, she supervises HEV hazard course training, handles anomalous materials, and apparently was instructing Dr. Bennet (a much, much older scientist than her) on Anti-Mass Spectrometer overload simulations. Considering she's done all that at 25, she may very well be one of the most intelligent and competent scientists in Half-Life, up there with the likes of Eli and Kleiner.
• Progressively Prettier: Was somewhat homely in her original hologram appearances. The HD model and Decay would later push her age down from 31 to 25, clean up her creases and make use of the higher polygon count to give her a prettier face.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The calm and calculated Blue Oni to Green's bloodthirsty Red Oni.
• The Ace: Two years younger than Gordon, but even more established in Black Mesa, judging by her high clearance and respect from Dr. Keller. Also helped design the Mark IV HEV suit and is apparently so experienced with it that she serves as the instructor in the hazard course. It's surprising G-Man didn't choose her in his stead.
• The Smurfette Principle: She was the only female Black Mesa employee to appear in the first game, and only as a hologram in the tutorial. Of course, given Green is also a woman, this is averted in Decay.
• Uncertain Doom: In Opposing Force, a body resembling hers is found near one of the Displacer's Xen teleport locations, and said body has the file name "Gina.mdl". However, it's worth noting that said model was a standard one from Half-Life: Deathmatch, and was created before Decay, so her fate is ambiguous at best. Randy Pitchford confirmed that the body was in fact Gina's in a response to the question on Twitter, though her fate remains unconfirmed by Valve.

Colette Green

Dr. Colette Green

Appearances: Half-Life: Decay

Age: 31. ^Note37 in unused files.
Employer and Position: Black Mesa Research Facility, Research Associate.
Education: PhD in Electrical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon.
Clearance: Level 4.
Administrative Sponsor: Richard Keller. ^NoteClassified in unused files.

Voice Actor: Lani Minella

Dr. Colette Green is one half of the protagonist team in Half-Life: Decay and a Black Mesa scientist. What happened to her after the events of Decay is unknown.

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• Action Girl: She battles her way through Black Mesa and kicks just as much ass as Gordon, Shephard, or Barney.
• Blood Knight: Her AI controlled persona sure does love herself a fight.
• Color-Coded Characters: Red.
• Laughing Mad: If Decay is played solo, when controlled by the AI, Colette will sometimes burst into mad laughter during combat.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Red Oni to Cross' Blue Oni.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Assuming the dead body found in Opposing Force really is Gina's, it's never made clear what happened to Colette. Pitchford even states they don't know what happened to her, albeit he claims that she might be in the G-Man's freezer with Adrian Shephard.

R- 4913 and X- 8973

R-4913 and X-8973

Appearances: Half-Life: Decay ^NoteXen Attacks

A pair or Vortigaunts sent to recover Xen Crystals stolen by the G-Man. They are playable in Decay's Bonus Level, Xen Attacks.

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• Battle Thralls: Like other Vortigaunts, they are slaves to the Nihilanth forced to invade Earth for his sake.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: They can't use any human weapons, nor can they charge armor from HEV charging stations. Instead, they charge up electricity and leech life from their enemies.
• Secret Character: Xen Attacks can only be unlocked if the player scores an A on all of Decay's missions.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: No mention is made of them after Decay. They may have died during the invasion or joined up with the resistance after Nihilanth's death.
• You Are Number 6: R-4913 and X-8973 respectively.

Alyx Vance

Alyx Vance

Appearances: Half-Life 2 | Half-Life 2: Episode One | Half-Life 2: Episode Two | Half-Life: Alyx

"The Combine can be slow to wake, but once they're up, you don't want to get in their way."

^{Click here to see her during the events of Alyx} "Right now, what it's like to live on Earth, on a scale of one to ten — I'd say we're at a two."

Voice Actor: Merle Dandridge, Ozioma Akagha (Half-Life: Alyx) (English)^note Other Languages: Caroline Crier (French), Britta Gartner (German), Eom Hyeon-jeong (Korean), Larissa Kuznetsova (Russian - SDL dub), Zhanna Nikonova (Russian - Buka dub), Mari Luz Rodrigo (Spanish)

"Doctor Freeman I presume?"

The heroine of Half-Life 2, Alyx Vance helped Gordon Freeman time and again in his work with the Resistance. She also follows Gordon the whole way throughout Episodes One and Two.

She's also the main playable character of her eponymously subtitled VR interquel, Half-Life: Alyx, making her the first Half-Life protagonist to be voiced (if one doesn't count Barney).

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• Action Girl: She was established as a badass resistance fighter in the Half-Life 2 trilogy. Now, the player is able to play as a younger Alyx while she navigates the most dangerous parts of City 17 and dispatches alone whole squads of Combine soldiers to free her father, then her planet. Alyx is capable of holding on her own against the Combine, is athletic and knows how to wield firearms.
• A Day in the Limelight: Half-Life: Alyx is about her journey into City 17's Quarantine Zone five years before the events of Half-Life 2.
• Armor Is Useless: See Made of Iron; bizarrely enough, she can survive much more damage than other human NPCs (bar Barney and Freeman himself), even though she's not wearing any kind of armor, just a jacket and hoodie.
• Badass in Distress: In the initial Half-Life 2, she gets bagged by the Combine during the revolt, and almost ends up sent through a Combine portal before Mossman saves her. In Episode Two, she gets skewered by a Hunter and is rendered Only Mostly Dead until the Vorts save her.
• Boyish Short Hair: She has a short haircut, appropriate for an Action Girl in the La Résistance fighting against the Combine.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Tells Judith after her betrayal that it's a good thing she's still of use to both her and Gordon. More likely than not, Alyx would have made sure Mossman paid for her treachery.
• Deadpan Snarker: Snarks a lot during Half-Life 2 and the episodes, even sarcastically berating Gordon for "not speaking up for her".
• Deuteragonist: Of the Half-Life 2 series. She accompanies Gordon and helps in the battle against the Combine.
• Didn't Think This Through: When The G-Man shows her Eli's death in the future, she immediately jumps at his offer to save him without considering the ramifications. The G-Man, of course, was counting on this. Though in all fairness, he was giving the distinct impression that the opportunity to save Eli was a reward for freeing the G-Man from his imprisonment, so it feels like he altered the deal.
• Disney Death: In Episode Two she gets stabbed in the back by a Hunter, and just manages to say "Gordon... help..." before she passes out, appearing to be dead. Her condition goes from critically injured to no pulse left just before the Vortigaunts manage to save her.
• Duct Tape for Everything: A separated seam on the right shoulder of her jacket is covered over with strips of duct tape.
• Exposition Fairy: When she accompanies you, she gives explanations on how the Gravity Gun works, and provides brief background for areas like Ravenholm and Nova Prospekt.
• Friendly Sniper: Wields a mounted Combine sniper rifle in Episode Two to help Gordon blow away Zombies in the outskirts of Victory Mine.
• Give Geeks a Chance: She seems quite attached to Gordon. When her father Eli semi-jokingly tells her he wants grandkids while she and Gordon are both listening, leaving no doubt as to whom he envisions as their father, she laughs it off but doesn't actually appear disinclined to the idea.
• Handgun: Her main weapon throughout the Half-Life 2 series is a custom made machine pistol she carries around in her jacket.
  • She is given what looks to be a custom M1911 by Russel in Half-Life: Alyx. In a rather nice touch, by upgrading the pistol throughout the game (specifically, the laser sight and burst fire upgrades), this pistol ends up becoming Alyx's pistol in Half-Life 2. She even has dialogue that all but confirms it when you fully upgrade it.
    Alyx: Well, Russ, it's official. There is nothing left of your gun in this gun. This is just... This is my gun.
    Russel: Alright, fair enough. You've earned it.
• Iconic Sequel Character: Was introduced in Half-Life 2, and has arguably supplanted Freeman as the most recognizable character in the series.
• The Lancer: To Gordon for the Episodes.
• Killed Mid-Sentence: In the ending of Half-Life 2, where the Citadel reactor explodes before she even has a chance to escape, meanwhile Gordon is carried off by the G-Man. Subverted in the introduction of Episode One however, where the Vortigaunts intervene to rescue Alyx and thwart the G-Mans plans.
• Limited Wardrobe: She's seen wearing the same jacket, Black Mesa sweater, and jeans throughout Half-Life 2 and its Episodes. This is taken to extremes in the promotional material for Half-Life: Alyx, which suggests that she was wearing the exact same thing five years prior.
• Master of Unlocking: Her EMP tool lets her get through a lot of places Gordon would otherwise be unable to reach.
• Made of Iron:
  • It takes an ungodly amount of punishment to kill her, and unlike Freeman and Shephard, there is no in-game justification for it (the in-engine explanation for her durability is that she has insanely high health regeneration as an Anti-Frustration Feature so the areas in which she fights alongside you don't feel like an Escort Mission).
  • Toned down heavily in Half-Life: Alyx, where she can sustain plenty of abuse as the Player Character, but will eventually die within reasonable limits.
• Messy Hair: She has a rather rough haircut. Being a member of an underground Resistance movement likely doesn't leave her much time for personal hygiene.
• Missing Mom: Her mom died during the Black Mesa incident, and that necklace more likely than not belongs to her.
• Mission Control: Adopts this role occasionally (such as a couple times in Half-Life 2), though she does a lot more of accompanying the hero into the field.
• My God, What Have I Done?: In Half-Life: Alyx, the G-Man shows her Eli's death five years in the future with little context, knowing she'd impulsively do anything she could to stop it. So when he offers her the chance to do so, complete with the pretense that this was a reward for freeing him from imprisonment, she takes it without a second thought, changing the future - and then realizes she messed up bad when he talks about the consequences of such an action. Alyx doesn't take it well right before she's put into stasis as a replacement for Gordon.
• My Nayme Is: Alyx.
• Nerds Are Sexy: She's very knowledgeable about science and mechanics, and well... LOOK at her.
• Nice Girl: She's a serious contender for the title of "Nicest Companion In The History Of Gaming". Alyx is nothing but supportive of Gordon, commends him on pretty much every even slightly awesome feat he pulls off, protects him with her life without a second of hesitation, always asks him to be careful when the circumstances force her to send him to do something she can't do herself... At the beginning of Episode One, she's so overjoyed to see him alive she actually greets him with an epic first-person Glomp. Some time later, after Gordon single-handedly wrecks a gunship and then a Strider, she almost bubbles over with awe and names him her personal hero. It's also very apparent she really, really loves her dad and cares deeply about just about everyone else (especially Gordon, of course, whom she seems to have more than a slight crush on). She even gives a Vortigaunt a peck at one point.
• Plucky Girl: As befits her younger age, she is noticeably restless around her dad and his coworkers, relieved when he gives her an opportunity to get out of the bunker and do something. It's not that she dislikes them, it's just...the generational gap.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: "Hah! No you don't!" [beats the shit out of four armed Metrocops in about five seconds]
• Precision F-Strike: She responds to Mossman's attempts to justify her betrayal with "Enough of your bullshit!"
• Promoted to Playable: The main star of her own eponymous title after over a decade.'
• Properly Paranoid: Says near the start of Episode Two that she feels like her and Gordon are being watched. Not long after that, she's attacked by a Hunter and nearly dies.
• Rescue Introduction: She and Gordon meet when she saves him from a group of Metrocops.
  "Hah! No you don't!"
• Secondary Fire: Her custom machine pistol is capable of semi-auto, burst, and automatic fire.
• Ship Tease: With Gordon. Loads of it by various characters.
• Spiteful Spit:
  Breen: [to Eli] Will you let your stubborn short-sightedness doom the entire species, or... (touching Alyx's face)... will you give your child the chance her mother never had?
  (She spits in his face.)
  Alyx: How dare you even mention her!
• Stone Wall: In gameplay terms. She's pretty much functionally invincible, but her only permanent weapon is her trusty machine pistol—Bottomless Magazines or no, it doesn't come close to Gordon's sheer armament.
• Trauma Conga Line: Where to start? For the first years of her life, she lives in the dormitories of Black Mesa, a dangerous and accident-prone research facility. Then, her mother is killed during the Black Mesa Incident. She only survives because the G-Man saves her life, putting her in his debt unknowingly. Fast forward to when she meets Gordon Freeman, leading to events in which her father is captured by the Combine. In the end, when the dark matter reactor explodes, killing Breen, she only survives because the Vortigaunts teleport her out of the wreckage. In the beginning of Episode Two, she is stabbed twice by the long blades of a Hunter and survives, once again, because of the Vortigaunts. Finally, after Eli, Magnusson, and Kleiner launch the rocket and Gordon and Alyx are about to get into a helicopter to save their friend Mossman, a pair of Advisors smash through the building and kill Eli right in front of her.
  • In Half-Life: Alyx, she’s given the chance to save Eli and succeeds, but is “employed” by the G-Man soon after.
• Unkempt Beauty: She's famous for her Messy Hair.
• The Worf Effect: Suffers a Disney Death at the hands of a Hunter in Episode Two and would’ve become Antilon food if a Vortigaunt didn’t save her.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: She seems to have developed a slight fear of Hunters after her near death experience in Episode Two.
• Wrench Wench: She regularly helps out with mechanical work around Black Mesa East and upgraded Dog into the behemoth he is at present.

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