The Coolest Game Characters of All Time: Gordon Freeman (Half-Life series)

Gordon Freeman. The Freeman. The free man. Just his name suggests transcendence.

Equal parts custom character [there are no cut scenes to disassociate you from the action - everything happens through your eyes and you control every action] and Nietzschean ubermensch. Pulled from time when humanity needs it most by the G-man, yet not a typical hero. A PhD in theoretical physics from MIT, Gordon is the strong silent type taken to the point of awesome. Even his PhD thesis has the greatest title ever, 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 [I shit you not, this is actually part of the Half-Life canon]. No other character in video games has such an in depth vita.

Gordon is not your hulking behemoth (Marcus Fenix), nor does he have a squad or assistance in the majority of whatever endeavour the G-man has him take part in (Call of Duty, Bad Company, et al.), making what he is capable of even more remarkable. Nor does he have snappy one-liners, you are not able to speak to the characters in game with your own voice, so why should the character you are supposed to become say things you'd never?

That he is capable of walking into the enemy headquarters and prevent their entire destruction of mankind armed with nothing other than a crowbar, while at each step still maintaining the belief that you could in fact do what it is he is doing is why he is the greatest video game character of all time, and so, by proxy, are you.

Ignore all these false idols that you are asked to believe in; Nathan Drake, some blue (yes BLUE) hedgehog, a criminal with a girl's name; instead make the right decision and vote Freeman.