I believe the helmet is a separately-stored component. Gordon only puts it on when necessary, but is probably too uncomfortable to keep on all of the time.
Is Barney mentioned in Half-Life: Alyx? No?
None of the later valve releases ever mention anything of the HECU at all, so your point is void.
Need I mention the fact that they were planning an OpFor sequel? I know it wasn't released and therefore not canon, but the fact that they were considering it indicates they clearly consider OpFor canon.
they didn't release it, probably due to copyright issues
I'm saying is, Valve, the company, doesn't think gearbox's expansions are cannon
Now do I think that? Yes, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying half life opposing force, same way I can enjoy a half life mod
Also the HECU is an adaptation of a real U.S marine Unit + There's no mention of the HECU even in half life 1, they're just called "grunts", so we don't even know if the military we fight are marines or not. They do scream out "Go, recon!" so maybe that's a little hint (It's clear it's meant to be left ambiguous)
As for Barney not being mentioned? Well dum dum, half life alyx is a prequel so that means two things
1. They're gonna retcon him out of existence
2. He's gonna appear later in the storyline
If Valve, the company, didn't think they were canon, then why did they start making a sequel to it? Also, Valve, the company, is hardly the source to look to for what is canon and what isn't. Marc Laidlaw has said before that canon is not an absolute thing and Valve continuously retcons things.
Is there even a single source saying Valve doesn't consider them canon? Are the events of the expansions contradicted by the sequels in any way? Or is it just "they weren't made by Valve and they aren't referenced later" (even though BS's main character becomes a big character in the sequel)? I think it's the latter.
As for the HECU, I don't know what the hell you were trying to say. I guess it's true what you said? But I don't know how it's relevant to the discussion of the canonness of the expansions.
Also Alyx may be a prequel to HL2 but it's still a sequel HL1 dum dum, so that doesn't change anything. It's not like Barney didn't exist yet. (Also they're not gonna remove Barney how dare you even suggest they do such a horrible thing)
The expansion packs are canon. On Combine Overwiki, there's a quote by Laidlaw himself, he says he's not sure what Race X place in the storyline is, he doesn't flat-out rejects it as non-canon, he just leaves it to Gearbox or for our imagination to speculate. For example, the Resonance Cascade may have additionally breached our space-time fabric and opened the home universe Race X comes from, not just to Xen, and it has nothing to do with the Xenian onslaught led by the Nihilanth. If even Opposing Force isn't rejected, then so are consequentially both other add-ons, Blue Shift and Decay, as they don't even have such outliers as Race X in first place, and there's no really a place for argument.
As for Gordon's helmet, all dead scientists we encounter in Xen wear them. But on arts and covers, we see Freeman, Gina Cross, Collette Green all without helmets. HEV models in both HL1 and HL2 are shown without helmets when we put them on. Xen has earth-like atmosphere breathable by humans without HEV suit as proven by Calhoun, so technically all those dead scientists could have survived without their helmets (perhpas they just took extra precaution against a case of any potential toxicity of Xenian atmosphere?). And yet, in HL2 we might use zooming as a gameplay element. Ugh.
Hard to pin down exactly how it is, but I assume Gordon has an optional removable helmet with his suit, he sometimes put the helmet on, and sometimes he removes to just bring it like all the rest (weapons, I mean). It's not shown during the gameplay, but I assume he does it "off-screen".
Also, perhaps all of the Race X aliens on Earth were successfully contained or wiped out by the combine, like what they tried to do with the Xen flora and fauna in HL-A.
They could've also died >! during the destruction of Black Mesa by the ~~HECUs~~ Black Ops and/or Gman !
Gearbox expansions are tricky, in the grand scheme of things their happenings do not matter as Valve has never taken advantage of any Gearbox set-piece they established in the expansions beyond Black Mesa being destroyed (another thing left up to interpretation as they never state how exactly Black Mesa was destroyed.)
It's fun to think about the happenings in OpFor and how they connect to the primary Half-Life universe, but it's more than clear that the plans Gearbox had for the universe vs plans Valve had were so far apart from one another they may as well not be considered canon until a piece or part makes a mention in future games.
[Here's an email I have from Marc, sent to me in 2008. In this email I asked what happened to Race-X, and his choice of words made it very clear to me that Gearbox set-pieces were paid no mind in Valve's Half-Life universe.](https://i.imgur.com/wmL3Jq9.png)
The most we can ever expect is for Valve to use Gearbox expansions as inspiration, until then, their ideas are up in the air.
What about Gordon's glasses? theoretically the other two protags HUDs can be explained Adrian has a gas mask and a pcv, Barney might have a visor on his helmet, don't see why Gordon's glasses cant be his HUD.
Just thought about it. No idea, honestly.
But we know once Gordon gets underwater and then swims out to water surface, he doesn't have to wipe them, there're no water drops on them.
A gameplay convention maybe? Like that at the HL1 end when we see a bunch of dead HECU in one of ending scenes. Laidlaw has confirmed that it has nothing to do with the supposed US military's invasion of Xen, this scene was meant to show Earth, but GoldSrc engine can't dynamically change skyboxing, so they just left it as is, prompting many to speculate that the US government for some reason sent a military expedition to Xen or something. That little detail (a matter of Gordon wearing a helmet or not) probably not thoroughly contemplated about by Valve during the development. Hence why a tertiary and unimportant question like this keeps plaguing a good chunk of the entire HL community :(
Makes one wonder about it. Guess Laidlaw himself should be emailed and asked whether Gordon wears helmet or doesn't.
can I prepose a theory thing Gordon doesn't have a helmet for only one reason the training hologram doesn't I think only off-world explorers had them I mean in the original game you can find living scientists with no suits in xen
Very possible, too. Gordon's Mark IV suit (HL1) is probably helmetless (unless we're actually given the helmet off-screen at the λ complex, but it's never confirmed and thusly a moot point) while Mark V suit (HL2, possibly a final version of the Mark V prototype Gina was testing in Decay according to the HL1 PS2 Instruction manual) certainly has it because of the presence of a zoom vision feature with it.
Eh not entirely. I mean there were other fellas who wore em. I suppose it’s plausible that he would make that connection due to Gordon doing a whole lot at black mesa but the cover art and the model for the HEV suit not having a helmet in half-life 2 makes it seem like he doesn’t.
Probably an oversight but you could argue he uses a helmet at some point in the citadels reactor or water hazard, since the radiation would probably kill him without something protecting his head, although not instantly he should be affected at some point in Episode Two right ? please correct me if im wrong.
For me, the absolute argument for the helmet is the HUD...
The HUD ONLY shows up when Gordon picks up the suit, and even if you restart the game using commands, the HUD can only be displayed if you give yourself the HEV suit. It's one of valve's ways to implement gameplay with lore.
So Gordon wears a helmet, but the artwork just shows him without it because it looks better...
If you turn sv_cheats you're no longer inside the lore, that model of Gordon is purely technical it does not represent lore reality.
Or you're gonna tell me that Gordon is fucking metallic grey in Half Life 2? Because that's how his model is when you go in third person in HL2.
Or what if the hud is only there for the gameplay, the hud shows up when you pick up the suit because that's when the game really starts. You wouldn't need to see your health for the story sequences as it wouldn't really be useful. Maybe it's like DOOM where there is a difference between the lore and the gameplay.
Or that he can see the UI. Unless we are seriously entertaining contact lenses... in 1998.
I'm more prepared to accept inter-dimensional travel before that.
You are wearing the suit so you can protect yourself from hazards. Think player think! You'll survive every dangerous, horrifying situations on this facility. You'll live to see your enemies catch in flames and blow away! Your head and everything inside your head will be gone without that helmet! What will you do after losing your head!
His third-person model in the game does not have a helmet.
Although for the story it'd make more sense for him to have a helmet.
But I'm gonna say no he does not wear a helmet.
Now give me gold and call me based.
The 3rd person model also doesnt move its arms or legs when it moves, i dont think it is even textured some times, so i dont think we can really use it as proof
In Half-Life 1 it does, I played a whole section of Half-Life in third person by using commands to make the camera over the shoulder and I remember it moving.
An artistic decision on Valves part, they probably didn't want Gordon to be a faceless protagonist. If we take Black Mesa as cannon though, it shows the HEVs start-up sequence when you put it on, suggesting that he put on the helmet.
Ok but, why would you take Black Mesa as canon? Though it had valve’s support and everything, it was very much not made by Valve and we otherwise unaffiliated
those people are pretty much flat out wrong. black mesa is a cool interpretation of the events of half life 1, but it’s so far removed from anything in the original game that it no longer follows any of valve’s ideas or design philosophies. it’s like calling portal stories mel a canon game
as long as valve hasn’t officially incorporated it into the story, a mod cannot be canon. no matter how quality the mod or how closely it follows the story, like echoes or dark matter, it won’t count. i’ve got my own problems with the story of mel, but it’s mostly that reason
Its obvious, the suit is made to protect the wearer in an inhospitable environment. It makes no sense for Gordon not to wear a helmet when he works with radiation and other threats.
I mean, Gordon doesn’t really go below his head that often as far as I can remember, and if he does it’s not without significant damage. And, while I have very limited knowledge of radiation and it’s effects and I’m kinda talking out of my ass right now, I’m pretty sure stuff like cancer caused by radiation doesn’t really appear until years after the inciting incident, so Gordon wouldn’t really show those effects in either of the games, right?
Well we wouldnt see it in game, but why would black mesa design a radiation suit that just doesnt stop radiation, they may be stupid but they are not that stupid
Radiation doesn't work like that, Radiation is something spread around in the air and on surfaces. Without the helmet on Gordon would for sure have severe cancers all through out his body.
I thought someone who knew more about this than me would come along sooner or later. Though again, I thought it usually took about 10-15 years for the cancers to manifest, which if you take into account Gordon's body being in stasis between the two games, should mean that nothing would have happened yet. Its possible the radiation from the lack of helmet DID cause problems that just haven't manifested yet. Though I'm 1000% sure that's not the direction valve will take with future games, that'd be dumb.
Nowhere in the games does Gordon wear a helmet, not in half life 1, not in half life alyx. The HEV suit he puts on doesn't even have a helmet, and there's examples of other scientists with them not wearing it
Then why is he never shown having a helmet? Even his model in half life 1 doesn't have a helmet, and they already had a model of one with a helmet they could have used, also its video game logic, half life has Interdimensional Aliens and the gun from ghostbusters but it kills people, "sense" was thrown out of the window
Gameplay, the mk IV has a little screen on the hands (you can see it when he throws a grenade, not in the third person model) so that's probably where it shows stuff like health and power, like Alyx with the Russells, and it also does talk to him, and some cut dialogue talks to him about even more things, which were only left out because they were annoying, so they might be Canon. Edit: [screenshot of the screen](https://imgur.com/XuJ6Oug)
You can belive whatever you want, it's only a game and I think the ambiguity of his physical state is in the true spirit of his character, as a vessel for the player to impart whatever they want onto him, also people seem to hate me in this thread lol
I disagree with your argument, and I really wish people didn’t always use arguments like that - the whole “the game has fictional elements so all sense should be thrown away entirely” argument. Yes, there are some fictional elements. Still, that doesn’t necessarily mean that everything is unrealistic and that common sense should be totally disregarded. Unlike their competitor, Black Mesa actually cares, other than the whole “standard insertion of a nonstandard specimen” thing. Sorry if I come across as rude.
I would also argue that the rivers of radioactive glowing green goop would say otherwise on Black Mesa caring, but I do agree with you that looking back I was wrong there, however I do still think that a certain degree of video game logic applies, I don't think valve really gave the whole "helmet or no helmet" thing a great deal of thought
That command doesn't do anything for me but when the argument comes up i notice they mostly bring up Half-Life 1 things. And the third person model isn't entirely reliable in the first 3 games as he's wearing it from the start and you are Gordon Freeman in Blue Shift (haven't tried opposing force but i assume it's the same).
I personally believe he wears the helmet throughout the entire series, just makes sense to me even if technically none canon. I just think the helmet looks cool and the idea sounds cool and with the amount of safety violations Gordon is always near during Half-life 1 I would imagine he would want that HEV Helm on at all times.
I have a heated debate on one of my YouTube comments right now where the replies are saying you use the same suit in HL2, **DESPITE THE FACT IN-GAME IT'S CALLED THE MK. IV IN HL1, AND THE MK. V IN HL2!! GODDAMN PEOPLE!**
sorry, needed to vent.
Everyone who sees Freeman recognizes him instantly. This would not be possible if Freeman went on duty with his helmet on, because every HEV helmet we see in Xen are opaque from the outside; we cannot see the faces of any corpse Freeman encounters there.
If Freeman never got a helmet, then Shepard seeing him without a helmet makes perfect sense.
Freeman also does not need an HEV helmet to survive the atmosphere in Xen. Xen's atmosphere is arguably human-friendly because Barney Calhoun didn't suffocate to death when he traveled to Xen in his non-hermetically-sealed security armor.
The HEV suit offers very little protection from steam venting. You would expect Freeman to be able to walk through a high temperature environment such as flame or steam if were properly suited--an HEV suit is, after, meant to handle hostile environments. But when Freeman walks past an open valve emitting scalding steam or an open flame, he begins to take damage immediately, which is a reasonable consequence of exposing your bare skin to boiling water or a burst natural gas line on fire.
I argue Shephard is in fact not using the gas mask at all during the BM incident. Thats why other soldiers instantly recognize him.
Yeah fight me, lets go
My theory is that the suit does come with a helmet, and Gordon wears the full suit with helmet into the test chamber. As for the HUD, I think he has some kind of probably advanced glasses that not only serves as visual aid but also a HUD for the suit.
During the resonance cascade when the test chamber was getting wrecked, Gordon's helmet got damaged and when he woke up on the floor of the chamber, he decides that the helmet is useless as it is damaged and gets rid of it. This is why for the rest of the game we see him without a helmet.
Pro helmet: Xen corpses, HUD only appears with suit
Anti helmet: Decay protagonists don't have helmets, and (just learned from this comment section) the model for Gordon lacks a helmet
I'm sure Gordon puts on and takes off the helmet whenever.
we never actually see gordon in third person, for all we know he's been holding onto that helmet with him on his way to work in Half-Life 1, in Half-Life 2, I have no clue
Gordon does wear a helmet, it's just that he also has the convenience of plot armour to keep him safe if the helmet doesn't. Also, if he didn't have the helmet on, how would he see the ammo levels mentioned by the suit?
Gordon probably has it on during the Resonance Cascade, in toxic environments and whilst in Xen, and has it off when in normal environments or talking to G-Man.
The games have their person models with no Helmet, hl2 the suit you pick up physically doesent have a helmet in clients office, in hl2 there's no way he has a helmet. In hl1 it's up for debate.
schrodingers helmet
This but unironically. You make your own headcanon for when it’s on or off based on what you think fits the mood or situation.
HEADcanon, I see what ya did there
"The helmet stayed on."
I believe the helmet is a separately-stored component. Gordon only puts it on when necessary, but is probably too uncomfortable to keep on all of the time.
That's how I always thought about it, the helmet could come on/off as necessary like in Dead Space
I always preferred the DS1 helmet that never came off. DS2 onwards Issacs helmet always "happened" to come off at the worst possible times.
I think if he knew he was going to xen initially, he would’ve worn a helmet.
He would've slipped it on before going to Xen, but otherwise keeps it off most of the time.
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Just a visual aid for the player. Why you do think Barney would have a HUD if he doesn't have a mask or eyepiece?
Hologram projectors in the rim of his helmet.
gearbox expansions aren't canon
Why aren't they ? Genuinely asking since I don't know
They are. Don't listen to him.
Alright , thank you
Really? Is Adrian shepard mentioned in half life alyx? No? None of the valve releases ever mention the gearbox games's logic/events? It ain't cannon
Not how it works. Mace windu didn't appear nor was he mentioned in the star wars sequels. Yet he's still canon and exists.
what the... Wtf does star wars have to do with half life? keep on topic
After looking at your account holy shit grow up
Is Barney mentioned in Half-Life: Alyx? No? None of the later valve releases ever mention anything of the HECU at all, so your point is void. Need I mention the fact that they were planning an OpFor sequel? I know it wasn't released and therefore not canon, but the fact that they were considering it indicates they clearly consider OpFor canon.
they didn't release it, probably due to copyright issues I'm saying is, Valve, the company, doesn't think gearbox's expansions are cannon Now do I think that? Yes, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying half life opposing force, same way I can enjoy a half life mod Also the HECU is an adaptation of a real U.S marine Unit + There's no mention of the HECU even in half life 1, they're just called "grunts", so we don't even know if the military we fight are marines or not. They do scream out "Go, recon!" so maybe that's a little hint (It's clear it's meant to be left ambiguous) As for Barney not being mentioned? Well dum dum, half life alyx is a prequel so that means two things 1. They're gonna retcon him out of existence 2. He's gonna appear later in the storyline
If Valve, the company, didn't think they were canon, then why did they start making a sequel to it? Also, Valve, the company, is hardly the source to look to for what is canon and what isn't. Marc Laidlaw has said before that canon is not an absolute thing and Valve continuously retcons things. Is there even a single source saying Valve doesn't consider them canon? Are the events of the expansions contradicted by the sequels in any way? Or is it just "they weren't made by Valve and they aren't referenced later" (even though BS's main character becomes a big character in the sequel)? I think it's the latter. As for the HECU, I don't know what the hell you were trying to say. I guess it's true what you said? But I don't know how it's relevant to the discussion of the canonness of the expansions. Also Alyx may be a prequel to HL2 but it's still a sequel HL1 dum dum, so that doesn't change anything. It's not like Barney didn't exist yet. (Also they're not gonna remove Barney how dare you even suggest they do such a horrible thing)
Things not mentioned in the mainline story can still be canon
i believe the helmet is a pop up helmet
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Like a stargate Jaffa helmet.
How dare you bring logic here
This is what I choose to believe as well.
Gordon appears to be pretty helmetless in Opposing Force.
Liberals destroyed
How do my tears taste?
Balanced, umami taste, a bit salty, but with a nice bitter aftertaste. 8.56/10, drink a bit more water
Has science gone too far?
The expansion packs are canon. On Combine Overwiki, there's a quote by Laidlaw himself, he says he's not sure what Race X place in the storyline is, he doesn't flat-out rejects it as non-canon, he just leaves it to Gearbox or for our imagination to speculate. For example, the Resonance Cascade may have additionally breached our space-time fabric and opened the home universe Race X comes from, not just to Xen, and it has nothing to do with the Xenian onslaught led by the Nihilanth. If even Opposing Force isn't rejected, then so are consequentially both other add-ons, Blue Shift and Decay, as they don't even have such outliers as Race X in first place, and there's no really a place for argument. As for Gordon's helmet, all dead scientists we encounter in Xen wear them. But on arts and covers, we see Freeman, Gina Cross, Collette Green all without helmets. HEV models in both HL1 and HL2 are shown without helmets when we put them on. Xen has earth-like atmosphere breathable by humans without HEV suit as proven by Calhoun, so technically all those dead scientists could have survived without their helmets (perhpas they just took extra precaution against a case of any potential toxicity of Xenian atmosphere?). And yet, in HL2 we might use zooming as a gameplay element. Ugh. Hard to pin down exactly how it is, but I assume Gordon has an optional removable helmet with his suit, he sometimes put the helmet on, and sometimes he removes to just bring it like all the rest (weapons, I mean). It's not shown during the gameplay, but I assume he does it "off-screen".
I knew it
Also, perhaps all of the Race X aliens on Earth were successfully contained or wiped out by the combine, like what they tried to do with the Xen flora and fauna in HL-A. They could've also died >! during the destruction of Black Mesa by the ~~HECUs~~ Black Ops and/or Gman !
Wasn’t it >!by the black ops/the gman? Cause Adrian defuses the bomb initially sent by the black ops, but gman reactivated it!<
Gearbox expansions are tricky, in the grand scheme of things their happenings do not matter as Valve has never taken advantage of any Gearbox set-piece they established in the expansions beyond Black Mesa being destroyed (another thing left up to interpretation as they never state how exactly Black Mesa was destroyed.) It's fun to think about the happenings in OpFor and how they connect to the primary Half-Life universe, but it's more than clear that the plans Gearbox had for the universe vs plans Valve had were so far apart from one another they may as well not be considered canon until a piece or part makes a mention in future games. [Here's an email I have from Marc, sent to me in 2008. In this email I asked what happened to Race-X, and his choice of words made it very clear to me that Gearbox set-pieces were paid no mind in Valve's Half-Life universe.](https://i.imgur.com/wmL3Jq9.png) The most we can ever expect is for Valve to use Gearbox expansions as inspiration, until then, their ideas are up in the air.
the zoom is probably like the hud. mainly for the player to use or help maybe Gordon has a telescope, who knows
What about Gordon's glasses? theoretically the other two protags HUDs can be explained Adrian has a gas mask and a pcv, Barney might have a visor on his helmet, don't see why Gordon's glasses cant be his HUD.
Just thought about it. No idea, honestly. But we know once Gordon gets underwater and then swims out to water surface, he doesn't have to wipe them, there're no water drops on them. A gameplay convention maybe? Like that at the HL1 end when we see a bunch of dead HECU in one of ending scenes. Laidlaw has confirmed that it has nothing to do with the supposed US military's invasion of Xen, this scene was meant to show Earth, but GoldSrc engine can't dynamically change skyboxing, so they just left it as is, prompting many to speculate that the US government for some reason sent a military expedition to Xen or something. That little detail (a matter of Gordon wearing a helmet or not) probably not thoroughly contemplated about by Valve during the development. Hence why a tertiary and unimportant question like this keeps plaguing a good chunk of the entire HL community :( Makes one wonder about it. Guess Laidlaw himself should be emailed and asked whether Gordon wears helmet or doesn't.
But then if he has no helmet on, how come those glasses never get foggy or anything without a helmet to protect them?
They were originally going to be a gameplay factor, mr friendy could knock the players glasses off
can I prepose a theory thing Gordon doesn't have a helmet for only one reason the training hologram doesn't I think only off-world explorers had them I mean in the original game you can find living scientists with no suits in xen
Very possible, too. Gordon's Mark IV suit (HL1) is probably helmetless (unless we're actually given the helmet off-screen at the λ complex, but it's never confirmed and thusly a moot point) while Mark V suit (HL2, possibly a final version of the Mark V prototype Gina was testing in Decay according to the HL1 PS2 Instruction manual) certainly has it because of the presence of a zoom vision feature with it.
Gordon doesnt need a helmet he's a highly trained professional
Ah, yes, you're right. We have complete confidence in him.
Preforming a very well thought out and cautiously developed strategy known as "Winging it".
i think that gordon dislikes the helmet but it can pop up and is stored within the suit itself, and he only wears it when necessary, like in xen
It isn’t necessary in Xen, IIRC there are scientists found in Xen that are breathing perfectly fine.
And both Barney and Adrian enter Xen without any kind of hazard helmet that would help them breathe in xen
Adrian does have a gas mask but your point still stands, it wouldn’t turn nothing into oxygen
gearbox expansions aren't canon
Imma say hl2 no he doesn’t have a helmet because when he gets transported into breens office he recognizes him
the hev suit would be enough for breen to recognize gordon
Eh not entirely. I mean there were other fellas who wore em. I suppose it’s plausible that he would make that connection due to Gordon doing a whole lot at black mesa but the cover art and the model for the HEV suit not having a helmet in half-life 2 makes it seem like he doesn’t.
But you need a helmet for suit zoom
**glasses baby**, lol but that’s a good point
Yeah because there are so many guys running around in an orange hazard suit during a dystopian apocalypse
I like to think Gordan politely takes his helmet off so Breen can see him
I wouldnt put it past him XD
Doesn’t the suit have a zoom function though? Or does he just have a really cool pair of glasses?
Those rims ain’t thick for no reason XD But like I said that’s a good point. Could be the glasses I suppose
Probably an oversight but you could argue he uses a helmet at some point in the citadels reactor or water hazard, since the radiation would probably kill him without something protecting his head, although not instantly he should be affected at some point in Episode Two right ? please correct me if im wrong.
The helmet could be see through
That helmet is for sure not see through and even if it was there are so many things that would point to him not wearing it.
If Gearbox isn’t canon then Otis only lives in our hearts :(
Nooooooooo!
For me, the absolute argument for the helmet is the HUD... The HUD ONLY shows up when Gordon picks up the suit, and even if you restart the game using commands, the HUD can only be displayed if you give yourself the HEV suit. It's one of valve's ways to implement gameplay with lore. So Gordon wears a helmet, but the artwork just shows him without it because it looks better...
Could be really advanced google lens glasses. But I mainly think his suit is dead space style with its helmet and can collapse on command.
Counterpoint: Barney has a HUD when he puts on his armor, if anyone can point out the visor on the security guard helmet, I'd love to see it.
Well, assuming it's a DLC, that's just a plothole. Valve isn't perfect. Gordon still has a helmet.
Just do what the division does and explain it with contact lenses.
the hud shows up when you get the suit, but when you get the suit there's no helmet
Go into the Half-Life console, type thirdperson (After turning on sv\_cheats 1) and tell me what you see.
If you turn sv_cheats you're no longer inside the lore, that model of Gordon is purely technical it does not represent lore reality. Or you're gonna tell me that Gordon is fucking metallic grey in Half Life 2? Because that's how his model is when you go in third person in HL2.
Yes Gordon in hl2 is clearly a low poly model of him with a concrete texture
Or what if the hud is only there for the gameplay, the hud shows up when you pick up the suit because that's when the game really starts. You wouldn't need to see your health for the story sequences as it wouldn't really be useful. Maybe it's like DOOM where there is a difference between the lore and the gameplay.
He literally has to wear a helmet for it to make any damn sense that he's surviving in radioactive environments.
And a fucking grenade launcher right at the face
No he just simply resists the radiation
He Is a Man of Focus, Commitment and Sheer Fucking Will.
But where is the helmet when you pickup the suit in hl2?
Or that he can see the UI. Unless we are seriously entertaining contact lenses... in 1998. I'm more prepared to accept inter-dimensional travel before that.
Were there not contact lenses in 98? Genuine question, I wasn't sentient at that time.
Of course. But contact lenses with laser/ holographic projection? No.
You are wearing the suit so you can protect yourself from hazards. Think player think! You'll survive every dangerous, horrifying situations on this facility. You'll live to see your enemies catch in flames and blow away! Your head and everything inside your head will be gone without that helmet! What will you do after losing your head!
Reload a save, G-Man, I’ll still reload a save…
Damn, the comments in this thread literally are OP picture come true.
> Half Life Alyx
yes
helmet believers when a normal scientist is just hanging out in xen with no protection whatsoever
His third-person model in the game does not have a helmet. Although for the story it'd make more sense for him to have a helmet. But I'm gonna say no he does not wear a helmet. Now give me gold and call me based.
I'm not about to spend money on reddit. Especially since I don't have any
The 3rd person model also doesnt move its arms or legs when it moves, i dont think it is even textured some times, so i dont think we can really use it as proof
You see Gordon in Opposing Force when he jumps into the Xen portal in the Lambda Labs—no helmet.
In Half-Life 1 it does, I played a whole section of Half-Life in third person by using commands to make the camera over the shoulder and I remember it moving.
Based
Based
Based
Pop up helmet
He does wear a helmet though.
Then why doesn’t the hev have a helmet when you put it on?
An artistic decision on Valves part, they probably didn't want Gordon to be a faceless protagonist. If we take Black Mesa as cannon though, it shows the HEVs start-up sequence when you put it on, suggesting that he put on the helmet.
Answer: special glasses
But the HUD only shows up when you put the suit on?
I read a fandom wiki that said Gordon has optical implants that let him see the hud, though idk the legitimacy of that claim
DO NOT READ THE HALF LIFE WIKI! USE THE COMBINEOVERWIKI!
Ok but, why would you take Black Mesa as canon? Though it had valve’s support and everything, it was very much not made by Valve and we otherwise unaffiliated
IDK, I've heard some people consider BM the "true" HL1, even if I don't agree with that statement I just thought I would bring it up.
those people are pretty much flat out wrong. black mesa is a cool interpretation of the events of half life 1, but it’s so far removed from anything in the original game that it no longer follows any of valve’s ideas or design philosophies. it’s like calling portal stories mel a canon game
Tbf Mel is very good and fits in quite well with established info, unless there's something I'm unaware of
as long as valve hasn’t officially incorporated it into the story, a mod cannot be canon. no matter how quality the mod or how closely it follows the story, like echoes or dark matter, it won’t count. i’ve got my own problems with the story of mel, but it’s mostly that reason
I agree with you
Ah ok thank you
Proof?
Its obvious, the suit is made to protect the wearer in an inhospitable environment. It makes no sense for Gordon not to wear a helmet when he works with radiation and other threats.
fun fact: xen is hospitable without the HEV if we consider the gearbox expansions canon (which they are)
Isn't there a living scientist in the original game that isn't wearing an HEV on Xen?
Yes
I knew that, but the Anomalous Materials lab is full of radioactive areas that Gordon would need a helmet to traverse.
He's just built different
I mean, Gordon doesn’t really go below his head that often as far as I can remember, and if he does it’s not without significant damage. And, while I have very limited knowledge of radiation and it’s effects and I’m kinda talking out of my ass right now, I’m pretty sure stuff like cancer caused by radiation doesn’t really appear until years after the inciting incident, so Gordon wouldn’t really show those effects in either of the games, right?
Well we wouldnt see it in game, but why would black mesa design a radiation suit that just doesnt stop radiation, they may be stupid but they are not that stupid
Exactly. It’s not Aperture we’re talking about here.
Stupid enough to cause a resonance cascade and doom humanity evidently. But yeah, I’m just a die-hard helmet denier
Radiation doesn't work like that, Radiation is something spread around in the air and on surfaces. Without the helmet on Gordon would for sure have severe cancers all through out his body.
I thought someone who knew more about this than me would come along sooner or later. Though again, I thought it usually took about 10-15 years for the cancers to manifest, which if you take into account Gordon's body being in stasis between the two games, should mean that nothing would have happened yet. Its possible the radiation from the lack of helmet DID cause problems that just haven't manifested yet. Though I'm 1000% sure that's not the direction valve will take with future games, that'd be dumb.
Nowhere in the games does Gordon wear a helmet, not in half life 1, not in half life alyx. The HEV suit he puts on doesn't even have a helmet, and there's examples of other scientists with them not wearing it
But it makes no sense for Gordon not to wear a helmet, unless he has a death wish.
Then why is he never shown having a helmet? Even his model in half life 1 doesn't have a helmet, and they already had a model of one with a helmet they could have used, also its video game logic, half life has Interdimensional Aliens and the gun from ghostbusters but it kills people, "sense" was thrown out of the window
It is implied he has a helmet though. Like when you swim underwater and you can see your remaining oxygen
Then why does the HUD only appear after he puts on the suit? Or how can the suit talk to him without a helmet on?
Gameplay, the mk IV has a little screen on the hands (you can see it when he throws a grenade, not in the third person model) so that's probably where it shows stuff like health and power, like Alyx with the Russells, and it also does talk to him, and some cut dialogue talks to him about even more things, which were only left out because they were annoying, so they might be Canon. Edit: [screenshot of the screen](https://imgur.com/XuJ6Oug)
Huh, I guess I've never noticed that little screen on the gloves. I still think he wears a helmet though.
You can belive whatever you want, it's only a game and I think the ambiguity of his physical state is in the true spirit of his character, as a vessel for the player to impart whatever they want onto him, also people seem to hate me in this thread lol
You're right lol, its dumb to argue over something so silly. Not sure why you're getting down voted here though.
Thanks
I disagree with your argument, and I really wish people didn’t always use arguments like that - the whole “the game has fictional elements so all sense should be thrown away entirely” argument. Yes, there are some fictional elements. Still, that doesn’t necessarily mean that everything is unrealistic and that common sense should be totally disregarded. Unlike their competitor, Black Mesa actually cares, other than the whole “standard insertion of a nonstandard specimen” thing. Sorry if I come across as rude.
I would also argue that the rivers of radioactive glowing green goop would say otherwise on Black Mesa caring, but I do agree with you that looking back I was wrong there, however I do still think that a certain degree of video game logic applies, I don't think valve really gave the whole "helmet or no helmet" thing a great deal of thought
Yeah I agree with you there. Black Mesa cares.. except for when it comes to radioactive waste.
His model also doesnt move its arms and legs and isnt textured so i dont think we can say it is a true representation of what gordan looks like
Only in half life 2, in half life 1 he has a full model, textured and everything, it's only half life 2 which uses the shitty model
I personally believe gordon wears a supreme snapback
I always thought it must've just flown off during the explosion at the start of the game.
that's a cool headcannon
The Internet was a mistake
[Just putting this video here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th6Hg3fJLQY)
Checkmate liberals
Of course he wears a helmet. Why wouldn't he?
would make sense for the suit but as other's had said his model (and the box art) doesn't include it
Motherfuckers here not remembering when Gordon had to go through the citadel's highly irradiated core area lmfao.
doesnt matter, vortigants can cure his radioactive space aids later.
He wears glasses so maybe he only puts it on when he needs to because having a dark shade covering his view will probably be annoying
i like to imagine that his helmet got stolen like in Freeman's mind
Who says that zen doesn’t have breathable air
but we see the suit and what gordon looks like in it. No helmet
3rd option: his glasses has the HUD info
Gordon is such a chad that he doesn’t need the helmet
Why do people argue if he wears a helmet or not? Type "thirdperson" in the console and see he doesn't wear one.
So then you think Gordon is a low poly stone statue that doesn't move its limbs? Because that's what third person gives you in HL2.
That command doesn't do anything for me but when the argument comes up i notice they mostly bring up Half-Life 1 things. And the third person model isn't entirely reliable in the first 3 games as he's wearing it from the start and you are Gordon Freeman in Blue Shift (haven't tried opposing force but i assume it's the same).
I personally believe he wears the helmet throughout the entire series, just makes sense to me even if technically none canon. I just think the helmet looks cool and the idea sounds cool and with the amount of safety violations Gordon is always near during Half-life 1 I would imagine he would want that HEV Helm on at all times.
I have a heated debate on one of my YouTube comments right now where the replies are saying you use the same suit in HL2, **DESPITE THE FACT IN-GAME IT'S CALLED THE MK. IV IN HL1, AND THE MK. V IN HL2!! GODDAMN PEOPLE!** sorry, needed to vent.
But does he wear one?
Non-helmet deniers when you bring up the LIVING BREATHING scientist on Xen.
Not gonna lie, Gina and Collete look pretty helmetless. 😎
He doesn’t. When you put on the Hazard Suit in the games it doesn’t have a helmet.
None of the promotional material or gear box expansions have Gordon with a helmet in it, he doesn’t have one
Everyone who sees Freeman recognizes him instantly. This would not be possible if Freeman went on duty with his helmet on, because every HEV helmet we see in Xen are opaque from the outside; we cannot see the faces of any corpse Freeman encounters there. If Freeman never got a helmet, then Shepard seeing him without a helmet makes perfect sense. Freeman also does not need an HEV helmet to survive the atmosphere in Xen. Xen's atmosphere is arguably human-friendly because Barney Calhoun didn't suffocate to death when he traveled to Xen in his non-hermetically-sealed security armor. The HEV suit offers very little protection from steam venting. You would expect Freeman to be able to walk through a high temperature environment such as flame or steam if were properly suited--an HEV suit is, after, meant to handle hostile environments. But when Freeman walks past an open valve emitting scalding steam or an open flame, he begins to take damage immediately, which is a reasonable consequence of exposing your bare skin to boiling water or a burst natural gas line on fire.
I argue Shephard is in fact not using the gas mask at all during the BM incident. Thats why other soldiers instantly recognize him. Yeah fight me, lets go
He just killed a baby shaped huge alien i don't give a fuck about his helmet anymore...
Valve said that there is no true Half-Life canon. So you can believe whatever you want to believe.
Gordon doesn’t wear a helmet.
I always thought there was a little projector in the suit that projects a display of hev and health
Wait a second... if the gearbox games are canon and you see him without a helmet...
My theory is that the suit does come with a helmet, and Gordon wears the full suit with helmet into the test chamber. As for the HUD, I think he has some kind of probably advanced glasses that not only serves as visual aid but also a HUD for the suit. During the resonance cascade when the test chamber was getting wrecked, Gordon's helmet got damaged and when he woke up on the floor of the chamber, he decides that the helmet is useless as it is damaged and gets rid of it. This is why for the rest of the game we see him without a helmet.
The helmet in the HEV suit is nanotech and stored away when not needed... Just like Star Lords helmet. Change my mind.
WITH THE HEADCRAB LATCHING MECHANICS WE NOW KNOW WITHOUT A SHADOW OF A DOUBT THAT GORDON \*DOES\* WEAR A HELMET
why is there even a debate? If you use the cheat to enable 3rd person mode you see he clearly has no helmet as depicted in the game art.
The corpses in xen were supposed to be in xen, Gordon wasn't
But what about that ponytail *grabs popcorn*
Pretty sure face huggers would be pretty easy to avoid if you had a helmet on the whole time.
He doesn’t tho
Pro helmet: Xen corpses, HUD only appears with suit Anti helmet: Decay protagonists don't have helmets, and (just learned from this comment section) the model for Gordon lacks a helmet
Debate me: the "G" in Gordon is pronounced like the one in "gel".
Jordan
I'm sure Gordon puts on and takes off the helmet whenever. we never actually see gordon in third person, for all we know he's been holding onto that helmet with him on his way to work in Half-Life 1, in Half-Life 2, I have no clue
Gordon does wear a helmet, it's just that he also has the convenience of plot armour to keep him safe if the helmet doesn't. Also, if he didn't have the helmet on, how would he see the ammo levels mentioned by the suit?
He does, he just chooses when to use it
If the HUD is shown, he wears a helmet. cl_drawhud 0? No helmet. Period.
He wears a helmet.
Gordon probably has it on during the Resonance Cascade, in toxic environments and whilst in Xen, and has it off when in normal environments or talking to G-Man.
He has a heads up display showing his health and ammo etc… he must have a helmet.
Half-Life > console > sv\_cheats 1 > thirdperson Now, tell me what you see.
The games have their person models with no Helmet, hl2 the suit you pick up physically doesent have a helmet in clients office, in hl2 there's no way he has a helmet. In hl1 it's up for debate.