Half-life 2 character may be killed off.

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It seems that Valve have examined their data and decided that players want one of the main characters to be killed off. The article reveals that in the next installment, due in Q1, 2007, Valve will take the risk and get rid of one of the protagonists.
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Vote... actually, i don't know who they'd kill off. All of the characters are pretty vital to the storyline.

(Apart from Lazlo, poor chap.)
 
Everyone knew they were going to kill a character off ages ago
 
It's interesting how that article puts it. Makes it sound like Valve is deciding to kill off a character because fans are asking for it, while we only started discussing it because Valve said they were going to show that the war won't leave anyone unscathed, and that no one's invincible. Makes you wonder exactly who's really responsible for someone dying: Valve, or the fans?

And I'm still calling that it's gonna be Barney.
 
I think it will be Barney. I can't see Mossman dying, as I believe she'll have a role to play in Episode 3. Kleiner...no, absolutely not, Kleiner cannot die. Eli? Possibly, it'd have an impact on Alyx and the resistance, but I feel I've seen too little of Eli and I'm not quite ready to see him go.

I honestly can't see Alyx going either. And definately not Dog. I feel Barney has played his part. He's rallied the resistance into open war against the Combine and he helped evacuate the City.

Please don't kill Kleiner. :(
 
Barney could probably die towards the climax.
 
That article may be getting a different story wrong, where Valve said they don't want players to feel the characters are safe. And that's a good thing. I don't like it, in games, books or TV, when you just feel that the major characters are safe, and that's it.

Eli might get killed off. That would also have a very strong effect on Alyx, and, in fact, Gordon, too.
 
My guess is we will see someone heavily wounded, but not to the point of death. Alyx might bite the dust, Barney might get pretty shot up while fighting the Combine. However, I don't see Eli or Kleiner getting the bullet, nor do I Mossman.

Propably we'll be leading a medevac for wounded Barney, and just barely get him to safety, that might be the intended function of the two-seater buggy.

Also, Barney is just too capable to be killed off, he managed to get out of Black Mesa alive, after a trip to Xen, got into C17, went undercover as a Civil Protection officer, led the push towards the Citadel, led the Citizen evacuation...
Nope, he is just too big of a warrior to kill.

What shocks me more, though, is death of ordinary citizens, fighting for the resistance. It's just... painful, to see those who trust you die one by one, splattered on the walls, riddled full of bullets or just falling down.

Dammit, it's too much...
 
48 Combine Soldiers: Fall and die after shotgun to the face. Player occasionally takes a moment to reflect on the senseless violence of it all before making the corpses dance via application of Crowbar.

Alyx Vance: Far too predictable in Episode Two considering the Trailers we have seen which basically suggest that it may happen. Valve have invested too much time in developing her to just kill her off, and the promised three way developments between Gordon, the G-Man and Alyx makes it unlikely that Valve will kill her off soon.

Barney Calhoun: The most expendable main character perhaps. His previous role is no longer important. Either Valve invent something new for him, or he just ends up as another Gun running alongside the player. However, killing off a previous Player Character may be a bit risky.

Dog: Very Possible. Valve have upped his role because everyone loves him, and if Dog dies, does he really die? At the end of the day he is a machine and able to be rebuilt.

Eli Vance: A good candidate for death as he is probably the character the player and characters within the game are most attached to, without all the time investure and future plot potential that Alyx has. Quite possibly killed to develop Alyx because of that.

Father Grigori: If he isn't dead already, it would seem pointless bringing him out of his ambiguous disappearance to die again.

The G-Man: Highly doubtful. That's series ending stuff.

Gordon Freeman: Will die again and again. Will illicit anger response from most. Some may break down and cry.

Issac Kliener: There is no real good reason why not, just that it doesn't seem right somehow. Don't kill the comic relief valve! Though it would be amusing to have Barney become Lamar's adopted father...

Judith Mossman: I can see it happening, I just can't see it being very effectual if it does. She is the one in the perilious situation, so she'd be predictable and people maybe simply would not care - players may not have forgiven her.

Odessa Cubbage: Killing Odessa off wouldn't create emotion, but it wouldn't surprise anyone to see him go all the same.

Wallace Breen: We'll think about killing him off when we find out he's alive.

Mikael Grizzly said:
What shocks me more, though, is death of ordinary citizens, fighting for the resistance. It's just... painful, to see those who trust you die one by one, splattered on the walls, riddled full of bullets or just falling down.
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I got over it shortly after they all got in my way in Follow Freeman. Their AI continues to be ropey (look at the Ep2 vids. Standing out in the open and firing at a helicopter with a MP7 is NOT intelligent) and I find it impossible to consider them as concious beings - they're empty shells, and Valve could really do with making a few new faces as well.
 
Valve have said Dogs role has expanded beyond what they originally intended, so I can't see him going.

Mikael Grizzly said:
Also, Barney is just too capable to be killed off, he managed to get out of Black Mesa alive, after a trip to Xen, got into C17, went undercover as a Civil Protection officer, led the push towards the Citadel, led the Citizen evacuation...
Nope, he is just too big of a warrior to kill.
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Did you see his state in Episode 1?
 
Unlikely. The very reason his role is being expanded is because people want more Dog, and that’s what Valve are going to deliver.
 
I like Barney, but I really think he's gonna kick the bucket. And it'll be epic.

Like, REALLY EPIC.
 
Sam, I've seen him and I say he IS tough. It can be assumed that he has been leading the resistance for at least a week straight with little sleep and food, and STILL he can run around and use the OSI properly.

Another way is that he's sleeping it off in the resistance missile silo. Hey, a guy needs to sleep, especially after MOUT scenario in City 17, escorting Citizens etc., eh?
 
bigburpco said:
I like Barney, but I really think he's gonna kick the bucket. And it'll be epic.

Like, REALLY EPIC.
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*The player runs from the entrance as Barney holds a grenade in the face of Gargantua*
"If they put me on a stamp... tell them to use... the... Gold Source Barney"
*boom!*
 
As kupoartist said, Kleiner is comic relief, but I think Barney is too. Killing off the comic relief is just a fiction no-no mainstay.

I still think Eli is going to go down.

kupoartist said:
Eli Vance: A good candidate for death as he is probably the character the player and characters within the game are most attached to, without all the time investure and future plot potential that Alyx has. Quite possibly killed to develop Alyx because of that.
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Precisely.

Now, if Valve were going to go outside the norm and really take a cance, then Alyx could go. That would be akin to killing off Bambi's mother, but it would really push some buttons. I just don't think they want to go out on that limb. Too risky. It's one thing to keep the player immersed by putting a major character's welfare in doubt (as we see in the Ep. 2 trailer), but quite another to turn the game into a crushing death march. What else is there to play for if you don't hook up with Alyx in the end? Saving humanity isn't reward enough. You've got to get the girl.

Anything less would be very depressing when it's all said and done.
 
Its funny that Valve thinks players want one of the main characters to be killed off. If they kill off Alyx I can imagine what will happen to Gabe (angry fans holding pitch forks & torches)
 
KaMaKaZi-BLiTz said:
Its funny that Valve thinks players want one of the main characters to be killed off. If they kill off Alyx I can imagine what will happen to Gabe (angry fans holding pitch forks & torches)
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Yep, imagine all the 15 yr olds wearing black for months on end because of that. Oh wait... ;)
 
Lets all sign a petition or email gabe for NOT to kill off Alyx! :sniper:


But then again I doubt it, right now Alyx is'nt doing anything, she's unconcious in stasis with Gman so I don't see it happening (valve said it will happen in Q1 2007).


Barney, Eli, Mossman, & Dog are possibilities.
 
But I haven't seen enough of Barney! I want more! He's not in enough!
 
Barney is basicly the comic releaf and the most usless character, so he's the obvious choice, which is why I'd guess it's someone else.
 
Samon said:
Kleiner > Barney.
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And Lamarr > Kleiner, but Kleiner isn't in any danger what so ever of dying, Barney is, and he shouldn't, he hasn't kicked enough ass yet! Dog has IMO. A heroic death for Dog would be preferrable to Barney dying. Especially if he/it is trying to save Alyx from something, or doing battle with that strider.
 
Eli is most likely IMO.

Kleiner is just... Kleiner. He can't be killed off because not only will we be (most likely) having to utilize or require his technical expertise in the future, but it would be too cruel to have him die.

Barney will possibly die at some point. Just not in Episode 2. He strikes me as the guy who will make it up to the very end of whatever Valve has in store for the series, make his last quip, then bite it. Or who knows. Maybe he's the one pulling you out of a mess Alyx dies in.

Alyx is going to have a long life ahead of her. Valve has placed too much of an investment in her.

Mossman may die, but I can't see it being that big of a deal. A lot of players still don't like her and we really haven't had a good feel for her yet.

Breen... Assuming he isn't dead (and I have confidence that he isn't), he's ripe for the killing.

So if there is no Breen, I'm only left with Eli. He's old and injured. He's a sympathetic character. And he's the father of Alyx, which makes way for some serious character development for her. This has been said to be a darker episode, so it could give us a chance to see some of the not-so-nice qualities of Alyx, or at least pave the way for them in Episode 3.
 
I hope Breen does return. I'm pretty sure he will. I was messing around the GCF files the other day, putting some of the Episode 1 content into the SDK and one cut line I stumbled across was "Breen. Uhhhh. I hope we've seen the last of him."

Now that, to me, pretty much says yep, he's coming back. If he's in a host body, I hope it isn't an Advisor, but rather something else.
 
People seem to really underestimate Eli.
 
Absinthe said:
He's an old man with a peg leg. He's been captured before.
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Ah, but it's a special Bionic Shotgun Peg Leg that can also rocket boost him out of danger and stir his Mint Tea.

Actually, I made all of that up. Except the Mint Tea. He's addicted.
 
Personally, I think Alyx's death would be the most shocking. Yeah, Valve dedicated an entire episode to her, but imagine the shock (and horror, emotion and sadness, perhaps?) players would get for her to die? Thats exactly it; it'd create an actual emotion - something not seen in many games. So she spent all of Episode 1 running around with you, that shouldn't give her a ticket for her to by-pass her death for a while. Through spending this much time with her, it'd be devestating to lose her, and thats exatly where Valve would hit with a blow to the player.

Half-Life 2 isn't exactly a happy game, is it? I mean, give or take the odd laughs with Kliener and Barney, it's a bleak game set in a bleak, downtrodden world. I'm trying to think of examples now with key characters, who we'd seen in films or books to be loved and to play a important role, die suddenly, creating a shock to the viewer. At the moment, I can only think of when Dizzy dies in Starship Troopers. Y'know, that ginger girl who Rico 'goes with' in the infantry after his girlfreind split up with him? I was pretty shocked there. Theres others I know of, I just can't put my finger on them. Ohh, actually; Qui Gon Jin from Star Wars took me by surprise aswell, and you could see clearly in washisface, Ewen McGregor's face, that he was deeply saddened and horrified at his death.

eh, I'm rambling. Again.
 
Spoiler, thanks for spoiling Starship Troopers.
 
People who've said Barney's going to die because he's a "useless" character, just another gun, someone who's outlived his purpose obviously aren't thinking correctly. Barney fulfills a very important role, and that's being Gordon's friend.

Barney is Gordon Freeman's last known living friend. Everyone else is something else to Gordon: Vance and Kleiner are his mentors, the resistance looks up to him, Alyx is not just a sidekick but possibly a love interest, the vortigaunts follow Freeman out of honor...everyone else Gordon interacts with on a friendly basis has some other relationship to him. Gordon and Barney are FRIENDS. Though they've really only known each other since Black Mesa, they're comrades. Barney is a familiar sight, he's like a stability in this world; as Grizzly said, he's survived so much that it seems almost impossible for him to die. Which is precisely why his death will be such an impact. Gordon is going to lose his last friend on Earth to an uncaring alien empire. Imagine what he'll feel when that happens; imagine what you'd feel?

Barney is going to die. He is going to die and he is going to lament about never buying Gordon that beer.
 
Barney is to cool to die.

If he dies I will have to mod the game to were he does not die!
 
Darkside55 said:
People who've said Barney's going to die because he's a "useless" character, just another gun, someone who's outlived his purpose obviously aren't thinking correctly. Barney fulfills a very important role, and that's being Gordon's friend.

Barney is Gordon Freeman's last known living friend. Everyone else is something else to Gordon: Vance and Kleiner are his mentors, the resistance looks up to him, Alyx is not just a sidekick but possibly a love interest, the vortigaunts follow Freeman out of honor...everyone else Gordon interacts with on a friendly basis has some other relationship to him. Gordon and Barney are FRIENDS. Though they've really only known each other since Black Mesa, they're comrades. Barney is a familiar sight, he's like a stability in this world; as Grizzly said, he's survived so much that it seems almost impossible for him to die. Which is precisely why his death will be such an impact. Gordon is going to lose his last friend on Earth to an uncaring alien empire. Imagine what he'll feel when that happens; imagine what you'd feel?

Barney is going to die. He is going to die and he is going to lament about never buying Gordon that beer.
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NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
 
Darkside55 said:
People who've said Barney's going to die because he's a "useless" character, just another gun, someone who's outlived his purpose obviously aren't thinking correctly. Barney fulfills a very important role, and that's being Gordon's friend.

Barney is Gordon Freeman's last known living friend. Everyone else is something else to Gordon: Vance and Kleiner are his mentors, the resistance looks up to him, Alyx is not just a sidekick but possibly a love interest, the vortigaunts follow Freeman out of honor...everyone else Gordon interacts with on a friendly basis has some other relationship to him. Gordon and Barney are FRIENDS. Though they've really only known each other since Black Mesa, they're comrades. Barney is a familiar sight, he's like a stability in this world; as Grizzly said, he's survived so much that it seems almost impossible for him to die. Which is precisely why his death will be such an impact. Gordon is going to lose his last friend on Earth to an uncaring alien empire. Imagine what he'll feel when that happens; imagine what you'd feel?

Barney is going to die. He is going to die and he is going to lament about never buying Gordon that beer.
Click to expand...

And he is literally the only person in HL2 who went through what Gordon did in BMRF.
 
Well, not quite. But pretty close.
 
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