Assigned to the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit (HECU) from the fictional Santego Military Base in Arizona, he is one of the personnel sent into the Black Mesa Research Facility to kill the aliens and silence the witnesses, especially a scientist named Gordon Freeman, the player character in the original game. Marine Corps Corporal, is the playable character in Half-Life: Opposing Force. The fact that Barney owes Gordon Freeman a beer is a running gag in the series.Īdrian Shephard, a 22-year-old U.S. He provides the player information in the first chapter, leading him to Kleiner and Vance, and in the end of the second chapter, he provides the player with his crowbar. In Half-Life 2, Barney works as a mole for the Lambda Resistance in the Combine Civil Protection Forces. In Half-Life: Blue Shift, the playable Barney progresses through Black Mesa to escape the events of the Resonance Cascade and is able to do so, in contrast to Gordon Freeman and Adrian Shephard, who are held in stasis. Initially, the 'Barneys' were intended to be hostile NPCs who would attack the player. Scott Lynch, Valve's chief operating officer, lent his face to the game for use in-game as Barney in Half-Life 2.īarney's name stemmed from the earlier alpha versions of Half-Life in which the model for the security guards held a resemblance to actor Don Knotts, inspiring comparisons with Knotts's character Barney Fife from The Andy Griffith Show, which in the United States has long been a disparaging term for an inept policeman or security guard. Michael Shapiro provided Barney's voice in the games of the Half-Life series. His mysterious nature has made him an icon of the Half-Life series.īarney Calhoun is the player character in Half-Life: Blue Shift and a major character in Half-Life 2 as well as Half-Life 2: Episode One. The G-Man's constant appearances in the Half-Life games, as well as his revealing monologues with series protagonist Gordon Freeman, imply that he is of great importance and somewhat anchors the endeavors of the player. He plays the role of an overseer and employer, both observing the player as the games progress and pulling strings to control the outcome of specific events throughout the Half-Life saga. He is known to display peculiar behavior and capabilities beyond that of a normal human, and his identity and motives remain almost completely unexplained. The G-Man (voiced by Michael Shapiro) is a mysterious recurring character in the Half-Life series of first-person shooter computer games.

Half life barney calhoun