There's no excuse for not voicing him fully. Maybe if the game had branching plot points and decisions, sure, yet the game is totally linear, and it's just silly to think that he hasn't said ANYTHING this ENTIRE time.

It ruins a lot of the dialogue because Alyx effective has to convey what Gordon is thinking, and she keeps addressing Gordon when any normal person would stop trying after receiving no response for a whole game and two expansions!

And to the HL purists, you seriously think it's more immersive to have him mute? You're really gonna tell me that you didn't want Gordon to grab Eli by the throat and say "OKAY, WHO THE FUCK IS THE GMAN, HOW DO YOU KNOW HIM, AND WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE!" at the end of Ep 2? Even if every other line he said was lame and not what I would have said, we all know what would have made it worth it.

I really hope they add a voice for Gordon in the next game. I don't feel more "in Gordon's shoes", due to the silent protagonist, I feel more frustrated that I can't have any sort of emotional impact on any of the games characters. Knowing Valve, they'll realize their blunder and retconn in that Gordon talks.  Portal did well to have a silent protagonist. HL is supposed to be story driven. If the fans aren't receptive to the voice actor they pick, they can just change it up and retcon it, that's all Valve does anyway.

I hope they do not have him voice acted. 

You just don't understand the point of an everyman, do you?

I hope they do not have him voice acted. 

That would be like making Link talk, or see Master Chief's face. it is a gaming staple that he doesn't talk and I don't think they should change it. Also no voice will ever be right. Also what if he is mute? Are you a dick and hate mute people? They can't talk so you should just stop talking to them after they never respond. Also no I did not want to rip out Eli's throat because I am not a dick.

If they give him a voice, he stops being the Freeman that I have played through 2 games and I stop caring about the character in the same way.

sure there is. it's valve's game and i'm pretty sure they're entitled to do what they like with it. pretty sure.

I think the silent protagonist is a perfectly legitimate story-telling technique.

I'd like him to be voice acted. That character is so iconic he doesn't really feel like an avatar for the player, which I assume is the reason they kept him silent in the first place.

I really hope you are not being serious, because if you are you an idiot. I will however add that at this point it would utterly destroy the immersion and story if Gordon started talking, its the reason they don't add it and I hope they never do.

If Valve keeps making great games with great stories, they could make the protagonist blind for all I care...

...wait

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7J80KD4BG7MIf anything, this.

I consider any other real Half-Life title to be vaporware at this point, retconned or not.  And it's Valve's "thing" to do the silent protagonist deal.  I don't think they'd change that now.

I'm one to side with the Bombcast discussion of Nolan North being the voice of Freeman. It should be right at the end where something climactic is about to happen and it should just be one big, giant "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!"

Hmmmm.... no thanks.

A new user starts a controversial topic.

I hope they do not have him voice acted. 

@Underachiever007: you apparently know thyself well

If there was just the first half life game then it might make sense but after all of HL2 plus the episodes, it seems that if there ever is a HL3, then they probably aren't going to give him a voice as I'm sure after all this time the people at valve for HL2 or the episodes have argued this point until everyone has heard every point/counter-point 3000 times over.

i can see where you are coming from but Gordon Freeman has become such an iconic character because he has been silent.
if you change him now you will destroy the character.

Cry more, OP.  lrn2storytelling, while you're at it.

@Underachiever007: Yes.  And I honestly liked WET.  So... yeah....

@mfpantst said:

@Underachiever007: Yes.  And I honestly liked WET.  So... yeah....

There was stuff in WET that was pretty dope.

Valve has spent the last 15 years advancing the art of game storytelling by developing ways to make the player identify themselves as a character. Giving Gordon a voice would undo all of that work.

Valve kind of knows what they are doing.

EDIT: Also, Valve has never retconned anything (except some minor graphical things). The weak relationship between stories of HL1 and 2 does not constitute a retconn.

OP is a retard.

You don't get it, you are Freeman thus he is not voiced

Gordon being a mute wouldn't bother me so much if it was explained as something physical with him, rather than it begin a choice on his part. The fact that Alyx is so sweet on him even though he (as far as we know) chooses not to speak personally breaks immersion for me. 

He's actually doing this the whole game:

A new user starts a controversial topic.

Surprise.

@innacces14 said:

I'm one to side with the Bombcast discussion of Nolan North being the voice of Freeman. It should be right at the end where something climactic is about to happen and it should just be one big, giant "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!"

In some way... I really like that idea. Should Alex die, I think they'll need to have him acknowledge it.

It's too late now. I feel like giving him a voice at this stage would be too weird.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7J80KD4BG7MIf anything, this.

@GetEveryone said:

A new user starts a controversial topic.

Surprise.

@innacces14 said:

I'm one to side with the Bombcast discussion of Nolan North being the voice of Freeman. It should be right at the end where something climactic is about to happen and it should just be one big, giant "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!"

In some way... I really like that idea. Should Alex die, I think they'll need to have him acknowledge it.

They had better not kill Alyx. If that were to happen, Gaben would have some serious 'splaining to do.

A new user starts a controversial topic.

Surprise.

I never got why people see Freeman as such a great character, all I know from what it has shown me in game is that he is a physicist and a mother fucker.

Oh wait, never mind.

He's played by Daniel Day Lewis. It just so happens that the script has never called for a line of dialogue.

He's the avatar, Alyx is the main character. That's why he doesn't have a voice.

lol everything in HL2 happened because of HL1.

Maybe he's a mute? At this point, I think it might be crazy to give him a voice, since it would be unbelievably strange that he had gone through 2 games without talking.

@InertiaticESP: ARE YOU SERIOUS?  I'm not going to sit here and tell you it's more or less immersive either way.  Because that's not the point.  it's a storytelling convention.  Far Cry 2 does this.  The point is the protagonist is a blank slate for you to project yourself on (emotions and thoughts).  And in the case of HL2, I think you can argue the fact that linearity working against this like you said is purposeful.  You are supposed to get the feeling that you have no choice.  It's a central theme.  So move on.

I really don't appreciate that they write the fact the character is a mute into the storyline without taking the extra considerations that he has all kinds of people talking to him, decisions to make, Alyx blatantly hitting on him even though he's got zero personality and yet he does nothing to respond to these people. Makes you wonder if he's all there in the head.

He is me, if he didn't sound like me than he wouldn't be me... simple isn't it?

Don't say a word Gordon! 

It wouldn't stop me playing the game if he was to be voiced, but fuck me it would spoil a lot of the mystique surrounding the character.