12 Things You Didn't Know About Half-Life 2

With his bright orange HEV suit, green eyes and striking glasses, Gordon Freeman is one of gaming’s more iconic protagonists visually, but he wasn’t always like this. If Valve had stuck with their initial plans, he could’ve been completely different.

Retaining his brown hair and green eyes, this version of Gordon, dubbed “Ivan the Space Biker” featured a much thicker beard, no glasses, flattop haircut and a wildly different HEV suit.

It wasn’t well-received by play testers and that led to Gordon’s eventual redesign, though “Ivan’s” character model could still be located within HL1. Whilst this is more about the original game than Half-Life 2, it just shows what could’ve been for our protagonist if Valve committed to this Viking-esque approach.