The Image: At the end of Valve's revolutionary FPS, Gordon Freeman is confronted by the shady G-Man, the stick-thin creep who occasionally appears throughout the game. Why It's Powerful: After fighting through Xen and destroying the Nihilanth, this is the sight greeting players: as if the final boss wasn't enough, Gordon can't even return to his normal life, but is instead offered an ultimatum, to work for G-Man or face an unwinnable fight. The choice is up to the player, though the former is the canon ending of the game. Seeing the full extent of G-Man's power and influence at the end of the game cements him as one of the medium's creepiest villains, all the more so because we still have little idea of his true motivations or the full extent of his abilities. G-Man may look much more fetching in Half-Life 2, but this is the image that lingers in our mind when we think of the weird old dude.
Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes).
General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.
