8 Famous Video Game Characters Created By Accident
5. Barney, Kleiner, And Eli Vance - Half-Life 2
Despite only a six-year gap, there is a BIG difference in technical achievement between 1998's Half-Life and 2004's Half-Life 2. Both games were groundbreaking at the time, but the former's slight limitations meant that a few compromises unfortunately had to be made.
The most glaring of these is that the entire security detail and scientist populace of Black Mesa share only a few character models between them. The security guard model is named "Barney" in the game's files, and two of the scientist models were simply named "Luther" and "Glasses," respectively.
Come Half-Life 2, these three character models were cleverly retconned into actual characters within the Half-Life universe. The "Barney" model became resistance member Barney Calhoun; "Glasses" became Dr. Isaac Kleiner, a friendly scientist who keeps a Headcrab as a pet; and "Luther" was reworked into Eli Vance, father of Alyx Vance and something of a mentor to Gordon Freeman.
Again, just like Nintendo, Valve showed to have created the framework for these characters long before even they knew what the future for them would hold. Don't you just love it when everything comes together like that?