Was Dr Breen a bad? Is Freeman an asshole?

My friends, I was just thinking (again). if Dr Breen didn't surrender and become administrator during the 7 hour war, everyone would be dead. Humanity wouldn't exist, at all. In any form.

It was Gordon Freeman who opened the portal, thus starting the war and eventual occupation. In Halflife 2 he starts a rebellion that (if lost) would result in everyone being dead.

In the finer details, isn't this, slightly warped?

uhhhhhhhh nope

Lets put it this way... (hypothetically) lets say we have an alternate history. Instead of the allies, the axis win the war. You have the choice of Britain/US being completely destroyed to oblivion, or negotiation to save as many life's as possible. Sure, things will probably change for the far worse but you will be alive, init? Is the negotiator evil because of it?

Dr. Breen was the Administrator of the Black Mesa facility in Half-Life, and there is mention that he was the one who obtained the crystal that was instrumental in the opening of the portal. There were dead survey teams on Xen, where the crystal originated, and there is also suggestion that the G-Man obtained a sample, but it is unclear from which avenue the test sample came into the Administrator's possession.

This all suggests that Breen was fully aware of the origin of the crystal, and possibly what effect it would have. He could, essentially, have been working with the Combine all along, and orchestrated the events at Black Mesa that led up to the incident, because he refused to listen to the concerns of the other scientists there. He could have made a deal in which he would become the 'Adminstrator' of Earth in the ensuing aftermath of the seven hour war, and then (like all dictators) manipulated events to make it seem that he had saved humanity.

Gordon Freeman, by contrast, was essentially used as a pawn by Breen to open the portal, then later manipulated by the G-Man who seemed to be working against the goals of the Combine. Should Freeman have stopped and questioned why the experiment was to go ahead when so many things seemed to be going wrong beforehand? Possibly. However, it is debatable what that would have accomplished - he could simply have been replaced by another scientist to carry out delivery of the test material. The outcome would have been the same.

Had Breen actually been working for the benefit of his fellow humans, he would surely have attempted to find ways to scupper the end goals of the Combine in the longer term, yet there is no evidence of that - in fact, the complete opposite happens as he willingly complies with everything the Combine wants, with the apparent eventual goal of becoming one of them. Even when it becomes clear that the resistance is working, Breen seeks only to save his own skin and join the Combine, so his personal motivation is quite clear.

You are a bad.

I think you're making a mistake here, if Freeman wouldn't open the portal the alien invasion would occur anyway and might've ended in annihilation or slavery

Dr Breens propaganda is something he believes. Towards the end of the game in private conversation while Eli and Alex are captured he can be heard preaching of a future beyond the stars. Personally. I don't think he was a bad guy at all. At Nova prospect he explains direly to the combine forces he is under pressure and suspects the benefactors don't trust him, which basically means end of humanity. He is happy to have Freeman at the end because he has something to bargain with. It's also indicated Freeman is basically a history-changer-for-hire (assuming he is time traveling). In Episode 2 it's outright said the Gman knows what will happen when the sample is put in the chamber.

@uninspiredcup:

I JUST WANT HALF LIFE 3

I think you're putting more thought into this than Valve did...

It's a video game. The story doesn't actually mean anything. No twists, no character arcs, no real plot development - it's just an excuse to go from A to B and experience X cinematic and Y boss fight.

Personally, I think it's more interesting to have him as a character you would question as to be being the bad.The story has a lot of subtle touches. e.g. when the player is hanging around, you might not bother looking at the wall and get Eli's comments on the 8 hour war. I'd much rather this kind of story telling than something really, really obvious and contrived.

Halflife 2 kind of does seem venture into it imo with Alyx Vance pointing at everything saying "look!" and "Oh My god". She seems to say "oh my god" every 5 minutes. I think still, it's nowhere near as bad as something like Call Of Duty or other lesser games.

Would be funny if they pulled a Bioshock Infinite and turned out Breen was Gordon Freeman.who went back in time, become administrator of Black Mesa then so forth.