Even as a male I do disapprove of the way women are portrayed in many games, and view with dismay the inevitable “sexy” skins made by and for teenagers or teenagers-at-heart who put Alyx in hideous skank outfits or change her from multiracial to white. It’s completely pointless and shatters the illusion of reality like a brick shatters a shop window. How pathetic do you have to be to get off from a relatively low-poly, real-time-rendered 3D model anyway? Talk about uncanny valley…

The more in-depth look at gender roles and feminism in relation to video games that you alluded to the possibility of writing would indeed be an even more interesting read. I hope this has been an intellectually enriching experience for both of us. Cheers. :)

Basically, you’re right, Alyx is an incredibly strong character and the gameplay needs dictate her limits.

The problem comes from a kind of uncanny valley effect. The game becomes so immersive at times, that when something doesn’t make real world sense, it jars even more than usual. The particular moment I mention, with you having to turn a wheel to raise a gate, whilst spinning around to protect Alyx, killed me several times, and I just got frustrated. I was sitting there, filling the empty void that is Gordon (more on that in a moment) and just shouting at Alyx, who was clearly being useless. It’s a wheel, it’s made for turning. If she could turn it while I shot the section would have been effortless. It was annoying, and my immersion was broken, because she wouldn’t listen.

This made it stick out in my head, and stayed there until I had a discussion about gender role representation and stuff about emotional housekeeping versus physical labour in gendered relationships. I saw a light hearted way to poke fun at it and did. I wish I had time and patience to do a full on disection of the gendered/feminist reading of Alyx’s character, but I’m lazy. I hope someone else did. I hope you enjoyed my fun poking though.

There’s also part of me that increasingly gets frustrated by gameplay dynamics overriding the artistic statement. There’s an interesting take on this in the latest escapist release: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_155/4987-The-Game-Design-of-Art

Now, obviously there’s a contradiction here, because I like games, I like puzzles and I like playing them. But I also like the immersive storytelling capabilities of computer gaming. It frustrates me when one gets in the way of the other, but it’s a precarious balancing act.

The problem is that Alyx and Half life 2 are so well crafted, that it doesn’t take much to seriously jar.

As for the empty vessel, I do realise that that’s why Gordon is silent, elsewhere on the blog (search for system shock 2 and you should find it) I scream bloody murder at irrational games for including the brief end sequence to the game where the character, who I have invested myself totally in at this point, speaks, in a poorly acted and cliched line that totally didn’t fit in with the way I’d been playing and believing in the character. If anyone was going to take the piss out of SHODAN at that point, it was supposed to be me.

But again, it’s my point. The more immersive you get, the more you have to tread carefully to not totally break that immersion. And it’s much worse the better your game is getting.

Anyway, like I say, thanks for your comments.

First of all, I would like to address the issue of Gordon himself. Gordon appears to be a stoic, uncommunicative character because he is not supposed to have a personality–he is an avatar for the player. Valve did not want players to feel alienated by Gordon expressing a sentiment that the player does not hold or be torn out of the moment (immersion is of prime importance in Half-Life 2, which is why there are no cutscenes and the vantage point never strays from Gordon’s eyes) by Gordon talking or emoting. Therefore, they left the player to project his or her own personality into Gordon Freeman. Of course, this leaves Alyx to carry the human element of the story herself, and I think she does a fine job at it. Gordon can’t be sensitive because he must be an empty vessel for the player’s own personality.

Second of all, gameplay pretty much requires Gordon Freeman to solve at least most of the puzzles. In-universe, this is partially justified by Gordon’s HEV suit, which allows him to survive radiation or other hazards that could kill an ordinary person from mere proximity (in the original Half-Life 2, characters frequently ask Gordon to investigate hostile areas beforehand, often citing his possession of the hazard suit. He is the only one with such a suit because it is one of a kind. HEV suits were used by scientists in the first Half-Life, but after the first game, Gordon’s was the only operational HEV suit left (one Half-Life spinoff for the PlayStation features two playable women scientists with their own HEVs fighting through the Black Mesa complex during the events of Half-Life, but their whereabouts after the game ends are left unknown).

Furthermore, Alyx’s dependence on Gordon to solve puzzles was displayed by several other characters in previous titles, including Barney, who is certainly of the male persuasion. During the Overwatch Nexus section of Half-Life 2, Barney insisted that Gordon break every single security feature they came across himself, in a far more demanding and obnoxious manner than Alyx, right down to nagging Gordon if you were not moving quickly enough (a trait that made me wish the game would let me shoot him).

Alyx also does solve various problems herself, including opening Combine locks and hacking into Combine terminals, both of which Gordon cannot do. Gordon would not have made it through the first half of the original Half-Life 2 without Alyx, certainly not without the gravity gun provided by her and her invaluable help in getting Gordon through Nova Prospekt, not to mention reprogramming Combine security systems and automata, unlocking the dark fusion reactor in the Citadel so he could prevent Dr. Breen from escaping and calling in massive Combine reinforcements to crush Earth resistance, working with DOG to find him in the rubble near the Citadel, and assisting him through combat sequences that would be impossible or nearly so without her.

Alyx is not defenseless either–she is a far more accurate shot than the Combine soldiers, she has good combat AI, and her health regenerates so rapidly that she is very nearly invincible, and cannot die unless completely surrounded (she is certainly more capable than Father Grigori was in HL2’s Ravenholm levels). Also, Alyx also protects YOU. During the parking garage scene in Episode One, she holds off waves of Antlions until you can block off the burrows (Antlions in numbers can kill you extremely quickly, as anyone who played the original game knows), Another scene shows her sniping zombies that threaten Gordon. In early drafts of the game, according to the developer commentary, the player was originally to have no weapons in the underground sections, and would have to rely on illuminating enemies so Alyx could kill them (Gordon has a hands-free flashlight on his HEV, Alyx has no such luxury, and the tunnels are absolutely pitch black). Keep in mind that compared to most allied NPCs in games, Alyx is a veritable goddess of death–compare Alyx to Lando Calrissian in Star Wars Jedi Knight II, the friendly Marines in Quake IV, the lantern man in Doom 3, the scientists and security guards in the first Half-Life, etc., all of whom are nearly defenseless (male) NPCs who must be constantly babysat.

I think it’s quite an achievement by Valve that Alyx is probably the best-realized and most relatable character in the entire Half-Life series (certainly more likable than that patronizing, annoying oaf Barney, the bumbling Dr. Kleiner, or that traitor, mass murderer, and general jerk-off Dr. Breen), and that she can defend herself almost as well as Gordon (remember that Gordon has capabilities unavailable to ANY other person, male or female) without making her able to play the whole game for you. Remember that part of a game is challenge–if Alyx can kill everyone and do everything, what’s the point?

alternatively:

who the fuck is Justine Henin?

Hope you’re well. x