![]() In fact, as events in the game unfold, Shephard is very much caught in the same situation as any other survivor at first and never gets the order to kill the survivors on sight, only later in the game catching up with his comrades. Whereas other grunts in the original game are portrayed as almost bloodthirsty murderers and sadists or, at best, vengeful vigilantes looking to reciprocate Gordon Freeman killing their buddies, Shephard doesn’t show any in-character predisposition to save or kill the scientists at Black Mesa. In Opposing Force, the player takes control of Adrian Shephard from his Advanced Training at the Santego Military Base, which serves the same purpose as a tutorial as the Hazard Course in the original game, up until the end of the notorious incident at Black Mesa-notably, Adrian Shephard actually got to see events after the ending of Half-Life and the death of the Nihilanth, including a first-hand account of the obliteration of Black Mesa itself at the end of the expansion. ![]() As such, he is part of the same unit that is sent to clean up the Black Mesa Research Facility-including its inhabitants-in the first Half-Life, but, in what was then a twist, he is actually the protagonist of the first expansion pack to the game, rather than an antagonist. Who is Adrian Shephard?Īdrian Shephard’s player model in Half-Life: Opposing Force.Ĭorporal Adrian Shephard is a 22-year-old United States Marine who, at the time immediately prior to the Black Mesa Incident, is stationed at the Santego Military Base in Arizona as part of the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit, or HECU. What is it that makes the good Shephard so enduring in the minds of Half-Life fans? What do we actually know about this character? And, to touch on a sensitive subject, can he even be considered… “canon”? These, and more, are the questions we’ll be discussing in this article, so grab your gear, soldier, and follow us into the deep hole that is the curious case of Adrian Shephard. This gas mask-clad grunt stars in the first ever expansion to the original Half-Life-and the first Half-Life game not developed by Valve, being helmed by a then-brand new studio, Gearbox Software, best known for the Borderlands series-, his one and so far only official appearance, which hasn’t stopped him from becoming perhaps the favorite playable character in the series this side from Gordon Freeman and Alyx Vance, although even the latter is arguable. However, one of the more surprisingly long-lasting fan-favorites is the silent protagonist of one of the earlier entries in the series, Half-Life: Opposing Force‘s Adrian Shephard. There is no shortage of beloved characters in the Half-Life series, between Gordon Freeman, Alyx Vance, Eli Vance, the mysterious G-Man, Doctor Kleiner and his pet headcrab Lamarr, Barney “About that beer I owe ya” Calhoun and even newer characters like the ever-talking Russell.
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