Back to the basics - The Security Guard

As written by Kevin Sisk on the Black Mesa Dev Blog:

The character of Barney Calhoun is, without a doubt, a staple of the Half-Life universe. His character represents the average Joe, the layman, the buddy character who will stick by your side thru thick and thin. However this character didn't have as specific an identity as in HL2 when HalfLife 1 came out, especially in terms of having an actual full name. His character is the amalgamation of all the numerous generic security guard NPCs you encountered in HL1, all having the same simplistic appearance and stereotype, with his "name" being lovingly derived from the filename of the original NPC model.


Now that "Black Mesa" was coming into existance, and "Barney" is now a specific character, Barney Calhoun, it was time to go back to that basic buddy stereotype that everyone fell in love with and pay homage to it, with perhaps a few differences here and there in order to differentiate the "Black Mesa" security guards from the "Barneys" of HL1, and of course, Barney Calhoun. But not so much to completely deviate from the original stereotype, as you can surely agree that a complete reinterpretation from scratch would be considered a sin.


So the question is, "what makes this character what it is?" When I look at the "Barneys" of HL1, I see the following traits: Loyal, laid back, a brother on the battlefield, however a tiny bit insecure. Because of this he tries at times to act a little macho in order to compensate, resulting in looking like a dork 1/3 of the time. In fact if given the choice, he'd probably head in the opposite direction (when no one's looking of course). However when called to duty, no one fights harder at your side.


I find I relate to Barney Calhoun a good deal as I'm a laid back easy going person myself in real life with insecurities of my own, and the best characters are usually the ones that everyone can relate to on some level. I suppose the success of a fictional character is giving them the traits that make him/her interesting while balancing them out with those traits that one can relate to. I suspect this concept is what makes the character of Gordon Freeman fairly successful even though he is, for lack of better words, a blank state for players to inhabit. Despite this "vacant" personality, Gordon Freeman still has the set-in-stone traits that I think everyone would like to have; Health, vigour, atheleticism, friendliness(in terms of being approachable, cuz no one seems to ever be scared by the guy), and a strong sense of honor and comradery.


Now while the security guards may share these traits to various degrees, I still had to ask myself, "well, what can I do put my own spin on this guard persona while keeping it familiar? The best answer I can give ya is that it sorta involves a little bit of method acting on my part. I try to imagine how I would react if I was this character, so in effect I'm incorporating a little bit of my own personality into it. At the same time I try to remember that certain lines will need that, well, "barney-ism" to it. Cuz, let's face it, some of those classic lines are hard to forget. It's definitely a balancing act.


So it's fair to say that the end result's gonna be a 50% me/50% barney-ish type of deal. Hopefully the voice that comes out of this 25 year old North Carolinian's cakehole will do the part justice.

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• Black
• Mesa
• Half-life
• remake

[WeretFilms]

You dumb whores. Barney is the file name of the security guards of HL1, since they were not an important character they were "Barnies.". Barney Calhoun is derived from that and is the security guard in Blue Shift, and the same one in HL2. He is also the one who is locked out and you pass by on the tram in the beginning of HL1.

[BleachShippudenCards]

this is a 3rd party mod they cant use valves voice actors so give them credit

[joefreeman856]

That's why HL1 was funnier. Because there wasn't important characters at all, only you. So you could go shooting to everything and everyone and nobody would give a shit.

[Broadcastermaster29]

Gman better sound better...

[ArtemisJami3]

@goombaguy2 I think that was the april fools podcast...

[DragonMaster861995]

wow, one video about the new security guards replacing the old barnies, and everyone goes crazy.

[Kaweebo]

Also, that line is from just a random line when you talk to a security guard where he says something like, "Hey stick around, I'll buy ya a beer." But for all we know Barney could've owed Gordon that beer BEFORE Half Life.

[Kaweebo]

Whoa, if Sisk sounds exactly like Barney, no wonder they chose him to play G-Man too. I just hope he does a perfect job with him too.

[Lunelitius]

@WeretFilms Yeah that is the part always confused me, if Barney is the first security guard we see locked outside, then they work in diffrent sectors, so they never saw eachother then HOW CAN BARNEY OWN A BEER TO GORDON

[SniperHero915]

@cheezybrotherstudios This is gonna have hl2 graphics.

[onekopaka]

@cheezybrotherstudios The point of Black Mesa is to completely redo the game in Source, to take advantage of all the new features in the Source engine. Valve's Half-Life: Source has the same old models, and in general isn't that much of an upgrade over the original GoldSrc version.

[cheezybrotherstudios]

...You have heard of half-life: source, right? I mean it's already on steam.