Barney Calhoun

General CVG character
width=180px
name=Barney Calhoun


caption=Barney, from "(l-r)" "Half-Life", "" with the High Definition Pack, and "Half-Life 2".
series="Half-Life" series
firstgame="Half-Life"
voiceactor=Michael Shapiro
inuniverse=

Barney Calhoun is a fictional character in the "Half-Life" series of first-person shooter computer games by Valve Software. Although initially considered a "throwaway" character (in fact, an entire "class" of throwaway characters), Barney has played increasingly prominent roles as the series has progressed.

Whilst Barney Calhoun is the name of a specific character in the "Half-Life" story, the name "Barney" also applies to the Black Mesa security officers in general.

Background

Barney Calhoun, an undecided two-year major from Martinson College, is employed as a mid-level security officer at the Black Mesa Research Facility, with Level 3 security clearance. His duties include guarding assigned sections, performing general maintenance, and assisting the Science Team as and when he is required. His "Disaster Response Priority" is to protect the Black Mesa facility and its equipment in the event of an emergency. His secondary priority is to safeguard members of the science team, whilst his own personal safety is of relatively low importance. During the course of his daily duties, he is required to repair an elevator in Sector G of the Black Mesa compound, and, while traveling in the elevator with two scientists, witnesses firsthand the effects of the resonance cascade on the facility. After the elevator plummets to the ground, killing the two scientists and knocking Calhoun unconscious, he wakes up and fights his way to the surface, seeing the panic of facility personnel desperate to escape Black Mesa by any means available. Whilst fighting his way through the facility, he stumbles across Dr. Rosenberg, a high-ranking researcher working on teleport technology. Rosenberg takes Barney to an abandoned area of Black Mesa filled with prototype teleporter machinery, and with the assistance of two other scientists, Rosenberg teleports Calhoun to Xen, where he reactivates an old triangulation device. When Calhoun returns to Earth, he and the three scientists are able to teleport to an overlooked entrance of Black Mesa. A momentary malfunction leads to Calhoun being rapidly transported through the facility, but he is ultimately able to escape with Rosenberg and the other two scientists in a Black Mesa SUV.

Appearance and role

"Half-Life"

In the original "Half-Life", "Barney" was the collective name for a class of identical NPC security guards. Never referred to by name in the game, the internal name of the character model was "monster_barney", and in multiplayer the model was simply named "Barney". The name was born in the earlier alpha versions of the game where the model for the security guards held a resemblance to actor Don Knotts ( [http://www.planethalflife.com/nostalgia/halflife/screens/bigtent.jpgscreenshot] ), which, combined with the status of being a security guard, inspired comparisons with Knotts's character "Barney Fife" from "The Andy Griffith Show", which in the U.S. has long been a disparaging term for an inept policeman or security guard.

Initially, the "Barneys" were intended to be hostile NPCs who would attack the player. However, to test certain AI scripts and combat subroutines, Barney was temporarily changed to work with the player. Testers grew so fond of Barney's (occasionally bumbling) behaviors that his role and AI scripts were rewritten to set Barney as a friend.

Multiple guards could be encountered and allied at once. In the game, the Barneys served a role much like the equally ubiquitous scientists: providing conversations that revealed small parts of the story. Additionally, they could support the player as allies in combat. Although each Barney carried a handgun, their effectiveness in combat could often be hampered by poor pathfinding and slow response times. However, some players have remarked on Barney's unusual combat capability as compared to the HECU, as during their rare battles he is capable of killing one or occasionally several of the more heavily armed and armoured soldiers, most likely due to his accuracy at long range. For some reason, the Barneys never have to reload their guns, enabling them to fire infinitely at targets.

"Blue Shift" would reveal that "the" Barney Calhoun was the security guard pounding on a door as Gordon Freeman (the player) passed by in a tram during the opening sequence.

"Half-Life: Opposing Force"

The first "Half-Life" expansion, "", confirmed Barney's first name in dialogue. Barney was joined by his co-worker Otis (named after another character from "The Andy Griffith Show"); both Barney and Otis helped Adrian Shephard, the protagonist of "Opposing Force", in much the same way that Barney had helped Gordon Freeman in the original game, such as opening authorized access doors and killing some enemies along the game. Note that since the Barney Calhoun in question was occupied by the events of Blue Shift, the security guard who fights with you in Opposing Force is a different person.

"Half-Life: Blue Shift"

Barney gained a starring role in the following expansion, "". He was finally given a surname (Calhoun) along with an improved appearance. Unlike Gordon Freeman and Adrian Shephard, Barney lacked any form of power armor and was equipped only with a simple armored vest and helmet. Thus, instead of utilizing HEV recharging stations, Calhoun would restore his damaged armor by picking up fresh vests from fallen comrades along the way. Note that unlike Freeman and Shephard he does not come across any living security guards after the cascade except for one towards the end of the game. This one only lives long enough to tell him about recharging the power cell.

At the beginning of "Blue Shift", the player may notice strange material in the character's locker: books titled "The Truth About Aliens" and "Government Conspiracies" that show that Barney may be paranoid, or at least something of a conspiracy theorist. This could also be foreshadowing, since the game centers on aliens and government conspiracies. Also seen in Calhoun's locker is a picture of a young woman, which suggests, along with the fact that the "Blue Shift" manual says "Buy flowers for Lauren," that Calhoun has a wife or girlfriend. A box in his locker reveals, when destroyed, a chumtoad creature as a small Easter egg.

At the end of the game Barney, along with a few scientists, manages to escape from the Black Mesa Research Facility, and he is described as being "Out of range" by the textual summary, as compared to Gordon Freeman, listed as "hired," and Adrian Shephard, listed as "detained".

It should be noted that the Barney Calhoun from "Blue Shift" never actually meets Gordon Freeman in the course of the game itself, although Gordon's tram passes by Barney at the start of "Blue Shift" as he is trapped outside a locked door. This is a humorous nod to a scene from Gordon's perspective during the tram ride in "Half-Life". As an interesting side note, the Barney seen pounding on the locked door at the beginning of Half-Life already has his security officer uniform on. However, when playing "Blue Shift", Barney does not put on his uniform until after he enters the door. After these encounters, Gordon can be seen for the last time at the end of the game as two Marines are dragging him away.

If in the original "Half-Life" the player, as Gordon, attempts to talk to a security guard before the resonance cascade, one of the responses possible is, "Hey, catch me later, I'll buy you a beer." In "Half-Life 2", Barney jokes to Gordon, "Now, about that beer I owed ya!" In an early trailer for Half-Life 2, (featuring gameplay that was heavily edited in the final version of the game - Barney is not in the scene in the release) Barney says to Gordon, "Remember when we thought Black Mesa was as bad as it could get?" Also, when he gives Gordon the crowbar he states "you dropped this back at Black Mesa."

In "Half-Life 2: Episode One", Alyx speaks about contests between Barney and Gordon crawling through air vents, racing to be the first to unlock Dr. Kleiner's office on occasions when Dr. Kleiner would lock his keys in. These, along with Barney's acknowledgment of owing Gordon a beer, serve as evidence that they did interact with each other before the Black Mesa incident.

"Half-Life 2"

Barney is one of the primary characters in "Half-Life 2". How he ended up in City 17, or what has happened to him since the events of "Half-Life", and what happened to the scientists he escaped with in "Blue Shift", is not explained. Barney works undercover as an officer in the Metro Police Civil Protection Unit for the Combine. He is first seen at the beginning of "Half-Life 2" and provides insider information to Gordon Freeman and the resistance on the Combine. It becomes gradually clear that Barney is one of the leaders of the rebellion against the alien empire.

Toward the end of the game, Barney participates in City 17's armed uprising against the Combine and briefly fights alongside Gordon through a Combine command nexus located in a former museum building. Barney's health regenerates extremely rapidly; although he is not invincible, it is highly difficult for him to die unless the player sends him in against overwhelming odds.

"Half-Life 2: Episode One"

Barney is also in the first episode after "Half-Life 2", "". Alyx and Gordon encounter him in an apartment complex along with some resistance fighters, looking a little worse from wear. He provides Freeman with his iconic crowbar, as he already did in Half-Life 2, and comments amusingly that he doesn't have many more of these. After splitting up, they regroup back at the train station, where Barney has brought some of the last of the resistance and citizens of City 17. He is then seen leaving the city on a train, while Gordon and Alyx act as a diversion so he and the rest of the evacuees can escape safely.

"Half-Life 2: Episode Two"

Barney is neither seen nor mentioned in the following title, "". His exact status during the game is unknown, although there is still a voice file where he congratulates Gordon upon returning to the Silo after the final fight near the end of the episode.

Notes

Michael Shapiro provided Barney's voice in "Half-Life" and its add-ons as well as "Half-Life 2".
Scott Lynch, Valve Software's Chief Operating Officer, lent his face to the game for use in-game as Barney in "Half-Life 2". When Barney is seen again in Episode One, he gains a much more dirty and worn out face as his stubble has grown, his hair is somewhat ratted, and a patch of blood on his forehead; presumably from the long and hard struggle as he fights off the Combine forces while Alyx and Gordon were in the Citadel.