Gordon Freeman vs Isaac Clarke (Half-Life vs Dead Space)

 

Intro

“Heroes are ordinary men who do extraordinary things in extraordinary times”


Gordon Freeman, the one Free Man of Half-Life


Isaac Clarke, the CEC Systems Engineer of Dead Space


Science Fiction is no stranger to great heroes, be they augmented super soldiers, military geniuses, or chosen ones of destiny. But these two couldn’t be farther from, just working class  average joes who survived the most dire of circumstances with little more than their wits and ingenuity. Will Gordon’s employment be terminated permanently, or will Isaac become whole with the dead?

Before we start…

Pretty simple for what’s being used for both. Gordon will have all the Half-Life games and DLC from the first game. While they’ve had debates over canonicity for years, they don’t have much in the way of feats beyond what exists in the main games already, so may as well cover our bases. Dead Space is much simpler, all games and associated DLCs and some supplementary material, like books and movies.


Portal was looked at due to being undeniably canon to the Half Life universe, but little gets added that is beyond what Gordon has. Not like Gordon would scale to any of the sillier feats, anyways.


Do also note that while it will be kept to a minimum, Dead Space gets very violent at points. Excessive volumes of memes and dunks on publishers will be used to try and compensate, but some discretion is advised.


Background

Gordon Freeman


Gordon Freeman started life as a native resident of Seattle, Washington. He had a vested interest in science at a young age, and later in life earned his Ph.D. in theoretical physics with a paper on the transportation of physical matter through the use of extremely dense elements. In essence, teleportation. After graduating from MIT, he searched for a job before a run-in with his mentor Dr. Kleiner led him to sign up at the Black Mesa Research Facility in the Anomalous Materials department.


One day, one just like any other, Gordon was running late. Donning the Hazardous Environment Suit, he and his team begin an experiment with a strange crystal and an Anti-Mass Spectrometer. As is normal for fictional science experiments, everything went to shit. It triggered a Resonance Cascade, tearing open the space-time continuum and causing Black Mesa to become overflowing with aliens from the border world of Xen. If that wasn’t enough, an American clean up team known as the HECU invades to try and cover up the incident, which includes killing all of the human survivors, Gordon included.


Miraculously, Gordon managed to fight his way through the chaos looking for a way out. With the HECU on the backfoot and on the run, he learns that the portal is being held open by something in Xen. He takes the portal, and fights the being called the Nihilanth, ending the Xen incursion, but this would not be the end of his story. An enigmatic entity known only as the G-Man had been following Gordon throughout his journey and offered him a position with his “employers”, to which Gordon accepted, being put into a form of stasis.


Some time later, Freeman is pulled from his stasis, and he learns that Xen creatures weren’t invading. Rather, they were running from a worse threat known as the Combine. The Combine invaded and took over Earth in a grand total of 7 hours and oppressed its people. Inserted into the Combine’s City 17, he soon found himself on the run. With the help of fellow colleagues Barney Calhoun, Dr. Kleiner, and Eli Vance from Black Mesa, he would put into motion events that would lead to open rebellion. He was already famous for his role in the Black Mesa Incident, and eventually developed into a legendary status and symbol for the resistance to rally behind. His fight would eventually find himself at the top of the Combine’s citadel and destroy its teleporter, with himself inside it.


The G-Man would not be finished with him however, using his powers to save him. He would be interrupted by several Vortigaunts, creatures from Xen, who pull Gordon and fellow soldier Alyx Vance from the blast. The two escape the city as it explodes, and begin rallying with survivors. They learn of a way to shut down the Combine’s portal to prevent a second invasion, but Eli would suffer fatal injuries during a proceeding fight, leaving Gordon and Alyx helpless and only able to watch.


But things would have a whole new turn of events. To cut it short, G-Man was captured some years earlier, and held in a Combine prison. He was unknowingly freed by a past version of Alyx Vance, and he gave her an offer to save her father and become one of his agents due to his frustration over Gordon’s lack of progress. Alyx accepted, but she was removed from the time entirely. Eli somehow knows G-Man is behind this turn of events, swearing revenge on him and handing Gordon his trusty crowbar. Gordon’s future is uncertain, but as long as this symbol of humanities liberation still has work to do, he won’t rest until all of mankind is free.

Isaac Clarke


In the year 2461, Isaac Clarke was born to Poul and Octavia Clarke, living most of his life with his mother as his father had shipped off on an extended tour. The loneliness drove his mother towards the Church of Unitology. Isaac took after his father, a respected ship builder, and obtained education in electrical and mechanical engineering. He suffered great financial hardships, as his mother spent much of their savings on titles in the Church of Unitology, fostering a deep mistrust and hate towards the church.


Still managing to graduate with high honors, he signed up for the Merchant Marine which he’d stay with for many years. In 2505, his mother was admitted to psychiatric care under the care of Dr. Nicole Brennan, which led to a romance between her and Isaac. Two years later, a position on the legendary Planet Cracker USG Ishimura opened up which Isaac pushed Nicole to accept. Octavia’s health had unfortunately declined heavily to the point that when she was reunited with Poul, she committed a murder-suicide with their bodies being handed over to Unitologists. Isaac had angrily called and blamed Nicole for the deaths.


Isaac tried to apologize to Nicole, but he had only one video left of her in response. To make matters worse, the Ishimura was sending out a distress call despite having a complete communications blackout. Isaac volunteered to go, and the response crew soon found nothing on board and decided to go home- no of course not, half of them died within 5 minutes to horrifying creatures. These were Necromorphs, reanimated crew members and victims of an unknown infection. Isaac got seperated and could only fight back with mining tools. This proved to be quite the boon, as Necromorphs are susceptible to dismemberment over conventional means of killing. After many trials, they managed to hail an Earth warship for help, but they however had orders of their own. What was happening?


The Ishimura was not on any mining expedition, it was on an illegal mining operation. The ship's captain was a Unitologist who was sent to recover an artifact called a Marker on the planet that was shut off from the galaxy. See, Markers emit signals that drive victims insane, and in the likely case of death, reanimating them and other bodies as necromorphs. To make a long story short, the Earth warship had its own outbreak and the rest of Isaac’s crew were either killed or Unitologists trying to ensure success. Isaac is forced planetside with the Marker, which emits energy causing gravity tethers to begin dropping the Ishimura’s harvested chunk of the planet, and the Marker forces him to watch Nicole’s whole video. It was a suicide note. She was dead before Isaac had even made it on board, and Isaac was in denial of it the whole time. Isaac escaped the planet, but he’d still be haunted by visions of Nicole.


Isaac’s escape shuttle would be picked up and sent to the Titan Sprawl station, and as one of the few survivors, he was probed about the incident. The Marker’s signal had taken its toll, landing Isaac in an asylum. He’d be broken out, but his savior would be killed by a Necromorph Infector. Another outbreak had started due to the station’s contained Marker. Caught between an EarthGov and Unitology conflict, he only wanted to escape. He tried making it out with survivor Ellie Langford and fellow inmate Nolan Stross while still receiving visions of Nicole, who Isaac could not let go of. Stross fell to insanity and was killed in self defense, and Isaac went into the heart of the Sprawl and learned he built the Marker. See, Marker signals for most are just noise, unless you’re smart enough to where you can interpret them as blueprints for more Markers, which have some use as they produce immense volumes of energy. The Marker started a Convergence event and began absorbing Necromorph biomass, but Isaac would beat the Marker in a mental battle, causing its destruction as Isaac escaped with Ellie.


The two then went into hiding on Earth’s Lunar colony due to being fugitives from just about everyone, then started, and ended, a relationship. Ellie began exploring the galaxy, and found the planet Tau Volantis that may hold the key to ending the Marker threat. Earth Forces recruited Isaac at gunpoint to help the mission, but the Moon had a Marker as well that was triggered. They travel to Tau Volantis and learn it was inhabited by aliens with their own Necromorph outbreak who flash froze the planet just to stop a Convergence event, used by Necromorphs to create a Brethren Moon and continue their life cycle. Unitologists followed, and their leader reactivated the event and was swiftly killed. Isaac stopped it again, but the moon fell from the sky and impacted the planet. Only Ellie made it off.


By unknown means, Isaac and ally Carver survived. They began making their way off the planet, but learned the moon was sending signals broadcasting Earth’s location. They tried to make it ahead, but they were too late as Moons began their attack on Earth, with one attacking their ship. While the status of Isaac, Carver and humanity is unknown, some fan theories even proclaim it may be a further hallucination, Isaac proves ingenuity and skill can carry you through even the worst of circumstances, even in the face of the most unimaginable odds.


Experience

Gordon Freeman


Gordon is of course an extremely intelligent man. Only about 27 years old, he’s a graduate from MIT with a degree in Theoretical Physics, was considered employee of the month at Black Mesa and top of his field even with Black Mesa’s standards. In combat, while his experience prior to the Black Mesa incident has differing sources, it’s at best minimal firearms training, making it all the more impressive when he goes toe to toe with Xen aliens, trained soldiers, black ops specialists, and Combine squads. All this experience was gained in a few days as well, it’s not like he had any special other special experience gains in the meantime due to G-Man’s stasis.

Isaac Clarke


Isaac Clarke is a resourceful, intelligent person. Much of his arsenal isn’t even meant for combat, but he still found a way to weaponize it against the numberless Necromorph hordes. His engineering degree makes him a nerd, but it isn’t for show, once making a fully functional Plasma Cutter with a medical tool and flashlight as a power source while under stress. He’s also of high enough intelligence that he can interpret Marker signals, which normally just drive victims insane. He’s fought his share of humans as well, fighting against Unitologist soldiers a few times

Arsenal

Gordon Freeman

Crowbar


Gordon’s primary melee weapon. Used normally to break open crates to not waste ammo. And of course, bludgeon enemies.

Pistols


Pistols are the standard issue equipment for Black Mesa and Combine security forces. They are characterized by low damage, but good accuracy and range and have up to 17 rounds per magazine. In game, they’re based on Glocks (above), Berettas, and a USP


Revolvers


Based on a Colt Python and used in all games, the Revolver trades ammo capacity and fire rate for higher damage than normal pistols.

Submachine guns


Gordon uses multiple SMGs (some versions use an AR-15) for close range bursts of damage, carrying 45-50 rounds. They also carry an underbarrel grenade launcher. How and why they put an underbarrel grenade launcher on an MP7 is beyond me.


Shotgun


SPAS-12 shotgun, can fire two shots at once as an alt fire. It does shotgun things.


Crossbows


Longer range weapons. While they don’t travel as fast as bullets, they have high damage and range. The Half-Life 1 version has 5 shots due to being magazine fed and fires tranquilizer shots.

Hivehand



A weapon taken from Xen’s aliens, it fires hornets at enemies. Though slow and with poor damage, it regenerates ammo


RPGs


Exactly what it says on the cover, fires Rockets. They can be guided via laser pointer.


Tau Cannon



A prototype weapon from Black Mesa, it uses depleted Uranium-235 as ammo and doesn’t require a reload. As the name suggests, it fires a stream of Tau Particles and can charge for stronger shots, though the charge can’t be stored forever. 


Gluon Gun


The strongest Half-Life 1 weapon, firing a stream of Gluon particles, destabilizing the target’s and destroying them in seconds. It is very ammo intensive though, and uses the same ammo pool as the Tau Cannon.

Grenades


Standard explosion causing fragmentation grenades


Tripmines


Trip mines that explode when someone enters the laser beam they emit

Satchel Charges


Simple, remote detonating explosives


Snarks

Small creatures that attack anything within range and explode into acid after a few seconds. They will attack Gordon if not careful

Long Jump Module

An add on for the HEV suit that permits a greater jumping distance, used to navigate in the worst section of HL1 Xen

Gravity Gun

The Zero Point Energy Field Manipulator, known colloquially as the Gravity Gun permits a form of telekinesis for grabbing and throwing objects. It is also a potent weapon, being able to grab sharp objects like saw blades to cut enemies in two. Somehow, it can even grab energy from Combine constructs. It can also fire a beam that can knock around objects, although it doesn’t work on regular organic beings.


Pheropods



Also called Bugbait, its a special “grenade” that can control movements of Antlions, either baiting them to attack what they’re thrown at or getting them to follow Gordon. They can temporarily stun targets, but they’re otherwise worthless outside of Antlion grounds.


Combine Pulse Rifle


Standard Issue Rifle used by Combine Soldiers. Fires pulse rounds instead of bullets, and has an energy ball alternate fire that can vaporize targets.

HEV Suit


The Hazardous Environment suit, or HEV, is Gordon’s main armor. Originally intended for what the name implies, it came in handy as body armor, and comes with many built in features. Many have a limited power supply, though it will recharge over a short time


Resistances



Isaac Clarke

Plasma Cutters



Isaac’s primary tool. I mean that literally. Like many of his weapons, the Plasma Cutter is normally a mining tool that happens to work great for dismembering necromorphs with superheated shots. It can fire vertically or horizontally with a push of a button. The remake gives upgrades that set targets on fire for added damage and higher melee damage.


Kinesis Module


Also known as the G.R.I.P. module, the Kinesis module is an arm mounted attachment used to move and throw objects. It can also throw sharp objects as improvised weapons with enough force to pin targets to walls. It seems to work off Zero Point energy. Weirdly, it can’t seem to grab live creatures.

Stasis Module


Another supplementary add-on, it fires orbs of energy that place targets in a field of slowed time with some form of quantum manipulation. In essence, it slows down whatever it hits. Use cases include stopping fans that can obliterate targets it touches, slowing approaching Necromorphs, and slowing the bleeding of a target. Runs off a limited charge.

IM-822 Handheld Ore Cutter Line Gun



Effectively a larger version of the Plasma Cutter, with a wider, stronger arc but only horizontally. Alt. Fire shoots a plasma mine that will explode after some time. In the remake, it fires laser trip mines.

Motorized Pulse Rifle


A standard issue assault rifle of Earth Gov. and other armed forces that fires energy shots. Its alt fire changes from game to game, being a grenade, a proximity mine, and whatever the hell this is. Can carry up to 175 shots before reloading.


RC-DS Remote Control Disc Ripper


A gun that can control titanium saw blades that can spin up to 17,000 RPM. It can be kinetically held in front of Isaac or use its alt fire, ricocheting off surfaces. It’s a close quarters defensive weapon.

Handheld Graviton Accelerator


Known also as the Force Gun, it manipulates gravity in a way to cause blasts in the form of large shockwaves, somewhat akin to a shotgun. It has multiple alternate fire modes. In DS1, it fires a grenade, DS2 fires a narrow beam that penetrates targets, and the remake a Gravity Well to trap enemies. It’s very good at killing swarms of smaller Necromorphs 


C99 Supercollider Contact Beam



The Contact Beam is a strong, chargeable beam intended normally for destroying large rocks, so you know it digs through flesh effortlessly and is one of Isaac’s stronger weapons. Its alternate fires have Isaac slam it on the ground for a shockwave. The remake version is slightly different, firing a continuous beam, though its alternate fire is more akin to its original variant.

PFM-100 Hydrazine Torch Flamethrower


Typically used for precision mining on frozen planets, it’s powered by Hydrazine and can reach temperatures of 500-4000 degrees celsius. It’s another gun with many alt fires, shooting projectile bursts of flame, firing its ammo canister as a grenade, and creating a wall of flame.

Javelin Gun


Originally for survey work, it turns out fast, pointy objects are very good at killing Necromorphs and pinning them to walls. Alt fire shoots out electrical shocks at anything in the vicinity.


Detonator


A simple mine laying detonator, firing out laser trip mines that shoot when something crosses their path, which can be deactivated for use later. Can also be used as a makeshift impact grenade launcher. Used for area control and trivializing every Stalker fight in the game.


Seeker Rifle


A riot control device, as its looks would suggest it’s effectively a high caliber sniper rifle, though with a slow rate of fire. 

711-MarkCL Rivet Gun


The rivet gun fires what it says on the cover at a rate of how fast the trigger is pulled. Its alt fire detonates all rivets.


Submachine Gun


A regular, bullet spewing starting gun from Dead Space 3. However, it’s very customizable


Dead Space 3 Premade Weapons

Dead Space 3 changed up the formula by having custom weaponry over prebuilt, but there are still many weapons that use the modules you can use for guns.


  • Pitch Black 392 - Stasis amplified Chain Gun that fires spikes, and a force gun

  • Intimid8r - Stasis amplified Galvanizer (an SMG) and Shotgun that adds more damage per shot

  • Shootbanger - Assault Rifle and under barrel Grenade launcher

  • ... and Tubes - Stasis amplified Galvanizer and Force Gun that slows targets with every shot

  • Sweep the Leg - Assault Rifle and Bolas launcher that deals acid damage

  • Ship Repair Tool - Compact Rivet gun and Hydraulic Knife for rapid reloads and melee damage.

  • Slam Chop - Ripper with Ground Diffractor that knocks back foes with a ground pulse, deals Acid Damage.

  • Disemboweler - Ripper with an electric charge inside its suspension field

  • Tre Pound Seven - Customized Revolver with Hydraulic Knife

  • Desperation - Submachine Gun and Suspended ripper, deals electric damage

  • Infected Dissolver - Flamethrower and Cryogenic Torch, deals acid damage

  • Identify and Destroy - Javelin Gun that detonates the last shot fired that deals enhanced explosion damage

  • Shocker - A timed Line Gun mine that can be detonated, deals fire and electric damage

  • Codecow - Simple submachine that fires acidic bullets

  • Bolas Gun - Dual bolas launcher, can bounce and anchor to surfaces which spin, dismembering limbs for crowd control

  • Heavy Metal Thunder - River Chain Gun and Rocket Launcher, deals minimal recoil damage to Isaac

  • Hot Death - Compact Ripper and Blowtorch, added ammo sweeper to automatically pick up nearby ammo

  • HUN-E1 Badger - Rivet Shotgun and Hydraulic Eviscerator, deals flame damage and has better ammo conservation

  • Medic Support Handgun - Rivet gun with Hydraulic Knife with coop attachments

  • Mjölnir - Chain Lightning Gun with Hydraulic Hammer

  • Shotgun - A shotgun

  • Show Stopper - Galvanizer with Cryogenic Torch with two stasis attachments

  • Evangelizer - An assault rifle with underbarrel shotgun

  • Negotiator - A gold plated tesla beam with underbarrel line gun

  • EG-900 SMG - SMG with better rate of fir than the normal SMG

  • Tesla Enervator - Fires strong electrical charges. It’s description says that it causes molecular destabilization

  • Planet Cracker - A slight upgrade to the starting plasma cutter ayo wait planet level what the fu-

  • AL-9 Clearcutter - 3 Barreled assault rifle with Hydraulic Engine underbarrel for melee damage

  • SMP-90 Sharpshooter - Modified version of a Seeker Rifle, with added line gun underbarrel

  • Aegis VII Survivalist - A Plasma cutter with underbarrel ripper

  • Skewer - A faster firing but weaker Javelin gun

  • Broadbow Arc Cutter - Modified Line Gun

  • EL1 Rapido - Meant for speed and precision. Fires in 4 round bursts


Upgrade Circuits


Custom weapons can be enhanced with Upgrade chips


  • Acid Bath - Coats projectiles in acid, dealing damage over time

  • Ammo Box - Instantly reloads weapons after emptying its clip

  • Ammo Support - Increases clip size

  • Ammo Sweeper - Automatically picks up nearby ammo

  • Damage Support - Increases damage

  • Explosion Amplifier - Increases explosion radius for applicable weapons

  • Electric Charge - Electrifies projectiles to cause small amounts of damage

  • Flame Gaze - Modifies projectiles to inflict fire damage

  • Safety Guard - Prevents Isaac from taking self inflicted splash damage

  • Scope - Zoom functionality

    • Full Zoom Scope - Offers more advanced long-range aiming

  • Stasis Amplifier - Stasis shots are given a larger radius

  • Stasis Coating - Coats projectiles with stasis, though less effective than a normal stasis charge

Scavenger Bots


Small robots that can be deployed to search for resources, or buy them with your actual real world money because EA is a disaster. Kinda useless in combat lol.

Other Items

  • Medkits - Used to restore health. Come in Small, Medium, and Large varieties

  • Oxygen Tanks - Restores Oxygen

  • Stasis Pack - Restores Stasis Charge

RIG Suit


RIGs are normally tools for dangerous work. They’re used mainly to monitor vital signs with a spinal mounted health bar and other features like a stasis charge meter. They provide holographic navigation tools to search for objectives, workbenches and store kiosks, and provide a heads up display for inventory management. More advanced versions also have maneuvering thrusters for movement in a 0G environment.


While they offer some protection, they are effectively space welder uniforms at the end of the day. Luckily, Isaac has found a number of upgrades of police and military armours for better protection. A full list of RIGs can be seen here

Resistances


The Hand Cannon


bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang pew pew pew pew pew pew bang bang bang pew pew pew pew bang pew pew bang bang bang bang bang pew pew pew bang bang bang bang bang bang bang pew pew pew pew pew pew pew bang bang bang bang bang pew pew pew bang bang bang bang bang bang bang pew pew pew pew pew pew pew bang bang bang bang bang pew pew bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang pew pew pew pew pew pew bang bang bang pew pew pew pew bang pew pew bang bang bang bang ban bang bang


Feats

Gordon Freeman

Overall


  • MIT Graduate

  • Survivor of the Black Mesa Incident despite little to no training

  • One of two known humans to have survived through Xen

  • Killed the Nihilanth

  • Became a figurehead of the resistance

  • Destroyed the Combine Citadel


Strength



Speed



Durability


Isaac Clarke

Overall


  • One of the few survivors of the USG Ishimura outbreak

  • One of the few survivors of the Titan Sprawl Station

  • Killed the Necromorph Hive mind, Leviathan and Nexus

  • Made it off Tau Volantis


Strength



Speed


  • Line Gun shots can hit 50-70 m/s

  • Can react to and catch rockets with Kinesis

  • The Contact Beam is called a Supercollider, implying a particle accelerator whose beams move at relativistic speeds

  • Zero-G thrusters have good travel speed feats. 

NOTE: These are only done for completion, and shouldn’t scale stats otherwise


Durability


Scaling

Gordon Freeman

Xen Creatures

All the denizens (denixens?) of the alien world which causes the Black Mesa incident, and common enemies throughout the first game

Adrian Shephard

A normal HECU soldier caught up in the Black Mesa incident. While him and Gordon have never had a run in, Gordon has fought many other soldiers with similar equipment during the incident and should likely scale to his feats due to possessing similar technology and weapons

Barney Calhoun

Black Mesa security guard, Gordon’s equipment should be superior through the HEV and they’ve fought many similar enemies

Alyx Vance

A normal human who Gordon should be above due to the HEV suit.

Isaac Clarke

Necromorphs

The primary enemy of the series, Isaac has fought them all, big and small. The scaling should be self explanatory

John Carver

Soldier McSoldier man and Isaac’s coop partner in crime in Dead Space 3. They fight all the same enemies in Dead Space 3 with the same gear and should compare stat wise. Also why wasn’t Ellie the coop partner in Dead Space 3



Nathan McNeil


Private Investigator and survivor of the Aegis VII/Ishimura outbreaks. 

Note: He and Isaac have not crossed paths, this is merely being added for consistency.

Other weaponry

Quite simple, other weaponry in the setting that Isaac’s should compare to


Weaknesses

Gordon Freeman


Like all FPS protagonists, the majority of Gordon’s arsenal runs off of limited ammo. In a similar vein, his HEV suit has a limited charge before its damage reduction runs out. He has no way of recharging it on his own. He is also still a human with human weaknesses at the end of the day.


Also the story took 13 years to progress 20 seconds Volvo please

Isaac Clarke


Isaac is very, uh, not ok mentally. While his visions and Marker hallucinations are not as frequent, his run-ins with Markers have done quite a toll on his psyche. Beyond that, he also has limited quantities of both supplies and ammo, and he hasn’t had the largest body of experience when dealing with human opponents. And of course, a few well placed shots will kill him just as well as anyone else


Also, EA

Q&A

Gordon outrunning C4


This section was going to be on how I thought it was simply outrunning a fireball, since you receive fire damage which isn’t something other explosive damages do in Half-Life 1. However, on the Prima Guide (note you’ll need an account to borrow this, I can’t find a normal PDF. Scan is on page 243) it says he outran an actual explosion. While you can debate its use, it still lends credence to the higher interpretation.


It also might be faster than the current calc, since explosives travel slightly faster in confined spaces and this is obviously done while crouched.

Combine Suppression Device


Essentially an energy mortar, Gordon can survive hits from this. Clean scaling, but why bring it up in its own Q&A section? Well, much like Gordon’s other Combine weapons, they vaporize/atomize/whatever you prefer the target, since they share kill particles and same technology and such. They can do this on the edge of their blast radius, which you can use with surface area and other methods to get crazy high results. We’re talking about hundreds of tons of TNT level high. I don’t buy it for a simple reason: it doesn’t one-shot targets at its edge.


That may be confusingly worded, so what do I mean? Damage from the device scales the further you are from the epicenter in game, and allies closer to the center can get instantly killed as seen in this clip. Since this is the best clip I can find demonstrating this in detail, you can hear in this example the female soldier grunts 3 seconds in, who is near the edge of the blast. Later at 10 seconds, you can see the medic and the female soldier both get vaporized, the former being near the center. I can’t tell what their HPs are at, but the point is that I’m arguing it’s probably gameplay mechanics. I haven’t dug into Source’s… well, source code, but I wager how it works is if you are killed with a certain damage type, in this case energy, the special kill particles are used, regardless of if you’re at 1 or 100 HP. If it would instantly kill regardless of distance, it would be fine assuming Gordon could survive this hypothetical, but right now there’s not enough to say the damage across the entire blast radius is spread evenly, and it’s likely just game mechanics being a bit funky.


You could also argue it’s outlier-y given how relatively grounded the series is and how it surpasses all other feats in the series by some distance if you really wanted to be a dick about it, but I won’t be the one to argue that.

Citadel’s size/It going kablooie

(look I couldn’t think of another excuse to shove this in here)


So at the end of Episode 1, the citadel explodes and Freeman is caught in the blast. He blacks out, but awakens later to get through episode 2, which some people use for extremely high results. While everyone’s favorite feat killer surface area prevents it from going too high, some calcs, namely this one have the Citadel at 8.4 kilometers tall. Can we back this up?


Not really. The problem is that, annoyingly, Valve has never given a straight answer, however the best we can get is someone emailed lead writer Marc Laidlaw, who gave us a method, coming out to 2569 meters. Where was this, you may ask? A random forum entirely in Russian. It’s the most random places you find stuff, I swear. Anyways, a lot of confusion then sprung up when this lengthy Reddit post was made, giving us the 8.4km number. So which is it?

Fortunately for us, it doesn’t matter! Neither version ends up cracking 200 Megajoules, putting this firmly in the bit feat category and making my life easy not having to decide. The blast radius needs to be 50km for the high end to get above the feats listed already, which is not the case in the slightest


There’s also the problem that this may not even be the full blast to begin with. Many who have analyzed the feat have pointed out already that the blast doesn’t seem to have even reached Gordon, which is a bit hard to see because of the cut to white. Meaning either a shockwave or he didn’t get hit with the full blast to begin with.


Kinesis/Gravity Gun amps


Both of our fighters have had supercharged versions of these weapons at some point, but are they accessible in a normal fight? Kinesis is simple, its amp is only accessible with special tiles on Tau Volantis, which obviously aren’t usable in a 1v1, but the Gravity Gun is more complicated.


The Supercharged Gravity Gun is obtained at the end of Half Life 2 when Gordon is trapped in a Combine confiscation field, destroying his previous equipment except for this. The Super Gravity Gun can easily vaporize targets and fire enemy harming blasts of energy. He loses it by HL2 episode 1. What it seems to do is simply absorb the electricity the field is using to destroy his other items. An argument has been passed around that Isaac’s Stasis would cause it, but it works on some form of time manipulation rather than raw energy, so it is not viable to cause it to happen.


Isaac has some electricity based weapons to be fair, but if you want to be pedantic, they haven’t shown any feats that would indicate they spit out as much electricity as the Confiscation Field. Still might be possible, but there’s a lot that needs to happen for the Super Gravity Gun to come out, which makes it a non-factor and isn't at all likely to happen.


Gordon vs Stasis


An argument has been circulating for a while that Gordon can resist time manipulating energy via a few scenes in Half-Life. So, what do I think of the arguments?


…no?


From what I gather, most of the arguments stem from G-Man and his many talks with Freeman and others where he seemingly stops time. It does seem to be time manipulation proper, since several Vortigaunts pull Alyx and Freeman out of Half-Life 2’s ending. G-Man’s powers are incredibly ill defined in how they work, but the principle of time altering is still there. What’s happening though is that G-Man is not affecting Gordon with these stops. You’ll notice I brought up Alyx being affected by the time stop and only being broken out by separate entities. Half-Life Alyx's ending shows even Alyx can be unaffected by something like this, so movement inside should be simply a selective thing. G-Man in many instances is also placing people in what is effectively a bubble where they may be able to move fine but the rest of time goes by way faster comparatively, hm where have I heard this before


Isaac’s Projectile Dodging


There’s two that are commonly cited, both seen here. If you slow them down and look at them frame by frame, Isaac is moving before the shots come out, meaning he’s just aim dodging. Fine for support though


Isaac resisting atomic destruction


Maybe? As said in arsenal, one of Isaac’s guns can cause “molecular destabilization” with implication of lethality. Dead Space 3 coop unfortunately lacks both friendly fire for weapons that aren’t explosive and enemies with comparable gear to RIGs so it isn’t really testable.


Kinesis vs Live Targets

(Pretend I put something funny here I ran out of ideas)


There’s an instance in Extraction where McNeil grabs the very much alive Lexine with Kinesis after she’s blown away in a decompression, leading some to argue Isaac could do this to Gordon. It’s debatable, but Isaac still can’t really do it with any of the modules in his games, so I’ll err to the side of he can’t do it.


Verdict


Stats

So this is going to be a real nail biter given how both verses are quite grounded overall. Starting with AP, both have a lot of similar stat ranges. Several feats in the several hundred megajoule to low gigajoule range mostly. For their best feats, the AR2’s alt fire which vaporizes Combine Hunters or atomizes them, with Gordon being able to survive this attack. Isaac’s best is surviving some blast charges that can obliterate large stone blocks. Isaac’s force gun is also stated far above regular blasting charges and there’s plenty of instances of him physically fighting Necromorphs able to harm him for added consistency. You can debate both of the higher versions though. The atomize statement is only an achievement name and not mentioned in universe, and Isaac’s highest end is somewhat subjective on if it counts as pulverization. There is also Gargantua smashing a gate that gets 5 Tons TNT, but it’s also a bit subject on if Violent Fragmentation is usable. Still, with equal leeway to both, that’s only a 1.35x gap at worst, and Gargantuas are very strong enemies that even stronger weapons will struggle to take down, meaning it’s likely he wouldn’t scale to the full output. For our purposes, AP (and durability for that matter, the scaling is the same effectively the same) is mostly a non-factor.


Speed, though, is a far more dire matter. Lower ends are the same with rocket timing, but there’s a much more important feat to cover. Gordon’s feat of outrunning C4 is, at minimum, a bit under Mach 4. Isaac wouldn’t be far off normally, he fights plenty of bullet dodging Twitchers near the end of Dead Space 3, but this is Gordon at his slowest movement state. Running and Sprinting would be faster. Can Isaac keep up? Well, in Dead Space 3, Isaac and crew are looking for Ellie Langford, and find her hiding in a debris field. They say she’s about 500 clicks (shorthand for kilometers) away. The ship is hit by mines, and Isaac’s thrusters fly the rest of the distance in about a little over 1 minute since it’s an on rails section, netting Mach 21. But there’s the obvious issue that this is only 0G flight speed. 


This is not the only argument though, as you can shoot incoming mines during this. It’s incorrect to say Isaac scales off reactions to that, since technically you, the player, are reacting at the same speed, but the projectiles fired can possibly go faster. So how do we put a number on this?


Using this clip for reference, Isaac hits a mine off in the distance next to some larger debris. Isaac and his gun are at more or less the same starting position. The shot outpaces him, so what we do is since Isaac has a set speed as mentioned above (remember, this section is on rails), we can use that in the speed formula to get distance as it’s just speed multiplied by time. Then use the timeframe for the shots and subtract Isaac’s speed in this scene, and that will be our projectile speed.


With this method, Isaac’s shot speed gets-


Drumroll please…

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-


Mach 483 wait what the fuck


That’s a hell of a comically high number, how did we get to it?


Isaac took 6 seconds to cross about the same distance as his shots in the linked clip


Isaac is presently moving at 7203m/s give or take

https://www.calculatorsoup.com/calculators/math/speed-distance-time-calculator.php


Distance of 43.218 km


14 frames for the shot to hit the mine in the distance (note the explosion) at 60FPS, so 0.25 seconds roughly

172872 m/s speed


Subtracting Isaac's current speed:

172872 -  7203 = 165669m/s, Mach 483


The Plasma Cutter is being used in this example, but Isaac has a proper lead spewing gun and military weapons are unlikely to be far slower than a non combat weapon. And do remember, Isaac fights Necromorphs that can dodge bullets, even if this would only scale to Isaac’s reactions.


So yeah, would put speed uh, somewhat in his favor lol. Even if he scales to 1/10th of it, that’s still Mach almost 50, far beyond any reasonable upscaling argument for Gordon’s C4 feat. Probably not at all consistent for such a grounded verse, let's be real, but at that point what’s separating that from Gordon’s C4 feat? Half-Life is quite the grounded verse itself, and even if the C4 feat is required to progress the feat, you very much cannot outrun any other explosive in any other Half-Life game. Any argument you could make against the shot speeds, you can likely make at least somewhat the same argument for C4.


In summary:
AP/Dura - Very close. Higher ends lean Gordon, but it’s not by a massive margin. 

Speed - Low ends are the same feats, high ends are far in Isaac’s favor

Arsenal


Gordon obviously has a lot more purpose built weapons, but Isaac has some of his own and even his converted mining tools can still very much kill. Gordon has shown a lot more usage of his crowbar as a melee weapon compared to Isaac, who has minimal melee weapons and experience, so he’s likely outclassed in melee for what it’s worth


Both of them have a good number of weapons that fire explosives, but Gravity Gun and Kinesis can throw these back. Speaking of those two, they both are able to pick up, throw and shift heavy objects like APCs and train cars and throw objects fast enough to easily dismember. I would still give a small edge to Kinesis, it’s shown to have a better range and Isaac only needs a hand, keeping his other weapon hand free. Gordon needs both of his to operate the Gravity Gun


Gordon does have a tranquilizer crossbow, though one of Isaac’s suits could let him counter this even if we don’t know if it’s a universal ability all of his armor shares. It’s a lesser point though, a shot with the lethal crossbow can kill just as well and that’s if Isaac doesn’t simply catch and throw them back with Kinesis regardless. A similar line of logic would apply for Bugbait.


Both have powerful weapons, namely the Gluon Gun and Contact Beam, that can arguably hit relativistic or light speeds.


Though not really arsenal related for Isaac, he can survive some nasty injuries, though Gordon’s suit does have painkiller injections even if it seems mostly to act on broken limbs.


So a lot of equivalents and marginal gaps, let's go into more major comparisons


The HEV suit and Gordon can be damaged, at least slightly, by something as comparatively hot as steam (heh). Isaac’s main iconic weapon is a Plasma weapon, which though it has no heat statements, it’s likely in the thousands of degrees like some irl plasma tools. It would be consistent with statements of the flamethrower which can go up to 4000 Celsius. This isn’t to say Isaac is bulletproof in his suit or anything, but it gives him a good leg up.


Isaac likely doesn’t have molecular resistance, so the Gluon Gun would be a strong tool against him. Isaac has his own weapon that disrupts molecules, but it isn’t likely to be of much use against Gordon given it can resist similar due to Combine Energy Orbs. It’s a smaller, more fringe use for Isaac, but he has Acid weapons which won’t amount to much due to Gordon’s resistances.


One of the biggest things however is some of Isaac’s mobility restriction tools. As mentioned, it’s unlikely Gordon can resist Stasis which even some weapons can apply, which at that point, Isaac unlocks freeplay mode and can do whatever nasty combo of death he feels like. This is further compounded by the Remake version of the Gravity Gun, creating a Gravity well sucking in all surrounding entities. Gordon has exactly 0 resistance to gravity manipulation.


It wouldn’t help if he just shot Isaac dead of course, but Isaac would have better staying power, simply due to the fact that Isaac has medkits, a way to restore lost health. Gordon has no such equivalent, and the HEV suit provides less protection the less charge it has. It’s debatable if Gordon would use the Gluon Gun immediately, Gordon is a stand in for the player and all, but Isaac is more likely to go for stronger options such as these. If we take the highest speed for Gordon, he’d be running circles around Isaac, who’s had his share of experience with enemies like this before in the form of Twitchers, enemies dealt with primarily using the above means.


Otherwise, at the risk of oversimplification, a lot of Gordon’s weapons are simple bullet and explosive guns. Isaac has a lot of same or similar tools to be fair, but has many more exotic weapons for a wider variety of situations. Crowd control, chain lightning, a more dedicated sniper rifle than a simple crossbow and plenty of elemental effects.


Arsenal is a tough nut to crack, but I think Isaac overall has it with weapon equivalents, variety,  longevity and more powerful tools.


Or Hand Cannon something something Chainsaw Man reference idk I haven't read it

(no, it is not actually being factored in here)

Tertiary Factors


It’s fair to say Gordon has much more experience fighting human opponents. Isaac has had a few run-ins with Unitology forces, but their experience is questionable and would likely not be comparable with Gordon’s whole games worth of fighting American and Combine soldiers, giving him the edge.


Both are very intelligent and know their way around a scrap and out of battle have STEM related degrees, so it’s likely their out of battle IQ is similar. Stamina’s probably in the same ballpark, going whole games with little to no breaks.


Yeah I don’t know what else to add here.

Gordon Freeman


Advantages

  • More experienced fighting human enemies

  • Better in a melee

  • Isaac likely doesn't resist the Gluon Gun

  • Better travel speed…

  • Resists acid and atomic attacks

  • Can probably do nothing and win tbh


Equivalents

  • AP and Durability gaps are marginal at best for all ends

  • Equivalent low end speeds

  • Plethora of explosive attacks can get thrown back via Kinesis

  • Should have similar out of battle IQ


Disadvantages

Isaac Clarke


Advantages

  • Obliterates in higher end speeds

  • A few of his weapons are heat based and far above Gordon’s resistances

  • Toolset is much more varied and covers more situations

  • Medkits grant much better staying power

  • Kinesis is marginally better than the Gravity Gun

  • Remake Force Gun can lock down Gordon’s movement, regardless of if he resists Stasis

  • Got to Dead Space 3


Equivalents

  • AP and Durability gaps are marginal at best for all ends

  • Equivalent low end speeds

  • Plethora of explosive attacks can get thrown back via Gravity Gun

  • Should have similar out of battle IQ


Disadvantages

  • Less experience against human adversaries

  • Inferior melee showings

  • Inferior travel speed

  • Acid damage and atomic destruction is near worthless

  • No answer to the Gluon Gun

  • Dead Space 2’s marketing

  • Dead Space 3


Quite a close match, isn’t it? A lot of dead even aspects overall. If we ignore the highest speed arguments, stats are nearly identical, but the CEC engineer’s far higher speed arguments, more devastating counters and more likely to go for these counters, and far better staying power is enough to gain the edge.


Gordon was never going to go down easy, but Isaac's cascade of advantages was simply right on the mark.


Winner


What’s next?


Well, here we are. I have two ideas for matches to do that I will reveal closer to when I finish them, but both are longer term projects that will be far in the future, not helped by two of them having a bad case of lots of things to go though. One of them I have to do almost from the ground up.


There are some smaller matches that I can do without too much hassle, though I have a lack of knowledge on some of the combatants. Who knows? Maybe I’ll recruit some people from the [REDACTED] server to help. Could also tackle some solo blogs without a particular match in mind. Regardless, while I don’t want to give definitives, I do have plans for the future.


In the meantime, this is where I get off. To when we meet again.



Sources

Half-Life:

Half-Life 1

Half-Life: Blue Shift

Half-Life: Opposing Force

Half-Life: Decay


Half-Life 2

Half-Life 2 Episode 1 & 2


Half-Life Alyx


Half-Life Prima Guide

https://archive.org/details/halflifeprimasof0000bell/mode/2up?view=theater


Dead Space:

Dead Space 1


Dead Space 2


Dead Space 3

Dead Space 3: Awakened


Dead Space 1 Remake


Dead Space: Extraction


Art of Dead Space

https://archive.org/details/the-art-of-dead-space/mode/2up


Dead Space: Downfall

Dead Space: Catalyst

Dead Space: Liberation


The defunct Dead Space website

https://web.archive.org/web/20121222031736/http://www.deadspace.com/


Thanks to: 

-Diamond Drone on VSBW, whose calcs and footage were stolen at an absurd rate

-76sup, whose respect thread was of major assistance

-This Space Battles thread for assorted Dead Space feats and statements

-Rina Antique for some calc assistance

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Engineer vs Torbjörn (Team Fortress vs Overwatch)

Image
  Intro “Scientists investigate that which already is; Engineers create that which has never been.” -Albert Einstein Dell Conagher, the Engineer of Team Fortress. Torbjörn Lindholm, Overwatch’s long time armorer. The builders. The inventors. These two short, genius creators play the role of area denial and point defense, but if they fought, who would come out on top? Will Torbjörn’s defenses prove insurmountable, or will Engineer show him how it's done Texas style? Before we start… Basically everything official, games, comics, shorts and such with some odd secondary materials here and there. What? Not every preamble has to be several paragraphs. Background Engineer “I solve practical problems.” The year was 1850. Wealthy business owner and founder of Mann Co. Zepheniah Mann is convinced by his sons, Redmond and Blutarch, to buy vast swathes of land in the United States. He arrived to find the land was worthless, only to pass on and leave his two sons the worthless land. This woul
Read more

Lucy vs Tetsuo (Elfen Lied vs Akira)

Image
  Intro “Mutation: It is the key to our evolution. It has enabled us to evolve from a single celled organism into the dominant species on the planet. This process is slow, normally taking thousands and thousands of years. But every few hundred millennia, evolution leaps forward” -Charles Xavier Lucy, The Queen of the Diclonius. Tetsuo, the psychic leader of the Great Tokyo Empire. Abandoned by their parents, a military facility they broke out of, and enough power that their body can’t contain it and nearly taking the world with them. Which of these two psychic* anime teens will end up victorious? *yes we know Lucy isn’t technically psychic with telekinesis and shit but this has been delayed for a while and rushed out an intro paragraph shush. I swear the rest of the blog isn’t this low effort lol Before we start… Both are pretty light on material and will primarily be manga with their animated versions thrown in for support, so instead this is going to be a content warning. Both have
Read more