Halo vs. Half-Life Or, the Chief and the Doctor

[Molyneux]

Black Mesa, 200X.

A certain theoretical physicist has just inadvertently caused a resonance cascade through the use of highly suspect science. As he ricochets between planes, he catches the attention of Nihilanth, who, not taking a nap this time, notices the peculiar properties this human seems to possess, and, not wanting there to be any particular trouble, uses his ill-defined vast mental powers to divert the final resting place of this troublemaker to another dimension. Unfortunately for our gigantic fiend, this causes the current occupant of that space to arrive back in the test chamber in Black Mesa, where his green armor finishes its power-up routines. The G-Man, unhappy with Nihilanth's tampering, but intrigued, uses his also nebulously specified powers to enact a few changes in both dimensions.

On the Pillar of Autumn, Gordon is rather confused by the soldiers calling him Master Chief. He is unfortunately unable to correct them, as he seems to never talk. Steeling himself, though, he proceeds as summoned to the bridge. Once there, Captain Keyes gives him a pistol and marching orders, as well as downloading Cortana into his hazard suit.

In Black Mesa, the Chief walks out the door of the ruined test chamber, where some injured scientists implore him to seek help on the surface. John-117 is as confused as his geeky counterpart, but decides to help out these people. He can look for a way home when all this madness is done.

So, will Gordon Freeman be able to maneuver his way past the Covenant, discover the secret of the Halos, outfight the Flood, and destroy the enormous ring? Assume that his natural ability to instantly figure out how to use any given weapon or vehicle carries over.

Will Master Chief be able to make it past Xen creatures, launch the satellite, save the scientists, and destroy the giant headed floating baby?

One thing doesn't make sense to me in this post:
Why wouldn't Doctor Freeman be able to talk? The Master Chief does speak several times in Halo 1. He's a man of few words, not mute.

[Shroom Man 777]

And the title is wrong. The Doctor? Like, a blue police box popping over at Halo?

The proper noun is the Free Man.

Anyway, sadly, I think Freeman doesn't have what it takes to go through Halo. I mean, despite the Covvies using actual-factual multicolored gremlins that go "squawk-squawk!", they're still pretty hard.

Now Half-Life 2 Freeman, with his super-duper Grav Gun, he could take it.

[Zixinus]

Any ideas on how much would Cortana actually help Freeman?

[Aratech]

How is that less wank then Starship Troops when Mobile Infantry suits need parachutes to do the same damn thing? 2km might as well be a drop from orbit; the terminal velocity will be about the same.

I feel obligated to point out that the Marines simply speculated that the fall was 2km, it was probably a lot higher (given that the ship that he's falling away from is supposed to be 14km long). The old Mark 5 suit, however, did enable the Spartans to survive a 2+km fall in First Strike, though some of them were killed by being pulverized against their own armor plating. The event has been calced, and it would appear that the KE shielding of the suit is around 4 or so megajoules. The energy shielding is a little harder to come by, given that it seems to be able to change depending on the plot. On the one hand, it gets dropped by a few bursts of fire from <1.5 megajoule Covenant energy weapons (the manual says they're 5 kilojoules, which doesn't make a whole hell of a lot of sense, as they appear to blow steaming holes in people, which I don't think something of that power can do) to surviving proximity blasts from Hunter fuel rod cannons, which are almost certainly multi gigajoule level devices when cranked up to full blast (given that a full power shot is stated to be able to destroy a Pelican dropship with ease, and has been observed to cremate multiple armored human beings while turning the region they were standing on into a glass crater).

The easiest way to think of a Spartan is as a tone down Space Marine. They can lift 2+tons, run in sprints that are equal to cheetah speed, and appear to have baseline reflexes that are in the 20 millisecond area. They are, however, quite killable by mass fire, as the Covenant finally demonstrated at Reach.

I would suspect that Chief should be able to pretty much waltz through most of Black Mesa. Gordon, if he should play it smart, should be able to survive Halo (I.E., he doesn't try to do all the work, and let's the Marines/Sentinels carry most of the burden, moving forward to strike at opportune moments). However, if Gorden is given the uber gravity gun... then all bets are off. Having played HL2, I can state that thing is bloody nasty, and I don't envy any Covenant or Flood who happen to get caught in the way.

For some reason, I also see Freeman and Guilty Spark cheerfully discussing quantum physics at some point in time.

[JointStrikeFighter]

Freeman needs Cortana to hack doors, monitor the Covenant BattleNet and interface with Foreunner systems.

[DesertFly]

Freeman needs Cortana to hack doors, monitor the Covenant BattleNet and interface with Foreunner systems.

How fortunate, then, that he has her.

Anyway, the snarky answer to this says that Freeman will be able to handle anything the game can throw at him, since a smart player will know when to run and hide, as well as having infinite chances to get each encounter right.

On a more serious note, I'm really not sure how well he'll be able to handle not having the super-duper recharging energy shielding of the Chief, unless, of course, he and Cortana are able to somehow figure out how to reverse engineer one from an Elite, which I would not put past them.

[Sarevok]

There is no way Halo campaign can be completed on legendary minus any recharging shields.

Freeman dies a short and painful death.

[JointStrikeFighter]

On a more serious note, I'm really not sure how well he'll be able to handle not having the super-duper recharging energy shielding of the Chief, unless, of course, he and Cortana are able to somehow figure out how to reverse engineer one from an Elite, which I would not put past them.

Maybe he and Cortana can jury rig some device to allow the power cores of Covenant plasma weapons to be used to recharge his suit.

[Vendetta]

Though it should be noted they can't even field recharge other Covenant plasma weapons, so that seems unlikely.

[Lancer]

Are Covenant plasma weapons even field-rechargable? It seems very odd that the Arbiter had to swap his plasma rifle for a fresh one every time he depleted the charge.

[Sidewinder]

Are Covenant plasma weapons even field-rechargable? It seems very odd that the Arbiter had to swap his plasma rifle for a fresh one every time he depleted the charge.

The manual for the special edition of 'Halo 2', the one that's supposedly written from a Covenant officer's POV, states, "Once the [plasma weapon's] main charge is depleted, the weapon is useless." In other words, there is NO WAY IN HELL you can recharge a Covenant plasma pistol or rifle.

Maybe he and Cortana can jury rig some device to allow the power cores of Covenant plasma weapons to be used to recharge his suit.

Considering that the Covies themselves can't use the power sources of their plasma weapons that way, I strongly doubt Gordon Freeman can jury-rig the weapons' power sources to power his HEV suit. Of course, the Marines need power sources, e.g., batteries, to power their radios and other equipment, so maybe Freeman can mooch off them.

[Gullible Jones]

Wait a minute... Let me get this straight. Covenant plasma weapons are disposable? They don't have power cells or anything? Soldiers just throw them away when they run out of whatever they use?

[Sidewinder]

Wait a minute... Let me get this straight. Covenant plasma weapons are disposable? They don't have power cells or anything? Soldiers just throw them away when they run out of whatever they use?

You got that right. Personally, I think it's stupidly wasteful to issue weapons you can't recharge/reload, but I'm not one of the programmers for 'Halo 2' and '3'-- I'm not one of the people who decided, "The Arbiter can't simply recharge his plasma pistol/rifle when he fires the last shot, he'll have to get a new one like the Chief."

[JointStrikeFighter]

Actually those boxes that contain plasma weapons in Halo2 and Halo3 might be some kind of recharge station.

[Resinence]

Actually those boxes that contain plasma weapons in Halo2 and Halo3 might be some kind of recharge station.

Also, the Carbine in Halo 2 uses replaceable energy cells.

[Lancer]

Actually those boxes that contain plasma weapons in Halo2 and Halo3 might be some kind of recharge station.

Also, the Carbine in Halo 2 uses replaceable energy cells.

The Covenant Carbine uses solid ammunition, not energy cells.

[Sarevok]

Needlers are confirmed to use ammo cartridges. A few clips can be found on 343 GS.

Regarding plasma weapons Halo 1 manual too says something like "we currently lack the knowledge to replace the power cores of the weapons once depleted". My guess is plasma weapons can only recharged at specialized facilities not found on the field.