Adrian Shephard

Character
Shephard, a 22-year old US Marine Corporal assigned to the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit (HECU) from Santego Military Base in Arizona. He was trained by Drill Instructor Dwight T. Barnes. He is one of the men sent in the Black Mesa Research Facility to kill the aliens and later silence the witnesses, especially a scientist named Gordon Freeman, the player character in the original game. However, during the events subsequent to the "Resonance Cascade", Adrian finds himself separated from his unit and tries to fight for his life.

Unlike the other Marines, he works with the increasingly distrustful scientists and guards in order to make it out of Black Mesa alive. This is due to the fact that he never received the orders to kill them, as his Osprey was shot down before his commander could inform the squad of their mission. Shephard and Freeman do cross paths during the game, but at that point Shephard is merely an observer to a climactic event from the original game. He never fights alongside or against Gordon Freeman. The G-Man appears to take an interest in Shephard's movements, even before the Black Mesa Incident. As early as three months prior, Shepard spots the G-Man during the Boot Camp training mission. Shephard deactivates the thermonuclear warhead brought in by the Black Ops, but the G-Man reactivates it and Black Mesa is destroyed. In the end, the G-Man reveals that he has successfully argued for Shephard's life, detaining him in some unknown void. The G-Man expresses a degree of respect for Shephard's abilities, even praising him for having abilities to "adapt and survive against all odds" which "rather reminds me [the G-Man] of myself." Shephard has not been seen in Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One or in Half-Life 2: Episode Two, but has, however, retained a large number of fans among players of the game. Gabe Newell has hinted that he may one day return. It is widely hope by many fans that Shephard will return in Half-Life 2: Episode Three.

It should be noted that while Shephard witnesses Gordon Freeman's transportation to Xen, he has the option to follow him through the teleporter before it collapses. However, upon doing so Shephard will find himself teleported to a location in Xen several meters away from Gordon, before falling through space. Doing so will produce the message: "Evaluation terminated: Subject attempted to create a temporal paradox." (Doing so will allow Shephard to enter Freeman's timeline, that is, the original Half-life, thus the paradox.)

Shephard's journal entries
In both the manuals of Opposing Force and Half-Life: Blue Shift there are several journal entries made by Adrian Shephard prior to the Black Mesa Incident, giving some insight in developments before the disaster.


 * "March 3 - Another typically hellish day at base camp. I'll be glad when this is over and I can finally can get assigned a mission. There has been this really weird civie spotted at the base. Rumor is he's from some government branch looking to recruit; others say he's with some secret research group. I would jump at the chance to join. It would be cool just for the change and the adventure."


 * "March 7 - I finally saw the government guy today. I am not sure he is a g-man, but he was wearing a really uptight suit and carrying a briefcase. He looked more like a lawyer or insurance agent to me. I did notice him checking me out. Several times throughout the day I spotted him just watching me during training. I wonder what he's up to..."


 * "March 9 - For weeks our drills have been the same crap day after day. Today we assemble for the morning run and our drill instructor tells us we have one week to become experts at indoor strategic combat. We will be spending every day this week at the combat simulation facility. As far as I know this a specialized training not taught in boot camp. What I want to know is if this is to test our ability to adapt or if we are being readied for a specific mission? Time will tell..."


 * "March 12 - The rumors have been flying since our indoor combat training began. Most of my peers are convinced that we are being primed for a mission. No one can agree on what the mission is. I have heard the name Black Mesa Facility thrown around a lot, but I have no information about the place. The rumors are that some top-secret research is going on there. Doesn't sound too exciting to me..."


 * "March 15 - The rumor has been confirmed. We are being trained for a mission at the Black Mesa Facility. All I know is that the place is being used by scientists who are doing some kind of new research. I can't imagine what we would be needed for. We were told today to be ready in case it happens tomorrow. I don't know what "it" is, but the whole thing is a little strange. I kind of hope it doesn't happen; the mission doesn't seem to have much excitement potential. I'd rather hold out for something with more likelihood of combat."

Trivia

 * Apart from some soldiers who wield SAWs or submachineguns in-game, He is the only prominent character to wear a helmet and gas mask in a combat situation.
 * Shephard was the first character in the Half-Life series to refer to the Gman as Gman.
 * In the computer game F.E.A.R., a character is named "Shepherd, A." This is likly a homage to Adrian Shephard.
 * In Christopher Brookmyre's "A big boy did it and ran away", Angelique de Xavier's briefing is taken over by "Captain Adrian Shepherd". Given the books have many references to video game culture, this may be a direct homage.
 * Shephard's model (seen in the game's box art) is that of a generic gas-masked HECU Grunt, it bears no difference in appearance despite his being the game's main character.
 * In the game Portal, the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device's acronym is ASHPD. This bears a striking resemblance to Adrian's name (Adrian SHePharD), which led many people to speculate it is a hidden easter egg. In addition, completing portal unlocks a new menu background which contains a keyboard that has all the letters in Adrian Shepard's name highlighted. Valve's Kim Swift said in an interview that the ASHPD acronym was actually a complete coincidence, and they added the keyboard highlights as a red herring after people mentioned the acronym.