Codename: Gordon

Codename: Gordon is a sidescroller game created by Nuclearvision Entertainment. The game takes players through dozens of levels inspired by Half-Life and Half-Life 2, challenges players to a slew of puzzles, and showcases many of the familiar creatures in an all new, 2 dimensional playing field. Codename: Gordon is a Half-Life 2 and created using Flash for the game engine and Photoshop for the graphics. Developed parallel to their work on Psychotoxic, Half-Life 2D features 6 chapters, 8 different enemies, 5 weapons as well as a fully functional buggy. Valve had released Codename: Gordon via Steam, but the game has now been removed from Steam due to its developer's bankruptcy causing their official site to be replaced with a ad site. Since access to the site is hard coded into the game, Valve was forced to remove it from the site catalogue. The player can still install the game by putting steam://install/92 in the address bar. The game includes a high-score system with network support and a slew of secrets.

Gameplay
Just as in Half-Life 2 the player takes control of Gordon Freeman. However, unlike the other games in the Half-Life series, Codename: Gordon is set in a two-dimensional world. The sidescroller shooter game offers the player the ability to control Gordon by using the keyboard for movement, and the mouse for aiming and firing weapons.

Armed with various weapons, including the trademark crowbar, and the gravity gun introduced by Half-Life 2, the player makes his way around six levels, along which he encounters enemies such as zombies, headcrabs, and the Combine. Similarly to the main titles in the Half-Life series, the action sequences of the gameplay are broken up by various puzzles.

Along the way the player meets with some of the key characters of the main series, who communicate with Gordon through text dialog, as the game does not feature voice acting. Unlike the core games of the Half-Life series, in Codename: Gordon the player is able to participate interactively in the dialog, by using emoticons, such as :], :-), each associated with a different type of answer.

Upon finishing Codename: Gordon, a new bonus game is unlocked, called "Crow Chase", in which the player has to try and gather as many points as possible, within a given time limit, by chasing crows, in an attempt of keeping them in the air for as long as possible.

Plot
Codename: Gordon presents an alternative to the storyline of Half-Life , with locations inspired by both Half-Life and Half-Life 2. Along the way Gordon Freeman meets with some of the main characters of the Half-Life series, who are aware that the world they are living in is 2D. Gordon sets out in an attempt to discover the cause behind the disappearance of the third dimension.

The game starts with Dr. Gordon Freeman in a dock area. After making his way through a few zombies and headcrabs, Gordon meets with Barney Calhoun, a prominent character in the later Half-Life titles. He tells Gordon of an "entire dimension" missing, and also notes that the science team is working on solving the problem. Being injured Barney cannot leave the place, so he gives Gordon his pistol, telling him to leave without him.

Later on, in the second chapter the player meets with Dr. Eli Vance and his daughter Alyx, who tell Gordon to take their car, which will help him reach City 17, as it seems to be the center of the problem. They also tell him to talk to Dr.Isaac Kleiner, about his new invention, the gravity gun. Soon after, the player finds Dr. Kleiner, who tells Gordon about his worries regarding the missing dimension, and also gives him the gravity gun mentioned by Eli and Alyx.

After being attacked by an alien gunship, and passing through a prison heavily guarded by Combine soldiers, Gordon manages to reach City 17, where he finds the G-Man. The G-Man tells the player he has been expecting him, and claims to not be behind the situation regarding the missing dimension, instead he says he is but a "lowly pawn in a shady game being played by sinister powers". Soon after, Gordon reaches a strider, a large tripedal war machine, which turns out to somehow be the source of the problem, as upon defeating it a portal is opened in which Gordon steps in, sending him back to the third dimension.

Production and publication
Development on Codename: Gordon began in mid 2003. The game started as a fan project of Paul "X-Tender" Kamma, responsible for the software coding, and Soenke "Warbeast" Seidel, responsible for the game graphics. The game was coded in Flash, the reason for this choice being Kamma and Seidel's experience with this programming language. The initial intention was to create a platform game, the setting only being decided upon after noticing various pre-release advertisements of Valve's Half-Life 2 video game. Soon after the project's initiation the game was noticed by Tim Bruns, co-founder of Nuclearvision Entertainment, whose company started working on Codename: Gordon together with Kamma and Seidel.

Originally the game was planned for the Nintendo DS portable console. This decision has been changed only after Nuclearvision Entertainment had contact with Valve Corporation. Being positive about the game, the producers of the Half-Life series also started participating in the development of Codename: Gordon, Doug Wood overseeing the project on behalf of Valve. The game was released on May 17, 2004, and was distributed freely on Valve's Steam online delivery system, as a form of publicity for the, at that time, upcoming Half-Life 2. As stated by Gabe Newell, the game was originally supposed to be released on April 1, as a joke for April Fools' Day, with Codename: Gordon supposedly being Valve's Half-Life 2.

"Originally we were going to release it on April 1st. I even wrote a fake press release that went something like, 'Due to tremendous pressure from the gaming community to ship Half-Life 2, we looked long and hard at the game to see if there was anything we could cut that would let us ship sooner. It looked like if we cut the third dimension, we'd be all set, so after five years in development, Valve and Nuclearvision proudly present Half-Life 2D.' Fortunately saner minds prevailed."

- Gabe Newell

Initially Codename: Gordon was supposed to receive several updates, that included a second bonus game which could be unlocked after finishing the game. However Paul Kamma announced that the update was eventually canceled. Presently the game is not available for download on Steam anymore due to the Nuclearvision Entertainment's bankruptcy, which led to the official site of the company be put out of order. As access to the site is hard coded into the game, Valve was forced to remove it from the site catalog.

Reception
The game has received much attention from the community, even before its release to the public. As noted by Tim Bruns, art director of Nuclearvision, the game attracted over 600,000 players in the first three weeks of its release. Bruns declared himself surprised by this number, and said that "the ability to reach this many gamers almost overnight is amazing".

Codename: Gordon has received overall good reviews from game critics. Home of the Underdogs, described it as being "one of the best fangames". The game has also been widely appreciated for its inclusion of the gravity gun, Gameplanet saying that it "works as advertised, and is indeed, pretty [cool]", Pixel Rage also described the weapon as one of the game's best features, and gotoAndPlay said it "adds a nice touch to the game". Codename: Gordon has also been praised for its detailed background landscapes, and its unique dialog style in which the player uses emoticons to communicate with other characters.

However the game has received negative feedback as well. One of the main issues that have been raised is performance, gotoAndPlay arguing that the game has a tendency towards lower frame frequencies when multiple enemies are present on the map, as well as lack of proper optimization. Home of the Underdogs also complained about the game's high system requirements, considering its complexity, a 1.6 GHz processor or higher being necessary in order to play. The game has also been criticized for its lack of opponent variety, and simple, but awkward control scheme, as well as its lack of a save function.