Freeman's Mind is a Half Life: Source Machinima in the style of a let's play created by voice actor and animator Ross Scott . It follows the adventures of Gordon Freeman as he navigates the hallways and air vents of the Black Mesa facility and the alien world of Xen while trying to avoid death at every turn. The videos are from Freeman's perspective and gives us an unfiltered look at the thoughts of the otherwise silent protagonist. That's where the fun starts. Gordon Freeman, as a character, is left deliberately ambiguous. He never speaks and all we really know about him is he has a PhD in theoretical physics and that he can survive fights with hundreds of train marines and lightening shooting aliens so long as he has the H.E.V suit. Gordon comes off as really stoic or detached simply for lack of any other interpretation.

Ross's take on Gordon is a bit more interesting. Before the resonance cascade even occurs Freeman has established himself as an angry, drug addicted, megalomaniac who was planning on getting high on Oxycontin before the experiment. He does little afterword to garner sympathy. What makes the series work is not the protagonist's narcissism but his wry commentary. Despite the alien invasion and constant threat of violent death, Freeman spends much of his time commenting and speculating on all the weirdness around him; such as Black Mesa's deplorable construction which fails spectacularly on several occasions, the marines repeatedly dying from friendly fire or their own grenades, and all of the methods and motivation's that would produce an alien civilization advanced enough to teleport to Earth but unable to handle the security guards. His basic assumption is that it's just because everyone but him is insane, stupid, or both but the explanation for the why and how are always entertaining, either from cleverness or audacity. Some typical Freeman lines include:

"Is that an MP5? It is! Oh ho ho, now I can solve up too eight hundred problems a minute."

"Coffee! ... Coffeecoffeecoffee! It's not as strong as methamphetamine but it lets you keep your teeth."

"Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit! Lovecraft was right about everything! How did he know?!"

"Was that all of them? Truly I'll never know. Science is no help here. You can never prove the absence of ninjas, only their direct presence."

"We have toxic waste, loads of weapons, missiles, and now a shark tank. Am I working for a James Bond villain company? I mean I don't really care but ..."

"God! These aliens suck. I'm already afraid of Muppets. I don't need this on top of that."

"I'm on your side you fucking idiots. How many of you do I have to kill before you understand that?

At the time of this write up Freeman's Mind has reached the end of the first Half-Life. Ross has not officially stated that he will continue the series into Half-Life 2 but given the popularity of the series it seems likely. Ross's site hosts the entire series as well as his other works.

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