Seeing Half-Life's G-Man with smooth skin brings me deep discomfort

Smooth G-Man — (Image credit: Valve, custom model by Gmadador)

Half-Life's G-Man has always been a little uncanny valley. A straightforward, stone-faced businessman for whom the act of speaking human words appears to bring great discomfort. But in an attempt to redesign the interdimensional businessman, one fan's remodel has crossed the line into downright creepy.

3D modeller Gmadador posted a bizarre new look for G-Man—one based on his debut appearance in the original Half-Life. Here's how he looked back in 1998, for context.

And here's Gmadador's redesign, all smooth-skinned and sinister. It's certainly a departure from Valve's own Half-Life 2 update (or his more recent "cool uncle" look in Half-Life: Alyx) for our suited pal, veering away from photorealistic pores to a sleeker, more alien look reminiscent of XCOM's Thin Men.

i've been working on a gman model based more on his HL1 appearance for the past couple days pic.twitter.com/rLxgYItPgPMarch 8, 2021

While it brings me deep discomfort to see a familiar Half-Life face twisted this way, it's also a fascinating way to re-approach the character. The artist has very much honed in on G-Man's more unknowable qualities, and it's interesting to imagine this approach applied across the Half-Life 2 cast.

As a bonus, the artist stuck the new model into one of G-Man's rare HL2: Episode 2 appearances—and while the gulf between his slimier rework and the base Valve models is stark, your man's looking creepy as ever. Maybe even more so.

Gman prepares Alyx for unforseen consequences — (Image credit: Valve, custom model by Gmadador)

Our Andy K managed to chat with the actual G-Man, Mike Shapiro, last year. But while he spoke of the quiet exhilaration of playing such an enigmatic character, Andy wasn't able to make him do the voice. Shame. Let's hope that interview wasn't a Once In A Lifetime experience.

20 years ago, Nat played Jet Set Radio Future for the first time, and she's not stopped thinking about games since. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, she comes from three years of freelance reporting at Rock Paper Shotgun, Waypoint, VG247 and more. Embedded in the European indie scene and a part-time game developer herself, Nat is always looking for a new curiosity to scream about—whether it's the next best indie darling, or simply someone modding a Scotmid into Black Mesa. She also unofficially appears in Apex Legends under the pseudonym Horizon.