Born in the beautiful and rugged state of Washington in 1979, Gordon had always been scientifically inclined. Even at a very young age, he took things apart and put them back together - better. Usually, that meant taking disparate parts from, say, a toaster, a microwave, and a hair drier to make a mass accellerator. (His hot-wheels cars 'didn't go fast enough' so he made the launcher better.) (That led to his father having to dig out firmly embedded cars from the kitchen wall.) (Multiple times.) The first time that Gordon saw a documentary about teleportation and its applied uses, he was hooked. He had a goal, to work with technology and make it all 'better'.

To that end, Gordon applied himself at school and at home. His parents were somewhat concerned that he wasn't going to round out his life with other activities, but he still managed to have a good group of friends, and even a girlfriend or two along the way. He graduated high school several years early, and began attending MIT having been accepted even before that early graduation.

His sponsor in that distinguished university was Dr. Isaac Kleiner, a pioneer in the very techology and concepts that he wanted to work with. As a theoretical physicist, Kleiner was unmatched. The eccentric man helped Gordon get a foothold in the program, and was never disappointed by Freeman's performance. Gordon went for his post-doctorate work in Europe, spending time at the Innsbruck institute teaching and researching further.

He enjoyed the time he spent digging through the library at that university, as well as the challenge of instruction - though he balked when he got a letter from Armacham-Aperture fishing for his presence at their 'Enrichment Center'. He was happy teaching adults and helping like-minded young people work their way through the complexities of their field, but he knew he wouldn't really want to be instructing a bunch of kids. Even, as they'd put it in their letter, 'Brilliant ones, like you were at their age'. His father had worked with Armacham for many years back home in Seattle, his mother was a history teacher in a high school. But... Gordon was a theoretical physicist, and a damn good one, and he preferred being able to talk to adults by far.

Then came a fateful day: he got an empassioned phone call from Kleiner, asking him if he'd like to come work for Black Mesa. Gordon knew that he'd reached the top of the mountain that he'd approached as a child - that first TV documentary he'd seen about teleportation and science was about Black Mesa and their work! Of course he jumped at the chance! So within a few weeks of his acceptance, he was back in the States and learning to adjust to the radically different climate of New Mexico.

Of course, it also meant that he had to start back at the low-end of the totem pole, as far as work experience was concerned. His talent and training apparently edged out at least one candidate for their open spot, who he later learned had taken that offer at the Enrichment Center. Within days of his arrival and the processes for his security clearance finished up, Gordon met Barney Calhoun - a security guard a few years younger than himself, and for whatever reason, they absolutely clicked. Whether it was playing darts and drinking in the dormitory pub, or enjoying paintball at the outdoor arena in the neighboring township, theirs was a solid frienship from the start.

Thus when the Resonance Cascade occurred, Barney was justly worried sick for his friend's safety - he was at ground zero, after all. But then, so had Barney been, along with a number of others who managed to survive. But for 12 years, no one knew what had happened to the bearded, quiet, brilliant scientist.

It turned out: nothing had happened. He'd been in stasis for all that time, after having fought through Black Mesa's crumbling and danger-filled interior, and moved through the Lambda teleporter to the odd world of Xen. He'd freed the Vortigaunts from their captor Nihilanth, he'd managed to do things that no Human ever had. And it was no Human that observed him for those 12 years, it was Nach'lih Kallah-vahh.

Gordon's abrupt reappearance into the post-events world was hardly prefaced, but well timed. And even in the time he spent 'waking up', he learned more about his own existence and purpose than he'd realized could be possible. He learned, for instance, that his genetic makeup, while not actively Vortal, was so close in all ways that he could provide a genetic 'battery' for any other Vortal genes. In one moment, he became the most valuable Human being alive after the broad sterilization process that effectively killed Humanity's future.

Of all the Humans that Keenan Lane associated himself with, he feels that Gordon Freeman is perhaps among the very few who can actually comprehend the vast 'bigger picture' of what he'd been doing. True, when Gordon began thinking on the events that he participated in and what was to come, he often began muttering to himself or trying to find too many knots of ideas to unravel. But in the end, he aided the efforts to destroy Ulathoi once and for all, and did it with style.

Gordon went with a small group of others to Europe - ostensibly to rescue a friend of his new companions who had somehow gotten lost in the shuffle. He could understand the desire to reunite with old friends... And knew that he'd never be reunited with some of his own - they'd all been killed or lost in the years of his absence. And, partially, it had been his fault that they'd been lost. But convincing him that he wasn't to blame was never hard, and Gordon enjoyed returning to the areas he'd haunted while working at Innsbruck. (Of course, seeing the state of things there broke his heart, he literally wept for the loss.) His role as a scientist was never the only reason people enjoyed having him on hand. He and Chell hit it off as well, and between the two of them and Alyx Vance managed to recreate a good number of important teleportation devices scattered across the countryside.

When the time came, he, Alyx, Chell and Adrian Shephard opened up the Combine's communication network - frying its Citadels in the process and helping to focus the bizarre and terrifying energy that Alma Wade produced into a single beam. With the energy bounced from her son Paxton, gathered by a group of Vortigaunts, and somehow teleported into the Citadels' communication network, that beam he himself focused at the Combine's 'brain' in a distant dimension. His second act of absolute heroism: he severed the 'brain' from the 'body' - and killed Ulathoi.

Of course, it was still kicking when all was said and done, but he knew that this was 'the end of the war' with them. Now all that was left was cleaning up.

And boredom. After traveling around the ruined but now hopeful world, establishing more and more teleportation devices and instructing those people nearby on how to repair and use them, Gordon decided it would be for the best if he took a well deserved actual rest. Melissa Larrabie gathered more than enough samples from him to produce a whopping 32 offspring from him - but Gordon has never met those children and likely never will. He's still a bit baffled at the idea but everyone seems proud of him for it.

With his arrival to Paragon, he's getting the chance to energetically defeat plenty of enemies and make this world a better place. He's intrigued by the Portal Corporation of course, and by all the various locations that can be reached through their amazing work. He is still a little leery of Keenan's presence, but then who isn't? Gordon is a classic case of being the right man in the wrong place, he did make all the difference in the world.