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

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.

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.

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.