'Einstein' Scientist From Half-Life Was Actually Based on George Washington

Half-Life is one of those games that makes fans study details and find hidden secrets to this day. Let's take characters, for example. You have Gordon Freeman and G-Man whom you can discuss for months, but the game also has NPCs with secrets. 

First, there's scientist_04, better known as "Slick". With the release of Nolan's Oppenheimer, Half-Life fans started wondering whether developers used the nuclear bomb's creator face for the NPC. Valve designer Chuck Jones, who worked at Valve between 1996 and 2003 modeling and doing characters for the original Half-Life, was kind enough to share one story. 

The designer didn't verify the Slick/Oppenheimer idea, but shared the story behind another Black Mesa character, scientist_02 – fans always called him 'Einstein.' Here comes a major twist: Einstein isn’t Einstein, the character is based on another historical figure.

"As far as the scientist_02, I took the biggest visual cliche of what a scientist would look like and went from there," Jones says. "The one you mentioned that looked like Einstein? I think I got the inspiration from George Washington."

Now, 20 years, it appears we need to change the character's nickname. Jones also confirmed that G-Man is based on the Cigarette-Smoking Man from The X-Files. "Gabe Newell mentioned that’s what he wanted to see," Jones told in an interview with The Gamer. "X-Files was huge at the time, so the design followed."

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