You are Gordon. Did you acknowledge the NPCs by looking at them?
Thus, the end result is that Gordon Freeman is a man whom many speak to, yet who never speaks back, and no one considers this to odd to say the least. — the conversations thus appear ridiculous.
It worked better with Chell, because others do not that Chell does not speak back, and Chell actually canonically refuses to speak out of stubbornness, so it's amusing to see Wheatley being obviously uncomfortable from the fact that Chell does not speak back and is simply blabbering to fill the awkward silence.
I’ve always liked that his character never said anything—feels like Gordon can be anyone. Same goes for the lack of cutscenes that take control of the player’s camera. You always feel like you’re looking from your own POV vs. being pulled out of the immersion.
That is an in-joke at best and does very little to rectify that n.p.c.'s have entire “conversations” with him and at no point ask as to why he's remaining quiet throughout it. — the conversations are simply completely implausible.
> I’ve always liked that his character never said anything—feels like Gordon can be anyone. Same goes for the lack of cutscenes that take control of the player’s camera. You always feel like you’re looking from your own POV vs. being pulled out of the immersion.
Perhaps if one go about his daily life talking to walls and being completely disinterested in what a man might have to reflect back.
Whether you reply back to them or not, it always leads to an unnatural conversation where one party is talking to a wall that doesn't respond.