Do you want that in the next Half-Life game that we control Dr. Gordon Freeman he can use his scientific skills? For example, Dead Space 3 used the fact that Isaac is an engineer to do many variations and combinations to the weapons by his own hands.
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As long as it doesn't shadow or destroy the basic gameplay, it can be nice, I guess.
This can create situations like (after he was teach with the help of the scientists of the resistence) fixing or programming a teleport like the ones for the Magnussons or the beginning of hl2, upgrade or repair the gravity gun, in case of who knows, using a catapult he can adjust it with precision using mathematics. You can create many interesting situations.
So many thing can be done indeed, as far as I remember, there was some kinda leak or whatever it was, HL2 EP3 leak let's say. It had elemental collectables to gain ammo types and more from objects around. Elements are collected from props and can be turned into ammo and maybe more. It was something Gordon were going to do. It kinda takes away the gameplay basics or at least shadows it in my opinion. But could be nice to see it in an expansion pack where we play as someone else and maybe even in a different timeline.