Movies have given us heroes like Rambo and Bond, comics have given us heroes like Batman and Superman, so why should video games be left behind. A particular playable character in a game has often been repeated in sequels of the series and with time has become a cult classic and a brand by itself spawning several other merchandise. These video game heroes are no less a legend and are generally modified and refined with each sequel in a series. I have quite a few favorite heroes myself. I'm going to name the ones that are my absolute favourites. I think I'll cut it short to top 5.
5. Solid Snake
Game series : Metal Gear series
First appearance : Metal Gear (1987)
Last appearance : Metal Gear Solid 4-Guns of the Patriots (2008)
So are you fond of mercenaries ? If you are, there's no way you can hate Solid Snake. He is an outright action hero but somewhere somehow deep within himself he has a very soft part as well. He has been in the battlefield half of his life and is a hardened veteran. He takes orders from his superior Campbell in most of the games. The metal gear games are generally infiltration games where you need to infiltrate a very large enemy base . His attitude and personality actually keep changing throughout the series. While the first games show him to be cold-hearted , from Metal Gear Solid, a more humane side to him is clearly visible. He even flirts with Mei Ling , his technical assistant and shows extreme compassion for other NPCs like Meryl and Octacon. He is the typical rugged hansome tough guy a girl could fall for. He is a loner as well and in Metal Gear solid , it is revealed that he is the result of the Genome project, where the genes of the greatest mercenary of his time, Big Boss were used to create supersoldiers. Solid Snake and his arch-nemesis cum twin brother Liquid Snake were the first ones. He grows old as the series progresses, his thoughts grow philosophical and he aids Raiden the playable cgharacter of MGS2 in his mission. In later installments, an old Solid snake returns as a protagonist and though his skills are not as they were earlier, his willpower is still the same, he still cracks humoros jokes etc. At the end of his life, Snake finds peace and says he will live long enough to see what happens to the world he helped shape. He is basically the "Rambo" of the video game world.
4. Sam Fisher
Game series : Tom Clancy's Splinter cell series
First appearance : Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell ( 2002)
Last appearance : Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction (2010)
Sam Fisher is the one who beat Solid Snake in this competition by a narrow margin. They're both close competitors and I had a tough time deciding which one should have a better ranking. Both of them are exceptionally cool and somewhat similar. Ultimately Sam Fisher won because he has some extra cool moves , he's a bit more stylish . However, in case of a hypothetical combat between the two, I think Snake would win. Sam Fisher is a person with a moral fibre. He has a daughter, and is therefore a family person and on the other hand an NSA secret agent sent on dangerous missions around the world. He is perfectly able to balance his personal life and professional life and I loved the way he was calm when he lost contact with his daughter while on a mission in the first game. In the third one (Chaos Theory), when you are sent t0 rescue an operative in your first mission, you see him tortured and electrocuted to death while dangling from a pole. If you try to cut loose the corpse, you boss tells you to stop wasting time and carry on with the mission. The way Sam answers back saying " Just because he's dead doesn't mean I have to leave him hanging in there like a meat loaf" was fantastic. This guy is amazing. In the same game, Sam needs to destroy a crash site where a plane belonging to allies crashed sometime back. When Sam tries to get all the unconscious pilots to safety, before blowing up the site, his commanding officer again discourages him saying " You don't exist Fisher. This won't earn you any medals". To this he calmly says " Medals don't help me sleep at night" referring to his moral conscience . I love this attitude of Sam Fisher. He's extremely acrobatic as well, able to perform split jumps between two walls, he's an expert in stealth. He changes in look in Double Agent and sports a bald style. He works for a terrorist organization and for the NSA as well, being a double agent. Basically, I consider him to be the "James Bond" of the video game world.
3. Max Payne
Game series : May Payne series
First appearance : Max Payne (2001)
Last appearance : Max Payne 2 :The fall of Max Payne (2003)
The character of Max Payne has appeared in just two games so far but that didn't stop me from becoming a die-hard fan of this character. And that's because of the immense X-factor of the character. He does all the matrix inspired action(adrenaline moments), takes revenge on all those who wronged him and even takes out time to romance (and make love to) Mona Sax in between all this. He is one of those badass no-nonsense cops. In the 1st game, a group of junkies high on a drug called Valkyre kill his wife and infant son. He becomes the typical drunk, serious , revengeful , less talkative cop whose only aim is to kill the ones responsible for his family's death. Max Payne looks smart and there's something dignifying about his personality. His romance with Mona Sax, another non playable protagonist (she's briefly playable for some time in Max Payne 2) is also extremely eye-catching. In the first game, you can see the sparks between them. in the 2nd game, well, they even make love. You also can't help feeling sympathy for him. In most part of the two games, his actions make him fall under the wrong side of the law even though he is right. He is framed, his colleagues betray him, he gets shouted at by his superior. He is a tough character, being able to keep all the pain inside him to himself. His wife and son's murder keep haunting him throughout the game. The character of Max Payne is extremely
nicely created, defined and developed during the game. We are given just the right amount back ground information about Max .Everything we learn in the initial part of the game is crucial information that gives us a deeper insight to what will become Max' s dark life. It is the pain and the revenge from his murdered wife and child that fuels his fire and keeps him going where
others might have turned back. He gets drugged, beaten, arrested, left for dead. But there's no stopping our hero. He finds solace momentarily in Mona Sax but even she dies in the 2nd game. Due to the tough cop image of Max, he can be called the John McClane (a role made famous by Bruce Willis in the Die Hard series) of the video game world.
2. Lara Croft
Game series : Tomb Raider series.
First appearance :Tomb Raider (1996)
Last appearance : Tomb Raider Underworld (2008)
Lara Croft has got to be the fantasy of every male gamer. Perhaps people may question me why I ranked her second even before the likes of the ones above. Hell, comeon , I'm a guy. And I couldn't resist falling for Lara Croft. No one has been able to make action and adventure so spicy and sexy. And situations she's been in.......her sexiness is not the only factor in ranking her this high. The other heroes I mentioned don't have to fight supernatural forces. But Lara Croft has been doing so throughout the Tomb Raider series. She is an archaeologist and her adventures deal with many ancient myths, ancient artifacts that have long been forgotten. She travels to mythical underworlds where old evil creatures roam and she dares to set foot where the bravest of men wouldn't. I would say she is a lot tougher than many of her male counterparts. Apart from being an expert archaeologist, she is a fantastic shooter, brilliant acrobat, and has immense knowledge about ancient scripts, objects, creatures etc. She is a brave woman . She was forced into a certain personality since she lost both her parents at an early age. She's not a very easy going person though. She always looks like she's mad at everybody. She doesn't talk to any person not concerned with her job. However you know what ? The game developers have seriously allowed the gamers a treat for their eyes. Lara's sexiness has been increasing with each passing game. It's not very uncommon that people have concentrated more on Lara's body rather than what happens in the game world. Basically, she has taken adventure games to a new height altogether. And she can kick ass as well. And her opponents are rarely human. Easily, she is one of the most famous gaming heroes. Lara Croft was played by someone who could only make the character all the more sexier( Angelina
Jolie) in the movie franchisee.
1. Agent 47
Game series :Hitman series
First appearance :Hitman Codename 47 (2000)
Last appearance : Hitman Blood Money(2006)
Agent 47 tops my list of top 5 video game heroes. I am totally spellbound by this character. However he is more of an anti-hero than a total hero. 47 is a mystery. His character, origin and personality will be very difficult to explain if you are not familiar with the Hitman games. He was artificially created by combining the DNA of five men, each of whom were geniuses in their respective fields, most of them expert in combat and weaponry skills and one , a scientist. Therefore, 47 is the most perfectly evolved man in the world now. Engineered from conception to be the perfect killer, 47's strength, speed, and intellect are above the human norm.
His name comes from the last two digits of a bar code on the back of his head – (640509040147). He works for an agency as an assassin or hitman and performs various kills for the agency for a living. He speaks very little, has no friends or accomplices. He does not even exist for the whole world. He is like a phantom for the whole world, something like an urban legend.. Some believe in the feared killer called 47, some don't. He performs his hits very very carefully and no one ever even has a glimpse of him. He leaves the scene after performing the hit as quietly as he entered. He is a master of disguise and takes on a variety of disguises in all the games so that people don't suspect him. In the second game, Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, he seems to have softened down as he considers a priest in a church in Sicily to be a friend and cares for him. That was the time he had momentarily left his life of Sin. But circumstances force him to work for the agency again and kill. He realizes that he cannot blend into the society as a normal man and therefore resumes his earlier life. This portrays him as a man who actually feels remorse for his deeds but knows that killing is the only thing he can do because he has been specifically created for that. We can almost feel sympathy for him as a character who wants to run away from what he does but can't do that. And added to that, he has not a single friend and no one except the agency even knows he exists. His only ally may be called a woman named Diana Burnwood, the person through whom he contacts the agency and Agent Smith, another agency man who often keeps popping up in 47's missions. 47 has NEVER smiled till date and is always serious like something is always bugging him from inside. Maybe it is his guilt of living the way he is. The fibre-wire and silent silverballers are his favorite weapons. While on a mission, he is generally shown to be without a conscience and can kill( though you as the player have the option to just knock out ) anyone in his mission, even if he or she is not the main target. He is one tough guy and his superhuman strength, speed and superhuman intellect makes him the best assassin in the word. An assassin the world doesn't even know exists.
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