My 10 Favorite Video Game Heroes

For this top 10 list I have decided to countdown my 10 favorite video game heroes. These characters earn a spot on this list by being courageous, daring, strong, skilled, smart, or any combination of those that make them shine above the crowd. These characters are vital to the survival of numerous people and they are the best at what they do. I’ve only included characters from games that I have personally played. Here’s my 10 favorite video game heroes:

10. Alan Wake (Alan Wake)

Imagine this, you’re a famous author and your wife decides to take you on a vacation to a small cabin in the woods. All of a sudden you wake up and it’s a week later, your wife is gone, and demons, poltergeists, and possessed villagers are all out to kill you. How well would you take this? I don’t know about you but I’d probably have a harder time being a hero than Alan does. He immediately does what he has to do to save his wife and stop the darkness. Though he says he had only fired a gun at a shooting range before he learns quickly and is battling the forces of hell in no time with his trusty flashlight and other tools. I like Alan Wake a lot because he is not a super soldier or some kind of animal hero (like Sonic, for instance), he is a normal human being put in an extraordinary circumstance where his courage shines through.

9. Mario (Super Mario Brothers Series)

For a plumber this guy certainly knows how to fight a dragon and his evil minions throughout the course of each game. This guy takes out baddies by stomping on them and he gains super powers with health pickups. He dies if he gets hit, which I guess is the downside to being (compared to other video game characters) normal. He may not be the toughest guy or the smartest guy but you have to give him props for persistence; I mean how many castles does he have to search to find Peach? He also doesn’t lack for courage as his very first appearance in Donkey Kong pitted him against a giant ape and his own game series has him fighting a massive dragon, that couldn’t possibly have been in the job description.

8. Soap MacTavish (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Series)

Soap is a highly skilled combatant and he demonstrates this several times throughout the course of both games. He is the main playable character in the first game and he is the leader for most of the second game. He might get bested at times by the opposition (he ended up wounded and dazed at the end of both games) but he has the will and the skill to pull off the victory. He killed the main bad guy in both games, even while he was losing blood and about to pass out.

7. Preston Marlowe (Bad Company Series)

Is there any character name that is less intimidating than Preston Marlowe? The guy has 2 names and I’ve never met anyone with either of those two names. Anyway, his name has nothing to do with his skill. The guy has led one man assaults on entire towns full of enemies; he can drive any vehicle, or fly any helicopter. He suffers from the same problem that most main characters suffer (it’s not really a problem) he always has to do everything. His body count alone by the end of the second game probably bests whole companies from WWII. The fact that he has had no special forces training makes the character’s abilities even more impressive. He has the heart of a warrior (see: convincing squad to take on suicidal odds at the end of the second game) and the ability to keep himself alive.

6. Gordon Freeman (Half Life Series)

Gordon Freeman is one of those characters where what you see is not what you get. Freeman is a scientist working for Black Mesa when a portal opens up and allows aliens to take over Earth. Unlike most scientists we see in media, Freeman picks up a crowbar and gets right into the fight. Freeman has no training, no special abilities, and no extraordinary strength. He is just a man who steps up to the plate when the going gets tough. Freeman is similar to Alan Wake in this respect but he is a much more formidab

le opponent and his actions aren’t just to save one person or even a town but an entire race. He battles scores of aliens, monsters, zombies, and other bad guys all in the name of helping humanity vanquish the evil Combine and for that he is on this list.

5. The Lone Wanderer (Fallout 3)

For a 19 year old kid who grew up in a vault cut off from the harsh realities of the post-nuclear world, the Lone Wanderer catches on very quickly. He emerges from the vault and within minutes is killing enemies and gaining experience. He becomes a formidable force in the wasteland, even helping the “mighty” Brotherhood and putting their best soldiers to shame. He stages one man assaults on Super Mutants, ghouls, raiders, and all the other kinds of bad that are in the wasteland. He routinely slaughters forces much larger and more powerful than him with his iron will and his clear sense of purpose. When the Enclave rolls around, he takes out several soldiers in power armor even though he is, at the most, equipped with standard pre-war combat armor. He proves himself as a true David to Goliath several times over the course of the game and his influence spreads hope or despair far into the wasteland.

4. Marcus Fenix (Gears of War Series)

Marcus is one of those characters who might be physically bested by some people in his squad (ie Cole) but he is still the leader for a good reason. In addition to his brawn, Fenix has a courage and dedication that surpasses most. When faced with assaulting the Locust stronghold with only Dom as his backup he had no problem. He fought RAAM, Skorge, sires, brumaks, and berserkers all without losing his cool. He led his team to kill the giant riftworm when they simply wanted to cut their way out. His resume should speak for itself; he can turn the tide of an entire battle and always seems to be tasked with the most difficult missions because Command knows they can count on him.

3. Darth Revan (Knights of the Old Republic)

If you haven’t played the game but know Star Wars, then the idea of a “Darth” being a hero is foreign to you. In the game, the powerful sith master Darth Revan, is captured by the Jedi and reprogrammed to have a clean slate. That is where you come in, you are the reprogrammed Revan (you don’t know this until much later in the game) while you can make your own choices the canon version of the story is that Revan destroys Darth Malak (his old sith apprentice) and helps the Republic destroy the evil star forge and the massive sith fleet that came with it. Revan becomes the prodigal Jedi Knight and restores balance to the force much like Darth Vader at the end of Return of the Jedi. Revan packs a powerful punch and his abilities become so honed that by the end of the game he can walk into a room and drop 15-20 enemies in 2-3 moves. He is definitely the most powerful character on this list.

2. The Master Chief (Halo Series)

There’s a reason that the Master Chief survived Reach when the other Spartans didn’t, he was in stasis on the Pillar of Autumn. But, if he had been there the battle would not have gone quite the same way. As Cortana puts it at the beginning of Halo 3, the Master Chief has luck on his side. He saved the galaxy’s population from destruction on numerous accounts and has taken down bad guys much bigger and stronger than him. The Master Chief is the quintessential video game hero, he is stronger than most but not invincible, he is called on to do a huge amount of legwork and he never complains, and finally he is willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for the cause

1. Commander Shephard (Mass Effect Series)

When the fate of the entire galaxy hinges on your shoulders and even death doesn’t stop you, you’re a pretty important piece of the puzzle. Shepherd has done an unbelievable amount of legwork over the course of two games. He started humbly by taking down the rogue specter Saren and stopping the reaper Sovereign from annihilating the Citadel and bringing the rest of the reapers back from dark space. But he didn’t stop there; he was killed in a Collector surprise attack and was then brought back by Cerberus. He became even more powerful and he led his crew to the Collector home world, at the galactic core, and took out a half complete human reaper…on foot. The guy has saved entire star systems from Geth incursions, took down the most powerful information dealer, the shadow broker, and done countless other heroic and ridiculous deeds. His name is feared by bad guys across the galaxy and for good reason. In the final installment he seems to be the only hope of reclaiming Earth from the reapers and if anyone can do it he can.

Why Don't Superhero Games Work?

This topic is one that I have been trying to get an answer to for quite some time and I believe I have some insight as to why superheroes rarely get a good translation into video games. While some games have been able to showcase a superhero and be really good (Arkham Asylum comes to mind) most are pretty bad (Superman 64 comes to mind) I believe that the first main issue is that most superhero games are only released in conjunction with a movie and that almost always spells disaster.

Superheroes seem to be the perfect characters for video games, they have colorful back stories, a rogues gallery of villains, and a slew of awesome abilities that players would love to be able to harness. The first main problem with superhero games is that many of them are tie-ins with movies that are being released. Companies want to cash in on the success of a superhero movie by also releasing an officially licensed game based off of the movie. The problem with this is that it takes a much longer time to make a quality game than it does to make a quality movie. Add to that the necessity for the movie to be in its final stages of development so the game story can match up and you have a recipe for a rushed product.

This accounts for many bad movie tie-in games but why don't games that showcase a superhero work from a gameplay standpoint? I think part of the answer to this is that no one knows what it is like to have those abilities. We know what it is like to shoot an M-4 so that experience can be translated to a game pretty well. No one knows what it is like to throw a supervillain through a brick wall or shoot fire out of their eyes. This lack of real world experience makes putting it into a game difficult. This is why a game like Arkham Asylum or a fighting game like Marvel vs Capcom can work well because the combat is mostly based on hand-to-hand fighting and that is something that can easily be experienced in real life.

However, super powers themselves aren't difficult to showcase in video games, look at the biotics in Mass Effect or the force powers in The Force Unleashed. These are all great examples of things that aren't experienced in real life, yet still work in video games. So there is something more than just inexperience. The superheroes we all know and love are, mostly, comic book characters. These characters have been arond for a long time and their powers and abilities have gone through many changes since their inception. Video game characters, like Commander Shpeherd in Mass Effect, have been created specifically to be used in a video game. His powers and abilities are suited for video game combat more so than a comic book hero whose powers were designed to be interesting and useful in the comic book world.

But what about characters like Jedi in Star Wars games? The powers of a Jedi were well known and shown off in movies and television shows before any games truly captured them. The main difference here is that there are numerous Jedi with similar powers whereas a superhero is unique. Other heroes or villains may have overlappng powers but each character has some special combination of powers that make him/her special. Also most superheroes, like Superman, consciously hold back their strength so as to not kill someone. How can the power of Superman be truly harnessed in a game when we don't even really know the extent of his power. There are only a few times when Superman cuts loose and uses all his power but if the game was like this all the time, what makes Superman special, his ability to control himself and stick to his morals, disappears.

But the moral depths of a superhero are not the only reason why it is difficult to recreate their powers in a video game. Most game developers wouldn't worry too much about things like why Superman does what he does, so there has to be an even more engrossing problem. The big problem, from the developer's standpoint, is that there isn't a great mechanic for using the super powers. Most superheroes spend as much time saving people from bad guys as they do acutually duking it out with the villain. These saves are usually done at superspeed with a hero's super reflexes. Gamers don't have super reflexes so everything the hero does needs to be slowed down.

More importantly, many super heroes' powers are altered based on the needs of a story. In stories involving Superman, his powers change to allow the villain to get an upperhand on him. If Superman was truly always at his peak power, a gamer could control him and take out the bad guys very quickly. If you've ever noticed in superhero stories, the hero is kind of slow to react and allows the villain to monologue for quite some time, allowing the villain to spring a trap. This is one of the most frustrating parts of superhero stories but without it the hero would wipe the floor with the villain in milliseconds. Look at a hero like the Flash, sometimes he runs around the world faster than light but sometimes he hesitates to stop a criminal with a hostage because he wouldn't be able to save the person before the bad guy shot the hostage. This is not at all consistent but it is necessary to allow for a villain to pose an actual threat.

To pose a threat to the hero, a villain needs to be either as strong or stronger than the hero himself. Look at Superman's best villains: Lex Luthor, Darkseid, Doomsday, Zod, Brainiac, the one thing they all have in common is that they are stronger, smarter, more ruthless, or some combination thereof, than Superman. While some villains actually hold that power over a hero, most don't. The stories allow them to outsmart the hero or pose a threat by altering the hero's powers.

So, in order to allow for an intriguing plot, many stories alter the powers of a superhero and this makes putting together a consistent experience difficult. Superhero games that work, like Arkham Asylum or the Spider-Man games, utilize the superheroes that are the most vulnerable, and thus, the easiest to present a reasonable challenge to without changing the character's abilities too much. Heroes like Superman or the Hulk are too strong to use in a video game where challenge is one of the most important aspects but Batman or Spider-Man, while powerful in their own right, can still be harmed by conventional methods without some explanation. If Batman is shot he goes down but it Superman is shot, unless there is some weird explanation, the bullet should bounce right off of him. Vulnerability is important in video games where you can lose and invulnerable characters make that a difficult task.

To wrap up, there are many reasons why superhero games aren't always the best but it seems that the largest issue is that many of the marquee characters are too strong to be challenged in a video game. Harnessing all of the power of a juggernaut like Superman and then bringing up reasons why he can't use all of his abilites only takes away from and frustrates the gamer. Games with more down to earth characters, like Batman, are consistently the best because instead of taking away, the game can actually add abilites (like new gadgets) and this makes the game more fun instead of more restrictive. While there are some games that do well with powerful characters, they are few and far between.

Preview: LA Noire

Set to be released on May 17th, LA Noire is a crime drama game from Rockstar games, the makers of Grand Theft Auto. The game revolves around the story of a WWII vet who has gone into the LAPD at the conclusion of the war.

The game is set in the late 1940's, post-WWII, obviously, and will see the player advancing through the ranks of the police department, working at different desks with different types of cases. The player will begin as a patrolman and work his way up to the traffic desk, homicide desk, vice desk, and arson desk as the game progresses. With each new desk the player is assigned a new partner who helps show him the ropes and will assist in clue finding and in fighting.

The game features a realisitic crime scene feel which will force the player to think like a detective while trying to solve cases. At the end of each case the player is given a ranking and the option to go back and try to play out the case in a different way.

On top of cases that link into the main progression of the story, the player can respond to calls from dispatch that aren't strictly assigned to one desk. These act as side missions to offer variety and an escape from the main storyline, something that Rockstar is very good at.

The game, as its title suggests, takes a lot from the film noir genre. The style, feel, and overall grim set up of the game is taken directly from the classic film noir greats such as the Maltese Faclon. The setting of the game also allows for a noir feel as the time frame fits with when film noir was at the peak of its popularity.

To make everything feel more real, the developers have gone to great lengths to ensure that the geography, set pieces, and costumes in the world are all true to the era. Actual aerial photography from the 1940's of LA was used to create the city. Movie props and actual clothing from the time was used in creating all of the digital images that grace the screen when you play the game. The attention to detail is magnificent and is something that I am personally looking forward to when playing the game.

The game comes out on May 17th, a week from this coming Tuesday, and should be a big hit for Rockstar. Check back here for a full review towards the end of the month.

News: Mass Effect 3 Delayed and New Xbox as E3?

It's been a while but I'm back with some news. Bioware's highly anticipated Mass Effect 3 has been delayed from Q4 2011 to Q1 2012. This news is not shocking but it is annoying for people (like me) who want to see the conclusion of the game trilogy as soon as possible. Bioware has stated that the delay is to ensure that the game is the best it can be at the time of release.

According to ign.com Microsoft may be set to unveil its next console at E3 next month. Details are scarce at the moment as I'm sure Microsoft is trying to keep this a secret until their official statement. This would only leave Sony as the last holdout for information regarding a next generation console.