Head And Shoulders Above The Rest: Game Characters That Stand Out

It seems the trend in most media mediums as of late is to be gritty and darker.  Just take a look at The Dark Knight for further example.  Now it works beautifully in that movie, they really pull it off.  But having all our media become dark leaves very little room for color.  If you’ve played games within the last couple years especially, the color palette seems to be mostly dark browns and grays.  Which fits the needs of certain games, but what I want to touch upon is that same mentality (whether meaning to or not) crossing over to game characters.

Unfortunately it seems in haste to make graphics as life like as possible, the game characters suffer for it. Lets take a look at some recent characters:

Shaved head, slight grimace....we get it.

So there are some differences between these guys but since so many action/adventure games come out with the same looking characters…well they quickly lose their charm.  At first I thought this might just be a problem with games going more towards realism, and perhaps I was expecting too much (and maybe I am) but I’ve seen people infuse qualities into their characters that really stand out.

The first example is Modern Warefare 2.  For all the characters you have with you, constantly yelling at you, I couldn’t remember most of them.  There were a couple of times where I think I was supposed to be sad for a fallen comrade but I had no idea who they were so it was lost on me.  Two characters however stand out.  The first is Captain Price:

CAPTAIN PRICE

Through just some facial hair, a great Scottish accent, and a likable personality, Captain Price became THE character of the Modern Warfare games. Much like Sarge from Halo, he is a commanding officer above you.  Now he might be stereotypical (though I’m not sure I would say so) but whether he is or not is doesn’t matter.  What

MAKAROV

matters is that the player remembers him.

The next standout (and from the same game) is Makarov, one of the antagonists of the game.  While the picture I took of him was not the best, his character model stands out.  The first time I encountered him in the game he immediately got my attention.  Besides the fact that he looks like one of the lesser known Baldwin brothers, his bluish eyes pop out at you.  His face is angled so that he seems a bit disturbed.  Even his hair is different.  Play the game and look at how his hair is fine (not fine as in sexy but fine as in thinner strands).  This too adds to the slightly off mentality Makarov exudes, no doubt something the modeler and/or art designer was going for.

Another game I’ve recently played is Assassin’s Creed 2, and the game is filled with characters that are unfortunately forgettable.  However there are two characters that stuck out for me.  One was the portrayal of Leonardo Da Vinci, who instead of being the old man often referred to, was a young man in his prime.  What really got me though was his character model.  Unfortunately I couldn’t get a picture of it on my 360, but here’s something to hold you over till then.

ROCHELLE

LEONARDO DAVINCI

I’m not sure what it is about his character model, but he caught my eyes from the very beginning of the game.  And honestly (though not being involved too heavily) he

was the one of few characters I actually cared about. Unfortunately he doesn’t offer much in the game and so we didn’t meet up much, but I always enjoyed the times we

did.  Maybe it’s that fire in his eyes and the excitement that is in his voice.  Or the fact that he very quickly gets wrapped up in how things work…either way Etzio didn’t hold a flame to him.

The last character I want to touch upon is not so much a victim of her character model, but a product of poor writing and implementation.  This of course would be

Rochelle from Left 4 Dead 2.  I’ve played the game a good amount of time and I don’t think I’ve ever gone into a public or private game where everybody snatched up the other characters because they didn’t want to be Rochelle.  Even without bringing up the lack of personality, I’ve heard many players harp upon what a disappointing character she is…and I’d have to agree with them.  Now I know it’s hard, especially when trying to add some color into a game, but I would have much rather preferred Rochelle to be a stereotype then the dull character she is now.  Maybe it’s just me and my absolute fascination and love for fat, sassy, black women but I think Rochelle would have shined a lot brighter even as that.  Hell why not just make her Aunt Jemima? Racist?  I wouldn’t say so…lazy writing probably.  But you’ve got to question your character choices when a stereotype outshines a main character in your story.

I don’t want to end on a sour note, so let me just say that the Left 4 Dead 2 player models are spectacular.  And their facial expressions are the best I’ve ever seen in a game.  Plus all the other characters besides Rochelle are a lot of fun and have very different unique personality.  All I’m saying is Valve likes to update their games a lot and I don’t think most of us would be opposed to an update that totally redoes Rochelle’s personality.  It’s never too late to fix a snag.

New Rochelle brings a nice smile and pancakes to a dark, desolate, and pancake free zombie apocalypse.