Games with black protagonists?

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MonsterCrit

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Plenty. I mean since most D&D let you customize your avatar.. you can play a black protag there. Left 4 dead also. So you can add 'Any RPG that allows you to customize your character's skin tone.
 

K12

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The_Kodu said:
Unrest - indie game set in a fantasy interpretation of India with a variety of characters only one of which I believe is white

Prince of Persia - on a very technical sense he's persian

Shadow man - weird mystical adventure game

Broken Age - Vella

Guacamelee - I'm pretty sure Mexican doesn't count as white generally.

If you're going for merely no white.

Chel from portal

Faith from Mirrors Edge

Jade from Beyond Good and Evil

50 cent bulletproof and 50 cent blood on the sand ....... though I don't recommend them.

Shenmue

Far Cry 4

GTA IV the Ballard of Gay Tony

GTA V
Less than half of those games have black protagonists...
 

Neurotic Void Melody

Bound to escape
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Shadowman was a great action/adventure game at the time, very mystical and forboding. Quite easy to get lost though and I am pretty sure a lot of the places I found myself in, were not meant to be found yet. They were difficult. Should have had wikis at the time.
 

CaitSeith

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I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream - one of the playable characters is a black woman.
 

NPC009

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Is fantasy okay? The Suikoden series has a few (though they are often fairly light-haired, cuz fantasy). Hugo [http://suikoden.wikia.com/wiki/Hugo_%28Suikoden_III%29] is one of the main characters from Suikoden III, and Aila [http://suikoden.wikia.com/wiki/Aila], from the same tribe, is also a playable character.

Wait, I think I might have something better. Aurion: Legacy of the Kori-Odan [http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=386449558] isn't exactly high profile, but you don't see African fantasy worlds every day.
 
Feb 28, 2008
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Not sure whether we are including games with large rosters? (It's not excluded in the OP, but maybe I missed something?)

Karma, Lucian, and Ekko in League of Legends.
Fortune in Metal Gear Solid 2.
Zack and Lisa in the DOA series.
Brad in Dead Rising.

Wikipedia proves useful as ever: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_black_video_game_characters
 

Something Amyss

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Dec 3, 2008
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Zombie Apocalypse: Never Die Alone has a black lead.

Most of the other names I'd mention have been mentioned.

MonsterCrit said:
Plenty. I mean since most D&D let you customize your avatar.. you can play a black protag there. Left 4 dead also. So you can add 'Any RPG that allows you to customize your character's skin tone.
The OP specifically precluded character customisation.
 

Treeberry

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Oh, someone already mentioned Redguard.

Hm...

A lot of examples are really just "not white" which I don't think is what the OP is after but there are some good examples here. OP, I'm assuming you'd prefer playable characters but will settle for non-playable protagonist as well, right?

There's Urban Chaos for the PS1 which features a dark-skinned lady as the playable protagonist but I've heard it's not that good. (I've never played it, I just remember seeing it in a promo leaflet inside a Tomb Raider game when I was a kid and thinking she looked really cool.)

Valerie Blaylock from Trauma Centre:New Blood for the Wii is a playable black lady doctor. She's pretty badass to boot.

There's Nilin from Remember Me, of course.

Shinobu is a side-character assassin from No More Heroes 2 and there's Vivienne from Dragon Age Inquisition, also as a side character. Possibly Fran from Final Fantasy XII but since she's a rabbit...person...thing I don't know if she'd count.

I'm trying to name playable characters but sadly I don't think I can name any more and ironically I don't know any playable male black protagonists. I think, Gear of War maybe? (These types of shooters aren't my thing so I don't pay attention).
 

CaitSeith

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MasterOfHisOwnDomain said:
Not sure whether we are including games with large rosters? (It's not excluded in the OP, but maybe I missed something?)

Karma, Lucian, and Ekko in League of Legends.
Fortune in Metal Gear Solid 2.
Zack and Lisa in the DOA series.
Brad in Dead Rising.

Wikipedia proves useful as ever: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_black_video_game_characters
And even that list is kinda incomplete (at least one character is missing).
 

broadbandmink

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Unreal II has a black protagonist.

In Halo: ODST, one of the troopers, his name is Romeo, becomes playable during a flashback segment.
 

MeatMachine

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May 31, 2011
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Every black protagonist that comes to my mind has been mentioned already.
Unfortunately, about half of them listed are not black characters, so much as they are black caricatures.
 

Ikasury

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May 15, 2013
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Remember Me has Nilin, she's black and a woman, so bonus points? :D



well milado, i think her dad's white with her mom being black... hrm, does that count?
 

senobit

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Civilization series: Haile Selassie, Zara Yaqob, Shaka and probably a few more I've missed
 

Poetic Nova

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Asclepion said:
There is the SiN series, a cyberpunk FPS about a woman trying to become a goddess using biotechnology and the only one who can stop her is a dreadlocked heavily armed badass, and is a game that almost no one remembers.

You beat me to it, atleast I'm not the only one who remembers this fun game!

Since SiN is taken, I'd say Roland from Borderlands (the first one), he's one of the 4 protagonists but certainely fits the bill.
 

Raggedstar

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People have said The Walking Dead S1 and 2 referring to Clem and Lee, but you also play two black characters in 400 Days. Russell [http://imagenes.es.sftcdn.net/blog/es/2013/07/Russell-Header-664x374.png] was one of the main characters, and then Tavia [http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140513184836/walkingdead/images/6/6d/IHW_Tavia_Morning.png] briefly for the epilogue.

Valiant Hearts had Freddie [http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/steamtradingcards/images/e/e4/Valiant_Hearts_The_Great_War_Artwork_3.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20141104074508], an American soldier living in France.
 

K12

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The_Kodu said:
K12 said:
The_Kodu said:
Unrest - indie game set in a fantasy interpretation of India with a variety of characters only one of which I believe is white

Prince of Persia - on a very technical sense he's persian

Shadow man - weird mystical adventure game

Broken Age - Vella

Guacamelee - I'm pretty sure Mexican doesn't count as white generally.

If you're going for merely no white.

Chel from portal

Faith from Mirrors Edge

Jade from Beyond Good and Evil

50 cent bulletproof and 50 cent blood on the sand ....... though I don't recommend them.

Shenmue

Far Cry 4

GTA IV the Ballard of Gay Tony

GTA V

Less than half of those games have black protagonists...
LeathermanKick25 said:
The_Kodu said:
Unrest - indie game set in a fantasy interpretation of India with a variety of characters only one of which I believe is white

Prince of Persia - on a very technical sense he's persian

Shadow man - weird mystical adventure game

Broken Age - Vella

Guacamelee - I'm pretty sure Mexican doesn't count as white generally.

If you're going for merely no white.

Chel from portal

Faith from Mirrors Edge

Jade from Beyond Good and Evil

50 cent bulletproof and 50 cent blood on the sand ....... though I don't recommend them.

Shenmue

Far Cry 4

GTA IV the Ballard of Gay Tony

GTA V
You do realise he specifically said black? Black doesn't equate to "everything that isn't white".
Really you're going to be upset because they're "Not black enough" ?

Also I did say if he was after just non white protagonist those characters could be used.
Try "not black at all".

You also made your comment about non-white characters after already listing a Mexican and a Persian character (and why would you ask the OP if they wanted non-white characters when they specifically asked for black characters anyway?). So are those two "black enough" by your understanding. Hey, I'm half Irish, am I "black enough" for this list?


... to actually add a useful comment. If you're counting DLC then Assassin's Creed 4 has Freedom Cry which has a black protagonist.
 

jamail77

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May 21, 2011
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The_Kodu said:
Because from what I've seen from US culture often Black and Person of colour are rather interchangeable.
I'll try not to grind you for this or frustrate you the way the other responses might have based on their semi-hostile phrasing.

As someone from the US that is mostly very far from the truth. I'm not even sure how you got that idea. In the literal sense we both refer to races differently and differentiate on our census. In the more abstract sense we systemically and systematically treat each other differently - even within the sphere of people of color - even if many of us don't on an individual level. Basically, no: Usually "black" and "person of color" are not interchangeable. Someone who is black is a person of color but not all peoples of color are considered black.

You say "from what I've seen" so I have to assume you have limited exposure and it's skewed things a bit compared to if you had more exposure. If that were the case people wouldn't be responding to you the way they are. I don't think it's unfairly over-reactionary honestly even if they could have responded better because your view on what we do only applies to very limited circumstances and is otherwise untrue (through no fault of your own of course).
 

wfieldb

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Mar 25, 2011
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Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure [http://store.steampowered.com/app/260190/]

The Steam page has pretty much all the pertinent information since I haven't played it in nearly a decade so my memory of it is pretty cloudy but I do remember it being ridiculously fun at the time.
 

Popido

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Tons of games about rappers. Movie tyings.

Suffering 1&2. Afro Samurai. You looking for poocs or just blacks?