Good examples of character personalization

[happyninja42]

I'm not talking about customizing in character creation, I mean the amount of time and effort a dev team put into making the protagonist, and even the supporting cast, into likeable, or in the case of people you aren't supposed to like, at least enjoyable and realistically "human" in their behavior.

I got the idea for this thread, after replaying through Ghostrunner, and also watching a speedrun of it, and I kept noticing and enjoying the very small things they did with him, to give him a personality. It's incredibly minimal, as he's right on the cusp of being a silent protagonist. I think he's maybe got maybe a page or 2 of lines in the entire game. The bulk of the narrative and voice acting is done by other characters, but they did a LOT of work with the few lines he has, and how/when/why he delivers them. And I thought it was really neat.

Spoilers for the plot of Ghostrunner, though I mean, it's pretty standard plot, so I doubt many will be blindsided by any twists in the narrative. But regardless:

Examples of the Ghostrunner's personality.

Spoiler

He gets a distress call from a "Climber" another faction in the game's world, and he pipes into her comms to try and help, against the Architect's wishes to just ignore her. He questions the Architect's desire to protect humanity, given how casually he's willing to let her die.

When he does get in touch with her, and they start communication, he learns she is part of the group responsible for rebuilding him. When he learns this, he simply says "Thank you." unprompted by her. She is even kind of surprised he took the time to thank her for their help in bringing him back to life. She didn't like threaten him with a shutdown, or try and guilt him into anything by saying "We rebuilt you! If it wasn't for us you'd still be in a scrap heap!!" Nope, she just answers his question about how they found him, and what happened, and then very earnestly (though still deadpan roboty voice), thanks her for saving him.

Now, the Architect and the Climber can't hear each other, as they are both tied into Jack's comms, but the Architect can hear her, as he's literally in Jack's head as an AI. So he's constantly making quippy snarky comments about her inadequacies, something that increasingly begins to annoy Jack. At a certain point, a serious problem develops in Sector 5, the Keymaster (Mara, and the primary antagonist), is shutting off the ventilation system to that entire sector to try and stop Jack. Without any coercion on her part, unprompted, Jack immediately asks her where the controls for the ventilation system for Sector 5 are, clearly indicating he wants to go help them. The Climber is very relieved to hear he wants to help.
The Architect does the whole "let them die, needs of the many, I'm trying to save the species, not just a few hundred thousand people" Jack finds this somewhat annoying of a stance, considering the persona that the Architect claims for himself, as the guardian and custodian of the Tower. Throughout this entire sequence, he's constantly giving Jack shit for not staying on mission, and getting distracted with things like "Emotion, and empathy, things we didn't program you with." Jack basically just ignores him and keeps going to save the Sector

Once that's resolved, more stuff happens, with casual banter between Jack and the 2 voices, moving plot points forward, etc. Then, they get to a certain section, and the Climber just casually mentions how back before everything went to shit, people could take tests for placement in jobs in the better sections of the Tower, and she wonders if she would've been able to pass as an engineer. Jack immediately answer's "Definitely", I assume as a result of them fixing him, his thoughts being "Shit if they can repair my broke ass after 20 years of decay, with scraps, she's gotta be good." He didn't need to answer her at all, as he mostly doesn't say much, something she even comments on jokingly. But, he complimented her talents, without any need to do so, because hey, why be an asshole? The Architect makes a snide comment about "not in 100 years." Judging her by the sloppy job (in his eyes) on their repairs on Jack.

Later on, the Climber has to stop communicating with Jack, as she is emboldened by his efforts on their behalf, to go fight herself. Jack doesn't want her to go, specifically stating "I need you." She says he doesn't (and she's right, he really didn't need her help), but thanks him for helping her and the rest of the regular people of the Tower. Jack is clearly unhappy with this turn of events, but he doesn't get mad or anything, and simply tells her goodbye when she signs off.

At the climax of the game, when the Sudden But Inevitable Betrayal of the Architect takes place, and he reveals himself as the True Villain All Along, you are fighting him. As you approach him in the final bit, he keeps refusing to believe you would work against him. "I won't be destroyed by you! You are just a tool!!" Him referring to Jack as just an instrument of his will and dehumanizing stuff like that is a constant theme in their dialogue. The Ghostrunner, slowly stalking up to him, plunges his blade into the digital chest of the Architect, and declares quite firmly. "My NAME....is JACK!" And then wins.

I just really enjoyed those little touches. Like I said, it's not groundbreaking dialogue, or even anything we haven't seen a million times in stories and video games. But I feel the devs put a LOT of personality in the handful of lines Jack has, making him just that tiny bit different from a typical growly protagonist. I found myself assuming a response from him on the first runthrough, and was pleasantly surprised by how often they just said "Nah, we're not gonna do it that way." With his personality. It was fun and refreshing, and made me empathize with Jack a lot more than I was expecting when first playing it. It made his struggles up that Tower that much more satisfying for me.


So what examples of personality in gaming characters do you personally enjoy? That you feel they did a good job on giving them more depth than you would normally expect from a title like that?

I've got more entries but no time to type them up currently.

 

[BrawlMan]

Devil May Cry as a whole has done a great job of expanding Dante's character in 3 & 5. He has a personality in 1, but it comes off as basic by comparison. 2, he has almost none and might as well be the half demon equivalent of Vampire Hunter D. Lady in DMC3 has her best and defined character arc in 3 too. Nero also gets his from 4 to 5 and now works as the proper and new lead for the series going forward.

Aya Brea is a greatly developed character going from 1 to 2. Though I feel everything about her is the best in the first game. She's written like an actual person and not some "feminist" (meaning shallow motivations for making a character) icon or "Strong independent woman that don't need no man!". The first game shows that despite her bravery and courage, that she is a young woman that does not know what's going on with her body and it scares her. It scares her that she might one day be like Eve, the main villain, and her try to kill those around her. Thankfully it's outright stated that won't happen, but for 1999/2000, I highly appreciate it. Also, Danny, her cop partner is one of the most awesome secondary characters in an Action-RPG. You learned that he is flawed man with a divorced wife (you never see her, but it's stated they are amicable exes), but that he cares for his son who's still a child. Not much else to say on this one.

Sebastian from Evil Within 2. Compared to the first game, he was almost a blank slate that had nothing to do with any of the main plot and was only there for the ride. The fact that nearly everyone knew what was going on except for him and Joseph for most of the game was not helping. Hell, the first game is more about Ruvik (and Kidman if you bother with her DLC stories) than the main character. Ruvik is the main villain of the first game. He goes from stereotypical hard boiled detective to out of work, grieving widow and father. Only to find out both his daugher, Lily, and later his wife, Myra, are both trapped in a new version of S.T.E.M . You see more of his goofy and vulnerable side, and if you bother playing his personal side quests. They complete his personal arc about overcoming his trauma from being in the previous iteration of S.T.E.M. And it's not just him either, the supporting cast does an excellen job is a huge improvement over the 1st game. Kidman goes from Ada Wong Clone to actual character that wants to stop Mobius for the right reasons, unlike Ada. Then you have characters like O' Niel, Sykes, and Hoffman (a team from Mobius that was sent in to see what was wrong with STEM 2.0 and trapped inside). They are not villains, but just people with shades of grey, but they are people with good hearts. Even O' Niel, who is a coward.

My personal favorite side story and the best one involves Sykes. He's a guy who only joined Mobius for the money, and could not give a shit for Mobius's personal philosophy of unifying mankind. With that said, he is not selfish. Once you complete his final side quest you get a double barrel shotgun, but it's implied the personal exit you help him find and use has only a 1in 4 chance of succedding. The personal exit from STEM has a 75% chance of failure will take the person to a deeper level of the system and suffer a fate worse than death. It's kept ambigous if Sykes ever gets out or not. I know the first time I saw that, my reaction was "Oh, no!".

Honestly, EW2 feels more like a Resident Evil game than either 6 or 7. This game is basically the best parts of RE2 and RE3 combined with Silent Hill and Inception. @happyninja42, I highly recommend you play it, but the play the first game if you have not, so you can get the whole picture and development and journey comes off even better.

 

[happyninja42]

Devil May Cry as a whole has done a great job of expanding Dante's character in 3 & 5. He has a personality in 1, but it comes off as basic by comparison. 2, he has almost none and might as well be the half demon equivalent of Vampire Hunter D. Lady in DMC3 has her best and defined character arc in 3 too. Nero also gets his from 4 to 5 and now works as the proper and new lead for the series going forward.

Aya Brea is a greatly developed character going from 1 to 2. Though I feel everything about her is the best in the first game. She's written like an actual person and not some "feminist" (meaning shallow motivations for making a character) icon or "Strong independent woman that don't need no man!". The first game shows that despite her bravery and courage, that she is a young woman that does not know what's going on with her body and it scares her. It scares her that she might one day be like Eve, the main villain, and her try to kill those around her. Thankfully it's outright stated that won't happen, but for 1999/2000, I highly appreciate it. Also, Danny, her cop partner is one of the most awesome secondary characters in an Action-RPG. You learned that he is flawed man with a divorced wife (you never see her, but it's stated they are amicable exes), but that he cares for his son who's still a child. Not much else to say on this one.

Sebastian from Evil Within 2. Compared to the first game, he was almost a blank slate that had nothing to do with any of the main plot and was only there for the ride. The fact that nearly everyone knew what was going on except for him and Joseph for most of the game was not helping. Hell, the first game is more about Ruvik (and Kidman if you bother with her DLC stories) than the main character. Ruvik is the main villain of the first game. He goes from stereotypical hard boiled detective to out of work, grieving widow and father. Only to find out both his daugher, Lily, and later his wife, Myra, are both trapped in a new version of S.T.E.M . You see more of his goofy and vulnerable side, and if you bother playing his personal side quests. They complete his personal arc about overcoming his trauma from being in the previous iteration of S.T.E.M. And it's not just him either, the supporting cast does an excellen job is a huge improvement over the 1st game. Kidman goes from Ada Wong Clone to actual character that wants to stop Mobius for the right reasons, unlike Ada. Then you have characters like O' Niel, Sykes, and Hoffman (a team from Mobius that was sent in to see what was wrong with STEM 2.0 and trapped inside). They are not villains, but just people with shades of grey, but they are people with good hearts. Even O' Niel, who is a coward.

My personal favorite side story and the best one involves Sykes. He's a guy who only joined Mobius for the money, and could not give a shit for Mobius's personal philosophy of unifying mankind. With that said, he is not selfish. Once you complete his final side quest you get a double barrel shotgun, but it's implied the personal exit you help him find and use has only a 1in 4 chance of succedding. The personal exit from STEM has a 75% chance of failure will take the person to a deeper level of the system and suffer a fate worse than death. It's kept ambigous if Sykes ever gets out or not. I know the first time I saw that, my reaction was "Oh, no!".

Honestly, EW2 feels more like a Resident Evil game than either 6 or 7. This game is basically the best parts of RE2 and RE3 combined with Silent Hill and Inception. @happyninja42, I highly recommend you play it, but the play the first game if you have not, so you can get the whole picture and development and journey comes off even better.

Honestly I'm not a huge horror fan in any genre, so Evil Within was never high up on my list of games to buy, but I might check it out at some point. Maybe pick them up on a sale or something.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Chloe Fraser in Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, but only near the start. It was nice and refreshing to have a main character in this franchise who doesn't see themselves as a thief with a heart of gold, but is just a straight-up crook in it for the money. There's moments where she sort of relishes in being vain, like when she comments on Asav being handsome, triggering Nadine to say 'If you're into psychopaths', to which Chloe replies 'Nobody's perfect'. This isn't stellar writing in the least, but it just makes you enjoy being with this more mischievous character. There's also the scene where she injects herself into the conversation between Asav and Nadine when she feels she's being left out. It was entertaining stuff. After that it's downhill though for her character unfortunately.

 

[BrawlMan]

Honestly I'm not a huge horror fan in any genre, so Evil Within was never high up on my list of games to buy, but I might check it out at some point. Maybe pick them up on a sale or something. Room in

You can pick both up pretty cheap now. Especially if they're used or on steam.

 

[Mister Mumbler]

So, while I still hold the opinion that Red Dead Redemption 2's story was a completely unneccasry one, the biggest surprise of that game came from Arthur Morgan himself. He is the best part about it, and is so full of personality in the way he spins his revolvers, or interacts with his horses, and especially his diary filled with his thoughts and drawings of the world around him really made the game for me.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

So, while I still hold the opinion that Red Dead Redemption 2's story was a completely unneccasry one, the biggest surprise of that game came from Arthur Morgan himself. He is the best part about it, and is so full of personality in the way he spins his revolvers, or interacts with his horses, and especially his diary filled with his thoughts and drawings of the world around him really made the game for me.

Unnecessary in terms of the original or series as a whole? I mean, you could say they never planned on an Arthur Morgan at the time of RDR1’s development, but the goal to explain how/why the gang fell apart seems relevant enough, as well as fleshing out why John was how he was. There’s also people who’ve said the game is more about Dutch than Arthur himself.

Anyways, I’d add that the camp as a group feels really human in terms of how they act together, and how Arthur can generally interact with them. I’d argue most of the game’s other character stories are told by the characters themselves in this setting. They really made the gang feel like they inhabited the world and had their own little place in it. I’m replaying the game now for gold ranks and just had this encounter after rescuing Sean -

 

[Mister Mumbler]

Unnecessary in terms of the original or series as a whole? I mean, you could say they never planned on an Arthur Morgan at the time of RDR1’s development, but the goal to explain how/why the gang fell apart seems relevant enough, as well as fleshing out why John was how he was. There’s also people who’ve said the game is more about Dutch than Arthur himself.

Both. I was going to go into a bit of a spiel about all my problems with it, but I realized after thinking about it that I can sum up my thoughts on the matter by comparing it to the first prologue chapter of the story. So, going by what RDR the first, the Blackwater ferry robbery was the moment that killed the gang, leading to a prolonged death that results in the events of the game. So when making a prequel exploring the downfall of the van Der Linde gang, it would make sense to maybe start the narrative a little bit before the raid, show us the gang during the "honeymoon years" before taking us down that dark rabbit hole of betrayal that we know befalls them, right? Nah, let's just start immediately after the horrendous conclusion of that pivotal moment in the gang's history (in fact, let's not show any single bit of it, and have most of the characters, including those physically on the boat not know what happened either).

We are introduced to a new character by the amazing bit of news that he has died (and this will set the tone for all of the new additions to the cast, no matter how much I liked them, that spectre of "not one of the 7 characters we know make it to RDR" and that probably meant graves in their futures). Okay, so we don't see the main catalyst of the destruction of the gang, but do we see Dutch go from the man that Marston looked up to as a father to the depraved lunatic we meet in RDR? Nope, it's clear from his first speech (and subsequent actions during the rest of the prologue) that this is the same posturing, hypocritical thug that we chase down and kill a decade later, just with a bit more of the thin veneer of being an intellectual. And then one of the first things you do? Look for a wounded and lost John Marston, because that's the character I'm worried about, the one absolutely certain to make it.

I do agree though that the moments at camp are pretty great too for all of the little flourishes of character, and I actually like Morgan as a character more than Marston due to his personality (and journal), and I like most of the gang that was added in, but these characters deserved more than to be stuck in this dead-end (literally) plot.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Both. I was going to go into a bit of a spiel about all my problems with it, but I realized after thinking about it that I can sum up my thoughts on the matter by comparing it to the first prologue chapter of the story. So, going by what RDR the first, the Blackwater ferry robbery was the moment that killed the gang, leading to a prolonged death that results in the events of the game. So when making a prequel exploring the downfall of the van Der Linde gang, it would make sense to maybe start the narrative a little bit before the raid, show us the gang during the "honeymoon years" before taking us down that dark rabbit hole of betrayal that we know befalls them, right? Nah, let's just start immediately after the horrendous conclusion of that pivotal moment in the gang's history (in fact, let's not show any single bit of it, and have most of the characters, including those physically on the boat not know what happened either).

We are introduced to a new character by the amazing bit of news that he has died (and this will set the tone for all of the new additions to the cast, no matter how much I liked them, that spectre of "not one of the 7 characters we know make it to RDR" and that probably meant graves in their futures). Okay, so we don't see the main catalyst of the destruction of the gang, but do we see Dutch go from the man that Marston looked up to as a father to the depraved lunatic we meet in RDR? Nope, it's clear from his first speech (and subsequent actions during the rest of the prologue) that this is the same posturing, hypocritical thug that we chase down and kill a decade later, just with a bit more of the thin veneer of being an intellectual. And then one of the first things you do? Look for a wounded and lost John Marston, because that's the character I'm worried about, the one absolutely certain to make it.

I do agree though that the moments at camp are pretty great too for all of the little flourishes of character, and I actually like Morgan as a character more than Marston due to his personality (and journal), and I like most of the gang that was added in, but these characters deserved more than to be stuck in this dead-end (literally) plot.

Understood, but there’s really no way around that with a prequel since they’re resigned to predetermined fates no matter what time span they choose to examine. Depending on the subject matter I personally get more intrigued by the how and why moreso than the what, where or when, even if the ultimate outcome is known. Filling gaps in history has its own unique value but yeah, the big one would be everything leading up to Blackwater; especially seeing Dutch before his pivotal unmaking.

Having said that, his characterization is still fun to watch here. There was a moment during the governor’s party where I actually felt kinda sorry for him. I think it was done on purpose to make the player feel that Bronte basically got what he deserved, but at the same time also show how Dutch is losing his grip and the gang is starting to see it too. This review has a good commentary on the story starting at about 5:30 and mentions reacting to the scene with Dutch and Bronte in a way that mirrored my own almost exactly.

 

[Hawki]

So what examples of personality in gaming characters do you personally enjoy? That you feel they did a good job on giving them more depth than you would normally expect from a title like that?

So, that's two different questions, and I'm only going to deal with the second, and even then, that's iffy. For the first, that's far too long a list. For the second, there's a kind of conceit in the question, that we're expected to tolerate lacklustre characterization based solely on the type of game that's being presented. That isn't too unreasonable an assumption, but characterization quality can be assessed independently of anything else.

That said, if I'm framing this as "characters who had more depth than I thought they would," I guess I can nominate:

-The Doom Slayer, Doom Eternal (I've gushed how much an improvement DE is over D2016, and that includes the Doom Slayer. As in, y'know, managing to make him an actual character, without any lines of dialogue sans a flashback)

-Delmont Walker/Fahz Chutani, Gears 5 (nominating them both. For Del, of the trio in Gears 4, he got the least development, but it's brought to the fore in Gears 5 solely through background conversations with Kait. Similarly, Fahz is portrayed as an asshole at the start of the game, but by the end of Act 3, he's a character I wanted to stick around)

-John and Cortana, Halo 4 (much as I loathe Halo 4, the one thing (and I do mean one thing) it does well in its story is its handling of these two characters. Of all their portrayals across the games up to this point, this game arguably does the best job)

-Orphea, Heroes of the Storm (this almost feels like cheating, but I'll put it this way - Orphea had the task of being the game's first Nexus-hero, so that required weaving a story for her. And while hardly deep, under the premise of "more depth than I expected," then yes, I quite like Orphea, thanks for asking)

-Midna, Twilight Princess (remember what I said about hating Fahz and then liking him? Midna not only pulled this off first, but she pulled it off better. I mean, holy shit, she starts off as an absolute brat, but when she gets zapped by the light spirit and that music starts to play, as I'm desparately trying to get her hope, I realized that over the course of the game, I'd grown to really care about her, yet I couldn't pinpoint exactly when or how my view shifted. It's brilliant emergent storytelling)

-Zelda, Spirit Tracks (yes, I'm double dipping, but of all the LoZ games I've played, this Zelda has the best personality. Since I was used to not expecting too much from Zelda as a character, it's astounding that this game gave me the best Zelda I've experienced)

-Blaze, Sonic the Hedgehog (there's no shortage of Sonic characters I like, but I'm nominating Blaze here. I mean, here's this kitty cat that debuts in a handheld game, and holy bum nuggets, she has a personality, she has character depth, she has a character arc - yeah, nothing fancy, but, well, there's a reason why Blaze is as popular as she is. Also, I'll give a shoutout to Marine. Marine is cute and awesome, and it's bizzare that we never saw more of her)

-Alarak, StarCraft (there's no shortage of fleshed out characters in this IP, but I'm giving a shoutout to ma boy, Alarak. He's plopped right in the end of the SC2 trilogy, but everything Alarak says and does is golden. It helps that he's voiced by John de Lancie, but even then, Alarak is awesome. The Koprulu sector needs more Alaraks in it)

-Abathur, StarCraft (fuck, I forgot about him. I mean, again, Abathur comes out of nowhere, but everything he says and does is gold. If Alarak is the breakout character of LotV, then Abathur is the breakout character of HotS).

-Melia, Xenoblade (again, there's no shortage of engaging characters in this game, but I'm nominating Melia because she starts off being portrayed as a prissy princess-type character, whereas by the end, you're left with the unspoken revelation that this poor girl has probably the most tragic story arc out of all the playable characters)

So, yeah. Again, these aren't necessarily the best, most in-depth characters of all time, but the ones that best fit the criteria of "wow, I ended up liking them more than I expected."

 

[BrawlMan]

Travis Touchdown is another great example of character development done right. How he starts in No More Heroes 1 changes and becomes a differernt person by the near end of the 2nd game and Travis Strikes Again. He went from a guy who only entered the assassin gig to feed his ego, get laid, andrevenge, but he repressed that motivation. To someone who becomes heroic and respects life and got tired of the glory in TSA. From what I've seen in the new trailers for NMH III, he is full blown hero now fighting evil aliens. And as much as I hate Silvia she is not the same as she was in 1 and 2. TSA shows that she is no longer that wannabe femme fatale who was a con woman. She is now mother with daughter and Silvia is married to Travis and he is the father. Shinobu is no longer the same as she was in the first game. Going from cold and stoic assassin in 1, to cocky and expressive who has a crush on Travis in 2, to still being an assassin, but has adopted children and takes care of them in TSA. The kids don't know she does her job as an assassin, and Shinobu and Travis plan on keeping it that way.

The No More Heroes series deserves a lot of credit of developing its characters so much. Especially a lead that was originally a representation as the worse or darker parts of otaku and video game nerd culture. Gotta give credit to Suda 51/Grasshopper and shows they belong in the gaming industry like any one else.

 

[Dalisclock]

So, while I still hold the opinion that Red Dead Redemption 2's story was a completely unnecessary one, the biggest surprise of that game came from Arthur Morgan himself. He is the best part about it, and is so full of personality in the way he spins his revolvers, or interacts with his horses, and especially his diary filled with his thoughts and drawings of the world around him really made the game for me.

RDR2's story is more or less the gang doing crimes and getting into more and more deep shit as they do so, which in turn leads to them doing more crimes in hopes of being able to escape. Nothing groundbreaking in the least. I mean, they've also got the Blackwater Massacre hanging over their heads with the cruel irony they don't benefit because they can't get to the money, but that's mostly just there to justify the increasing Pinkerton attention as the story goes on(not to mention hint that Dutch had a screw or two loose all along).

What sold the game for me, other then the world being fucking amazing to explore and just inhabit, were the characters, especially Arthur(for his complex characterization) and Dutch(watching him go from Charismatic, if sketchy, leader of the gang, completely downhill to the broken nutcase of the original RDR.) The other members of the gang also felt real to me and I loved watching then interact together around camp, like this is a community and a tribe. And then watching it slowly unravel as Dutch starts losing the plot, more people start to die and the walls begin to close in.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Chloe Fraser in Uncharted: The Lost Legacy

You know I completely forgot about that game. It released with a bit of a fart. Is it worth playing though?

 

[Breakdown]

I'd go for Sinclair in Bioshock 2. I figured there'd be some predictable plot twist where he'd end up betraying you, but nope, didn't happen. I really liked him by the end of the game.

I appreciated the characterisation in the voice recordings as well, where it seemed the writers really went the extra mile.

 

[Mister Mumbler]

Captain Walker, Spec Ops the Line. His descent into madness and brutality is just amazingly well told visually with his worsening appearance and through gameplay with ever increasingly savage executions and voice lines.

 

[Casual Shinji]

You know I completely forgot about that game. It released with a bit of a fart. Is it worth playing though?

If you like the Uncharted series, then yes. It's basically just more of the same but shorter and more concentrated. And it has the best climax sequence of the entire series. It doesn't have the more interesting character moments of Uncharted 4, but it has a much snappier pace because of it. It's a pretty fun ride, and next to Uncharted 2 is my favourite one to play in the series.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

If you like the Uncharted series, then yes. It's basically just more of the same but shorter and more concentrated. And it has the best climax sequence of the entire series. It doesn't have the more interesting character moments of Uncharted 4, but it has a much snappier pace because of it. It's a pretty fun ride, and next to Uncharted 2 is my favourite one to play in the series.

Oh that's cool, I'll pick it up if I ever find it for cheap. More concentrated sounds good, I love the gameplay of 4 but hoo boy do you have to do a lot of walking and climbing to get to it.

 

[Xprimentyl]

I'll say it again: Jenny from The Darkness. More specifically, how much effort the team put into fleshing out the intimacy of her relationship with Jackie Estacado; the team wanted to make sure you felt she was no a mere "love interest" plot device, but a critical character of the story. Without spoiling a 13 year old game, let's just say you're extremely motivated when the "game" truly begins.

Also Monkey, Tripp and PIgsy from Enslaved: Odyssey Toe The West. The games itself is about as basic as one can possible imagine, i.e.: it's a button-mashing beat-em-up that does little to evolve or change gameplay from beginning to end, but the characters are just so well realized, relatable and REAL in cut-scenes and in conversation between each other during gameplay, this title has always stuck out as a fond memory from a couple generations ago.

 

[Gordon_4]

I like most BioWare companions from Mass Effect and DragonAge. Never revelatory, always entertaining.

 

[Mister Mumbler]

RDR2's story is more or less the gang doing crimes and getting into more and more deep shit as they do so, which in turn leads to them doing more crimes in hopes of being able to escape. Nothing groundbreaking in the least. I mean, they've also got the Blackwater Massacre hanging over their heads with the cruel irony they don't benefit because they can't get to the money, but that's mostly just there to justify the increasing Pinkerton attention as the story goes on(not to mention hint that Dutch had a screw or two loose all along).

What sold the game for me, other then the world being fucking amazing to explore and just inhabit, were the characters, especially Arthur(for his complex characterization) and Dutch(watching him go from Charismatic, if sketchy, leader of the gang, completely downhill to the broken nutcase of the original RDR.) The other members of the gang also felt real to me and I loved watching then interact together around camp, like this is a community and a tribe. And then watching it slowly unravel as Dutch starts losing the plot, more people start to die and the walls begin to close in.

Yeah, I love the world and all the little flourishes of detail it has, and the cast is all great, I guess I just wanted to be wowed and surprised by another story like RDR again.

Anyway, to pivot the thread a little bit, the Alien in Alien Isolation. The perfect blend of great animation, unsettling sound design, and spooky smart AI.