There are plenty of different ways to have a protagonist who isn't the unequivocal good guy (i.e. his moral failings are definitely in excess of the players) and it's weird how few genuine villain protagonists there are compared to how often it seems to be advertised as part of the game.
I am slightly sick of the badass characters who "just happen" to do good whilst always saying that they are motivated by more selfish reasons. This is a "have your cake and eat it" situation, allowing the character to have the things we like in villains and heroes.
It's difficult to make a good game where we don't in some way want the protagonist to succeed, because by playing it we are helping them do so. With almost villains like Captain Walker (Spec Ops: The Line) a lot of the most horrible stuff you do unwittingly and there's the vague hope that you may get redemption by playing on
It's worth doing but
I think the genuinely good guy protagonist (who isn't bitingly sarcastic/cynical or an alcoholic or have dark secrets/ history) who saves people because he actually wants to help is a threatened protagonist type too. It's always a dark cynical badass who "ain't in it for your revolution" just the money and then ends up winning the war on his own anyway.
I am slightly sick of the badass characters who "just happen" to do good whilst always saying that they are motivated by more selfish reasons. This is a "have your cake and eat it" situation, allowing the character to have the things we like in villains and heroes.
It's difficult to make a good game where we don't in some way want the protagonist to succeed, because by playing it we are helping them do so. With almost villains like Captain Walker (Spec Ops: The Line) a lot of the most horrible stuff you do unwittingly and there's the vague hope that you may get redemption by playing on
It's worth doing but
I think the genuinely good guy protagonist (who isn't bitingly sarcastic/cynical or an alcoholic or have dark secrets/ history) who saves people because he actually wants to help is a threatened protagonist type too. It's always a dark cynical badass who "ain't in it for your revolution" just the money and then ends up winning the war on his own anyway.