Who are the best Anti Heroes in gaming?

[B-Cell_v1legacy]

Hello friends,

In this thread we discuss who are the best anti hero in gaming or in other words who are our fav ones. The Anti Hero are those Heroes who lack heroic quality. they are not bad guys but not complete good. they are not black but not white. they are grey characters or have some grey shades. so characters like Doom guy who is most badass one is not count as anti hero because he is white meat hero.

heres what i think are

Tommy Angelo

The most well written character in gaming history. his evolution in original game was simply fantastic and art of writing. normally he is forced to work with mafia but still maintained his morals. He killed bad mafias, He didn't kill Don friend and let him escape so he can declare him dead, he didn't killed his wife best friend whom he was order too, he couldn't kill innocent and help police to arrest his former boss too.

Max Payne

His story is most depressing story in gaming history. He lost his wife, his daughter, frame for murder of his friend, hunted by cops and criminal, arrest, release, lost another love one, failed to protect family in brazil. and even with that he remain one of the most badass protagonist in gaming history. he dont care about anyone other than getting revenge. and even after years later in max payne 3, he was betrayed by family he suppose to protect and he fight them and never gives up.

Agent 47

Although He is cold blooded killer but he is complete black character as all of his targets are criminal although his motive for killing is not to save other but what his agency ICA told him and he is doing his job. He is perfect example of Grey shaded anti hero.

JC Denton

JC Denton, the main protagonist of greatest game of all time. his look is amazing and thats why i want remake. other than He work for UNATCO who sent to kill "terrorist" but later found out those were freedom fighters and UNATCO work under illuminati so he gone rouge. as a result he was declared most wanted man in the world. as entire universe is against him. what he did was to uncover conspiracy.

Riddick

Another Great example of Anti Hero is Riddick. he is very violent and do anything to escape from butcher bay as im only speaking gaming point of view and not movie point of view as i know vin diesel has portrayed this character to perfection. He even fight till death so he can escape, he was sent to the mines where no one can escape. he is just amazing example of how anti hero could have been.

so my friends, what are you fav anti heroes in gaming? lets discuss.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

JC isn't an Anti hero though. He's a straight up Paragon. The others in the program that made him all has apostolic names (Paul, etc) so JC is basically short for jesus christ.

Hell, by the end of the game

Spoiler

He can basically become a demigod fused with an AI to give it the humanity it needs, here to lead humanity into a new age of peace (which you can make a reality in the sequel

So an anti-hero he is not.

An Anti hero is a character who you want to root for even though you know you shouldn't. Someone who is only really a good guy by the fact that an actual good guy hero isn't a the protagonist.

 

[CritialGaming]

Kratos. I mean, right? Kratos is so much fun to be, but good guy he is not.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Probably any of the Silent Hero player character 'cause they're all like secretly insane serial killers with amnesia

 

[Xprimentyl]

Alex Mercer of Prototype and every GTA's "protagonist." Those games are made to let players roleplay as a murderous psychopath.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Heyoooo, look who found a new way to talk about the same games he always does. Godspeed, you.

Kratos. I mean, right? Kratos is so much fun to be, but good guy he is not.

Interestingly enough, Kratos has all the qualities of what antique cultures would've considered a hero. By modern standards though, he's been both anti-hero and villain protagonist, depending on the game.

Anyway, to pick some characters that haven't been mentioned yet:
- Dante (Devil May Cry), both original and Donte
- Altair, Ezio and Edward Kenway (Assassin's Creed)
- Guybrush Threepwood (Monkey Island)
- Sly Cooper
- Garret (Thief)
- Corvo Attano (Dishonored)
- Wario

Also, any protagonist from any rpg with a morality system, depending on how you play them.

 

[CritialGaming]

Kratos. I mean, right? Kratos is so much fun to be, but good guy he is not.

Interestingly enough, Kratos has all the qualities of what antique cultures would've considered a hero. By modern standards though, he's been both anti-hero and villain protagonist, depending on the game.

Which is interesting when you consider the subject of those GoW games. It's almost as if his character plays to the history and the themes of the setting in which his games take place. That's something to consider for me, next time someone talks about how shitty of a character Kratos is.

 

[B-Cell_v1legacy]

Kratos. I mean, right? Kratos is so much fun to be, but good guy he is not.

Interestingly enough, Kratos has all the qualities of what antique cultures would've considered a hero. By modern standards though, he's been both anti-hero and villain protagonist, depending on the game.

Which is interesting when you consider the subject of those GoW games. It's almost as if his character plays to the history and the themes of the setting in which his games take place. That's something to consider for me, next time someone talks about how shitty of a character Kratos is.

Well he sure came off as a big a-hole more and more in the old games and tonally the writing wasn?t great, but yeah...take any badass Spartan captain and see what they?d do if they were tricked into murdering their family and then held in servitude to those who tricked him. He tried killing himself many times to put an end to everything (?there?s no hope?) but they kept bringing him back. Of course all that would be incredibly frustrating to the point of madness and pure rage, ultimately sending him on his way to ?breaking the wheel?.

Staying out of his way would?ve been a key prerogative.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

SNIP

Is Sly Cooper really an anti-hero? He's a time traveling thief, sure, but he specifically travels time and robs from other thieves and super villains, saving the world multiple times.
Its like that new Carmen Sandiego show where she's been re-imagined as Batman. Its just going so hard into 'they're a nice person' that 'anti-hero' doesn't fit anymore.
Sly is just a classic hero.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

SNIP

Is Sly Cooper really an anti-hero? He's a time traveling thief, sure, but he specifically travels time and robs from other thieves and super villains, saving the world multiple times.
Its like that new Carmen Sandiego show where she's been re-imagined as Batman. Its just going so hard into 'they're a nice person' that 'anti-hero' doesn't fit anymore.
Sly is just a classic hero.

An anti-hero doesn't necessarily need to be an asshole. They can also be someone who achieves otherwise moral ends in ways that are not themselves moral, like stealing. Sly counts as an anti-hero for the same reason Robin Hood does.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Jesus wept, ain't that list of pics a dour montage of misery! You sure you didn't confuse anti-heroes with anti-funsies? Being an anti-hero in one's own power fantasy should be reason enough to smiiiiiile! You get to do all the bad things and still be the protag squeezing every ounce of strained sympathy from your audience. Are there any that are enjoying themselves? It isn't a weakness, my succulent friend. An honest bit of manic laughter can put your enemies off balance as long as they're unprepared.

I don't know, seems like videogame anti-heroes have a chronic case of boring/anemic personalities. What is there to feel enticed by? Trying to think of any distinctive ones, but coming up blank so far. I mean, people were weirdly impressed that one mute fps protag had a single emotion - anger - and nothing else. That's how shit it all is. I'll go with Waluigi. Or the dude from Watch Dogs 2, Marcus. The way I plays him, he ain't your friendly neighborhood Spiderman. Oohh, Sasha of Tales from the Borderlands is a con artist...sooooo that counts, right? Yeah, it has to count, surely. Surely?

 

[Casual Shinji]

Which is interesting when you consider the subject of those GoW games. It's almost as if his character plays to the history and the themes of the setting in which his games take place. That's something to consider for me, next time someone talks about how shitty of a character Kratos is.

It's not the character that's shitty, it's the framing.

 

[B-Cell_v1legacy]

Alex Mercer of Prototype and every GTA's "protagonist." Those games are made to let players roleplay as a murderous psychopath.

GTA protagonist are not anti heroes. they are flat out bad guys.

Anti Heroes are good guys but lack heroic qualities.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Alex Mercer of Prototype and every GTA's "protagonist." Those games are made to let players roleplay as a murderous psychopath.

GTA protagonist are not anti heroes. they are flat out bad guys.

Anti Heroes are good guys but lack heroic qualities.

I?ll disagree. Antiheroes are simply main or central characters that, through action and/or trait, defy traditional hero/good guy tropes. As the player-controlled characters, the GTA ?protagonists?? goals are, for good or ill, the player?s goals. They are the ?heroes? of those tales despite their goals breaking every ethical and moral law in the book, almost like someone who is, oh, I dunno, against or has little regard for actions or traits that are traditionally accepted as noble and valorous? What?s the word for such a character?...

 

[Avnger]

Snip

and

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

Velvet from Tales of Berseria easily takes the cake.

 

[Squilookle]

Alex Mercer of Prototype and every GTA's "protagonist." Those games are made to let players roleplay as a murderous psychopath.

GTA protagonist are not anti heroes. they are flat out bad guys.

Anti Heroes are good guys but lack heroic qualities.

I?ll disagree. Antiheroes are simply main or central characters that, through action and/or trait, defy traditional hero/good guy tropes. As the player-controlled characters, the GTA ?protagonists?? goals are, for good or ill, the player?s goals. They are the ?heroes? of those tales despite their goals breaking every ethical and moral law in the book, almost like someone who is, oh, I dunno, against or has little regard for actions or traits that are traditionally accepted as noble and valorous? What?s the word for such a character?...

They are the protagonists of the GTA games- that doesn't make them heroes or anti-heroes automatically. I'd say Claude is a pretty straight up anti-hero because he just wants violent revenge on his double crossing criminal girlfriend. Tommy Vercetti is a straight up psychopathic villain, CJ is definitely a hero, and the rest I couldn't be bothered with.

I'd hesitate to call Tommy Angelo an anti hero either- like CJ he's a good man fallen into a life of crime that he'd rather avoid. He does things that the law would quite rightly want to see him do time for, but he never abandons his morals. I'd say Tommy, like CJ is a straight-up hero.

 

[Hawki]

Dunno about "best," but if I'm choosing one per franchise (and not factoring in player choice), I can nominate:

-Hawke (Advance Wars)

-Booker DeWitt (BioShock)

-War (Darksiders)

-Doom Slayer (Doom)

-Jaffar (Fire Emblem)

-Saturos (Golden Sun)

-Durandal (Marathon)

-Big Boss (Metal Gear)

-Ada Wong (Resident Evil)

-Shadow the Hedgehog (Sonic the Hedgehog)

-Tychus Findlay (StarCraft)

-Illidan Stormrage (Warcraft)

Doom guy who is most badass one is not count as anti hero because he is white meat hero.

...the hell is a "white meat hero?"

But that aside, the Doom Slayer, at least in the context of Doom 2016, counts as an anti-hero for me. He just wants to kill demons, and he doesn't really care about anything else. He certainly doesn't care that he's causing a power crisis on Earth by not properly decoupling the Argent links, and there's not really anything to suggest that he cares about humanity at this point. He just wants to kill demons, and aside from saving the AI character, doesn't care about anything else.

- Altair, Ezio and Edward Kenway (Assassin's Creed)

Kenway, sure, Altair, probably, but how does Ezio fit the mould?

Sly counts as an anti-hero for the same reason Robin Hood does.

Wouldn't think RH counts as an anti-hero. He's fighting against a corrupt sherrif, and giving money to poor folk in the process. In the context of his story, that's pretty noble.

I'd say Claude is a pretty straight up anti-hero because he just wants violent revenge on his double crossing criminal girlfriend.

Yeah, but he doesn't really do anything heroic either.

I'd loosely define an anti-hero as "someone who does the right thing for the wrong (or selfish) reasons, or is generally apathetic about a situation of injstustice, but will fix it either by chance or through self-interest. Claude is just a thug. He doesn't improve things for anyone. He gets rich, he gets revenge, the end.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

...the hell is a "white meat hero?"

It's cuz he's a chicken. Obviously.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

CJ is definitely a hero

CJ buried a construction worker alive for saying shit to his sister. People tend to forget that.

how does Ezio fit the mould?

He doesn't. I love Ezio, but he's just one step away from being a Disney hero.