Who are the best Anti Heroes in gaming?

[Neurotic Void Melody]

I'd agree with that when it comes to the early stages of the game, where she's at her best. She casually notes a ruthless rebel leader being hansome, and tries to include herself in the conversation between Nadine and Asav when she feels like she's being left out. She knows she's a crook and she doesn't try to sugar-coat it like Drake does. However, near the end she gets all noble and the game pretty much turns her into Nathan Drake, which is a shame. Also the whole daddy issue backstory was totally unnecessary.

Huh, I must've blanked out the daddy issues part for some reason. It couldn't have been as overwhelming as Lara Croft's at least, as that got quite annoying when it was pretty much all she talked about all the time. I wonder if the writer for Chloe felt obligated to try shoehorning an arc of sorts out of fear of alienating the god-fearing percentage of their audience towards a proud criminal, and if it was intended as the only Chloe focused adventure. But I agree it would've been preferable to avoid the cliche and allow her to wallow in the wholesome crimes.

 

[Hawki]

He dismantles multiple criminal organisations across the whole city as he goes along. I realise GTA 3 is far from a Shakespearean epic, but Claude leaves Liberty City a lot better than it was when he found it- even if he didn't do any of it for altruistic reasons...

It's been ages since I played GTA 3 (and granted, never finished its story), but, really? I know he kills some mobster bosses, but every gang in the city continues to operate after he does so. Only difference is after that point, they'll actively hunt you.

You could argue it's down to gameplay, but it struck me as a case of the groups always continue to operating, even after the deaths of key characters.

That's up for interpretation. he seems angriest when Hayden is trying to JUSTIFY what happened (such as when he pointedly looks at a mangled corpse as Hayden is saying 'he had the best intentions for humanity'). If you strip away the euphemism, Argent energy is Hell Energy, sucked strain from the place of pure evil, the damned and eternal torment.

'Hell is not a toy', and it's entirely possible it guarantees bringing about hell on earth just by using it, and the backstory implies the doom slayer has a lot of experience of cleaning up messes caused by people thinking they could handle stuff they REALLY shouldn't be messing with. It's entirely possible the consequences of using 'argent energy' in any way or form are far worse than the energy crisis.

He's angry at Hayden, but being angry at Hayden trying to justify using argent energy in the elevator isn't exactly the same thing as caring about humanity per se. Yes, he looks at the body, but there's no other moment I can think of where the Doom Slayer shows any kind of compassion or concern for, well, anything. Again, except for VEGA. And it's telling, because the Doom Slayer is the same guy who fought in the original games (or he was, there's hints that Doom Eternal is retconning this), and yet despite a shared species, and presumably shared history, he doesn't really give a damn about any of it. Nor did his other incarnations care that much, granted, but Doom 2016 goes out of its way to show him as having one goal, and one goal only, damn anything else.

Granted, the energy crisis is a result of humanity always trying to take the easy way out and pick the dirtiest and cheapest source of energy instead of fixing it's shit as far as energy consumption and generation. It's almost as if Hell energy it's a giant, painfully obvious metaphor for fossil fuels and pollution.

Oh please, argent energy is nothing like fossil fuels. One of these fuels will turn Earth into a burning wasteland if continuously used, leading to the end of human civilization. The other is an energy that comes from Hell.

That aside, I don't think the game's making analogy here. Because Doom 2016 is pretty much "anti-story" in almost every regard, I'm dubious as to the notion of the writers trying to impart any kind of theme or analogy here beyond "evil corporation is evil." And even if they did, it's not a sound one IMO. If argent energy is a stand-in for anything, it's more in keeping with the motif of the Doom series up to this point - going beyond the boundries of science, discovering what Man was not meant to know, forbidden knowledge, yadda yadda yadda. In the prior games it was teleportation, in Doom 2016, it's argent energy.

 

[B-Cell_v1legacy]

Garrett from Thief. I have sentiment for him, his VA and entire series.

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.

I'd be hesitant to call Max Payne an anti-hero too. Atleast his non-Rockstar iterations. Yes, he murders armed goons by hundreds, but so do many classical video game heroes.

Max himself said i was no hero. he was vigilante cop. gone rouge.

 

[McElroy]

In many of the earliest ones he's a rather arrogant and violent thug, who's solely interested in getting back at the local nobles over a grievance and shows little regard for the small folk (in one story he casually kills a page for being in his way during a prison escape).

It is Much, the Miller's Son who kills the littul page while John does away with the monk and later on the jailer. Funny enough the "scheref" survives without a scratch.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

In many of the earliest ones he's a rather arrogant and violent thug, who's solely interested in getting back at the local nobles over a grievance and shows little regard for the small folk (in one story he casually kills a page for being in his way during a prison escape).

It is Much, the Miller's Son who kills the littul page while John does away with the monk and later on the jailer. Funny enough the "scheref" survives without a scratch.

Rechecks. You are correct, sir. Robin was still somewhat of a huge prick in a lot of the older stories. Then again, many medieval (folk) heroes were by today's standards. Still paragons of virtue compared to antique heroes tho.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I'd agree with that when it comes to the early stages of the game, where she's at her best. She casually notes a ruthless rebel leader being hansome, and tries to include herself in the conversation between Nadine and Asav when she feels like she's being left out. She knows she's a crook and she doesn't try to sugar-coat it like Drake does. However, near the end she gets all noble and the game pretty much turns her into Nathan Drake, which is a shame. Also the whole daddy issue backstory was totally unnecessary.

Huh, I must've blanked out the daddy issues part for some reason. It couldn't have been as overwhelming as Lara Croft's at least, as that got quite annoying when it was pretty much all she talked about all the time. I wonder if the writer for Chloe felt obligated to try shoehorning an arc of sorts out of fear of alienating the god-fearing percentage of their audience towards a proud criminal, and if it was intended as the only Chloe focused adventure. But I agree it would've been preferable to avoid the cliche and allow her to wallow in the wholesome crimes.

It felt like a blatant attempt to put some emotional scenes in there, which is kind of something Naughty Dog shouldn't be so eager to include. Sure, it works in The Last of Us, but not every game needs it. Same with Chloe becoming besties with Nadine. Felt a bit 'well this needs to happen cuz it's a Naughty Dog game'. I would've liked it if they'd maintained a volatile 48 Hours sorta relationship all throughout.

 

[Smithnikov_v1legacy]

and there is no purely 'good' ending.

Wasn't the Aradia ending a Good one though? If I recall it right, didn't it reverse the apocalypse?

 

[Smithnikov_v1legacy]

Max himself said i was no hero. he was vigilante cop. gone rouge.

The Maverick Cop trope is quite established though, and they're still considered Heroes as opposed to antis. Besides, he never intended to go vigilante, circumstances threw him into it.

 

[Hawki]

Solid Snake in MGS1. Although what he does saves the world he doesn't see it as heroic, he's just doing his job as a soldier. He's good at killing and several characters allude his enjoyment of killing.

He does, but his entire arc is based around, among other things, finding fulfillment in things other than death and fighting, and being a better person than Liquid. Does one still count as an anti-hero if by the end of their arc they're not an anti-hero? Bearing in mind that this arc takes place in the scope of a single game, and that MGS2 is, in a lot of ways, the culmination of Snake's arc (MGS4 aside).

 

[Dalisclock]

Solid Snake in MGS1. Although what he does saves the world he doesn't see it as heroic, he's just doing his job as a soldier. He's good at killing and several characters allude his enjoyment of killing.

He does, but his entire arc is based around, among other things, finding fulfillment in things other than death and fighting, and being a better person than Liquid. Does one still count as an anti-hero if by the end of their arc they're not an anti-hero? Bearing in mind that this arc takes place in the scope of a single game, and that MGS2 is, in a lot of ways, the culmination of Snake's arc (MGS4 aside).

Which is interesting because MG2 is a worthy part of his arc, establishing he has some serious PTSD going on by the point he went to Zanzibar Land. In particular the end where he and Big Boss have a discussion about why they fight and establishing why Snake went to go live in Alaska.

 

[Hawki]

Which is interesting because MG2 is a worthy part of his arc, establishing he has some serious PTSD going on by the point he went to Zanzibar Land. In particular the end where he and Big Boss have a discussion about why they fight and establishing why Snake went to go live in Alaska.

Oh I don't dismiss that Snake has a multi-game arc, only that at least in MGS1, the game has an arc contained to it. This is in contrast to something like the original Metal Gear, or MGS2.