The 5 Best Video Game Characters Of 2016 So Far

We’ve come a long way since the early days of gaming, when player characters were sometimes represented on screen by a single, pixelated dot. Video games are becoming more and more complex, giving way to interesting, well developed characters with personalities and flaws. We’ve come to a point in time in which narratives can be as big and sweeping or as tight and personal as any book or TV show, and our characters reflect that. Of course, gameplay is king, and one of the biggest strengths of this medium is that it need not shackle itself to the conventions of books or movies. Sometimes, a character can go the length of a game without speaking a single word, and without having a motivation more complex than ‘shoot,’ and they can still be iconic and fun. So, with 2016 halfway over, we thought it was a perfect time to reflect on the fantastic personalities we’ve gotten to know this year. These represent not only the most well written characters, but also those that just make us feel totally awesome. Tensay - Far Cry Primal Far Cry Primal, Ubisoft’s spinoff of the fabulous action franchise, puts players in the heart of a prehistoric land known as Oros. As protagonist Takkar, gamers must harness their talent to tame dangerous alpha predators to help their tribe rise to the top of the food chain. Enter Tensay, the spiritual center of the land of Oros and Takkar’s guide to primal dominance. While there are a few interesting characters in Far Cry Primal, none prove to be as interesting or integral to the development of your beast abilities as the eccentric shaman. The most entertaining part of the game is learning to become a Beast Master, and it’s through Tensay’s guidance and the disgusting hallucinogenic concoctions he offers that you will find your way. After each visually stimulating vision quest, you’ll be one step closer to sending owls out to dive bomb your enemies, or sabre-tooth tigers to stalk your prey. Your tribe’s spiritual leader will gift you with these abilities, and will shed light on the mystical energies lurking just out of sight in the physical world. He’s like a bizarre, cannibalistic Obi-Wan Kenobi, if the old Jedi master had a passion for wearing wolf pelts and taking powerful drugs. Brought to life by Far Cry Primal’s fantastic graphical engine, and given a soul through the beautifully realized, proto-European dialect created by Ubisoft, Tensay is one of the best aspects of a solid and varied game. You’ll look forward to your time with the odd caveman more than any other. Once you’ve developed a taste for human eyeballs, of course. Doomguy - Doom Doomguy is a badass. While id Software’s reboot revealed virtually no details about him other than his gender and a brief glimpse of skin color, that hardly matters. Doom isn’t a heartfelt tale with nuanced personalities and character arcs, and truthfully, we wouldn’t want it to be. The granddaddy of all shooters is about power fantasies and wish fulfillment, and through its Space Marine, it has enough of that to fuel your bloodlust into the furthest depths of hell. The silent protagonist is a staple of first person shooters and, when used correctly, can make you feel like you’re not only part of the action, but the absolute center of it. Doomguy epitomizes this blank slate approach, and through him we become the avatar of violence, gore and everything else that makes parents groups fear video games. He doesn’t have hopes, dreams, desires or anything that we would expect to see from our heroes in film or print. But somehow, it’s easy to forget his shortcomings while we’re cutting through enemies with a space chainsaw. Doomguy is simplistic, flat, but above all, fun, and that’s the only characteristic that matters in this medium. Whether he’s firing off the BFG directly in a demon’s face, tearing an imps’ skull in two or stabbing another with its own fang, Doomguy never fails to make us feel like a one man army. With such a powerful silent protagonist in the center of these otherworldly firefights, who needs Gordon Freeman? Delilah - Firewatch Firewatch is heavy on narrative, so it’s fitting that it has one of the year’s best characters. Player’s take control of Henry, a man who has exchanged his complicated life for a lonely job as a fire lookout in the heart of a Wyoming forest. As interesting as he was, it’s not the protagonist who stole our hearts, but rather his supervisor, Delilah. She will be your only companion while you traverse a beautifully animated forest, speaking to you entirely by way of walkie-talkie. Thankfully, she’ll have plenty to say as you try to solve the mysteries of Firewatch. Nearly everything you come across is a starting point for some entertaining and witty banter between Henry and Delilah, and it’s impossible not to call her up at every opportunity that presents itself. Their relationship is the driving force behind the game, so much so that the story itself can take a back seat at times. What’s more, the way Delilah reacts to your dialogue choices in an emotionally appropriate way is so realistic, it’s easy to forget that she’s an actress reading lines in a sound booth. The game is a mature experience that delves into depressing thematic territory. Issues of love, loss, death and abandonment are thoroughly explored over the course of its runtime. That can be a little heavy for a video game, but the expertly voice acted Delilah will help make navigating Henry’s emotions a little more comfortable. And who says a life of solitude has to be lonely? The Cast - Overwatch The cast - yes, the cast - of Overwatch lands a spot on our list. There are twenty-one characters featured in Blizzard’s newest IP, and each one of them has as much personality as your average Pixar film. Is that cheating? Yes. Do we care? No. Blizzard’s colorful art style and cartoonish character design has combined to create the most charming collection of heroes we’ve seen in a shooter. Super intelligent apes, gun slinging cowboys, armor clad knights; the game has just about every archetype you could expect to find in a Saturday morning cartoon. It’s not only an aesthetic; their personality and design dictates their playstyle, making each one of them feel as unique as they look. Try to play the game for even an hour without finding something to love in several of them. We dare you. What’s more, Blizzard has created supplemental videos that fill in the backstory of Overwatch and let us glimpse into the lives of Tracer, Widowmaker, Soldier 76 and more, all while maintaining the cinematic quality the developers are known for in their cutscenes. There is so much to love in the tiniest bits of dialogue shared between any two characters before a match that you’ll find yourself pausing to hear them all. Expect to see countless cosplayers donning their very best Overwatch themed outfits this year, and for many years to come. With such a fun group of characters, it will be hard to not join them. Nathan Drake - Uncharted 4 We’ve known Nathan Drake for nearly a decade now, but never have we had such an in depth look into the man behind the smirk. Uncharted 4 is a much more personal story than any of the other entries in the series, and it allowed us to finally get into the head of gaming’s most charming treasure hunter. Naughty Dog’s narrative finesse evolved Nathan Drake into a multifaceted man, and gamers were given the chance to follow him on every step of his journey. We feel the boredom he has with his normal life, and the longing for the past that nearly consumed him. We see his need for excitement, and we learn that, to Drake, the ultimate treasure is not some mythical trinket, but rather that moment when he finely overcomes impossible odds. At the same time, we see Nate come to terms with the knowledge that these ill begotten treasures never come without consequences. Through his brother, Sam, Nate sees that his determination and lust for adventure are ultimately destructive, both to himself and those around him. Our older and wiser protagonist has come to realize that, in the end, the greatest treasure of all is the connection he has with the people he cares about. It sounds sappy, but these moments of character development are interspersed between some of the greatest action scenarios of all time. Make no mistake, Drake may be the exact opposite of Doomguy, but he’s no less awesome. We’re just glad Naughty Dog gave us the chance to send him off in style.