Top 3 game characters

From Mario to Commander Shepard, everyone has their favourite video game characters, but which developers have really managed to create convincing simulations of real people inhabiting a believable virtual world?

In the dark days of early game design, consumers were impressed enough by the spectacle of an interactive game experience played wholly on a screen to worry about how well realised the characters and situations they were enjoying were. No one ever stopped to ask what lead the invisible tennis players to face off against one another in Pong, or questioned the motivations of the brave lone pilot defending Earth in Space Invaders. We let games get away with glaring plot holes and shoddy characterisation that would have literary critics and even mainstream cinema audiences up in arms.

These days, things have changed a little. Now, it seems like every new game has an elaborate mythology built up around it, with sequels, prequels, Facebook experiences and tie-in novelisations galore to immerse yourself in. However, while the story around the game has advanced, the player character is often still an amalgam of crude stereotypes. How many uninspired FPS games force you into the ill-fitting armoured boots of a bad-ass space marine facing off against an implacable alien adversary?

We run down in no particular order some of the top examples in recent years of popular games that have gone against the trend, creating protagonists with more layers than an onion, back stories with bite and goals that are grounded in personal history. If we’ve missed your personal picks, let us know in the comments.

Be aware, although we’ve tried to avoid specific plot points, there will be spoilers ahead.