Isaac Clarke – Dead Space
Considering he says so little and you spend most of Dead Space staring at his back, Isaac has an awful lot of personality
Dead Space was a masterfully tense horror romp that was more about absence than excess. The sparse soundtrack and lack of a speaking protagonist made way for the game’s disturbing visual direction and haunting sound effects. It was a stellar example of the successful “less is more” approach that so many developers seem ignorant to these days.
The Warriors of Light – Final Fantasy
These guys are the original silent protagonists, and boy are they oddly memorable. No need to justify their existence with dialogue or any real semblance of a story, these guys just got on with the job. The fact that you got to name your warriors and assign them to a specific job further improved the immersion of one of the most influential games of all time.
Ico – Ico
Ico doesn’t say a lot, and it is this inability to communicate with female protagonistYorda that makes their mismatched friendship so meaningful. Having to guide the defenceless Yorda requires a certain level of trust and ingenuity when she speaks a strange language you can’t understand. It’s not a surprise therefore that Ico has to express himself outside of words alone.
Gordon Freeman – Half-Life series
I’m all for immersion and all, but that goatee definitely should have appeared in game
Gordon Freeman of the Half-Life series took the silent protagonist to a new level for, not only do you never hear Freeman speak, you also never get to see what he looks like (outside of the promotional material that is). Freeman thus becomes a cipher, allowing the player to project themselves into the vivid world of Half-Life more wholly than ever before.
