During my time as a gamer, I've the chance to play lots of characters that weren't just straight heroes. Today I'm gonna tell you about five of them that I've liked the most. BTW: these are in no particular order.
Deadpool (Deadpool: The Game)
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Deadpool is one of the most popular anti-heroes of all time, that's why I'm putting him at the start of this list so we get him out of the way. In game we got our chance to play as him in the 2013 game Deadpool: The Game which if full of meta jokes (as is the norm for Deadpool) lots of 4th wall breaking and lots of great jokes.
The reason why I personally like Deadpool is the fact that he uses a lot of black humor which, to be frank, is my favorite kind of humor.
Illidan Stormrage (the Warcraft universe)
One of the most well known and beloved characters from the Warcraft universe, Illidan is the embodiment of a character that is willing to do anything to achieve his goals. Also known as the Betrayer because of the actions he took during the War of the Ancients and Warcraft 3.
What makes Illidan so awesome for me is the fact that even though he takes actions that might at the very least be considered shady, he never actually becomes a bad guy. His actions may cause harm to many, but they are always done for the greater good. Also: You are not prepared
Styx (Styx: Master of Shadows, Styx: Shards of Darkness)
Styx is goblin that is highly intelligent for his species and has the ability to utilize a few magic tricks. A fairly new contender to the anti-hero group of playable characters (first debuted in the 2014 game Styx: Master of Shadows) he has sort of a dark sense of humor and works only for his own benefit.
I have very much enjoyed Styx's character in the latest game - Shards of Darkness where I loved how dark his humor was and that even though he got into sticky situations, he never ever gave up.
Kane (the Command and Conquer universe)
Kane not Kain. The leader of the brotherhood of NOD. Sadly, never got to play him directly, we just kep taking orders from the mysterious leader played by Joseph David Kucan and is one of the main characters of the C&C games. He is revered like a god-like figure by his devoted followers and absence of visible aging and appearing immortal just increase the fanaticism of his troops.
I first encountered Kane when my father started playing the Tiberium Sun game. And immediately I realized that this will be one of my favorite characters of all time. Seemingly evil, but you never really know whether he believes his own religion or not, he always stays right there on the line so you are never 100 % sure.
Thomas Angelo (Mafia)
Thomas Angelo was a great character not only because of a great story in the original Mafia. Thomas isn't your typical mafia member trying to get to the top, he keep "only" at a position the middle, but making more then one bad decision during his career.
The reason why Thomas is not this list is somewhat different. Yes he is a well written character that actually feels real, but the thing that made him unforgettable for me was his original Czech voice-over. Performed by the Czech actor Marek Vašut it was simply amazing and to this day I can remeber the line: „pozdravuje vás don Salieri.“ (greetings from don Salieri).