As the title says.
For me:
3. Gann of Dreams from Mask of the Betrayer:
2. Kaelyn the Dove from Mask of the Betrayer:
1. GLaDOS from Portal:
Honorable mention: Companion Cube from Portal:
For me:
3. Gann of Dreams from Mask of the Betrayer:
The moment I tried to give in to Gann's sob story about his parents and he actually reacted negatively, I already loved the game. He had some great lines in there, the interaction with Kaelyn was especially good. I only wished there would be more of that sort.
Usually, I kill off NPCs and think nothing about it. I even killed Minsk in BG1 without batting an eyelash. But when I did it in MotB, and "left her for the demons to find", as you can do if you are especially evil, I was actually sad. Same when I got the bad ending for her.
RPGs rarely do the pure-hearted maiden properly, but here it worked perfectly. Especially how you could manipulate her, and how she was fighting for something that was not simply good, but genuinely grey territory (as forces of good and evil were actually battling against other forces of good and evil, which happens just about never in most fantasy).
RPGs rarely do the pure-hearted maiden properly, but here it worked perfectly. Especially how you could manipulate her, and how she was fighting for something that was not simply good, but genuinely grey territory (as forces of good and evil were actually battling against other forces of good and evil, which happens just about never in most fantasy).
Portal has the best (or second best, after MotB) writing of all games in 2007, and whereas MotB has tons of characters who have lines, Portal has nothing but GLaDOS. And it is all brilliant.
The evil AI has been done before, even done well in the form of SHODAN, but I'd argue that it has never been done quite as well. And though you might call me presumptous, I'd even argue she is up there with HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey. At the very least, she has that great song.
The evil AI has been done before, even done well in the form of SHODAN, but I'd argue that it has never been done quite as well. And though you might call me presumptous, I'd even argue she is up there with HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey. At the very least, she has that great song.
Honorable mention: Companion Cube from Portal:
Of course this goes to the credit of GLaDOS. But seriously, that stupid cube is more memorable than most proper gaming characters with hundreds of lines and a proper sob story. I'd argue it would have done well in Gamefaq's character battle, and it doesn't even have an angsty past, it's just a stupid cube.
