7. Faith (Mirror's Edge)

#7
Faith was the most recent addition to the list since I only just picked up Mirror’s Edge during Valve’s crazy holiday sale, and finished it a few days ago. The thing about Faith is that she is a strong female character, who is basically in what would typically be a male role (also the voice in her ear is a guy, which is usually a girl in most games.) She’s also badass, but not really in a beat you up anytime she wants sort of way, but more of a quick thinking/street smarts sort of way, since the game isn’t about fighting through the levels (which it sometimes thinks it is,) but is more about finding to traverse the environment quickly (it’s sort of platforming through puzzle solving.)

6. Jade (Beyond Good and Evil)

#6
Jade falls into a similar category of badass as Faith does, where she’s badass not for beating up people but for the other things she does. She runs an orphanage with money she gets from being a photojournalist. And not taking simple photos, but rather taking some pretty risky jobs to not only make her money, but also to help reveal evil doings for the greater good. She’s a really endearing character that you can’t help but want to root for.

5. The Ladies of the Street Fighter series

#5
I had initially planned to make this just Chun-Li, but then I remembered that Cammy was also pretty awesome (yeah she’s wearing a rather tight unitard, but she’s the head of a secret operations strike force.) Then there was Sakura who admires Ryu, learned some martial arts from him, but then by herself created her own style of fighting. And then there’s Makoto, and Ibuki, and so on.

While the character might have aspects that would have otherwise put them on the other list, like Cammy being sexualized in a tight outfit, or Chun-Li following in her father’s footsteps to be a cop and even seeking revenge for his death. Even so they are more then just that, and aren’t defined by them. Cammy is sexualized, but she’s not tall and busty, she’s flat and muscular. Unfortunately most of these aspects to their characters aren’t seen in the games but rather in the comics and whatnot that have built up around them.

4. Samus Aran (Metroid series)

#4
So Samus is…. well… she’s Samus!

Ok, maybe that’s not quite enough. She was pretty much the only non damsel in distress female character Nintendo had for a long time. Not that you even knew you were playing as a woman anyway in the original Metroid, at least not until people started to finish the game fast enough that it was revealed that she was a woman when they showed her without the suit on.

As such it was probably the first game to show that a girl could be a badass action hero. She was basically Lara Croft before Lara Croft, and did it without being overly sexualized (mostly due to graphics that weren’t that detailed, and the fact that she always wore her suit.) She was just Samus, the female space bounty hunter who got shit done.

3. Alyx Vance (Half-Life 2 series)

#3
Alyx is so many great things that combine into one awesome package. First she’s probably the first AI character that follows you through a game that you don’t feel like you have to babysit. She can actually take care of herself, not just in cut scenes and story wise but actually in the gameplay! Secondly, because she’s always around, and not this burden to you she becomes a character you actually care about having around. Thirdly, she’s ridiculous smart. Probably not as smart as they imply Gordon Freeman to be, but she’s obviously very tech savvy and has a bit of street smarts that Gordon doesn’t seem to have.

2. Elena Fisher (Uncharted series) and Chloe Frazer (Uncharted 2)

#2
Originally this was going to just be Elena, I had kicked around the idea of putting Chloe on the list but decided that I preferred Elena to Chloe. Then I read a great analysis article on Gamasutra about the sexual politics in Uncharted 2. It says better then anything I could why Chloe is on this list so I’ll leave it at that. Elena on the other hand I will talk about.

Elena is a lot like Alyx Vance, in that she’s placed on the same level as the player’s character (in this case Nathan Drake.) She’s also another AI partner that you don’t have to worry about, which goes along with putting her on equal footing the the male lead. In a lot of ways she’s a lot like Nathan except she has more common sense. The unfortunate thing about the first Uncharted is that at the end of the game she ends up as a damsel in distress for really no good reason. Luckily they made up for that in Uncharted 2 where she see a return to form.

The thing though that I like about Elena is that she seems the most like a real person. Nat is supposed to be the sort of everyman, but considering all the crazy jumping and climbing he can do he certainly isn’t exactly an everyman in that sense. Elena however is a normal person, she’s not really an adventurer, she just get tied up in Nat’s adventure while (in both games,) trying to get footage for her story.

Even so she’s able to keep up with all the crazy jumping and shooting Nat does, and yet she’s not experienced in doing either. Which to me seems a lot more impressive then someone like Nat who does that sort of thing for a living, or at least has experience in it.

1. The Boss (Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater)

#1
In order to talk about why the Boss is number one, I am going to have to talk a good deal about the history and world of the Metal Gear Solid games, because much of her importance steams from who she is in regards to the games’ timeline.

So the Boss was not only a female soldier for the US during World War II, but she was also the founder of the US Special Forces (a unit of elite soldiers.) On top of which she led the Allied forces during the Invasion of Normandy (aka D-Day, or Operation Overlord,) while she was pregnant. Not only that, but she gave birth on the battlefield after being shot. And that’s all before the start of Metal Gear Solid 3.

In MGS3 she’s in her 40′s still kicking ass, and is made to look attractive. Although her attractiveness is similar to that of Street Fighter’s Cammy, or even Faith from Mirror’s Edge, not as a busty curvy babe but as a trim and muscular woman.

Now during the game she serves as one of the main enemies of the player (having defected to the Soviet Union from the US,) but she was also Naked Snake’s (the player’s character,) mentor, so even though you are trying to kill her you can’t help but respect her for who she is and what she’s done. Which means although you have to kill her, you really don’t want to.

Finally at the end of the game, after killing her, Naked Snake is given the title Big Boss to represent that he has become superior to her. However while that is going on you learn that you really weren’t, that what happened not only had to happen but she orchestrated to happen. That she really hadn’t defected, but was actually under very deep cover. So when things went wrong she had to become the scapegoat and die so that war wouldn’t break out, and the US wouldn’t be the bad guy. Which makes her out to be better then Snake in the end, not because she was won a fight, but because of the person she was and the self sacrifice she made for the greater good.

IT’S OVER
So that’s the end of those lists, be sure to leave a comment below about what you think. What you agree or disagree with me about, or maybe your own lists.

Now with the release of the Orange Box Valve decided to include the feature again for Episode 2, Team Fortress 2, and Portal. Having only done the ones in TF2 and Portal I can really only talk about them, but they are more then enough.

For those of you that have played Portal you understand how good the game was, but playing through it again with the commentary made me appreciate what Valve had done in Portal even more. Not just in how the writing is, or the technology, but the actual thought that went into the development of the game.

The team talks about how the levels of the game were designed to teach players to use the gun, and to do so in a very meticulously thought out way. They talk about how some puzzles were designed to convey one aspect of how the portal gun could be used, or how to achieve a single maneuver. Which creates probably the perfect learning curve, that would let any experienced or casual player have all the tools and skills necessary come the end of the game.

Seeing the amount of thought that went into such simple aspects of Portal, and to have them talk about how changing just simple aspects of some puzzles really changed them in a drastic fashion for how the player goes about solving the puzzle, really made me appreciate and love Portal on a level I had never really considered I would for a game.

You see a lot of this same talk in the TF2 commentary, although their commentary mainly focuses around the aesthetic of the game, and how to balance all the classes, and yet make them each unique and distinct in play style and appearance.

Now the whole point of this piece is this, I think more games need in-game commentaries. Games have been including separate video commentaries (usually with Special Editions of the game,) for a little while now. BioShock had one, and it was interesting to see and hear the developers talk about the game, but it seemed more like a Q&A session then a commentary. Much like DVD commentaries for movies and TV shows, there is something about experiencing what the creators are talking about as they are talking about it. I think it’s that you get to see what they are talking about in its actual context, and doesn’t require you to have to think back on it where you aren’t likely to remember all the little details associated with what they are discussing.

I would love to see more developers do these in-game commentaries, because I think not only will it be useful for those up in coming game developers, but I think it will help gamers in general better understand the amount of thought actually goes into the games they play, and it might just help them appreciate them a little more. Like it did with me.