Best Silent Protagonists In Video Games

Chell, the "dangerous, mute lunatic, as GLaDOS calls her, is one of the best silent protagonists in video games for a number of reasons. What is the first thing a normal person does when they wake up in a glass prison with absolutely no way out? If you answered scream at a bloodcurdling volume before passing out and banging your head on the toilet on your way down, you answered correctly. What does Chell do? She waits patiently for instructions. Then, she grabs the Portal gun, defies space and time through a number of dangerous tests and defeats a villainous, robotic murderer. Twice.

Whether you played Pokemon Red or Blue early on in your Pokemon career, the fact of the matter is Red is the canonical name of your character in the first generation of Pokemon games. The 11-year-old hero of Pallet Town captures and trains beasts of all shapes and sizes to do his bidding. In the process of becoming a legend, Red managed to take down Team Rocket, defeat the Elite Four and complete Professor Oak's Pokemon encyclopedia, all without muttering a single word, going down as the greatest Pokemon master in history.

To make his tale even more epic, you can face Red on top of Mt. Silver in Pokemon Gold and Silver, and he is the toughest son of a bitch you'll ever throw down with. What does he have to say before the battle? Nothing but a stoic set of ellipses points.

Talking about the best silent protagonists doesn't mean much unless you mention Doomguy. This nameless cleanser of Hell's evils has had his sweet little head featured in all of the classic Doom titles. Although he has been given a clean new look in Doom 3, he is still as silent as ever and manages to hold onto his title of one of the best silent protagonists in video games. I don't know about you, but when faced with Hell's army, I might let out a bit of a whimper or two in between breaks of peeing myself. Not Doomguy. Doomguy just find the closest thing next to him and unloads it into the demon's face... in silence.

Like Sonic, Mario has managed to be more and more vocal over the years. This just will not do. That doesn't mean, however, I shouldn't give credit where credit is due and give a shout out to everyone's favorite plumber way back when he was an 8-bit and 16-bit sprite. Even in Mario 64, he only let a few one-liners slip out from under that mustache. I hardly consider "here we go," "it's-a me," and "yahoo" negating of the silent protagonist title. In the original Super Mario Bros., Mario is told eight different times that he's in the wrong castle. Eight freaking times. Does he lose his cool? Nope. Does he beat the shit out of Toad? Nope. You're a better man than I, Mario, and much more quieter.