10 Best New Male Video Game Characters Of The Decade

Recently the best new ladies of the decades were catalogued, but there’s no reason the gents should miss out. With so much emphasis being put on storytelling in games this past decade, we’ve seen some of the best characters ever in the medium. Moving forward, that’s a trend which appears set to continue in the 2020s.

Men tend to be gaming protagonists more often than women, with several of the girls featuring as sidekicks and squadmates. That said, while there are a good chunk of leading men here, standout supporting characters and villains get a look in too. Great characters come in all shapes and sizes, after all.

Just like with the women, there are a few ground rules. Firstly, only entirely new characters introduced in 2010 or after have been considered, while rebooted or reimagined characters do not count. Secondly, it comes down to a variety of factors.

Popularity, significance in the story, narrative weight and lasting impressions all affect where a character lands, and which unlucky lads miss out. There was a huge selection available with so many gems this decade, but these guys represent the best of the best.

Dragon Age II cops a lot of flak, and rightly so. It reused dungeons, was a much smaller game than its predecessor and completely changed the tone from epic to character driven. It’s perfectly possible for people to have it as their favourite Dragon Age game though, as the characters are just that good.

A huge part of that is Varric Tethras, the swarthy storytelling Dwarf who’s at your side for Dragon Age II and Dragon Age: Inquisition; the only squadmate to be a permanent fixture across two games.

As the game’s unreliable narrator, Varric is central throughout Dragon Age II, and is never too far from the action in Inquisition either. In the same mould as Mass Effect’s Garrus Vakarian - a 2008 debutant and therefore ineligible here - Varric is made to be your brother in arms.

Reliable in battle, witty in conversation and loyal to the last, Varric is exactly the kind of soldier you want to be in the foxhole with.

Thanks to Dragon Age offering up so many squadmates, Varric isn’t a runaway favourite. He’s clearly built to be one of the stars though, and represents the likes of Iron Bull, Solas and Fenris by his presence here.