20 Greatest Video Game Heroes Of 2012

Heroes are the reasons we play the games. Whether you fall on the storyline side or the game play side, it's important to want to step in the shoes of the protagonist, because a good hero can take an average game and make it great, and of course failure can take a good game and drag it down. We have to care for the guys we play as, or what's the point? 2012 was a great year in video games: we had sequels that saw the triumphant returns of some of the old guard of heroes, and we had new games that brought some exciting characters to the show, and this article will celebrate the very best heroes of the year.I'll do my best to keep this spoiler free and try to keep it narrowed on the heroes themselves and not their storylines. Here are the cream of the crop...

20. Jackie Estacado(The Darkness II)

We'll start this article off in something of a grey area: it's up for debate whether or not Jackie is considered a "hero", and the powers he employs are most certainly evil. What can't be argued is that his relationship with Jenny is one of the most touching in video games. Most people that played the first game remember the scene where you can watch a whole movie with her, huddled on the couch. He is honestly affected by her death later in that game, and he struggles to deal with it all throughout the second. Yes he is a mob boss and yes he uses a terrible force to enact some brutal, and awesome, kills on his foes, but deep down he is broken: he is in grief and I think everybody agrees that there is something inherently right about a protagonist with a tortured soul.