1. Ellie & Joel (The Last of Us) - *Spoiler Warning*
A dual entry for the top-spot this time round, although I want to draw more attention to Ellie. Her arc through the game is one of Game of the Decade material, taking a desensitised-child born in a zombie apocalypse outside her relaxed comfort zone, and into a disgusting world gone further mad. It would be fairly standard stuff, if not for the complete upheaval of standard narrative zombie tropes. As The Walking Dead showed through its depiction of Rick and Carl's father-son relationship, often in desperate times the child is just as capable of taking care of business as the parent. Thus in The Last of Us there is a very poignant shift in character-portrayal halfway through the game, as the impaling of main character Joel takes him out of the picture for some time. Ellie, who had previously been told what to do and not get in the way, was then forced to take care of him; hunting and gathering food, as well as medicine to prevent his impending death. This scene feeds brilliantly into the showdown with antagonist David, as first Ellie refuses to be a victim in her captor's cell, provoking and swearing at him even after she has been caught. The scenes culminate when Ellie takes David on in an axe-wielding showdown where as much as we thought Joel would save the day, instead he has to pull Ellie off the long-deceased David, as her rage has more than finished him off. Joel's inclusion on this list stems from just being an unstoppable force, born out of his environment. Forced to adapt to the never-ending bleakness of the world around him following his daughter's death at the crux of the Cordycep outbreak, he utilises everything from pieces of wood and bricks to pistols and rifles to take down those in his way and protect Ellie at all costs. Although his final game-ending decision does mean the entire fate of the world is destroyed so he can spend more time with a girl who is already deciding to leave him, the very fact that he has survived this long without resorting to any more suicidal measures is evidence enough of the pair of them topping this list.
So what did you guys think? Anybody I've missed off that you think should be on here? With the new consoles just on our collective doorstep this month, we're about to discover an entire new world of memorable characters and badass moments, so until then let's celebrate the end of one of the best generations in gaming.