Video games are the perfect escapist tool: we explore fantastic worlds and play as characters larger than life. Sometimes, those characters invoke particular feelings like joy or anger, and other times, they make us feel like absolute badasses.
Gamers far and wide shared which games made them feel like total badasses via a Jan. 13 Reddit thread, with plenty of sensible options. Out in front was, naturally, the Batman: Arkham series, where players control DC’s best superhero (though he’d fit more in the anti-hero category). The gritty, Gothic game lets players actually feel like they’re Batman, and the button-mashing gameplay with sporadic stealth elements truly encapsulates the character of the Dark Knight. The same gameplay would later appear in the Spider-Man games, though with not nearly enough badassery to boot.
Another player peered deeply into the pits of the Underworld and around the walls of Tartarus to suggest the infamous Greek badass Kratos, as seen in God of War. They said 2010’s God of War 3 particularly fulfilled the requirements of the badassery brief, and the experience of controlling a rage-infused Kratos rampaging through Olympus is seldom matched. I have to agree on this one; GoW 3 is still the best in the series. Kratos is the ultimate badass in gaming and apart from perhaps Batman, can’t be matched and is the pinnacle of badass character design.
One suggestion that also got a ton of support is Titanfall 2. Players cited feeling like a “behemoth” when piloting a Titan and a “gun-ninja” when fighting on foot. Titanfall 2 is considered by some to be one of the best first-person shooters ever released, and the badassery certainly helps amplify the game’s feel. Titans feel like Titans, and the pilots feel like skilled fighters who can take on basically any threat. The game remains relevant to this day with many fans begging for a remaster or a sequel.
Though these three garnered the most support from the replying players, another certainly stands out. The Prototype series of action games has flown under the radar for the past few years and achieved a cult status among fans of the action genre. Culling through an entire city, even after the military arrives with tanks and WMDs, is something Prototype has and other games simply don’t. This further elevates the “badass” feel of the game’s main characters, who have been infused with dark powers they can’t control. It’s worthy of more than an honorable mention, and I’m happy people still talk about it so many years later.
Ultimately, what you think fits the bill is all that matters, but it’s hard to deny these gamers have hit the nail on the head. Perhaps a top title from 2023 will one day hit a future list, but until then it doesn’t matter which feelings games invoke—so long as they invoke them.
