5 video game characters with a dark origin story

The narrative in video games contains many elements that enrich it: the worldbuilding, the plot, and the backstory of each character, to name a few. However, some creators established really twisted pasts for their protagonists or antagonists. Murder, torture, and military experiments are but a few elements that make up the origin stories of some popular video game characters that fans have loved over the years.

Some of these tragic characters took pain and turned it into kindness, while others followed the path of evil. Here are five of the most impressive stories.

Note: This article is subjective and reflects the writer's views.

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Master Chief, Kratos, and 3 more video game characters with a dark origin story

1) Kratos - God of War

Beloved father, Kratos' past made him one of the video game characters with a dark origin story (Image via SCE Santa Monica Studio)

Considered among the best games in history and winner of the Game of the Year award in 2018, the protagonist of God of War belongs to the list of video game characters with a dark origin story.

In this game, we meet Kratos, who suffered mistreatment as a child in the military life. In addition, he was greatly affected when his brother Deimos was kidnapped and tortured by the god Ares because an oracle suggested it.

As the protagonist grew older, he vowed to put Sparta on top of military glory. However, he almost lost one of his most important battles and asked Ares for help. Then, the divine being gave him power in exchange for his life and sent him to kill some enemies in a village. Kratos did not know that his wife and daughter were there, and accidentally murdered them, tricked by Ares. After that, his fury was unleashed, and he took revenge on behalf of his dead relatives.

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2) Master Chief - HALO

Master Chief's stories throughout the Halo saga consolidate him as one of the most beloved in the world of video games. However, his past also made him one of the video game characters with a dark origin story.

As a child, Master Chief was kidnapped to be sent to a project to create super soldiers called SPARTAN II. He was abandoned in the middle of the jungle with a group of other children to survive until they found a ship to take them out of there. He then underwent various treatments to bring his body up to combat standards.

Turning Master Chief into a soldier required actions such as forcing bone growth, injecting his muscles with a protein solution to stimulate their growth, and inoculating capillaries in his eyes to improve his vision, among other procedures.

In short, he is one of the video game characters with a dark origin story because he had to live life far from his loved ones and was subjected to extreme body modifications.

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3) Alma Wade - F.E.A.R.

As a target of torture, Alma Wade became one of the video game characters with a dark origin story (Image via Monolith Productions)

F.E.A.R. is a first-person shooter with horror elements. It features one of the video game characters with a dark origin story: Alma Wade.

The title tells the adventures of a special unit of the national security of the United States in charge of facing paranormal threats. Among them, they will have to defeat a girl with destructive psychic powers.

The antagonist, Alma Wade, has a dark history. Since she was a child, she manifested psychic abilities, which made her father send her to a military center for experiments. Tired of her life, she set fire to the facility and made the scientists have nightmares with a psychic attack, all at the age of eight.

To stop her, they induced a coma. In this state, she was inseminated twice to create beings like herself. She gave birth at the age of 15 and 16. In the face of the danger she posed, Alma was disconnected from life support and left to die, although her psychic energy persisted for many years afterward.

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4) James Sunderland - Silent Hill

Jason Sunderland seems a good person until the truth is known (Image via Konami)

The Silent Hill saga is one of the best-known in the world of horror games. It features several video game characters with a dark origin story, but we will focus on one of them: James Sunderland.

This man is the protagonist of Silent Hill 2, a game released in 2001 with a remake announced. According to his testimony, his wife Mary died, but a letter from her has appeared and recommends him to go to a place called Silent Hill. Sunderland does so and finds a place full of creatures that terrorize and chase him. In addition, a being very similar to his deceased wife guides him through various places.

As the plot progresses, we discover the darkness within him. Mary was terminally ill and had only a few months to live, so Jason was very tormented. Unable to cope with reality, he decided to murder his wife with a pillow. In addition, he has suicidal impulses and is mentally unstable.

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5) Jack - Mass Effect

Jack is one of the most powerful characters in Mass Effect (Image via Electronic Arts)

Jack is one of the characters of the Mass Effect saga, first appearing in part 2. She is known as one of the video game characters with a dark origin story.

From her birth, Jack demonstrated that she possessed special abilities. For this reason, she was locked up in a research center for special beings from an early age. She spent her childhood confined to a cell and away from other children. In the meantime, she was screaming and banging on the walls expecting someone would listen to her. The only answer she got was mistreatment.

The scientists often drugged Jack and made her fight to death with other children. This way they could test how advanced their experiments were. After a riot in the research center, Jack had to kill everyone who crossed her path to escape.