The 50 Greatest Soldiers In Video Games

Soldiers are amazing as it is, but when the rest of us are running from trouble, it's the soldier who runs toward it. Armed with honor and bravery, the men and women who suit up in uniform everyday need little else (besides guns and ammunition of course) to accomplish their missions.

In the video game world, the soldier sometimes needs more speed, greater strength and at times cybernetic enhancements. There's no shame in that, especially when they're facing off against massive aliens or entire enemy armies by themselves.

And just like in real life, soldiers in games come in all shapes and sizes. We figured why not include as many of them as possible? From Final Fantasy to Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, here is our rundown of The 50 Greatest Video Game Soldiers.

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Game: Paper Mario (2001)

Bowser's troops are portrayed alternately as a bunch of unorganized layabouts and a hyper-dedicated army of elite soldiers. In Super Mario RPG, for example, they were called the Koopa Troop, and you'd occasionally see them marching in formation. Paper Mario continued that tradition by introducing the death squad Koopatrols, formidable enemies even for Mario.

Game: Battlefield: Bad Company (2008)

We like to think there's a little Private Haggard in all of us. He loves his family, but he also loves blowing shit up. Can he reconcile those passions? Probably. He also seems to be the only soldier who's pretty much okay with being stuck in Bad Company, and we love his optimism.

Game: Worms (1995)

The worms are tireless soldiers, and they never back down in the face of danger. Literally never; in fact, they barely move. But they make up for their lack of mobility with a massive, insane arsenal that is made all the more improbably by the fact that worms don't even have arms. Yeah, we went there.

Game: Army Men (1998)

There was something primal about playing with little green army men when you were a kid. The games may not have captured that quite as well, but that should not cheapen the sacrifices that the little dudes made every day when we burned them with magnifying glasses and sacrificed them to mountains of ants.

Game: Halo (2001)

Johnson is such a hardcore badass that he went from an unnamed, unimportant NPC in the original Halo to a full-on star in the subsequent games. He was the best soldier to take for a ride-along in the Warthog. He even makes the ultimate sacrifice late in the series, tossing his cigar to the wind and taking the fall so the Master Chief can yet again save the world. Always playing second fiddle, but we'll never forget him.

Game: Call of Duty: Black Ops (2010)

Master Sergeant Frank Woods is one of the main protagonists of the Call of Duty: Black Ops games. By the time we catch up with him in Black Ops 2, he's pretty much old as dust, but that doesn't stop him from kicking ass.

Game: Final Fantasy VI (1994)

Final Fantasy VI has a massive cast of characters and even more enemies, but the Magitek soldiers with their massive magic-fueled mech armor keep popping up throughout the whole thing. They escort Terra in the game's powerful opening scene, and they put up quite a fight whenever your encounter them. Plus, magic-powered mech armor! Right?

Game: Fire Emblem (1990)

Marth didn't become popular outside of Japan until he appeared in Super Smash Bros., but the displaced prince is a hero in his native country. He takes up arms and leads a rebellion to regain control of the kingdom he was exiled from, and he's a hell of a swordfighter.

Game: Street Fighter 2 (1991)

There are multiple backstories for Cammy, depending on which Street Fighter game or spin-off you're playing. But in the original one from Street Fighter 2 she's a soldier on a British special forces team known as Delta Red. Nevermind that her uniform isn't exactly standard issue; she still kicks a lot of ass.

Game: Metal Slug (1996)

Metal Slug was the essential side-scrolling shooter for arcade goers in the 90s, with its colorful cast and four-player co-op. Protagonist Marco Rossi is undoubtedly the best; not only is he a massive badass, but he's also an expert computer hacker, too. He also undergoes a surprising amount of development in the series, eventually getting promoted to a major.

Game: Spec Ops: The Line (2012)

Walker is sent in to a storm-ravaged Dubai, covered in sand, to investigate a signal apparently sent from someone thought long dead. The similarities to Apocalypse Now come and go, but throughout the game Walker is a complex and dynamic character. Maybe more than any other soldier on this list he's definitely a different person by the end of the game—but has he learned anything? Depends on how you see it.

Game: Lost Odyssey (2007)

At the beginning of Lost Odyssey Kaim is a victim of one of the most cliched afflictions in gaming: amnesia. He knows he's immortal, and he knows he's soldier. What he doesn't remember is why—on either count. Nevertheless, being immortal has its perks when you're a soldier.

Game: Call of Duty (2003)

Price is one of those hard-boiled soldiers that are an essential element of every good war video game. He's appeared across multiple Call of Duty titles, including the first two World War II-set games and all three Modern Warfare games. His gruff British accent is a mainstay of the series. Just try not to think too hard about how old that must make him.

Game: Starcraft (1998)

Raynor was originally conceived to be a more grounded character in the far out sci-fi world of StarCraft. He left the soldiering life to become a marshal (excluding some time spent as an outlaw, of course), but quickly stepped up to the plate when things got weird and formed his own paramilitary group to challenge the tyranny of Arcturus Mengsk.

Game: Contra (1987)

This iconic Contra protagonist was designed as a tribute to none other than the Governator himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger. As such he's completely ripped, pretty much indestructible, and a total beefcake. He also likes to carry around two assault rifles sometimes, because fuck bad guys.

Game: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell (2002)

Lieutenant Commander Sam Fisher is an elite soldier and member of Third Echelon, a clandestine black ops espionage group. He excels at sneaking around, and he's no slouch in a firefight, too. And he's always got a sexy arsenal of James Bond-like spy weapons at his disposal. In fact, he's a little bit like an American James Bond—only without all the things that James Bond does besides kill dudes.

Game: Doom (1993)

Doomguy, as he's colloquially known, is the protagonist of Doom and the original video game space marine. Yes, this handsome fellow started it all. In every Doom game he's a soldier of the United Nations Space Marine Corps, and he's also one of the classic silent protagonists. Those aren't his only virtues, though; he also kicks a shit ton of ass.

Game: Call of Duty: Black Ops (2010)

Alex Mason plays a big part in both Black Ops games. His missions take him all over the world, and he spends most of the first Black Ops recounting them. Some players may find his interrogation throughout this game a bit brutal, but then you find out that he probably assassinated JFK. Okay, so maybe he's not such a great soldier—but he's such an interesting character we just had to include him.

Game: Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001)

Sure, he's not as cool as Solid Snake. But the slightly effeminate Raiden eventually becomes a force to be reckoned with, particularly in the most recent Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. In his first appearance, Raiden is a rookie member of the FOXHOUND squad, but it's eventually revealed that he was also a feared child soldier.

Game: Team Fortress 2 (2007)

The Soldier of TF2 is a true American hero: tough, armed to the teeth, and completely insane. And before fighting in Team Fortress 2, the Soldier spent a good chunk of his life just killing Nazis. Like the end of Inglourious Basterds, but all the time.

Game: Mass Effect (2007)

If you've been playing Mass Effect with a male protagonist all this time then you've been missing out. Not only does playing as FemShep change the entire dynamic between Shepard and the crew of the Normandy, but she's an even bigger badass than male Shepard is. Plus her voice actor is way better.

Game: Final Fantasy VII (1997)

Cloud Strife is a member of the elite military unit SOLDIER—or so he says. In reality he was just a normal Shinra soldier who idolized Zack Fair, the real deal. But that didn't stop him from ultimately stepping up and saving the world from Sephiroth. So delusional liar or not, Cloud was a great soldier.

Game: Final Fantasy VII (1997)

If Cloud was just a phony emulating Zack, imagine what the real deal is capable of? Unlike Cloud, Zack actually is a member of the elite fighting force SOLDIER. And like many soldiers, he dies too young. That's when Cloud takes up his mantle (and identity), but thanks to FF7 spin-offs like Crisis Core we've seen the whole story from Zack's perspective too.

Game: Gears of War (2006)

When we first met Marcus Fenix in the original Gears of War, he was rotting in an abandoned prison at the end of the world. But like his namesake, he rises from the ashes and becomes one of the most badass soldiers in any game. The COGs wouldn't be the same without him.

Game: Halo (2007)

The Master Chief is iconic for so many reasons. His training and upbringing, not to mention all those dangerous surgeries, have made him the ultimate soldier (the super suit MJOLNIR armor helps too). And he's shown more than once that he's willing to sacrifice himself to save humanity—the sign of a true hero.