The Most Powerful Characters in Videogames

 

 

Imagination is the primary element in Videogames and that’s why there have been characters and storylines in games that have pushed the limits of believable reality in ways that’s simply not possible in any other medium. And to celebrate this element of ‘hyper realism’ or just pure power fantasy that only videogames are capable of delivering, here’s a presentation of the 10 most powerful, limit-breaking, over-the-top characters to ever come out of this incredibly interactive medium that many of us grew up with. 

 

These characters are listed here in a sort of ‘power level’--based tiers, cause there are literally hundreds or more who can rightfully fit into this list, so to accommodate as much of them as possible, the ones in this list also represent their respective power levels. And these range from ‘slightly beyond human’ to straight up ‘Planetary level’ beings. So even if someone like Raiden (from Metal Gear Revengence) isn’t here, there’s someone who represents the tier or power level where he belongs (probably tier 7 from this list).

And there’s also a vs section after each character which delves in a possible 1v1 or even a combined fight situation demonstrating what can likely happen when a character actually goes up against someone from a different tier from this list, showcasing just what is it that makes them more powerful than the rest. Besides, it’s also pretty fun to imagine these unbelievably powerful characters facing off against each other in all of their gloriously unique ways.

Also, these characters are listed here in their composite versions, which means they get ALL of their abilities across all the different games that they’re in. For example, Batman from ‘Arkham Asylum’ can’t disable firearms cause he gets that gadget in the next game of the series. But a composite Arkham Batman from this list will have all the gadgets and weaponry that he gets in all of his games.

Lasly, this list will only contain characters who are exclusive to videogames and are not present in other mediums. So no, Goku won’t be here cause he’s primarily an anime character, unlike Arkham Batman who is a completely separate incarnation from his comic book counterpart.

So without further ado, here are gaming’s biggest powerhouses.

Tier 1—Gordon Freeman (Half Life): 

 

Gordon really doesn’t get enough credit for how powerful (and cool) he really is cause of the nature of the HL games being equally focused on action as well as adventures and explorations. But an objective look at his abilities and feats (such as taking on entire advanced alien races on his own) clearly shows that the Freeman more than belongs in this list, as well as in every list ever made about the most powerful protagonists in gaming.

For starters, his HEV suit can absorb an enormous amount of damage and his ultra-versatile Gravity Gun (especially the supercharged version that he gets near the end of HL2) can make short work of pretty much any opponent he faces within a moderate range.

So essentially the mighty Freeman is someone who can withstand way more damage than most un-enhanced humans and can even one-shot them in pretty much all 1-v-1 combat situations—this places him far above the protagonists from the more popular action game franchises like the Call of Duty and the Battlefield series. And his HEV suit’s got some pretty cool on-the-fly, adaptive mechanisms up it’s sleeves too, like creating chemical responses against any poisonous substances that it comes in contact with.

The Nanosuit 1.0 (Crysis): 

 

Nanosuit 1’s strength lies solely in it’s versatility, and how it’s abilities can be used in conjunction with the environment to maximize it’s potential. Although the original suit from 2007 became greatly overshadowed by it’s inevitable successor, the Nanosuit is still one of the most dynamic and empowering pieces of exoskeliton in all of gaming—presenting the player with an unparalleled range of creative freedom in both combat and interactivity. From classic-run-n-gun-fps-action to executing truly unique-one-off-gameplay ideas that you can come up with, the Nanosuit makes it all happen in delightfully creative ways.

The suit can basically turn an entire environment into a sandbox for all of your combat fantasies, all while maintaining a constant risk-reward dynamics, which results in such a consistent, moment-to-moment thrill filled gameplay that’s still unsurpassed to this day.

Vs Gordon Freeman: Even though Gordon has the clear upper hand in pure suit durability (let’s face it, the Nanosuit 1’s armor mode is one of it’s biggest drawbacks, especially against concentrated barrages of firepower), but the rest of the suit functions can easily turn the fight in favour of Nomad/ Psycho.

For example, Gordon can get blitzed before he can even target thanks to the Nanosuit’s ‘Speed’ mode, will get punched all the way into a KO with the ‘Strength’ mode, sniped to death without without ever detecting Nomad/ Psycho when they simply turn on the suit’s ‘Cloak’ mode and when used even more dynamically, will be far more outclassed by the sheer on-the-fly combat options that the Nanosuit offers. Basically the only way Nomad/ Psycho can lose against Gordon is if they just continue to blindly charge fire onto him, all while disregarding ANY of the suit’s other abilities.

But what about the Super Gravity Gun? Well, Gordon can’t shoot what he can’t see. Also, the Nanosuit has a potent healing factor as well, something Gordon’s HEV suit sorely lacks.

Tier 2—Arkham Batman: 

 

Rocksteady has made the Dark Knight their own with the Arkham verse, a faithful blend of everything we know and love from the comics version of the Caped Crusader, complete with all his rich lore and diverse rogues’ gallery. It also results in an incarnation that’s easily one of the most powerful versions of the character across any medium, ever.

To put it in as few words as possible, Arkham Batman is simply the most powerful street leveller in all of gaming, easily besting the Assassin’s (from the Assassin’s Creed series) in both stealth and hand-to-hand situations, and when in combination with all his gadgets, can even straight up one-shot characters who’s in or around his power level from other games.

Vs Gordon and Nanosuit 1: Gordon will be really easy to take out for the Bat, and even though his suit’s durability along with the Supercharged Gravity Gun can cause at least a little bit of problem for Bruce, he just has far too many ways to take him down, plus Gordon can’t really react to him. 

 

 

It's called Combat Speed...

 

Now Arkham Batman vs a Nanosuit user can get much more interesting, though. Cause both characters will have tons of options to make this one helluva fight—a straight up fistfight between the Nanosuit in Maximum Strength and the Dark Knight is something I’d like to see. Cause although the ‘Strength’ mode allows a Nanosuit user to pretty much one-hit-KO ALL human opponents, Bruce is no slouch in raw strength himself, as he casually bends steel in the games. But the Nanosuit 1's weak reservoir of energy will eventually make the fight go badly for it's users cause the Strength mode simply won’t be lasting as long as it’s needed.

But in pretty much any other fight situations, the Dark Knight can easily stomp a Nanosuit user. Even using cloak mode won’t help cause they’ll quickly get tagged by Bats’ much superior array of vision augmentations.

 

Tier 3—Max Payne: 

Even though he’s the weakest among ALL of the characters listed so far when it comes to pure physical stats, Max’s Bullet time (which allows him to aim and fire at speeds way, waay beyond what any human can perceive or react to) lets him take any fight with them (in both 1v1 or everyone-at-once situations) with absolute ease. Max Payne 3 pushed Max’s slow-mo envelope even farther, giving him downright superhuman feats such as shooting rockets after they’re fired from a rocket launcher, shooting enemy grenades in mid-air and even gunning down a total of 6 guys while falling through the air. 

 

 

 

While Gordon, Nomad and Bats can easily withstand multiple rounds of fire, Max’s Bullet time will let him put way more than enough bullets to eventually overload their suits’ durabilities. And although Arkham Batman can break Max’s bones if he just gets his hands on him for even a second, thing is, Max can put several rounds of bullets in the exposed parts of his face before Batman can even move a muscle.

The only reason Max Payne could take out a paramilitary mercenary squad and a freaking entire army (although relatively small) all on his own, is cause of his superhuman reflexes and uncanny accuracy. And that’s Max freaking Payne for you, Gaming’s Greatest Gunman.

Alright, now we’ll be entering a whole new tier of characters that’s totally beyond anyone that we’ve seen so far—these are the real heavy hitters in gaming.

Tier 4—The Nanosuit 2.0 (Crysis 2 & 3): 

 

Built to take on entire alien armies, the Nanosuit 2 provides a colossal upgrade over the original, so much so that it belongs to several levels higher altogether. And although it sacrifices a good chunk of versatility that made the original Nanosuit such a great gameplay tool, the 2.0 dials everything else to extreme heights.

More than just a heavily upgraded version of it’s predecessor, Nanosuit 2 is Nanosuit unleashed. Addressing every glaring shortcomings of the v1.0 such as a revamped Armor mode that now lets you straight up tank swathes of all kinds of firepower and a Cloak functionality that lasts a whole lot longer than the original—the fully upgraded, composite Nanosuit 2 provides a far more empowering and liberating gameplay experience over the original. Plus, it can also fire explosive bows without breaking it’s cloak, allowing the player to take out targets without ever being visible, so yeah it’s scary powerful, in pretty much any combat situations.

Vs others: Alcatraz can completely wreck ALL of the characters so far in this list, at once. Sure Max’s reflexes are still far beyond what the suit can provide, but no matter how many headshots he can pour onto it, it won’t be making any difference at all thanks to the massive durability of the improved Armor mode. Gordon and the Nanosuit 1 wearers are completely non factors and the 2.0’s Strength mode can even beatdown Arkham Batman to submission.

The Nanosuit 2 is one of the most powerful exosuits in all of gaming and could only be rivalled by the MJOLNIR armors from the Halo series. 

 

 

 Tier 5—The Timebending Superhuman a.k.a. Point Man (F.E.A.R): 

 

 

Point Man can slow down time just like Max Payne, except to a degree that’s so far beyond Max’s that it’s not even funny—slowing down the entire world and everyone else to a whopping five times slower than normal. And while even he himself gets slowed to an extent, the Point Man still moves at more than twice the speed of everyone in the world, while his aiming speed remains unchanged. And unlike Max, who needs other people to shoot at him in order to build up his bullet time meter, Point Man has slow motion as his native psychic ability, which grants him an always-on, sumptuous bullet time meter that regenerates automatically.

He’s not just a maxed out version of Max Payne (pun very much intended), though. Cause time manipulation is only half his powerset, the other being superhuman strength and durability. In the first game, he goes through an army of genetically cloned super soldiers, all of whom he could physically take out only with his melee attacks, ranging from a couple of basic punches to stylish roundhouse kicks. Point Man’s superhuman durability also allowed him to survive multiple explosions from point blank ranges, helicopter crashes (twice) and even the shockwave of a freaking nuclear bomb without sustaining any major injury.

I’d say in terms of pure strength and durability, he’s around MCU Captain America (could be even higher) level, with the ability to move, hit and fire at hypersonic speeds for a limited time. To put it all in a nutshell, he’s easily one of the most powerful characters you’ll ever see in videogames.

Vs other characters in this list: Point Man can casually blitz all of the characters in this list, so they’ll be taken out before they could even move. And while the Nanosuit 2 would allow Alcatraz to comfortably trade blows with him in a purely physical fight (may even beat him cause the suit’s stronger), the Point Man could easily take the win due to his vastly superior reflexes. Remember, speed kills. So even though the Nanosuit 2 can take a whole lot of firepower, Point Man’s arsenal of weapons consist of a Particle gun, a Repeating Canon and Rocket Launchers, all of which will be fired onto the Nanosuit at speeds it simply won’t be able to react to, much less having the time to regenerate. The Nanosuit 2 is mighty, but it won’t be surviving the Point Man, he’s just on another level, quite literally.

Basically, if you ever wanted to feel what it likes to play as Neo from The Matrix, playing as Point Man in F.E.A.R could give you the closest of experiences.

Tier 6—The Timestoppers a.k.a Corvo Attano/ Daud (Dishonored): 

 

    

 

The Protagonists of the Dishonored series have some of the most overpowered and game breaking abilities out there. And their biggest one is the ability to Stop Time altogether for 8 seconds, which freezes ALL characters on the screen. It’s one of those broken powers that most characters in all of gaming don’t have any counter against, which makes any fight situation straight up unfair in their favour as they can just turn anyone they go up against into statues, while they can easily take them out in a variety of lethal or non lethal ways.

Both Daud and Corvo have also got the widest gamut of superpowers in all of gaming, ranging from magical abilities such as possessing and controlling their opponents (even in combat), unleashing waves of flesh eating rats at them, creating whirlwinds out of their hands and even all kinds of lethal sword and gun techniques, as well as a vast array of non lethal techniques to end any fight without killing. Oh, and they can also teleport, and even combine all of their powers and weapon attacks together in all kinds of devastatingly creative (lethal or non lethal) ways. Simply put, they are too overpowered, even in a list of some of the most powerful characters in gaming.

Vs all the others: Statues don’t fight back.

Now Point Man vs Corvo or Daud can get pretty darn interesting, as I personally doubt whether their time manipulation abilities can actually work on him, as he’s got his own psychic time manipulation power as well. So if it indeed works on him, it’s over for Point Man. But if his own time manipulation somehow prevents their Time Stop to fully work against him, then both Daud and Corvo gets toasted. Point Man, even without any weapons, is simply too much for them without their Time Stop. So yeah, depending on whether their single most powerful ability works on him or not, it could lead to a draw.

And now we’ll enter into another whole new tier of power, which completely dwarfs anything we’ve seen so far. Hope you’re ready for this.

Tier 7—The Dragonborn (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim): 

 

Dovalkin the Dragonborn has pretty much all types of powers and abilities imaginable, Skyrim being a full blown RPG. But what actually makes him tower over all the characters listed here so far is his unique ‘Shouts’, which grants him powers on a scale that very few can come close to in all of gaming, including summoning a huge Dragon to fight alongside him.

In a fight against the others below him in this list, all he needs to do is summon his Dragon friend and enjoy the view as none of the characters listed so far can can take down a freaking Dragon. Sure together they might work out something to give it a bit of a challenge, but mind you, a composite Dovalkin can curbstomp everyone here all by himself, he’s THAT powerful. Honestly, they’re just not comparable.

The next two tiers represent the dizzying heights of power levels in gaming—the pinnacle, the creme-de-la-creme, the limit breakers, the untouchables.

Tier 8—Kratos (God of War series):

 

A composite Kratos with ALL his abilities and weapons from all of the God of War games, is too damn overpowered for a fight against anyone in this list, except for a certain someone who’s even beyond him.

Vs: The God of War can Godstomp everyone below him without lifting a finger. He won’t even feel anything they can throw at him, seriously, much less feel challenged in any way. It won’t even be a fight, just a spite. That is, if he actually engages with them.

Tier 9—Dante (Devil May Cry series):  

Yeah, this guy. This uber-stylish, ultra cool, never-taking-anything-seriously dude (or probably ‘uncle’ at the time of DMC 5) is at the very top of this list.
 

 

Even in a list of some of the most powerful characters to ever come out of videogames, Dante is in a league of his own. A post DMC5, composite Dante (with both Quicksilver and Doppleganger fighting styles) has powers and feats that are so far beyond anyone else that’s it not even worth mentioning. The Son of Sparda would be too much for even Kratos, let alone anyone else in this list or even all of them at the same time. Oh, and he’s immortal too.

The only one who can even come close to being equal to him is his brother, Vergil (I seriously don’t consider the deus-ex-machina that Nero pulled off at the end of DMC 5 as anything more than mere plot device).

In a fight against everyone else in this list (with all at the same time), Dante's reaction would probably be something like this: 

And with that, this list comes to a close. Hope it was at least a fraction of fun for you to read as it has been for me to write. Do let me know if I missed anything or if you think this list is anyway out of order or pretty much anything else, just sound off at the comments section.