Seeing as video games are primarily a visual medium, most of its iconic characters are constantly on screen, either as the player character or as NPCs. However, there are plenty of characters in games who mysteriously never make it into your view, even if they serve a large part in the game’s story.
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On top of other, more familiar narrative devices, games have the benefit of using interactive mechanics like audio files, notes, or environmental storytelling to usher players into their rich worlds. From Portal to Bioshock to Halo, some of gaming’s unseen characters are also some of its most interesting.
9 The Narrator
Thomas Was Alone
Thomas Was Alone is a little-known indie puzzle game about sentient shapes who work together to reach the end of various stages. The game combines platforming and puzzle-solving using the different shapes’ strengths to reach the end.
As the shapes themselves cannot speak, the game has a narrator who voices their internal monologues throughout. The narrator is the main means by which players experience the game’s story, but you never actually see him during its runtime. He seems to be a narrator in the truest, most traditional sense of the word.
8 Atlas
Bioshock
Atlas makes a prominent appearance in Bioshock Infinite’s Burial at Sea DLC, but you never actually see him during the main game’s campaign. Despite his allusive demeanor, Atlas serves as one of the most crucial pieces of Bioshock’s story throughout, as he guides you through Rapture via instructions on a short-wave radio.
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You’ll get to know Atlas’ voice very well throughout the game’s runtime, but it turns out he has some incentive to never show his face. Not only is he lying to you about his true identity, but it turns out he’s actually Frank Fontaine — Andrew Ryan’s nemesis and a major player in Rapture’s ultimate downfall.
7 Doug Rattman
Portal 2
The Portal games are full of hidden secrets and lore, but the fan favorite of the series’ mysteries is Doug Rattmann, also known as Rat Man. He was a former Aperture Science employee in charge of maintaining the facility’s computer systems and was captured as a test subject when GlaDOS became sentient and took control.
He somehow managed to escape the evil AI’s clutches and began living in the walls and areas between the test chambers. Players will find his hideouts in some of the game’s levels, complete with discarded food packages, bedding, and his most famous association: his writings, drawings, and scrawlings on the walls.
6 The Narrator
The Stanley Parable
The game might be called The Stanley Parable, but make no mistake — it’s all about the Narrator. This disembodied voice describes everything you do in the game, playing as Stanley. What’s more, The Narrator is exploding with personality, weighing in on what he thinks of Stanley’s actions at every given opportunity.
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The Stanley Parable has some fun set pieces and trippy visuals, but The Narrator’s character is really what makes this game shine. Thanks to his whip-smart musings, The Stanley Parable has gone on to become a modern classic, and it’s tough to imagine what it would be like without his nagging presence.
5 Coda
The Beginner’s Guide
The Beginner’s Guide is a thoughtful, beautifully written narrative game that meditates on what it means to create art. The game’s central figure is Coda, a mysterious game developer acquainted with the narrator, Davey. The pair became reluctant friends by comparing notes on the games they were making, but Coda soon lost contact.
Davey spends a good amount of time trying to figure out what Coda’s games could possibly mean, which is even more enigmatic when he sees how upsetting and sad some of the games’ content is. You’ll never see, or even hear, Coda throughout The Beginner’s Guide, but his work serves as a catalyst for the entirety of the game’s story.
4 Ish
The Last of Us
Ish was a fan-favorite character from the first Last of Us game, yet many players don’t even know he existed. That’s because Ish’s presence is found entirely through notes and environmental clues you’ll find in the game’s sewer section outside of Pittsburgh as the final chapter of the game’s first act.
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After spending the first few months of the outbreak at sea on his boat, Ish was finally forced ashore due to a lack of supplies when he met a group of other survivors. They soon managed to create a home for themselves in the city’s sewers, but one fateful day, a horde of Infected got in before Ish made a tragic last stand trying to protect the community’s children.
3 Frank
The Last of Us
While Frank serves a prominent role in The Last of Us’ television adaptation on HBO, you never actually see him in the game (except for a glance at his dead body). When Joel and Ellie encounter Bill, he mentions off-handedly that he had a partner once and that it didn’t really work out. After finding the house where Frank spent his final days, you can find a note that he left for Bill, saying how much he resented his former partner.
These two had a tragic love story against an already-depressing apocalyptic backdrop and served as one of the character duo foils for Joel and Ellie that players got to see along their journey. Despite Frank’s lack of screentime, his impact on The Last of Us’ story is not overlooked.
2 Cave Johnson
Portal
Voiced by the legendary J.K. Simmons, Cave Johnson is one of the best parts of Portal 2 — in an already extraordinary game. Johnson was the actual founder of Aperture Science and was single-handedly responsible for many of the company’s sadistic experiments and inventions. It’s even alluded that he had a hand in allegedly turning his beloved assistant into GLaDOS, although this is not confirmed by the series’ lore.
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Johnson plays a prominent part in Portal 2’s seventh chapter, as Chell and GLaDOS have to make their way through old sections of the Aperture facilities that were built in the 1970s. Cave Johnson is loud, bombastic, and ruthless, with one-liners that’ll have you laughing out loud and simultaneously feeling awful for anyone unfortunate enough to act as one of his guinea pigs.
1 Master Chief
Halo
This is a bit of a cheeky one, but it is technically true that you never see Master Chief’s face throughout the entire Halo series. In fact, it’s kind of what he’s known for — he’s not only one of gaming’s most beloved protagonist characters but one of the most recognizable characters in all of gaming, even to those who aren’t players themselves.
According to the Halo developers, keeping Master Chief anonymous helped players relate to his story because they were more easily able to imagine themselves in his shoes. Halo’s lore also accounts for his constant helmet-wearing, as it helps protect his identity, and his HUD provides important information. Some players also like to discuss its metaphorical significance, as Master Chief’s concealed identity symbolizes the soldier’s duty to set aside their sense of self during acts of war.
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