Top 10 NPCs we'd love to see in their own video game

Alyx Vance finally got to take the lead in her own video game with Half-Life: Alyx, which got us thinking about other supporting characters which deserve their own time to shine.

So which other NPCs deserve their very own video game? We share the top 10 NPCs from various games we'd love to see step into the spotlight.

1. Any Skyrim Guard

"I used to be an adventurer like you. Then I took an arrow in the knee."

If you've ever played The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, then you would have heard this phrase uttered by guards across the region. It is one of those iconic lines that quickly became an internet sensation. But what if we finally get to one day see what happened to the guard. How did he take an arrow to the knee, and what adventures did he participate in?

It would be amazing to play through the adventures of the Skyrim guard, and right at the very end, a scene brings it all together. Just before the credits, after defeating whichever antagonist this fictional game could have, an archer shoots an arrow. It hurtles towards the protagonist and just before it hits his knee, the screen fades to black.

A former adventurer (Picture: Bethesda)

2. Sully

Nathan Drake's story is most-likely done, and we've already got the spinoff in Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. So what's next for the extremely successful Uncharted franchise? We would love to see something along the lines of "Uncharted: The Adventures of Sully" with Victor "Sully" Sullivan as the protagonist.

If Sully were to star in his own video game, then it would have to be a prequel, where the player follows a young Sully throughout his journey. It could even start in his childhood, as he has mentioned his lousy father a few times in the Uncharted franchise.

If a video game featuring Sully ever appeared, he should be voice-acted and motion captured by Richard McGonagle, who has done an amazing job bringing the character to life in previous Uncharted games.

Sully doing what he does best (Picture: Sony)

3. GLaDOS

The Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System, better known as GLaDOS, is the antagonist of the Portal franchise. With Valve back to making games again, and Gabe "GabeN" Newell having a severe allergy to the number three, it would be great to see a Portal spinoff staring GLaDOS.

What type of form would a game starring GLaDOS look like? Well, it could allow the player to control the Aperture Science computer-aided Enrichment Center. Think of this fictional title idea as a Dungeon Keeper type of game.

Alternatively, it could go the asymmetrical multiplayer route with one player as GLaDOS building layouts and puzzles, while others try to survive and escape by working together.

GLaDOS chatting up a storm (Picture: Valve)

4. Ada Wong

While Ada Wong has been playable in a few Resident Evil titles, mostly short sections such as in Resident Evil 2 Remake, Ada is one of the series' most interesting NPCs.

Ada Wong was first mentioned in the original Resident Evil game released back in 1996, in a letter from an Umbrella Corp. researcher. Her first appearance, however, came in Resident Evil 2 (1998), and later the remake, where she plays the role of a spy for a rival pharmaceutical company.

She is a mysterious and ambiguous antihero figure, who generally works for villains in the Resident Evil games, but also helps out heroes such as Leon S. Kennedy. With Capcom's propensity for making Resident Evil spinoffs, Ada could be the perfect fit in her very own game.

Ada's "friendly" encounter with Leon (Picture: Capcom)

5. Dandelion

With the great success of The Witcher video game franchise, as well as the Netflix show, another Witcher game seems inevitable. For those who don't know, Julian Alfred Pankratz, Viscount de Lettenhove, better known as Dandelion (or as Jaskier if you are going with his original Polish nickname) is one sidekick NPC that we would absolutely love to see in the spotlight.

CD Projekt RED did imply their next big game after Cyberpunk 2077 could be a Witcher title, but it wouldn't be called Witcher 4. An adventure game starring Dandelion could focus on the character's early days before he met Geralt, showcasing how he became the loveable bard we know today.

Dandelion sporting one glorious outfit (Picture: CD Projekt Red)

6. Diana Burnwood

If you've donned the boots of Agent 47 in the Hitman franchise, then you should know exactly who his handler Diana Burnwood is. Diana Burnwoord has been a sample of the franchise, and it would be amazing to see her in her very own video game.

A game featuring Diana Burnwood as the star could follow her early career before she even spoke to Agent 47 for the first time.

There's a lot of lore to dive into and explore for this fascinating character. An entire game can easily be built around Diana's apprenticeship under ICA handler Roby Gore, and feature their offices disguised as an accounting firm.

Diana can't help but glance at Agent 47 (Picture: Steam)

7. Dutch

"We can't always fight nature, John. We can't fight change, we can't fight gravity, we can't fight nothin'. My whole life, all I ever did was fight..."

Dutch van der Linde is a staple, high-impact character in Rockstar Games' Red Dead Redemption franchise. If there's one character from the franchise we would love to see even more about, then it's good old Dutch.

A game feature Dutch could focus on the events that led to him being the leader of the van der Linde gang, and his younger years which has been left relatively unexplored so far.

Dutch putting his feet up, probably thinking about his next speech (Picture: Rockstar)

8. Deckard Cain

"Hello, my friend. Stay a while, and listen."

Deckard Cain is well known in the Diablo community. He a beloved character that Blizzard Entertainment decided to kill off during Diablo 3's opening act. Deckard spent his days as an NPC identifying billions of items for players across Sanctuary.

While he is deceased in the current timeline, there's no reason he couldn't come back in some way or another, staring in his own spinoff title.

It's not like anything really stays dead in the world of Sanctuary, so why not bring back the iconic Horadric scholar. He is alive and well as a character in Heroes of the Storm (HotS) after all.

More than just a bookworm (Picture: Blizzard)

9. Elizabeth

After featuring as a player-controlled character in the second chapter of BioShock: Infinite, Elizabeth was killed off. She is, however, arguably one of the most interesting video game characters out there, and there's a lot the developers can still explore for this character. She has the ability to open "tears" in the fabric of reality, allowing her to access parallel universes.

This means a BioShock game starring Elizabeth could very well still happen, maybe taking place in a parallel universe, where Elizabeth didn't die at the hands of Atlas.

We already know that the next BioShock game is in development (possibly a next-gen title) as revealed by 2K Games in December last year. We would simply love to see Elizabeth as the star of the next BioShock title.

Elizabeth gets ready to bring the pain, and knowledge (Picture: 2K)

10. Claptrap

Claptrap is probably a very unpopular pick for NPCs we would love to see as the star of their own video game. Many gamers find Claptrap from the Borderlands franchise to be excessively annoying. However, one cannot deny he is one of those iconic NPCs which gets stuck in the minds of gamers across the globe.

Claptrap has been on dozens of adventures in the Borderlands franchise, but he has never been the star.

For those who don't know, Claptrap is a Cl4P-TP general-purpose robot created by Hyperion. A game featuring Claptrap as the protagonist could show us its origin story, focusing on how it became the unbearable robot companion he is today.

Claptrap talks fauna and flora on Pandora (Picture: Borderlands 3)

Closing Thoughts

These are the top 10 NPCs we'd love to see in their own video game. Honourable mentions go out to the likes of Yennefer from The Witcher, Moxxi from Borderlands, Hawk from Soldier of Fortune, the Firekeeper from Dark Souls, and many more memorable NPCs from our favourite games over the years.