(Article submitted by: AdjacentKitten)

Behind the main character, there is a silent background role. While their importance is minimal, the feats and assistance they provide to players are anything but. These unseen deeds are their staple, operating within the shadows to push players forward in a non-intrusive manner. Their methods are unknown; their moral standing is up for debate; even their mere existence is questionable at times, but nothing changes the one fact that there is to behold. These are the...

Top 5: Mysterious Benefactors

5.) Viktor Reznov (Call of Duty: Black Ops) “The conniving mastermind of a broken generation.”

4.) Mysterious Stranger (Fallout 3)
“A gunslinger dedicated to preserving the life of a fledgling wastelander.”

The fabled end of the world has taken place. A nuclear apocalypse has left the Earth scarred and inhospitable for over a century. The survivors of humanity returned to a desolate world filled with numerous environmental hazards and severely mutated creatures – beasts that are a mere echo of their past selves. Amidst these perils, one survivor began the decisive quest to make their lasting impression upon the world.

Regardless of their moral standing, the player has the option to recruit the favor of their own personal guardian angel with the “Mysterious Stranger” perk. This perk takes the form of a middle-aged man wearing a trenchcoat and fedora, wielding a powerful six-shooter. He will occasionally reveal himself long enough to finish an enemy the player is struggling with, just before disappearing with little context behind his actions. His role is never divulged, and his existence is debatable outside of these scarce sightings in combat.

As his name describes, this is a man shrouded in mystery; he could be anyone, anywhere, with his objective being anything. But because of all the unknown factors, he shadows up as a mere stranger looking to lend a hand. For these silent contributions and hidden intentions, the ‘mysterious stranger’ takes fourth with relative ease.

3.) Virgil/Superintendent (Halo: ODST)
“The turncoat guardian of a devastated metropolis.”

Exploring the ruins of Mombasa is a jarring moment. It is a testament to the destructive power a Covenant invasion of Earth wrought. The protagonist is isolated and stranded in a derelict city. All of a sudden, a series of coordinated warning lights, street signs and electrical panels blaze a path through the streets. The damaged city beckons the protagonist to follow this path, acting as his beacon of hope in an otherwise desperate situation.

This is the Superintendent, an artificial intelligence who guides the player along their numerous objectives. While gathering the whereabouts of their squad, the Superintendent will ensure your journey is the least perilous as possible. It will mark secret areas, unlock supply caches and even highlight potential hot spots of activity for you. Along with this, the Superintendent offers a secondary objective to players. It will emblazon various electronics along the way to a series of phone terminals, where it then relays fragments of a story preceding the destruction of Mombasa. Through these hints, it soon becomes clear that something is wrong with the Superintendent.

Once they work their way off to the physical core of the Superintendent, the player discovers it had indeed been severely damaged. However, a turncoat Covenant Engineer had made its way into the core, adopting the Superintendent’s duties and infusing the artificial intelligence with itself. With this new sentience, the alien adopts the name ‘Virgil.’ An alien jellyfish was the silent benefactor to the player, ensuring their success through the assistance it wasn’t even obligated to provide. For this reason, Virgil the Engineer earns the third spot.

2.) Otis Washington (Dead Rising)
“A scruffy-looking janitor whose skillset seems to expand as the game goes on.”

With ambitious plans to report upon a massive scoop, experienced cameraman Frank West takes a helicopter over the desolate town of Willamette. He drops off onto the roof of the largest construct in the town, the Willamette Parkview Mall. In a town with nothing to do, it’s quickly established that this is the hangout for most of the town’s population. This works in and out of his favor, as Frank finds the scoop he was looking for in the form of a zombie outbreak.

The situation worsens as the infected spew into the mall, trapping Frank on the first floor behind a massive wall of zombies. If the player fails in their escape, they’re saved by the timely arrival of a janitor named Otis Washington. How this man waded through the hordes of zombies to rescue you is unimportant, he remarks. From here on, Otis becomes the omnipresent watcher of the mall, occasionally giving Frank updates about survivors and points of interest for investigation. His role further expands later, when a team of Special Forces storm the security room with the intention to destroy evidence – including survivors.

Upon returning to the security room after this development, Frank discovers it has been raided by these Special Forces, and all of the survivors he had rescued up were missing. A note left behind by Otis tells of his grand exploits:

Otis is a goddamn superman. With his groundbreaking ability to survive and prosper in any given situation involving Frank, it is plainly obvious that he deserves his spot in second.

1.) Thomas Zane (Alan Wake)
“The immaculate embodiment of hope, in the form of a bloated diving suit.”

Escaping the accumulating stress of his work, Alan Wake makes a trek out to the cozy, mountainside retreat of Bright Falls. Together with his wife, he rents a cabin on the local lake and attempts to settle into these new surroundings. The peaceful atmosphere is abruptly shattered upon nightfall, when an ominous darkness emerges from the lake. As the darkness abducts his wife and drags her down into the lake, Wake gives chase and leaps into the murky water after her. This is the last thing he can remember, now taking up in the debris of a car accident a great distance from the cabin. From here on, Wake works towards saving his wife, and in the process, uncovering the secrets behind this enigmatic darkness.

Every step forward is a new struggle, but he is not alone in this fight. Making its first appearance in a dream, Wake is saved by a luminous being. Though is identity was concealed by a blinding light, this entity knew how to combat the darkness with great effectiveness. It was there to help. In the beginning, it only leaves a scattered trail of manuscript pages for Wake to follow, but its role gets progressively larger as the game goes on. Through hints in the world around him, Wake discovers the name behind this strange being: Thomas Zane.

As the previous owner of the cabin on the lake, Zane was responsible for unleashing this darkness. From here on, Zane accompanies Wake from the shadows, emerging during crucial moments to drive the malicious forces back. Even when Wake is prepared to take a final, sacrificial plunge to banish the darkness once and for all, Zane appears one last time. He summons a doppelganger to take care of Wake's person in the real world so the darkness would have his full attention.

Zane was the protagonist of a story preceding Alan Wake. While this story has ended long ago, Zane often encroaches upon Wake for his title of the protagonist. Still, the vital support he offers Wake dismisses his shadowy intentions, ultimately epitomizing Zane as the number one 'Mysterious Benefactor.'