Top 10 Horror Game Survivors

Scary games give us a lot to talk about, from life-saving weapons to nerve-jangling scares. We, the players, are on the receiving end of these experiences, but so are these games' enduring protagonists. In the spirit of our October celebration of horror games (check out our cover story reveal), we're ranking the very best survivors in horror games. The list is varied, from an antihero who killed for a second chance at life to another who has seen the horrors of space travel. These are the Top 10 Horror Game Survivors.

10. Point Man – F.E.A.R.

The Point Man was destined at birth to become a bad-ass soldier, and thusly a very capable survivor. He's handy with a variety of weaponry and heavy artillery, giving him an edge when facing off against the opposition. His creepy origins also give him a unique perspective on the battlefield. His mother, the series' creepy Alma, left him with some unique psychic capabilities (though muted in comparison to his brother, series antagonist Paxton Fettel). Point Man can slow down time to better mow down his enemies, which he owes to his mom according to F.E.A.R. 3. When it comes to taking down waves of armed foes and enduring psychic disturbances from a ghostly little girl, Point Man is expert. 

9. Frank West – Dead Rising

Mr. West's photojournalistic experience covering wars comes in more than handy during a zombie outbreak in a Colorado mall. The beefy shutterbug can snap pictures on the fly one moment then bash a zombie to pulp with a mannequin torso the next, all while wearing nothing but his underwear. The sheer number of zombies on screen at once in this Xbox 360 title makes Frank's ability to survive even more impressive. What's more, he had a strict, unyielding time limit ticking down the entire time.

8. James Earl Cash – Manhunt

Survival isn't generally a viable option for someone sentenced to death, but James Earl Cash gets a second chance at life thanks to a demented film director. Starkweather, an unhinged filmmaker with a taste for snuff, offers Cash a free get-out-of-jail-free card if he can kill his way through various gangs of murderous criminals. Death is a sure thing in prison, so Cash has nothing to lose by getting his hands bloody. Living through the final showdown with a fat, chainsaw-wielding *** in a pig mask is no small task, but Cash manages to squeak by with a fresh shot at life on the other side of the prison bars.

7. James Sunderland – Silent Hill 2

Harry Mason explored Silent Hill looking for his daughter, who last he saw was alive and well. James Sunderland is in a different boat, traveling to the creepy town after getting a freshly penned letter from his dead wife. Where Harry battled terrible, knife-wielding ghost children and skinless gorillas, James confronts the demons of his subconscious. One of the worst manifestations of his brain is Pyramid Head, a terrible giant that pursues James when he expects it least. Whether you look at James as a true survivor depends in part on the ending you earn, but at the very least he's a man dedicated to the survival of his marriage. Death be damned.

6. Clementine – The Walking Dead

This star of Telltale's The Walking Dead series has the severe disadvantage of being a defenseless child when the zombie apocalypse hits. Sure, she has Lee's help for the really rough bits, but she would've have made it long without her wits and a keen survivor's sense. How many little girls would be smart enough to hide in their treehouse during an outbreak? Even more, Clem has impressive amounts of grit that allow her to shoulder past traumatizing events and significant loss. She's the type of person her ravaged world needs.

5. Leon S. Kennedy – Resident Evil 2

The first day on a new job is stressful enough, but imagine if your first day on the beat happened to be during a zombie outbreak. Leon drives into Raccoon City still green around the edges, only to find that virtually all his would-be fellow officers have become the undead. Leon familiarizes himself with the RPD's armory as he blasts his way through his fallen (and risen) coworkers and a variety of other beasts, like the whip-tongued Lickers. After surviving the Raccoon City outbreak, government agent Leon travels to Spain to save the President's daughter from an infected cult. Leon didn't simply endure the outbreak – he used it to propel his career.

4. Ellie – The Last of Us

Unlike Clementine, Ellie has a hardy spirit, having lived her entire young life in a post-apocalyptic world. Where Clem reluctantly but peacefully accepted Lee's help in The Walking Dead, Ellie charges Joel with a switchblade when they first meet. She has spirit, to say the least. While she's not as physically capable as her bodyguard, we learn over the course of the game that Ellie's moral radar and humanitarian sensibilities are far more mature than Joel's emotional drive. Less subtly, she's can stab pretty much anything to death after chucking a brick at it.

3. Isaac Clarke – Dead Space

Many of the other survivors on this list are ordinary folks who were forced into some of the most terrifying life-or-death situations on Earth. The "on Earth" part is worth noting, because Isaac Clarke's journey to fix the space zombie-infested U.S.G. Ishimura trumps many of these other survivors' ordeals by the nature of space's extreme isolation. Aboard the Ishimura Clarke was bossed around by deceptive superiors, suffered heart-breaking hallucinations, and cut his way through waves of mutated necromorphs. The curse of his quest follows him throughout his life across the galaxy, leaving him with a sarcastic tongue and  a bleak outlook, but he still gets the job done.

2. Harry Mason – Silent Hill

The good dads in the world would do anything for their daughters. And then there's Harry Mason. After getting separated from his daughter, Cheryl, on the outskirts of a mysterious town called Silent Hill, Mr. Mason isn't content with finding a payphone and filing a missing persons report. He explores the foggy streets of the town, evading inside-out dogs and flying monsters on the hunt for his little girl. Air raid sirens disrupt the unsettling silence, thrusting him into a nightmare quest for his daughter that gets progressively worse. Harry Mason isn't a former firefighter or military man – he's just a guy that loves his little girl and travels to hell and back for her. That's enough to put him near the top of this list.

1. Jill Valentine – Resident Evil

Ms. Valentine was trained at the Raccoon City Police Department as a skilled member of S.T.A.R.S. (Special Tactics And Rescue Squad). She called on every ounce of her training one fateful summer night in 1998 when the S.T.A.R.S. Alpha Team went on the hunt for the missing Bravo Team near a mansion in the forests. Not only did Jill survive kill dozens of zombies and other biological nightmares in the mansion, she had to live the nightmare all over during an intense escape from Raccoon City and the relentless Nemesis before a nuke wiped it off the face of the planet. Not content on just surviving and forgetting such horrors, Jill swore herself to fighting Umbrella and others that would create evil abominations. Her fearless work continues aboard the fateful Queen Zenobia in Resident Evil: Revelations and deep in Africa in Resident Evil 5.