Adam Jensen and Pritchard

Adam Jensen is a cyborg cop whose punches are as strong as kicks on a quest to find his kidnapped girlfriend and uncover the edges of a conspiracy from a much better game. Francis Pritchard is the voice on the radio that tells Jensen what to do. It's the iconic partnership of modern gaming in its truest form. What makes it atypical is its refusal to conform to the stereotype in execution.

When they are first introduced, Pritchard demeans Adam Jensen as a budget-grade rent-a-cop and patronizes him (and by extension, the player) throughout the opening mission of the game. In a lesser game, this would be telegraphing a sudden but inevitable betrayal wherein Jensen gets captured, escapes and blasts his way to the big meanie that hurt his feelings. Instead Human Revolution does something cool: it lets these two characters slowly build a bond. There's never a moment where they stop butting heads and admit grudging respect for one another, like any number of buddy movie scenarios. Pritchard slowly lets off the pressure and the player gets used to his voice in their earpiece. Before anyone really knows it, Jensen and Pritchard are a team, working their way through Illuminati complexes and tracking down rogue cyborgs. The relationship works because it feels organic and it adds to a worn out shooter character dynamic. — Scott Wachter