With such an impossibly huge number of titles to choose from these days, getting across the vibe of a game is vital. Getting the main character's look right is paramount, and while some say that clothes are the first thing that anyone will pay attention to when assessing a character's capacity for badassery, a scar is most likely to draw the eye, especially when drawn across the eye.

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Scars can convey a character's essence, from interesting, feature-accentuating lines to a mesh of horrific flesh trauma that implies more than just recovery from physical damage. Scars imply danger and excitement in the hero's past and a promise of more to come.

John Marston - Red Dead Redemption

The Tough, The Mean, And The Ugly

• The frontier was a rugged place, but John Marston looks to have bitten more than just dust
• His major facial scars were created during an encounter with a bear in the snowy mountains

Scars of this nature wouldn't be uncommon in Rockstar's depiction of the closing wild American frontier of 1899. Red Dead Redemption's protagonist is no blank slate, and while the player can choose to redeem him or lasso his rawhide back to a life of crime, his scars tell the tale of a man who has seen his share of scrapes and scraps.

Although players never found out how John got the huge, monstrous claw mark across his mug in the original Red Dead Redemption, the backstory to this gnarly and interesting facial feature is demonstrated in the first few hours of the prequel/sequel, Red Dead Redemption 2, in which John gets slashed across the face by a giant grizzly at the top of a mountain. The truth is somehow even cooler than when left to the imagination.

Commander Shepard - Mass Effect 2

Good Is Always Beautiful; Evil Always Looks Demonic

• Commander Shepard's scars are the result of his body being rebuilt after it burned up in a planet's atmosphere
• If Shepard follows the renegade's path, rather than heal with time, their scars will burn bright red

After getting banged up from a short excursion down to an alien planet (minus a parachute), Commander Shepard is sewn back together by sci-fi magic, conveniently granting the player to remake their character in the new character creator. As a side effect, Shepard walks away with a few nicks to their visage. These aren't too noticeable for a character of a "centrist" or "good guy paragon" nature and will heal up, given a little time.

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For whatever reason, the seamed flesh cracks featured on the face of a renegade Shepard during the events of Mass Effect 2 will remain unhealed and will even become more noticeable, to say the least. If the player continues to drive them down the path of evil, the renegade's scars will start glowing with a tinge of demonic red, possibly betraying the burning hatred within.

Venom Snake - Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain

Carries The Pain, Bones, And Teeth Of His Fallen Comrades

• Venom's disfigurements are the result of taking an exploding helicopter blade to the face
• Many of his other wounds will not heal as some of the shrapnel, including the bones of his former comrades, could not be removed

Some onlookers might be drawn to the more prominent damage on his face, the horn-like piece of bone, but the lines across his face make The Phantom Pain's Venom Snake resemble Frankenstein's monster (minus an arm). Having had nine years of medically sustained coma time to heal up, the damage from ear to chin would have been mind-breaking had he been awake to experience most of it.

Each cut was the result of experiencing the violence of an exploding helicopter first-hand during the attack on Mother Base in 1975. Venom's body is laced with pieces of his comrade's bones and teeth, including the big black chunk on his forehead, which grows with each evil action he takes during the events of Phantom Pain, including killing soldiers, developing a nuclear weapon, or kicking puppies.

Squall Leonhart - Final Fantasy 8

The Mark Of A Rival

• Squall's handsome forehead scar was given to him by his rival, Seifer
• Seifer also received the same mirrored scar from his rival in return

In a world of dragons, firearm sabers, and para-magic-using child soldiers, scars might be as common as a red pom-pom to a Moogle. However, there aren't too many under-20s walking around with prominent scar tissue or burn wounds, the exception, of course, being Squall Leonhart and his rival, Seifer. The two obtained their mirror-image cuts during the one-on-one duel seen during Final Fantasy 8'sstunningly epic opening cutscene out in the badlands, a dramatic thunderstorm rolling in the distance.

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The scar on Seifer's forehead was cut with an upward, leftward slash, symbolizing Squall's aspirational penchant for swinging up against oppressive forces. In contrast, Seifer's slash went downward and right against Squall's face, symbolizing his heavy-handed, domineering style and willingness to attack a foe when they're down and defenseless.

Ezio Auditore - Assassin's Creed 2

The Lip Scratch That Looks Good Under The Hood

• Due to sheer coincidence, Ezio and his descendant, Desmond, share the exact same scar on their mouth
• A young Ezio got his scar after getting into a fight over a love affair with one of his family enemies

Ezio Auditore de Firenze and modern-day protagonist and white hoodie enthusiast Desmond Miles share more than a gene code in common: They both have a mouth scar that should tell anyone who gets an up-close look (before being shanked in the belly) that they've had their share of scraps. In Ezio's case, the nick resulted from catching a wrathful rock to the face in the opening act of Assassin's Creed 2 after launching a particularly distasteful insult to someone's sister.

Desmond's, meanwhile, is never fully explained, but it is possible that he got it during his tough upbringing among the Assassins. Their twin scars have the uncanny effect of giving Desmond, who was born five centuries after Ezio (and with an incredibly varied genetic background from ancestors all across the world), almost exactly the same face. While having such a distinctive facial feature in a profession that requires a mastery of social stealth and street blending might come as an advantage, it looks cool with a hood and stubble, and that's all that really matters.

Geralt of Rivia - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

A Body Covered With Gnarly Stories

• The scar over Geralt's left eye was given to him by a princess who had transformed into a horrific beast
• Geralt's whole body is covered in marks from the hundreds of monsters who had put down throughout his career

From Geralt's iconic vertical left eye slash, earned in a fight with a Striga, a transformed princess, from long before the events of The Witcher 3, to the myriad of smaller scars scattered across his rugged face and body, the White Wolf wears his history of survival and strength proudly (especially in front of the ladies).

The life of a Witcher isn't easy, and with a curriculum vitae of skin marks to prove it, Geralt of RIvia might be the toughest Witcher of them all. His body is a still-walking tapestry of scars, each cut and gash a telling of the tribulations of being a professional monster hunter. It's a look that says, "If these look bad, then check out the other guy," the other guy, in many cases, being a gigantic, terrifying monster from another world.

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