Comparison of a Low and High Quality Female Character.

Samus Aran – Metroid Series (1986-Present)

Back in the early years of video games when the stories and plots were fairly linear, not only for the fact that it was still a line of entertainment that wasn’t really considered to contain in-depth stories or interesting characters.
Female game characters were usually represented as either an ally to the main protagonist or as a “damsel in distress” subject to the plot of the game, usually being kidnapped or lost and it is part of the quest of the main character to retrieve them through a series of challenges.

Metroid for the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) released in 1986, featuring a main character called Samus Aran. Set on a planet called Zebes, Samus must retrieve “Metroid” creatures who were stolen by Space Pirates, Who plan to replicate them for galactic domination.

Only until the last few moments of the game as a scrolling text denoting the ending of the game it reveals that Samus was actually a woman, much to the surprise of many players which caused quite a controversy as it was so cleverly hidden through out the game. Seeing as Samus’s body doesn’t denote any feminine personality or qualities, so players presumed that the character was male.

Yoshio Sakamoto, the game’s director once stated in an interview that Samus wasn’t always planned to be female and it was decision that was made half way through production.

“It is true that in developing the original Metroid, we were partway through the development processes when one of the staff members said, "Hey, wouldn't that be kind of cool if it turned out that this person inside the suit was a woman?" So that's how we decided on that. We've tried to express her femininity a little more without trying to turn her into a sex object.”

Making a change from female characters usually being presented as an object of achievement from completing the game rather than being denoted as a strong and capable human being that can fend for themselves.

Metroid was regarded as being one of the first video games to feature a woman, Samus Aran, as the protagonist.

Quote reference: http://uk.gameboy.ign.com/articles/488/488084p3.html

Catherine-B320 (Kat)   Halo Reach (2010)

After the success of Metroid displaying Samus Aran as a just a capable characters as any other male character, which was a first for female characters in Video games.

This has been taken on greatly in games in the current generation, but in a sense in which they make it very obvious in the fact the character is female. Rather than in Metroid, Samus’s gender was kept a secret right until the ending.

In most video games today if there is a strong and capable female character, their look and design displays the fact their female more obviously than before.  The character Kat from Halo Reach is an example in the fact that she is a Military soldier, clad in high-tech advanced armour like her squad mates (In which she is the only female character in the main cast).

But what makes this different is the fact that whilst her (Male) team-mates have the same grade armour as her, they seem to be a lot more covered in the fact that their armour seems to appear to be more protective and built up. Whilst in Kat’s case, her armour is a lot thinner, smaller and “skin-tight” in a sense, showing her female figure predominantly in the hips and legs region.
If you were to compare silhouettes of the Female and Male characters in the same armour you’d be able to pick out which one with ease.

The in-game model of her character is extensively detailed, all the panels of her armour showing all the scratches and chips and even where paint is wearing off , Zooming into the details there are even readable warning labels and signs printed on to the armour leaving serial numbers and manufacturing details. I personally love it when games go into details such as that giving it a sense of realism to an originally complex idea or concept. Also the under suit that is placed between all the armour pieces shows a leathery texture when in the right light situation.
The textures and models in Halo Reach are really some of the most high resolution and detailed I have seen in the industry that don’t affect the game play’s quality.