It's interesting how often silent protagonists DO have their own personality.
For example, in The Legend of Zelda series Link is practically mute with only way to express itself is couple dozen lines of text and grunts. But 90% of people playing him - end up with the same annoying, unpatient little rascal who's going home to home destroying everyone's pots for fun.
Another good example is Doomguy - he's unhuman, full of bloodlust and anger, unstoppable force. You can't project yourself onto Doomguy, he's it's own character without any lines of dialogue and even before Doom games had any cutscenes.
Other silent protagonists that I believe have their own distinct personality: Jack from Bioshock 1, Kirby, Samus from Metroid, Chell from Portal, Claude from Gta 3, ...
It's interesting how often silent protagonists DO have their own personality.
For example, in The Legend of Zelda series Link is practically mute with only way to express itself is couple dozen lines of text and grunts. But 90% of people playing him - end up with the same annoying, unpatient little rascal who's going home to home destroying everyone's pots for fun.
Another good example is Doomguy - he's unhuman, full of bloodlust and anger, unstoppable force. You can't project yourself onto Doomguy, he's it's own character without any lines of dialogue and even before Doom games had any cutscenes.
Other silent protagonists that I believe have their own distinct personality: Jack from Bioshock 1, Kirby, Samus from Metroid, Chell from Portal, Claude from Gta 3, ...