Some of the most well-known and interesting characters in video games are actually copies of other characters.
In games, the word “clone” is used a lot. Clones are games that are very similar to other games in terms of how they work or what they are about. Sometimes a character from one series looks a lot like another character from a different series. But there are also well-known characters whose stories are linked to the fact that they were made from clones.
Cloning and changing genes are common themes in science fiction stories and video games. There are many classic examples of clones, either as the hero or the bad guy, in stealth games, fighting games, horror games, and action-adventure games.
JC Denton – Deus Ex
Before the Deus Ex series came back with Adam Jensen as the main character in the prequel games, there was JC Denton in the first Deus Ex game from 2000. The Majestic 12 did a nanotech cloning experiment on Paul Denton, which gave birth to JC Denton. JC has a clone brother named Alex Denton.
In 2052, when terrorists and conspiracies run the world, JC became an agent for the UN Anti-Terrorist Coalition, just like his brother Paul. His character has a dry, sarcastic sense of humor that often comes out in hilarious one-liners. Like his successor, JC has some well-known sunglasses and seems like a character from the Matrix.
Lara Croft Doubles – Tomb Raider Series
In the early Tomb Raider games, Lara Croft had to deal with a few copies of herself. In the 1996 version of the game, you meet a copy of Lara Croft without any skin in the Atlantean pyramid. Even scarier than the fact that it is a grotesque pile of flesh and bones is the fact that it can copy Lara’s every move.
The skeleton double appears again in the 2007 game Tomb Raider: Anniversary, but this time it has a newer look. In the story for the 2008 sequel to Underworld, a clone that looks like the real Lara Croft makes things even worse. This one is much faster and better at fighting than Lara Croft. It seems like a perfect superhuman version of her.
Ridley – Metroid: Other M
In the Metroid series, Ridley is Samus’s main enemy who just won’t go away. He always comes back in a different way with each new game. Some of them are the more cybernetic Meta Ridley and Neo Ridley from Metroid Prime and Metroid Fusion, respectively. The first time Ridley came back as a copy was in Metroid: Other M, which was made by Team Ninja.
It was strange to watch the clone of Ridley change into the real Ridley. Scientists called the first version of the space dragon “Little Birdie.” It was a small, fluffy, white thing that looked like a potato and had very small legs. Then it went through a more natural adolescent stage with a white fur coat, and finally, to Samus’s surprise, it turned into a huge dragon.
Mileena – Mortal Kombat
Since her first appearance in 1993’s Mortal Kombat 2, Mileena has been a key member of the Mortal Kombat cast. The story behind her character shows that she is a genetic clone of Kitana, Shao Khan’s stepdaughter, mixed with Tarkatan DNA and grown in Shang Tsung’s flesh pits. Her glowing eyes, wide jaws, and sharp teeth, just like Baraka’s, show that she is a Tarkatan.
Mileena has a long tongue like a lizard’s and uses twin Sais. One of her most dangerous Fatalities is to jump into the air, knock her opponent off, and then spin her Sais quickly like a sawblade to cut right through them. The teeth are also scary because they look like they could easily eat her rivals.
Carla Radames – Resident Evil 6
Carla Radames, the bioterrorist from Resident Evil 6 who made the C-Virus, is another well-known clone villain. Derek Simmons’ Project Ada made her come back as Ada Wong. He used the ability of the C-Virus to copy Ada’s DNA on Radames. When Radames came out of his cocoon as Ada, the process was done.
In Resident Evil 6, the main characters’ campaigns change, but Carla shows up in several of them. She has a final showdown with the real Ada Wong, and the C-Virus turns her into a huge, molten creature that looks like clay. This lets her turn into a liquid and fill the whole ship, and the walls turn into arms that grab you during the fight.
Starkiller – Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2
Star Wars is the one show that relies on clones the most. The Kaminoans made the clone troopers in the prequels and the Snoke clones that Emperor Palpatine tried to make in the sequel trilogy. In The Force Unleashed 2, Darth Vader used Kamino’s ability to clone to make a copy of Galen Marek. This is not part of the Star Wars canon.
In the first Force Unleashed game, Marek, also known as “Starkiller,” was Darth Vader’s apprentice. Vader gave him the job of hunting down Jedi while he secretly plotted to get rid of the Emperor.
Miranda Lawson – Mass Effect Series
In Mass Effect 2, Miranda Lawson is introduced as a member of the Lazarus division of Cerberus, a pro-human group led by the Illusive Man. Her job is to bring Commander Shepard back to life. Miranda eventually joins Shepard’s crew and becomes a possible date as they try to save Miranda’s twin sister, Oriana, from their father.
If you thought Simmons’s ways of cloning Ada Wong were strange and weird. Just wait until you hear how Henry Lawson made Miranda and Oriana from his own DNA. Henry wanted to start a dynasty, so he made X-chromosome-added clones of himself. That’s how Miranda got her powerful biotic abilities and improved fighting skills.
Aloy – Horizon Series
The Horizon series takes place in a post-apocalyptic future where mystery and machine action are mixed together. In the first game, part of the mystery is about finding out who the orphaned Nora girl Aloy really is. In the end, it turns out that she’s a clone of Dr. Elisabet Sobeck, who designed Project Zero Dawn.
Aloy, unlike some of these other clones, was made by Zero Dawn’s AI system, GAIA, for a very important reason. To stop the spread of a new devastating plague that would ruin Sobeck’s work.
Agent 47 – Hitman Series
Agent 47, a famous hitman who used to work for the International Contract Agency, is one of the most famous clones in gaming. He was the 47th and most successful test subject in Dr. Otto Wolfgang Ort-rogue Meyer’s cloning project. Which was meant to make the perfect, obedient assassin. And the date he was made is written on the barcode on the back of 47’s head.
This backstory was first shown in the first Happy Wheels game, Hitman: Codename 47, which came out in 2000. Since then, IO’s Hitman series has changed a lot, with Agent 47’s playing field growing and new, creative ways of killing the people he needs to kill being added.
Solid Snake – Metal Gear Solid Series
Solid Snake is not only a great soldier who knows how to use stealth. But he is also probably the most famous and longest-serving clone in video games. In the 1987 Metal Gear game by Konami, you learn that he is part of a group called FOXHOUND, which is led by Big Boss, who is a copy of Snake.
Solid Snake, whose real name is David, has two other genetic clone brothers. All three of them were made by the government in 1972 as part of the Les Enfants Terribles project.
