Rant about Claude

[kimpinesz]

I hate how little we know about him. I know it’s part of his charcter to be mysterious but I hate how little information rockstar games releases about him. We didn’t even know his official age until a few years ago from a leaked document. We didn’t know his name until gta San Andreas and till this day he has no official last name. For some reason they same to be oddly secretive about him

[Lemoyne outlaw]

yes claude has always been the weakest gta protagonist to me. I'm sure he could have an interesting backstory if rockstar wrote it and hired an actor for him. but all he does is just listen and kill people. i feel like niko is sort of an HD reimagining of claude. they were both betrayed by someone they trust. and they work for a lot of gangs and families in liberty city. niko even gets to wear clauds outfit. niko is easily the best gta protagonist (so far). his backstory is very well written. we get to see him hang out with his cousin and make friends. he also argues with his employers sometimes unlike claude. and he starts to feel remorse near the end of the story.  and Michael Hollick did a phenomenal job playing niko. claude never shows any emotion or regret. he just kills kills kills and that's it.

 

i always felt like tommy vercetti was only a slight step above claude. his acting and dialogue is funny and entertaining. but he mostly just takes orders and kills. the only time he shows emotion would be when earnest got attacked by the mafia. he seemed to have a little bond with him. so i will give tommy that. 

[kimpinesz]

It sucks extra hard Beacuse Claude is like my favorite character 

[MrBreak16]

4 hours ago, kimpinesz said:

I hate how little we know about him. I know it’s part of his charcter to be mysterious but I hate how little information rockstar games releases about him. We didn’t even know his official age until a few years ago from a leaked document. We didn’t know his name until gta San Andreas and till this day he has no official last name. For some reason they same to be oddly secretive about him

Probably because he was never supposed to be a fleshed out character. He was created primarily as vehicle for the player to experience the game’s world. So it’s not too surprising that we barely know anything about him, not because Rockstar wants to make him mysterious, but simply because they didn’t bother giving him a backstory or fleshing him out.

[.Ryan.]

To be honest I’m the opposite.

 

I actually don’t like how he was given a name, age etc and IMO San Andreas kinda ruined that aspect about him. He was cooler as the GTA III guy or Fido to me.

 

I don’t think him being mysterious is necessarily apart of his character or that R* are secretive. It’s just he was never really intended to be a “character” per say with a defined personality, traits etc. He was/is to GTA what Doom guy was to Doom and countless other silent protagonists at the time in the late 90s/early 00s where the devs wanted the player to feel like THEY were the character.

 

I get how compared to other protagonists who have obviously evolved over the years Claude might come across as a bit stale, but I think he’s cool and his lack of a personality weirdly makes him one of the most fascinating characters in the series even after 23 years.

Edited November 11, 2024 by .Ryan.

[Silver]

23 hours ago, .Ryan. said:

To be honest I’m the opposite.

 

I actually don’t like how he was given a name, age etc and IMO San Andreas kinda ruined that aspect about him. He was cooler as the GTA III guy or Fido to me.

 

I don’t think him being mysterious is necessarily apart of his character or that R* are secretive. It’s just he was never really intended to be a “character” per say with a defined personality, traits etc. He was/is to GTA what Doom guy was to Doom and countless other silent protagonists at the time in the late 90s/early 00s where the devs wanted the player to feel like THEY were the character.

 

I get how compared to other protagonists who have obviously evolved over the years Claude might come across as a bit stale, but I think he’s cool and his lack of a personality weirdly makes him one of the most fascinating characters in the series even after 23 years.

Not knowing his name could've been interesting. He'd be forever known as the unnamed mute assassin, I dig it.

 

I like that we barely know anything about him, at that point in time I doubt R* cared much about how deep their characters were. Claude was just a vehicle for players to mess around and cause havoc, and the tiny bit of backstory we got in GTA III was enough to drive the story forward. And while I do prefer characters with more personality and a proper backstory, I still consider Claude to be one of the most badass protagonists R* made.

Edited November 12, 2024 by Silver

[EkaSwede]

Isn't this because Claude was some sort of player avatar with no name. At least before San Andreas came into the mix and gave him a name.

I mean, wasn't the the main character in GTA 2 as well unless that's retconned or just a fan theory to begin with?

Edited November 11, 2024 by EkaSwede

[Thejeffster]

I like to think if they actually could find a voice actor we've might of gotten more of a backstory behind him and everything. 

[universetwisters]

19 hours ago, kimpinesz said:

 I know it’s part of his charcter to be mysterious but I hate how little information rockstar games releases about him. 

 

This seems like an oxymoron to me. If he's supposed to be mysterious, why would he need any information to be released about him, or anything beyond "criminal gets betrayed by gf and gets revenge"?

 

Also, unpopular opinion, but Claude shouldn't have made an appearance in SA. III being his only game would've been the cleanest best pleasure

[cant remember]

Claude is kind of weird because he wasn't really made purposefully to be mysterious, or even mute. It's just that his backstory or dialog don't exist.

 

That's why like universaltwisters says I don't like how he has a cameo where he wears the same clothes and is called a mute because that's how he became to be known, but IMO he isn't mute at all in the clinical sense, it's just that he didn't have any dialog/voice portrayed in his game, evidently to how in GTA3 none of the characters ever acknowledge his lack of response, even when he's using a payphone.

[Jeansowaty]

My unpopular opinion is that the late 90s and early 2000s were f*cking PLAGUED with mute asshole protagonists without any personality but "hints" at it so that you could "embody" the character, but it fell flat on its ass if you had absolutely no choice on the narrative anyway, like in III. Claude is a relict of his times, he's a really mediocre protagonist and from then on they sometimes got better.

[Copcaller]

Guess i'm in the minority claude being a silent guy was my favorite part of it he doesn't bitch and moan like some video game characters. The silence makes him appear more powerful and collected compared to his more loud mouth bosses like luigi. 

[Cheatz/Trickz]

For some reason I didn’t even notice that he never spoke until after I finished the game and Vice City was announced. It never even occurred to me, probably because the story was so bare bones that a silent protagonist did not stand out. I distinctly remember being hyped at the news that Tommy would speak, it ironically seemed so alien at the time. 

 

Claude is such a strange 'character' in that he both is and is not really one at all. He’s not really meant to be you, but he’s also not meant to be himself, because "himself" doesn’t really exist. Rockstar never developed a character for him, they just designed a cool looking dude for you to play the game with, and that’s just very weird. His look is clearly based on the live action Claude from GTA 2, they don’t just happen to share a name. 

 

Weirder though is that some scenes do suggest he was meant to speak, or at least does speak (we just don’t hear him); in the opening when he and 8-Ball escape before the bridge blows up he turns to 8-Ball and appears to exchange some words with him. 

[Copcaller]

On 11/18/2024 at 12:38 AM, Cheatz/Trickz said:

For some reason I didn’t even notice that he never spoke until after I finished the game and Vice City was announced. It never even occurred to me, probably because the story was so bare bones that a silent protagonist did not stand out. I distinctly remember being hyped at the news that Tommy would speak, it ironically seemed so alien at the time. 

 

Claude is such a strange 'character' in that he both is and is not really one at all. He’s not really meant to be you, but he’s also not meant to be himself, because "himself" doesn’t really exist. Rockstar never developed a character for him, they just designed a cool looking dude for you to play the game with, and that’s just very weird. His look is clearly based on the live action Claude from GTA 2, they don’t just happen to share a name. 

 

Weirder though is that some scenes do suggest he was meant to speak, or at least does speak (we just don’t hear him); in the opening when he and 8-Ball escape before the bridge blows up he turns to 8-Ball and appears to exchange some words with him. 

looks like he's just listening to 8-ball talk