Faith Connors

(First Appearance: Mirror's Edge)
PARKOUR!!!
For some time, Parkour was the future, it was how we were ALL going to be travelling around the cities we live in. Well, maybe not quite, but it damn sure seemed like you couldn't watch a movie, advert, or music video between '08 and '10 without feeling like a pretty unfit or, God forbid, UN-HIP person.

Parkour has appeared in videogaming in various iterations, and is currently the universal symbol for homebrew 360 drivel (apparently)

Faith Connors is Parkour's most recognisable connection to the videogame world, the beautiful Eurasian girl is the heroine of Dice's marmite game Mirror's Edge.
Faith is a Runner, an underground network of spritely hip young thangs who work as a messenger service for those who wish to communicate their business away from the prying eyes of the cities oppressive government. Runners utilise the rooftops, fire escapes, stairwells and construction sites of the city to move their correspondence quickly, efficiently, but hardly safely.

Faith's world is turned upside down when her sister Kate, a by-the-book cop, is framed for the murder of a promising politician. With the city at her finely tuned heels, Faith has to perform the run of her life, to clear her sisters name and expose some high level political corruption.
Keeping herself alive would be a great bonus too, I guess.

Regardless of the public perception of Mirror's Edge, which is very polarizing, I really like it. This is thanks in no small part to Connors, who is one of my favourite female protagonists in videogames. Faith seems incredibly real despite the game's Utopian, almost bizarre visual design. Faith doesn't have any super-powers or even a cool smart-mouth, she's just an incredibly fit and quick-witted girl who knows how to handle herself in any given situation.
Quick like a cat, graceful and determined, Faith speeds her way across the city environment, able to take care of business in both hand to hand combat and death-defying acrobatics. Unarmed, Faith can (and, in my opinion, should) be played without once resorting to a gunfight. Faith isn't a killer, and repeatedly pulling the trigger on a rifle feels like a complete betrayal of the character design. Ironically, Faith was originally to carry a handgun at all times, but this was removed during development. A brave decision that sadly, cost Dice many sales in a world of bloodthirsty modern gamers, who live to shoot first and ask questions later. Well, more accurately, shoot first, then sH00t suM m0ar.

Faith lives her life as a lonely individual, an isolated blip running on the sparse rooftops of the over-populated city, but is aware of where her loyalties lie and repeatedly risks her life at a moments notice for the protection of the few friends she has.
Though she is rewarded with betrayal not once, but TWICE over the course of the story, her steely determination, fast feet and survival instincts win through, leading to an ending that's just and fair for (almost) all involved.

Faith Connors is all the best parts of a perfect protagonist. Loyal, determined, brave, capable, but with that all important touch of vulnerability that makes her always seem that she's fighting an uphill battle against impossible odds, which, of course, makes victory all that much sweeter. I call that "Rocky psychology"

The supposed sequel to Mirror's Edge appears to be EA's favourite hostage game to tease its (admittedly small) fanbase with.
Whether Faith takes to the rooftops again remains to be seen but, for one game at least, we got a new female protagonist who was real enough to be human, but too perfect to ever exist in reality.