You dont often start a game as a leader or a legendary hero.

Instead, youre typically a rookie or a nobody.

Some titles, however, allow you to aim for something more.

Clive, Lightning and Yuna side by side from the Final Fantasy series in a collage.

This is because you’ve got the option to rank up over the course of the game.

In fact, its usually a big part of the main story and the protagonists arc.

You don’t need to build a legacy if you already have one.

Main character of Mafia witnesses deal and helicopter crashes in Saints Row 2

Whatever the situation is, the important point is that youre increasing your standing in your organisation.

Here are some games that include this concept.

However, he botches the game’s opening mission and is subsequently demoted.

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He loses his weapons and standing within the Brotherhood.

He does so by eliminating the targets that his Master gives him.

Tracking and murdering these foes is the main thing you do throughout the game.

Featured Image of Cole Phelps image in a circle with another Cole Phelps image in the background.

7Command & Conquer: Red Alert

Command and Conquer: Red Alert includes different campaigns.

Your rank at the start of the story is lieutenant.

Over the course of the game, you complete a bunch of missions and gradually impress your superiors.

Featured image containing screenshots of Marcus Fenix, Alan Wake, and Wyll.

As a result, you earn multiple promotions, meaning you don’t stay a Lieutenant for too long.

You quickly gain ranks like Field Captain and General.

6Final Fantasy 8

The main protagonist of Final Fantasy 8 is a man named Squall.

Assassin’s Creed promo image of Altair lunging toward a knight.

Your rank dictates what sort of money you earn during the game.

These are the strongest Final Fantasy characters and heroes, officially ranked.

The ranking system is purely a gameplay mechanic, though.

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5Fallout 4

The main story of Fallout 4 isn’t about rising through any ranks.

Yet, there is an optional sub-plot in the game that has you join The Brotherhood of Steel.

This is one of themost iconic factions in gaming, and it contains a clear internal hierarchy.

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When you join the clan, you’re just an Initiate.

However, if you keep completing quests for the group, you soon begin to increase your rank.

you could become a Knight, Paladin, and Sentinel if you keep on their good side.

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4No More Heroes

In No More Heroes, you control Travis Touchdown.

He is a young man with a beam katana who is hired to kill an assassin.

This makes him the 11th-best hitman in the United Assassins Association.

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This is when you gain control, and your goal is to get him to number one.

The entire game is about claiming the ranks of Assassins.

There isn’t a complicated way of doing so.

Nadia looking into the camera in Command and Conquer Red Alert.

You simply need to kill all of the hitmen ranked above you.

So, you start from number ten and work your way up.

3Sleeping Dogs

Sleeping Dogs isan underrated open-world gamethat has you controlling undercover cop Wei Shen.

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The group that you’re going undercover in is the Triads, as the game is set in China.

The Triad organization you join is called the Sun On Yee.

What good is freedom if there aren’t any rules to break along the way?

Final Fantasy VIII remastered Squall standing in Balamb Garden.

Noire

L.A. Noire puts you in the shoes of up-and-coming Detective Cole Phelps.

Right at the start of the game, you’re just a regular police officer.

However, during the story, you work your way up the divisions of the L.A. Police Department.

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You spend time in the traffic division, homicide, vice, and arson.

Unfortunately, though, Cole’s personal life gets in the way.

As you’d expect from a game titled Mafia, this shooter revolves around mobsters.

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Yet, you don’t start the game in the gang.

Instead, you begin as a cabby who gets into some trouble with the mob.

You anger one family, in particular, and are helped out by the Salieri Crime Family.

Fallout 4 Elder Maxon of the Brotherhood of Steel

These military games offer the best single-player experiences.

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Travis Touchdown posing with his beam katana after defeating some enemies in No More Heroes.

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Wei Shen and Jackie Ma in Sleeping Dogs.

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Cole Phelps and a police officer chatting in L.A Noire.

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Mafia Definitive Edition close up of Tommy Angelo.

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Triple-A Games