Crud, I can't think right now...uh.
I guess as far as (mostly) silent protagonists go, I liked Artyom from the Metro series, particularly Metro 2033.
I've played games where you're a relatively average joe and not the "neigh unkillable super soldier" before, but nothing I've played has ever captured the feeling of playing as "someguy in over his head" before as well as Artyom in Metro 2033, with both the gameplay and the story feeding into that feeling, especially in a post apocalyptic game. The controls in the game service the game well enough, but there's a few elements here and there that seem odd for a shooter to have, not bad per say, just odd. Like not being able to lock down the sights of a double barrel (instead each trigger fires the left and right barrel respectively), needing to manually recharge your light every couple minutes because it's the apocalypse and Artyom can't afford one of the few good ones, the watch used to measure your air doesn't explain how much time you have left very well, ect.. Plus, there's a noticeable lack of polish on the HUD menu screen, enough so that it can make you take a few seconds to bring up a particular weapon or piece of equipment, like your the inexperienced Artyom himself scrambling around to grab the right gun or to reach for his knife because he just ran out of ammo and you're trying to keep yourself from panicking.
The game also rewards you for trying to sneak past enemies, which is rare to see, a game having a decent stealth mode AND making it feel rewarding for doing that stealth mode. In addition to saving on ammo, which is fairly scarce in the game, you get interesting dialogue from the enemy soldiers, plus I like the idea of Artyom being a scared ass kid who'd rather just silently move past everyone instead of gun down everyone he comes across, you know, like most early twenty year olds thrust into a warzone would want to do. Sure, you can play Metro 2033 as Rambo if you want, but the game seems to encourage you to play as a scared ass early twenty year old who left home for the first time and has limited resources. I know I'm probably projecting here a bit, but that's really what I felt playing the game.
I also like how Artyom isn't completely "swept up" in the chaos or "just rolling with the punches" in the game. His station is attack by mutants, things aren't looking good, sure, but destruction isn't completely assured just yet and fate hasn't chosen him to be the savor or anything. He could have listen to his dad and stayed home, but Artyom actively chooses to listen to a monster hunting Ranger and travel the dangerous, mutant and anomaly filled Moscow to get a message to the Ranger base, the only people who could help. It's a small thing, but it's nice to see a protagonist who doesn't feel like things are completely out of his control and he's just along for the ride.
So yeah, that was me spurging about Metro. While I enjoyed the other two, 2033 just has such a unique feeling that I never got from another post-apocalypse game, it wasn't just a "we nuked the world and now everything sucks but we gotta try and survive" kinda game, it was a "we nuked the world, humanity has literally almost wiped themselves out and we are living in tunnels like rats, we'll probably be extinct in a generation or two, and it's gonna be shit all the way to the end", yet still somehow managed not to be totally crippling depressing. Everyone was just putting how screwed they were to the back of their minds and just trying to making it to tomorrow. Which is something Last Light and Exodus didn't quiet have, they were still very bleak games of course, but there were a few more hope spots sprinkled through out, like humanity had a very real chance to get back on their feet, plus they we're also a bit more "actionized" then Metro 2033 was, and while that's not bad-in-and-of-itself, the heavy down to earthness really helped sell 2033's tone.
