Chris Jacobs (Mercenaries)

Christopher "Chris" Jacobs is a playable character in the 2005 video game Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction and its 2008 sequel Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, voiced by Phil LaMarr. He is a bald, cigar-smoking American mercenary who is a confident and reliable personality, who often makes humorous remarks.

Development
Cameron Brown, director on the Mercenaries project, explains that Jacobs' voice actor, Phil LaMarr, was "an awesome and very experienced voice actor".

Depiction
Chris Jacobs was born in San Jose, California in 1973. His father, an African American, was a Colonel in the United States Army, and his mother a Korean interpreter. He dropped out of high school to follow in his father's footsteps. He spent seven years in Delta Force while in the military, and served in Afghanistan, Iraq and Sudan. However, his mind became more and more darkened as he saw his commanding officers show unethical behavior towards his fellow troops. This culminated with a joint-operations mission with the SAS, which resulted in the deaths of five of his men. When his tour ended, Jacobs left the Army and became a mercenary with ExOps, a private military organization, in 2003. With ExOps, and on his own, he has plied his trade in Libya, Senegal, North Korea and Venezuela.

Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction
In around 2008, the President of North Korea, Choi Kim, was overthrown by his son Choi Song, who brought his own government into power. This upset a number of the world's superpowers as it threatened world peace, and was an immediate threat to North Korean-South Korean and North Korean-Chinese relations. The Allied Nations invaded and put up a most wanted list or "Deck of 52", comprising of North Korea's 52 most wanted government and military leaders. After the successful military coup, Jacobs travelled to North Korea seeking employment and hoping to make money from the situation. He hunted down these 52 fugitives, killing some and capturing others, and also did work for the South Korean and Chinese militaries who were also acting as peace-keepers in the country. While in North Korea, Jacobs used his contacts in the Russian Mafia to obtain weapons, vehicles and other necessary supplies.

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
Set in Venezuela during August 2010, Mercenaries 2 takes place against a backdrop of political and military turmoil. Chris has left ExOps and is now in a private organization, along with Jennifer Mui and Mattias Nilsson. At the beginning of the game, Jacobs is greeted by a man named Blanco, who he apparently once worked with but left when he stopped making money. In the meeting inside the villa, Venezuelan multibillionaire Ramon Solano hires him to rescue a top Venezuelan Army General named Carlos Carmona, one of Solano's friends, who is being held prisoner by the Army after a failed coup attempt. A small faction in his army did not agree with the coup, captured him, and has taken him prisoner in an old colonial fortress on an island off the coast of Venezuela. Chris uses weapons and air strikes supplied by Solano to infiltrate the fortress and rescue Carmona. Once Carmona is rescued, however, Solano attempts to murder Chris to avoid payment, and to make sure there is no interference with his plans for Venezuela. He is able to escape, despite being "shot in the ass", and begins to plan revenge on Solano. Jacobs hires Fiona Taylor, Ewan Devlin, Eva Navarro and Misha Milanich to help him hunt Solano down, and acquire a nuclear bomb, from the People's Liberation Army of China or Allied Nations, in order to destroy the bunker where Solano was hiding. Once inside the bunker, Jacobs killed Solano in a helicopter crash, but managed to escape himself.

Personality
Chris is a bitter, cynical and self-serving individual. The idealistic side of him long dead, and he sees only three kinds of people: the ignorant masses, their corrupt leaders and enterprising individuals who manipulate and exploit both. He laughs at the notion that this can change and at the people ignorant enough to believe this. He has no expectations that this view will change as he accepted the assignments in North Korea and Venezuela. While these traits would make him a liability in a regular army, it makes him a perfect mercenary and solo-operative. After the North Korean operation, he took to smoking cigars and often has one clenched between his teeth. According to the Mercenaries 2: World In Flames website, Jacobs' favorite form of music is gangster rap and soul music.

Skills
Jacobs speaks Korean.