History Main / OneRiotOneRanger

* Early in [[Creator/IDWPublishing IDW]]'s Transformers comics, the Autobot-Decepticon war has become a sort of cold war fought over thousands of worlds by small groups, due to the adoption of the Infiltration Protocol by the Decepticons. Essentially, small groups of Decepticons are sent to infiltrate a target world, escalate pre-existing tensions, devastate the world's defenses with surgical strikes if necessary, and then call in a Phase-Sixer like Sixshot to raze the world to the ground. When the series begins, Earth is targeted by a small six-bot team led by Starscream with only four Autobots to oppose them.

* In the opening to ''VideoGame/DoomEternal'', King Novik's narration explicitly says that against the evil of demon and man, only the Doom Slayer will be sent. He's enough.

** The series is all about this trope. There's even a pretty well-supported in-game explanation for it, too. The Citadel Council can't send their battlefleet to stop TheDragon because it would spark a galaxy-wide war, so they hand the problem over to their OneManArmy. They don't even provide a ship and crew, the Alliance has to step in and give Shepard their new SuperPrototype stealth frigate.
** All Spectres are One Rangers -- literally; you don't get selected unless you're that sort of omnicompetent badass and leader of men. The Council was savvy enough to stay on the lookout for those sort of people, give them a special designation, and use them appropriately. As force responses go, sending a single Spectre is considered one step below an entire warfleet.
** On the other hand, up until the [[VideoGame/MassEffect3 third game]], other than Shepard him/herself every Spectre encountered was either actively working against the council, corrupt, or dead in short order. The council gives them no oversight whatsoever, and would actively prefer ''not'' knowing what they're up to.
** Also, this is {{deconstructed}} and {{subverted}} in the case of most Spectres. Shepard in the first game has an entire ship and crew at his/her command, including a team of six badasses who could ''each'' be a Spectre with a little training, along with several independent weapons developers contracting to provide them with arms and armor. By the end of the game, Shepard will likely be a millionaire with an armory of the galaxy's most advanced weaponry and five [[OneManArmy One-Person Armies]] behind him. [[spoiler: All five of them proceed to become some of the galaxy's most influential figures as well.]] Saren, meanwhile, has built himself into a major corporate power player via his investments in Binary Helix and has his own private hideouts on obscure worlds and a small army of mercenaries he regularly hires. And this was ''before'' he allied with the geth.
** Generally speaking, each race has their own equivalent to this trope. The salarians have the Special Tasks Group, which served as the inspiration for the Spectres. Even in the highly centralized and bureaucratized salarian society, the STG is highly independent. The asari have their Huntresses, who tend to operate in small teams, and the Justicars, who operate alone and have liberty to eliminate anyone who stands between them and their mission (including other asari authorities). For their part, the human Systems Alliance has the N7 program, which produces highly trained and skilled operatives capable of operating in a wide variety of hostile environments[[note]]Given the perspective of the games, the N7 program gets the most detail: members of the N (special forces) program are chosen by invitation only, and there're 7 levels to the program. Just being chosen for the program is an honor in the Systems Alliance military, and every level you pass is more prestigious. N6 operatives that wash out are still entirely capable of being one-person armies, and N1 inductees are already elite (the example we see in the games, James Vega, is already an experienced and decorated soldier when he's introduced), but only those that complete the entire program get the privilege of letting people know that they had anything to do with the training program, by putting the N7 badge on their armor and dress uniforms. The only person in the first three games with that honor is Shepard. That said, Anderson was the first graduate of the class, Lee Riley and Susan Rizzi (off duty) appear in ''3'', Kai Leng ''was'' a N7 before being dishonorably discharged, and Pathfinder Ryder, the father of the protagonist of ''Andromeda'', was an N7 that retired to pursue a scientific career. Hackett meanwhile, is implied to have completed the program before becoming an Admiral.[[/note]].

* In ''VideoGame/CombatHeaven'', the unnamed protagonist is the soldier sent to take out an enemy force - all by himself and without any backup, and the only presence of his allies is an unarmed APC that is part of an EscortMission. Being a OneManArmy, and with access to powerful weaponry and different types of armor (with different stats), he can easily demolish said forces without the need for backup.

* ''VideoGame/SniperElite'', its [[VideoGame/SniperEliteV2 reboots]] and [[VideoGame/SniperEliteIII its]] [[VideoGame/SniperElite4 sequels]] are pretty much this combined with SnipingMission. Karl Fairburne, all by his lonesome, is tasked with helping to destroy the Nazi War Machine, [[StupidJetpackHitler its many wonderweapons]], and even [[DirtyCommunists prevent the Soviets from getting them]].
* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'':
** Spartans are treated more as tactical weapons than normal soldiers. This is {{lampshade|Hanging}}d in ''VideoGame/Halo2'' by a comment from one of the marine superiors.
** The Arbiter is the Covenant's version of the trope. Because of the [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy lack of honour]] involved, they tend to use it as a UriahGambit.
* ''Franchise/MassEffect'':
** The series is all about this trope. There's even a pretty well-supported in-game explanation for it, too. The Citadel Council can't send their battlefleet to stop TheDragon because it would spark a galaxy-wide war, so they hand the problem over to their OneManArmy. They don't even provide a ship and crew, the Alliance has to step in and give Shepard their new SuperPrototype stealth frigate.
** All Spectres are One Rangers -- literally; you don't get selected unless you're that sort of omnicompetent badass and leader of men. The Council was savvy enough to stay on the lookout for those sort of people, give them a special designation, and use them appropriately. As force responses go, sending a single Spectre is considered one step below an entire warfleet.
** On the other hand, up until the [[VideoGame/MassEffect3 third game]], other than Shepard him/herself every Spectre encountered was either actively working against the council, corrupt, or dead in short order. The council gives them no oversight whatsoever, and would actively prefer ''not'' knowing what they're up to.
** Also, this is {{deconstructed}} and {{subverted}} in the case of most Spectres. Shepard in the first game has an entire ship and crew at his/her command, including a team of six badasses who could ''each'' be a Spectre with a little training, along with several independent weapons developers contracting to provide them with arms and armor. By the end of the game, Shepard will likely be a millionaire with an armory of the galaxy's most advanced weaponry and five [[OneManArmy One-Person Armies]] behind him. [[spoiler: All five of them proceed to become some of the galaxy's most influential figures as well.]] Saren, meanwhile, has built himself into a major corporate power player via his investments in Binary Helix and has his own private hideouts on obscure worlds and a small army of mercenaries he regularly hires. And this was ''before'' he allied with the geth.
** Generally speaking, each race has their own equivalent to this trope. The salarians have the Special Tasks Group, which served as the inspiration for the Spectres. Even in the highly centralized and bureaucratized salarian society, the STG is highly independent. The asari have their Huntresses, who tend to operate in small teams, and the Justicars, who operate alone and have liberty to eliminate anyone who stands between them and their mission (including other asari authorities). For their part, the human Systems Alliance has the N7 program, which produces highly trained and skilled operatives capable of operating in a wide variety of hostile environments[[note]]Given the perspective of the games, the N7 program gets the most detail: members of the N (special forces) program are chosen by invitation only, and there're 7 levels to the program. Just being chosen for the program is an honor in the Systems Alliance military, and every level you pass is more prestigious. N6 operatives that wash out are still entirely capable of being one-person armies, and N1 inductees are already elite (the example we see in the games, James Vega, is already an experienced and decorated soldier when he's introduced), but only those that complete the entire program get the privilege of letting people know that they had anything to do with the training program, by putting the N7 badge on their armor and dress uniforms. The only person in the first three games with that honor is Shepard. That said, Anderson was the first graduate of the class, Lee Riley and Susan Rizzi (off duty) appear in ''3'', Kai Leng ''was'' a N7 before being dishonorably discharged, and Pathfinder Ryder, the father of the protagonist of ''Andromeda'', was an N7 that retired to pursue a scientific career. Hackett meanwhile, is implied to have completed the program before becoming an Admiral.[[/note]].
* ''VideoGame/FreeSpace'' and its sequel were somewhat notable for making the protagonist just a wheel in the cog of the army machine, particularly toward the end of the sequel, where you don't really win anymore... you just hope to survive. It speaks volumes about this trope that the games were actually criticized for [[PinballProtagonist detaching the player from the plot]] this way; people want to be the Guy. [[VideoGame/IWannaBeTheGuy Not that one]].

* ''VideoGame/UrbanChaosRiotResponse''. It's you, and, for the beginning mission, your superior. For the rest of the game, you get you, a riot shield, a gun, and if you're lucky, backup in the form of a beat cop, firefighter, or EMT. Sadly, the "backup" you're speaking of isn't backup. They're guys who you rescued and are escorting to a safe location, and until then, they support you.
* ''VideoGame/{{Geneforge}} 4'' & ''5'', being set during an open war between the Shapers and the rebellion, repeatedly make the point that a skilled Shaper in the right place is effectively an army. In ''4'', one Shaper is perfectly capable of securing a mountain pass all by himself, and the five infiltrators sent into a rebel-occupied province soon have the rebellion in disarray. This is in large part because Shapers shape, crafting {{mons}} from vats of goo or, in a pinch, nothing but sheer willpower. A Shaper is a OneManArmy because one man can create a small army of fire-breathing lizards. Or acidic zombies. Or telepathic helium-filled squid things. This is central to the plot of the series and how the Shapers try to maintain their rule. But still true when the Shaper sent isn't a shaper by class. Agents operate alone but one agent may still be considered a sufficient response to a problem.
* The opening sequence of ''VideoGame/MegaManXCommandMission'' sees three Hunters being dispatched to quell a rebellion on a FloatingContinent. While their mission is [[JustifiedTrope explicitly stated]] to be infiltration, with the full-scale assault as plan B, the distinction rapidly fades as the game progresses. Granted, they sent X and Zero in, both of whom are known for wiping out small armies on their own.

* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'':
** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'':
*** The PlayerCharacter, in order to fulfill the Nerevarine Prophesy, needs to be named the "Hortator" of the three Dunmeri Great Houses with holdings on Vvardenfell. A Hortator is a traditional Dunmer war-leader, implied to typically lead entire ''armies'' into battle. However, circumstances are such here that the Nerevarine will need to go alone into Red Mountain to face BigBad [[PhysicalGod Dagoth Ur]]. Primarily, [[spoiler: because he/she has been rendered [[IdealIllnessImmunity immune to all disease]] (another requirement to meet the prophecy) while anyone he/she could bring along would risk catching a Blight disease, or worse, the Corprus Disease]].
*** The Buoyant Armigers are the [[CorruptChurch Tribunal Temple's]] [[ChurchPolice elite]] [[ReligiousBruiser special forces]], generally hand-picked by [[PhysicalGod Vivec]] himself. In the few instances we get to see or hear about them in action in the game, they almost exclusively work alone. One exception is a Fighter's Guild quest which has you aid a rookie Buoyant Armiger in clearing out a necromancer's den.
** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'', you get kind of a reputation for being able to walk into Oblivion Gates and single-handedly killing the [[LegionsOfHell Daedra]] residing there. By the time the Oblivion Crisis goes into full force, the counts and countesses send you to deal with Oblivion Gates near their cities, rather than their professionally trained armies. When a local order of knights enters an Oblivion Gate to fight off the Daedra instead of waiting for you, it is actually portrayed as detrimental.
** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' this is how you get used by the Civil War factions. Simply joining the Empire faction requires proving you can do this: One fort of bandits, one dragonborn. You answer to General Tullius, who serves as this role on an international scale. He is a "troubleshooter" for the Empire and seems to have arrived with a small force and recruited most of his men while in Skyrim.
* The backstory of ''VideoGame/CaveStory''. An ArtifactOfDoom, granting its wearer insane magic powers, resides on an island bristling with dangerous wildlife. Several nations want this artifact, so they send entire squadrons of war robots to retrieve it and kill anything in the way. Meanwhile, some other, unknown party wants to prevent the artifact from falling into the wrong hands--opting for [[ConservationOfNinjutsu quality over quantity]], they send [[BattleCouple a pair of robots]] to destroy the artifact. Said pair of 'bots succeed (eventually), while the army robots all get destroyed. [[note]]In the Aeon Genesis translation, at least. The Nicalis translation implies the opposite, that Miakid gaining the Crown would have been a ''success'' for the army of killer robots if any of the robots were actually left.[[/note]]
* The ''VideoGame/{{Crusader}}'' games have the Silencer sent in on missions it would normally take an entire team of rebels to pull off. He's not ''entirely'' alone, with fellow Rebels doing troubleshooting from the base or taking out security measures not reachable from the game map, but you get the impression if they hadn't sent him for the meat of the mission they'd have to send at least five or six guys. In the final mission of the first game, he's supposed to command a squad of rebels, but due to complications, they don't show up. He of course pulls it off anyway.

* ''VideoGame/DawnOfWarII'': The recruiting worlds of the Blood Ravens are under attack from a huge Ork horde. The defenders are Davian Thule, about 5 squads of {{Space Marine}}s and 30 or so raw initiates. They need reinforcements. They get one guy. It's enough.
* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'':
** The backstory for the games explains that [[PoweredArmor Power-Armored]] soldiers weren't just good at fighting the Chinese, but also in subduing riots, with one being enough to pacify a small ''American'' town.
** NCR Rangers:
*** Likewise, the [[TheFederation NCR]] often takes a One Riot One Ranger approach in its use of its [[EliteMooks NCR Rangers]]. Given that a single Veteran Ranger is among the toughest humans in the game, barring LivingLegend badasses like Lanius or [[MadeOfIron Joshua Graham]], this is quite justified.
*** Deconstructed in another example. While exploring Vault 3, you run into a Ranger sent to kill the fiends there. After killing a few dozen sneaking around, he gets careless and suffers a leg wound from a trap, and while he still gets out fine (albeit with a leg needing treatment), Colonel Hsu will state that sending him alone was a bad idea (and that Rangers succeed often enough to make people forget they're still only human).
*** Rangers are generally divided into three groups: Civilian, Patrol, and Veteran. All three have proven that they are tougher than Deathclaws and stealthier than shadows with Stealth Boys. While still only human, the gap between patrol Rangers and veterans is like the gap between a rocket launcher and a tactical nuke (with the caveat of the BadassLongcoat Rangers being tougher to scare than one).
** The player develops this reputation throughout ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'': They may not be Rangers, and they may not ''technically'' be associated with any particular group, but that doesn't mean that people won't recognize the Courier's badass status. Develop a high enough reputation with a particular group (especially the NCR), and rather than offering your services for hire, they'll beg you to help them out with their problems.
** Ulysses, being a counterpart to the Courier, does a great many things on his own in his service to Caesar's Legion as the best of his Frumentarii. Without giving away too much of the plot, let's just say that a big chunk of the plot elements, especially in the DLC, are the Courier ''reacting'' to the events that Ulysses set in motion.
** Other Frumentarii are theoretically this, but in practice, Caesar knows that sending them out individually is a great way to get them killed thanks to their inferior equipment. For covert rendezvous, however, they're perfect.
* ''Franchise/DeusExUniverse'':
** The first mission in ''VideoGame/DeusEx''. NSF terrorists have raided and set up a command post on Liberty Island, the location of UNATCO Headquarters. There are UNATCO troops and security bots on the island, but they are ordered to pull back and let the protagonist, JC Denton, handle the situation as a test of his abilities.
** Adam Jensen of the prequel ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution'' is very much this, but isn't actually employed to be one in the first place; he's just the security chief of Sarif Industries. Through the first game, he gains a reputation for being a One Ranger.
* In each game of the ''VideoGame/TimeCrisis'' series, one or two (for co-op play) agents with pistols are sent to fight wave after wave of terrorists and solve whatever [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin time-sensitive crisis]] is threatening the world that week. Of special note is the first game, where Richard Miller is said to be the only agent with no partner due to no one else in the VSSE being able to perform at his level. Gets downplayed in ''Time Crisis 3'' due to the two VSSE agents on duty getting a big dose of help from the [[TheCavalry Lukano Liberation Army]] in the last leg of the game, but it's still up to just the two of them to kill Giorgio Zott, who is the tyrannical ruler of the aggressive Zagorias Federation and who Lukano would probably want to take down with more than just a couple agents from a third-party peacekeeping organization.
* The 1995 SpaceFighter [[SimulationGame sim]] ''VideoGame/StarRangers'' refers to this trope by name in the manual when discussing the proud history of the eponymous organization. As a Star Ranger, the [[SpacePolice representative of law and order on the final frontier]], it is your job to single-handedly battle entire fleets of SpacePirates, including squadrons of fighters and giant capital ships, with your lone small {{starfighter}}, often jumping from one side of the (very large) playing area to another in moments to stop attacks from multiple directions. You can also choose to fly with a single AI-controlled wingmate, however -- but given the state of game AI at the time, they weren't much help.
* ''VideoGame/MaxPayne3'': Good cop Da Silva knows that the bad guys will pull a HeKnowsTooMuch on him and his family if he digs too deep. Max, on the other hand, can take care of himself, and so the latter gets the job of dealing with them. Favela full of violent {{Gangbangers}}? Send Max. Derelict hotel defended by paramilitaries? Send Max. Do an AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs on [[spoiler:the {{Dirty Cop}}s]]? Send Max!

* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
** In the ''VideoGame/DarkForcesSaga'', Kyle Katarn, and later Jaden Korr, will almost always be sent in alone to deal with whatever is threatening the Rebel Alliance/New Republic. For Jaden, the missions start off proportionate, apprentice-sized jobs for the apprentice, though he still ends up doing almost all of the work entirely on his own, either by happening to handle the part that involves all the combat when he and Kyle split up (the two missions to Tatooine) or because Kyle simply never shows up (the mission to Bakura), with the only mission of the first set where Kyle visibly does nearly as much as Jaden being the one on Corellia, where [[DeathFromAbove he provides air support]]. By the time they're upgraded to a full Jedi Knight, it's more "Here's a problem we'd normally send a small army for, have at it, Jaden."
** One mission in ''Jedi Academy'' invokes this, with [[Literature/XWingSeries Wedge Antilles]] deliberately devising a plan for a single ground soldier, with Wedge giving fighter/bomber support, to single-handedly take over an Imperial tibanna gas platform. Naturally, that single ground soldier needs to be a Jedi.
** Four thousand years previously, in ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', the player character of the first game is sent out in a stolen freighter with a handful of allies because you are the only one with both leadership skills and knowledge of where the Star Maps are [[spoiler:because you're the BigBad's former boss, only amnesiac]], and sending the Republic fleet is not viable because a) the BigBad's fleet is still flying around blowing things up, and b) several of the locations -- especially Korriban and Manaan -- are not viable targets due to things like Sith academies or being steadfastly neutral producers of medical supplies. Of course, in the Dark Side ending, this backfires ''badly'' on the Republic.
* B.J. Blazkowicz of the ''VideoGame/{{Wolfenstein}}'' series is generally this in all his missions in ''VideoGame/Wolfenstein3D'' and ''VideoGame/ReturnToCastleWolfenstein''. In [[VideoGame/Wolfenstein2009 the 2009 game]], he ranges between this and ItsUpToYou in situations where the Kreisau Circle is fighting alongside him.
* ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'':
** One or two agents with occasional air support is considered an appropriate response to anything less than a country-sized biohazard. It isn't until 2009, chronologically, that we see the B.S.A.A. even has six-man teams. There is some justification that sending more, less-well-prepared soldiers against zombies just makes more zombies, and that the agents are usually there to investigate and possibly help survivors before the area is sanitized.
** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' is a prime example of this. Biohazards are not expected at all. The threat was simply that the President's daughter has gone missing. You'd think this'd cause a massive investigation across the world but instead they just send the one guy, Leon, armed with only a handgun, a knife, and a single photograph of the president's daughter into a backwater country seemingly just to ask if anyone has seen her around. He doesn't even speak their language. He gets the job he was sent in for done and takes down an entire biohazardous terrorist organization to the point there's nothing left of them except samples of their parasite.
* A literal example in ''VideoGame/Metro2033''; when Exhibition Station is under attack by the Dark Ones, the Order sends one Ranger-- Hunter-- to deal with it. Justified because the Order is a very small fighting force, numbering only about a hundred or so, and Moscow is the biggest city in Europe. Naturally, they can only muster small squads for big threats, or single operatives if an outlying station like Exhibition needs help.
* In ''VideoGame/EVEOnline'', the Capsuleers are this to any faction that employs their services for Security Missions. By the time a Capsuleer reaches Level 4 missions, said missions involve one lone Capsuleer up against entire fleets of dozens of NPC ships with at least half a dozen battleships on average, the biggest ships in EVE Online barring capital ships. With the appropriate ship and fittings, one Capsuleer can solo these fleets on their own.
* The Security Officer in ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}'' is an odd example. He usually has some form of backup, but they might as well not be there, considering he usually eliminates the entire enemy force [[OneManArmy nigh-singlehandedly,]] as well as does basically all of the heavy lifting of the operation.
* In the opening to ''VideoGame/DoomEternal'', King Novik's narration explicitly says that against the evil of demon and man, only the Doom Slayer will be sent. He's enough.
* The earliest iterations of the ''VideoGame/MechWarrior'' games--''2'' and ''3'' in particular--are fond of sending out the player out solo on missions which in the lore would be better suited to larger formations of HumongousMecha. It is no exaggeration that the average mission will pit you against three to five times your own tonnage in enemy units, and that some missions will bump that as far as ten times your tonnage. They expect you to do this on the regular, and you ''will'' have to succeed if you want to finish the game.
* In ''VideoGame/KidIcarusUprising'', Palutena sends Pit to scenes where the Underworld Army and Forces of Nature have sent hordes. Pit justifies this during a conversation with Magnus, pointing out that the Centurions get revived when they die, have no incentive to toughen up, and thus aren't motivated to get stronger; Pit, who ''is'' motivated to get stronger, is more capable than nigh on the entire Centurion Army combined.
* The Freestar Rangers in ''Videogame/{{Starfield}}'' operate this way. One of their missions even has this as its title. It's mostly out of necessity due to the limited size of the organization relative to what they're responsible for: there's never been more than ''twelve'' full-rank Rangers covering three entire star systems with additional duties at Freestar outposts across much of explored space. For understandable reasons, the Rangers tend to limit whatever they're sending in to "one Ranger, possibly a Deputy learning the ropes to become a full Ranger, and whatever crew and associates they have outside the Rangers".

* Remo Williams, the hero of the ''Literature/{{Destroyer}}'' series of action novels, is a tongue-in-cheek [[SatireParodyPastiche satire]] of the OneManArmy genre of adventure fiction, but he's also a perfect example of this trope. The authors even [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] it in several of the novels of the long-running series by having everyone note how ridiculous it is to only send one man out to stop the latest menace. Although this may also be the result of Remo being so top-secret that only the President gets to know that he exists, or at least originally being so. In the first book of the series it's explained that the secret organization CURE is allowed to lie, cheat, and steal, but not to kill. This is because the President is worried about creating an agency that could be a threat to the country. CURE finally persuades the President to agree to one man. When one CURE member laments that one man is not enough, the head of CURE replies that's all they are going to get, so he better be a badass. Luckily for CURE, he is.