Victor Hoffman

Colonel Victor Hoffman is a character from the Gears of War games.

Hoffman is the highest ranking member of the remaining COG army fourteen years after Emergence Day. Hoffman worked his way up from private to become the head of COG Special Forces at the end of the Pendulum Wars. He hated the promotions, worried the higher in rank he got, the worse he would screw up, and was fearful he would no longer be able to fight alongside his men. Hoffman was the one who ordered Marcus out of prison, as the number of Gears were dwindling. He restarted a relationship with Bernadette Mataki after she returned to the COG fifteen years after Emergence Day, and later led a group of survivors at Anvil Gate following the sinking of Jacinto.

In the XP4 fics, Victor is allies with the Heroes Coalitions.

Appearance
Victor is an old man with a grey hair and has brown eyes. He wears a black buttoned military uniform with a medal around the collar area, black trousers, brown shoes and a military cap.

Personality
Hoffman is a by-the-book soldier known to lead his men into combat. He has a great respect for the Pesang people, which led him to publicly disrespect Chairman Dalyell in an award ceremony. One year into the Locust War, Hoffman was ordered to use the Hammer of Dawn on civilian targets, causing him great stress and creating a dilemma. He lost sleep for several days, knowing that his wife's sister was outside the protection of Jacinto. Following orders, he never told his wife what his assignment was, until Chairman Prescott gave the announcement about the Hammer of Dawn deployment that included destroying 90% of the Seran surface, leading to his wife to leave him, so she can try to rescue her sister. While Hoffman tried to stay the professional soldier, he ordered all checkpoints to arrest and detain her so he can try to save her. Unfortunately there were no sightings of her and she was presumably killed in the Hammer strikes.

Hoffman has an unusual way of showing care for his Gears by structuring his kindness into orders, a practice dubbed "Hoffmanese". After Sgt. Fenix's desertion, Hoffman took his recklessness personally and helped give him a 40-year sentence, and abandoned him in the prison but would later make amends. Anya believes that if Dom hadn't gotten Fenix out, Hoffman eventually would have. Its shown that Hoffman in fact didn't abandon Marcus out of dislike, but out of an unwillingness to risk lives as the prison was under siege and Marcus couldn't be found safely. When Dom went to rescue him, Hoffman didn't stop him and subtly told him to take more armor and a gun for Marcus and prevented anyone else from intervening even when Dom took JACK. Despite his initial dislike for Fenix for his desertion, he helped save his life and after the Lightmass Offensive, Hoffman began to rely heavily on him, saying he always got the job done and believing that he could've made a good replacement for Hoffman himself one day if he hadn't deserted to save his father. While dealing with problems from the citizens of Pelruan after a few of their trawlers were sunk by the Lambent and during the First Battle of New Jacinto, Hoffman even took political advice from Fenix about dealing with Prescott and not risking himself in combat when it was unnecessary. Hoffman has a great distaste for the Stranded, viewing them as traitors not only to the COG but the Human race. However, Hoffman came to rely on and trust former Stranded Dizzy Wallin greatly.

Hoffman has a strong dislike of Chairman Prescott, due to his habits of restricting information, which Hoffman believes should be shared with the second in command. Cole once described Hoffman's anger as being enough to "dropkick Prescott out the Raven to see if the asshole flies or floats". Fortunately for Prescott, Anya cut in on the Radio. Hoffman later admitted that the idea of Prescott and Major Reid being left in charge of the COG if he died actually scared more than death as he knew the two would do a bad job of it.

Hoffman was at first against being promoted any higher than captain because he wanted to be with his fellow Gears, not dealing with politics in an office.

Abilities
Hoffman's in charge of the COG military because he's the highest ranking officer that was tough enough to survive against the Locust. Also because several other higher-ranking officers had their deaths faked and were sent to Azura. Hoffman was not selected to be sent away because Prescott knew he would never agree to it and because he beleived Hoffman was the best choice to defeat the Locust.

Trivia

 * Hoffman is voiced by Jamie Alcroft.
 * Hoffman was based off a stereotypical cigar-chomping, hands-on combat leader. He first appeared in Gears of War 1, where he established Marcus' role in the game.
 * The developers had originally intended to have Hoffman say the speech in Gears of War 2, however that didn't work out. Later when the developers created the character of the Prescott the role was instead given to him.
 * Originally Hoffman was supposed to die in Gears of War 3. He was supposed to come with Delta Squad to get the submarine instead of Dizzy, and he was going to die when they sailed off. But for Karen Traviss, Hoffman is one of the few people in the books that has a historical perspective - that can think about things before the war. She didn't want to lose him as a narrative vehicle for the books.[136]
 * One action figure of Hoffman has been made.