(Potential spoilers for early-mid and mid-late points of XCom: Enemy Unknown and The Last of Us)
I'm not sure this is precisely what you're looking for, but the last couple generations of games have been able to take advantage of close shots of characters due to ability to show better facial expressions. My particular favorite expressions from recent-ish games came from X-Com: Enemy Unknown and The Last of Us. In both games, The Volunteer (X-Com) and Tess (Last of Us) make roughly the same expression in what are major points of their specific situations: a sigh in which they blow out of their mouths and the cheeks puff up briefly. The Volunteer takes hold of the alien artifact to connect psychically with the 'hive', while Tess has sent Joel and Ellie off to find Joel's brother Tommy while she buys them time against an incoming group of soldiers.
In both situations, they've come across a point where they're facing potential life-ending circumstances. Even with their psionic abilities bringing the Volunteer to that very moment, there's no way to know what comes next for them. Tess is already found herself sentenced to death with a bite from an infected, but she instead opts to take a stand against soldier looking for her, Joel and Ellie. These are both potentially last stands or final moments for both characters. We know that the Volunteer sets forth the last confrontation between XCom and the alien threat and Tess affords Joel and Ellie just enough time to escape before she is eventually gunned down. But before those crucial points for both the Volunteer and Tess, they stand and look forward at what is ahead of them, breathe deeply, sigh, and blow a puff of air. I see both of these as 'well, here goes nothin...' sorts of reactions. A moment important to their characters is at hand and they're staring it right in the eye.
In video games before properly emoting faces, Tess & The Volunteer would have animated their entire bodies to show this or they may have straight up said, 'Well, here goes nothin...' or 'Here we go...'. We're now at a place where you can perceive exactly how they feel before that point in their lives and all they need to do is puff their cheeks ever so slightly and take a deep breath. Those particular beats in XCom: Enemy Unknown and The Last of Us are among my favorite moments in the games from the last 5 or so years, and all it took was being able to show faces that react like actual human faces.
@alex: Pretty sure Lydia is the granddaughter of Jacob Frye. I still feel you're on the right track that it ain't Jacob.
I really liked that game, and the idea of playing an older Evie Frye sounds very interesting to me. I'm wondering if Jacob will indeed show up at some point, though.
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