The initial reaction is not because white guys aren't seen as equals, it's becausethe character sounds boring, this is because gruffy bearded white guy with a voice like gravel has been overdone. But they made the character in days gone really interesting which was noted in the next paragraph. 

Wow, I didn't think it was possible for me actually appreciate post in these complain about nothing threads. Thank you for restoring some faith to me. Personally I am with melbye, stop reading a preview and just move on. 

Gruff White Male is just about 99% of all video game protagonist. It's not just a race thing, it's a general design thing. Must they always be unshaven and raspy voiced?! I get real tired of the low toned voices and the design aesthetic. I could not get into The Witcher after everyone hyped me up on it for this very reason. Geralt was far too template mellow raspy voiced stoic character. It is a painfully overused trope.

It is something that obviously comes from the common male fantasy to be that type Man's man.

Sometimes it just fits with the setting tho, such as Days Gone or Red Dead. Doesn't change the fact its kinda.....same-y.

And I think that's also the point of th IGN writer (and not his skin color as the OP thinks), considering how many protagonists fit into the same mold as this one. I can remember Jim Sterling making a video once (was still at the escapists back then) with about a dozen of such protagonist's cutscenes cut and pasted together, which made them (and the different games they stem from) virtually impossible to tell apart. It's just lazy design.

Most games in Japan are catered towards what the Japanese want to see, so you don't exactly see a lot of white or black people in those games and, when you do, their stereotypes are greatly exaggerated (huge eyes on white people, for instance). Am I offended by that? No. That is their market and they do what makes sense.

Here are demographic breakdowns of the United States:
*These numbers may not be exact, but we can update after the 2020 census*

U.S.
63% white
17% Latino/Hispanic
13.1% Black
5.1% Asian
1.2% Native American

If a game is catered towards the American/European Market, then it makes sense for it to often, if not the majority of the time, have white main characters. People need to stop being so offended. This is simply capitalism at work.

I haven't really followed the game at all, but I would assume most writers generally write about what they know. If I made a game it would be a white character, due to the fact I wouldn't want to create a character based on a ethnicity I don't have the knowledge to fairly portray. The game itself I will agree looks a bit boring, and if the scores start coming in positive I will pay more attention to it.

I don't know why you jumped so fast to the conclusion that the reviewer is racist with his article. Look at the sentence you quote: "yet another" clearly indicate that the reviewer doesn't have something against "Gruff White Male Protagonists" in itself but with how often such caracters are used as a protagonist in video games.

And before someone responds to this, don't bring up the BS "target audience" argument because NO the majority of video gamers aren't white, middle aged, trained, bearded bikers.

So, I actually found this article to be a fairly decent read, and the author actually ended up saying he was "invested" in the character, despite his preconceived judgement.
Now, why he would needlessly highlight his prejudice against "Gruff White Male Protagonists," I have no idea.

The writer in the article didn't say it was because he was white. Which is your entire point.

He said because it's a generic version of a white guy that's often used in many video games. Gruffy bearded gravel voiced white guy. Boring on the outlook, but he then says the character is really good and interesting. 

Regardless, I reckon nobody's allowed to say "yet another Black character" in any circumstance whatsoever without being called racist. Even on the right context, there are certain criticisms that can only be said about white people.

Yesterday on Twitter I saw I tweet saying something like "only shitty white males like it". I wonder if we can tweet something like "only shitty black males like it" without being called the police upon.