orcishgamer: I guess I'll just have to go with "matter of opinion". Personally I can't identify at all with Link, I can't figure out for the life of me what the dude is thinking, he seems like an automaton.
Freeman I get, I get what he might be feeling and I cannot even see his face. I know when he's shitting his pants and when he finally gets mad. Freeman I get, or at least I feel like I get. Link could be anyone... you see his lifeless face the entire game and yet the guy is a clay doll, it's absurd and disturbing. I guess they gave him "pain face" in some of the later games, when he's taking a whooping, that's about it...
Forget Freeman. He has about as much personality as Quake guy. The marines, headcrabs, and other baddies were the ones who stole the show.
Petting/ handling the snark is the best gun animation ever however.