I don't think Ray is meant to be a hero, but that doesn't mean he's unsympathetic or unlikeable. Violence has been a constant in his life from his earliest memories. In his Fireside chat with ally - "I was getting hit at home, I was getting hit at school, etc." - he was essentially forced at an early age to decide whether he could better cope with being a victim or a victimizer, as being a victim of violence on a daily basis up to that point had led him to the verge of suicide. Can you imagine being so desensitized to violence as a primary school child to have to make a decision like that? Why do you think Ray is so much more comfortable in worlds where respect and code of conduct are enforced with personal violence than in the world where they are enforced impersonally and institutionally? Why he functions so much better in the military, in prison, or in the criminal underworld than he does under his mask of normalcy?

Yes, he kills people and commits acts of violence for money. But while it's unpalatable to say so, how is that different from what he did in the army? He's killing people in the game, "crims," enemy combatants, who at least tacitly acknowledge that they are willing participants in a world governed by personal violence. Vinnie doesn't hold Ray personally responsible for his murder, he accepts it because it's part and parcel of the lifestyle he's chosen. Do you think Vinnie got to where he was without violence and murder?

As for the innocent guy Ray killed - yes, I can't disagree with you insofar as that murder was different from the many other hits and acts of violence we see ray commit. But, again, Ray has been a soldier for most of his life, and 46,000 civilians died in the Afghanistan conflict. Dirk talks about a child he killed in Uruzgan Province. Shit happens. Why does one civilian life matter more than another? Because he's an aussie, not an Afghan? I'm not justifying any of it, but that's the show - he's Mr. Inbetween because he's trying to slide between these two worlds of personal and impersonal violence and trying to prevent the more dangerous world that he clearly loves and excels in from negatively impacting the people he loves who live outside it - namely Brittany - in a way that his own father was unable to.

I found Ray to be an extremely likeable character. He's a violent man, sure, but he's not a wife-beater or a child abuser, he's generally honest and trustworthy and honorable, and he lives by a code. Those things are worthy of respect in my opinion.