Games you play the villain

[TheMigrantSoldier]

Saints Row 2. The Boss's only redeeming quality is that he/she does care about the Saints members to an extent. After that? Nothing. Just a selfish, sociopathic manchild. And it's glorious.

There are games where being a "villain" is ultimately a bigger payoff than the alternative, when given the choice. See Paradox grand strategy games (like CK2).

 

[Chaos Isaac]

Dungeons and Dragons.

Hehehe.

Killzone ShadowFall. Yeah, I see all of the human soldiers to kinda be bastards in this. Though, the helghast are still cartoonishly evil, but I know that's just bad writing and make up my own head canon.

Wasteland 2. You can just go around and shoot every innocent person in the face. With that in like, Skyrim and Fallout games kinda come up in the same category.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I don't want to spoil things for you, but there's a certain Silent Hill game that isn't completely honest about its protagonist, who might be considered the villain of the story...

 

[GodzillaGuy92]

Star Wars Battlefront II has you doing the dirty business of the Empire for more than half its length, including a particularly nefarious mission where your objective is to assassinate the Queen of Naboo for harboring fugitive Jedi. The Force Unleashed is a similar case, though it's hampered by the fact that you're fighting for the good guys by the end and by the main character exhibiting no actual evil personality traits even at the game's beginning despite having been literally raised by Darth Vader.

Those are the only really clear-cut cases I can think of that I've played. Limbo, Portal, Braid, BioShock, and Dark Souls all feature this as well, but they all make some effort to obscure that aspect and make you figure out or interpret events for yourself, which is probably not entirely what you're looking for. In the same vein, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is also worthy of note in that the main character saves the world, but in the process is forced to accept that he's only channeling his own bloodlust and interest in his own pet causes toward constructive ends rather than being a noble savior.

 

[EHKOS]

The Punisher for PS2, PC, and probably Xbox is basically that. I mean, there are a few story elements that try to make him the anti-hero, but you're basically brutally beating baddies.

In F.E.A.R. 3, you can play with a co-op partner who controls Paxton Fettel.

And if you beat the game normally, Paxton becomes available to play through the game with. Not too different but different enough, then again, I enjoyed it more than I feel I should have.

 

[Zannah]

There was a PC Rts a while back that's called "Evil Genius" where you basically play a bond villain and buld/manage your evil underground lair.

 

[Nuuu]

There's the classic Evil Genius, where you build a base in a volcano (similar to dungeon keeper), steal valuables and tech, manage and upgrade minions to do different tasks, and all while holding off tourists, spies, and mercenaries who wander too much or try to stop you. It's great if you like base-building, while also not being too punishing.

Borderlands: The Pre-sequel also has you playing a villain in a way. While technically only 2 of the playable characters end up becoming villains in the end, you're knowingly helping the main antagonist throughout the entire game.
Of course you're still helping people in side-quests so you're not really the evil one.

 

[Aeshi]

The PAYDAY games, since you play as a bunch of professional criminals.

 

[Evonisia]

I don't want to spoil things for you, but there's a certain Silent Hill game that isn't completely honest about its protagonist, who might be considered the villain of the story...

And there's also another SH which rips off this certain Silent Hill game, but don't get it because it's shamelessly derivative.

 

[Lazy Kitty]

Evil Genius, a world domination simulator, which I now see has already been mentioned, it's somewhat similar to Dungeon Keeper (which I can only recommend playing if you haven't done so yet.).
It's somewhat of a cross between RTS games and Themepark simulators.
You don't have any direct control over your minions, they'll automatically patrol and do jobs they're trained for, whether it's building (Which is what your basic minions do, all other minion training programs branch of from them.), patrolling, distracting pesky tourists or going out on missions away from your island to steal money or let's say steal the eifel tower with a shrink ray.
If you play it, I recommend reading the mission descriptions, they're hillarious. In fact, read every kind of description.
The world missions themselves are just a timer you wait for and every now and then you may see some of your minions get killed until they either succeed or fail.
All of the gameplay where you get to what people run around is on the island where you've got your evil lair.
You do get to directly control your henchmen (which are special minions, with special abilities) and your Evil Genius, which is... Well, you.
Minions near your evil genius will get their stats (such as loyalty and things that make sure they don't fall into your own traps) boosted, being near treasures also boost those effects.
Minions will desert if their loyalty gets too low and will try to escape your island, but your order your other minions to capture them and put them in a cell for a while, until they decide to be loyal again.
Also, minions really enjoy torturing and that will boost their stats, as well as draining the stats of the ones being tortured, depending on how your torture them.
Cutting them up with an industrial laser will kill them (Well, unless they're super agents, for who there is only one way to get rid of for each one), other tortures like putting them in a giant mixer will make make them dizzy or know them unconcious.

Another one similar to Dungeon Keeper is Impire, unfortunately, I've never been able to play it to the end because of some bug.

Yet another one like it: DUNGEONS (Yes, in all caps, possibly the Special steam edition.)


Overlord, well, you're an evil overlord, you're a villain, but there are other villains you have to defeat. They're pretty awesome. It does have a morality system, which pretty much goes from one end of evil to the other, depending on if you kill people or enslave them (litterally in Overlord 2).

 

[OhNoYouDidnt]

@OhNoYouDidnt



If anything else, it would actually be in the style of Watch_Dogs or Shadow of Mordor, destabilizing the established authority =)
Are there some good story based games where that is the focus? (no, not Just Cause)

In that case, I say: give Shadow of Mordor a shot. You play as the fallen Ranger Talion in that game who uses morally highly questionable tactics to undermine Sauron's Uruk armies. That is to say: He uses "the Enemy's" methods against them.

Really, Talion might as well be a terrorist. The looks on the faces of Uruks when you interrogate them... well, let me just say that I felt somewhat sorry for them, even though they are supposed to be the evil ones.

Watch Dogs might also be worthy of your consideration, although Aiden is technically not the villain of that story. But you are fighting The Man with methods that are quite frankly sociopathic, so maybe it would fit your criteria?

 

[Denamic]

In the Disgaea games, you play as/become the demon overlord. You usually don't feel all that evil, but the nethwerworld is fueled by the terror of humans, so there's that.

 

[Lord Garnaat]

I haven't played many games where I've been an evil person, all things considered. Even in games like Fallout or Skyrim, where you have the option to be an irredeemably horrible person, I also pick the good options - I just end up feeling terrible when I go through with the evil things. The only times when I've willing been playing as the villains of the story are when I've tricked into it - that is to say, games that make you believe that you're the good guy until a sudden reveal shows that you are not, in fact, the hero.

I'd say the Last of Us was the best example of this for me. Joel appears sympathetic at the start, but over time you get more and more details of his brutal past that make you question this. He kills scores of people, but at the same time he (and by extension the player) is able to justify it because he almost always acts either in self-defense or to protect others. Since his violent actions are usually directed at people that deserve it or is for a higher cause, the player generally forgives him... until the third act comes around. It's not until the last part of the game, when suddenly he starts gunning for very, very different people for very different reasons, that we see what a bitter, pathetic, selfish, and immoral person he really is, willing to kill anyone and doom the entire human race as long as he can be happy and get what he wants.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

It is a bit of a stretch, but maybe Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor would also fit? Talion What's-his-face is by no means a cuddly goodie-two-shoes. You are basically playing as a terrorist in that game.

I'd say you're playing a two-man counterterrorism outfit that uses techniques very reminiscent of the more unsavory parts of the Afghan gauntlet - but yeah. Same diff. Talion and Mister Wraith Dude aren't boy scouts by any stretch of the imagination, but they at least are actual characters. The Uruks, on the other hand, are maybe just a few dialog lines short of "Oi, mate! I stole candy from a baby and wrote homoerotic slurs on the walls of my bathroom stall, last night! It was totally naff!" *insert heavy chortles of idiotic and mean fun*

In the meantime, Talion and Wraith Dude are waterboarding locals Fantasy style, and are conscripting someone who's weak and easily manipulated into their cause, for the sake of having a ready-made inside man. They're doing it out of self-righteous revenge and convenient sociopolitical alignment with Gondor and Middle-Earth's general interests, though, so there's that.

Jerks and Saints, I'd say.

Captcha: Safer streets
Yeah, I wouldn't trust Talion with a Taser and a badge anytime soon.

 

[Reasonable Atheist]

Legend of zelda, wind waker.

Gannondorf is attempting to raise the lost realm of Highrule from the depths of the sea, and you blow him up with a dragon and stab him in the face for his efforts, because a boat told you that "the gods do not want that".

When you "rescue" zelda she is just kinda chilling having some kinda lax conversation with gannondorf in some sort of lavish luxury suite. I assume Gannondorf needs her triforce to raise the civilization from ruin, and does not seem to be mistreating her.

Screw civilization it can stay at the bottom of the ocean because the suffering of people is not as important as the will of the gods right? RIGHT?!

 

[Darth Rosenberg]

I had a quick scan to see if it's been mentioned, so apologies for the repeat if it has, but...

I'd say Spec Ops The Line - in its deconstruction of the idea of assumed heroic moral certitude - achieves this. It's tricky to talk about without spoiling anything, but Walker is certainly not a good guy by the end.

 

[gyrobot_v1legacy]

I had a quick scan to see if it's been mentioned, so apologies for the repeat if it has, but...

I'd say Spec Ops The Line - in its deconstruction of the idea of assumed heroic moral certitude - achieves this. It's tricky to talk about without spoiling anything, but Walker is certainly not a good guy by the end.

Spoiler

Debatable, either he performs a mercy kill with a rusty knife or he lets more men get lost in the desert and gets the partial blame for giving them bad intel and the cycle of misery continues. He wanted the "save everyone" hero role, instead he got the "put the dying to rest" hero role.

The upcoming game Raven's Cry lets you be the villain, your choices are either "brutally efficient" or just "brutal".

 

[cathou]

I am looking for games where you play the villain, this does not include games with morality systems, and I am mainly looking for story based games. Or my recent decimation of all muslims in Egypt with Venice would also be considered evil. Unless ofcourse you have a game inside these criteria which does Evil particularly well regardless. =)

games like mafia, or the godfather i guess ?

in warcraft/starcraft games you play both side

 

[FPLOON]

The only game I can think of that hasn't been said yet is The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction... Storywise, it's the whole "destructive anti-hero vs the world military" basically[footnote]I think... It's been a while...[/footnote], but gameplay-wise, it's a menace on a destructive rampage in an open city/town/canyon...

I say that counts, right? ...Right?

 

[GodzillaGuy92]

Oh my, and how could I have forgotten Shadow of the Colossus? That's a more blatant and affecting example than most any of the games I listed in my previous post, to the point that I'm surprised to find that no one else thought to mention it in the interim.