Holding doors open for elderly gentleman. Helping little old ladies cross the street. Supporting the local kids’ lemonade stand even though his concoctions taste like sour spit. Being good is exhausting. You know what they say, “no good deed goes unpunished” – but in the wonderful world of video games, you get to be the one who does the punishing. Games give us the space to make all the wrong choices. They provide an outlet for our inner desire to rebel, to oppose, and to destroy. If you’re looking for a bad time, here are 10 games that let you play as the villain.
Grand Theft Auto V
A franchise famous for its moral turpitude, crime is literally what gives Grand Theft Auto its name. The series reaches its ethical nadir and critical summit with Grand Theft Auto V – a dark satire set in a pastiche of sunny Los Angeles. Vapid, self-obsessed, power hungry, the citizens of Los Santos are all part of a never ending rat race to get ahead. You take control of three characters – an ex-criminal getting back in the game, a young gang member looking to make a name for himself, and a gun-running maniac fueled by homicidal rage. There are no good guys in GTA V, every character’s soul is rendered in a slightly different shade of morally grey. You don’t have to be a trigger happy psychopath to complete the game, you can lay low and use violence only when necessary, but the game gives you the option – so why not take it?
The Last of Us 2
One of the most polarizing games ever made, it’s not quite fair to say that The Last of Us 2 “lets” you play as the villain. Rather, it “forces” you. Warning: spoilers to follow. The sequel begins with the death of the previous games’ main character (who was no paragon of morality himself) and then makes you play as his killer. While many players (myself included) reviled having to play as Abby, you slowly realize that she’s actually not the bad guy. In this lawless, mushroom zombie-ridden world, Abby’s revenge killing is the closest thing to justice she’s ever gonna get in light of what was taken from her. Meanwhile, the once sweet and innocent The Last of Us protagonist Ellie reveals herself to be the actual homicidal maniac here – taking revenge on Abby by murdering her friends and loved ones. A downright brutal game to stomach, The Last of Us 2 will let you be the villain and make you suffer the consequences.
Destroy All Humans
Finally, a game that lets us be evil without having to feel bad about it! Destroy All Humans is exactly what’s written on the tin – you play as an alien invader whose mission is to do what the title suggests. You play as Cryptosporidium 137 – a little grey alien sent to rescue a member of his species from the grips of a parody Cold War America. With a combination of alien weaponry and telekinetic powers, you cut a covert swath through human resistance to claim dominance for Furon Empire. Sadly, you never get to take credit for your war on humanity, at the media covers up your homicidal exploits by spinning them as natural disasters or acts communist terrorism. Madcap action and tongue-in-cheek wit combine to create one of the most enjoyable sci-fi romps ever made.
The Sims
While The Sims doesn’t seem like the kind of game that would allow for villainy on the surface, any fan of the game will confess to torturing their Sim creations like some sort of malevolent deity. You can lock them in a room with no doors until they slowly starve to death. You can put them in the pool, take away the ladder, and watch them drown. You can electrocute them, burn them alive, hit them with a meteorite, or even cause them to get devoured by a flesh eating plant. You can even cause them to die emotional deaths, killing them with laughter, with embarrassment, or with rage. There’s no end to the suffering you can impose upon your Sims! You get to be the Old Testament God here, and if your Sims displease you, you’re allowed, even encouraged, to smite them.
Undertale
One of the most stunningly original indie games ever made, Undertale is a seriocomic dark fantasy about a little kid lost in a world full of monsters. While the game pits you up against all manner of foes, very few of them are actually malevolent, and the ones that are have the capacity to change. While you can befriend your enemies instead of killing them, the game doesn’t explicitly tell you this, and is perfectly willing to let you murder people in exchange for “EXP” or “execution points.” Should you decide to become a homicidal killer, the lighthearted game quickly takes on an ominous sense of dread. You get the sense that your character isn’t killing for their survival, but their enjoyment. It’s a subversive title that challenges widely accepted notions of video game morality. If the monsters aren’t there to be killed, why are they there at all? Maybe, just maybe, that’s a question that you don’t get to answer when it comes to the life of another living being – just a thought?
Spec Ops: The Line
In an industry that has made millions simulating the horrors of real life war, very few games were willing to acknowledge the morally grey aspects of armed conflict. Then Spec Ops: The Line came along and changed everything. The game takes place in an alternate history Dubai, where catastrophic sandstorms have eroded law and order – causing a violent American military unit to attempt to reestablish control. After the unit went silent, a three man reconnaissance team is sent in to investigate. As you explore the ruined city, the you discover that the military was murdering civilians in order to maintain martial law. Your character, Delta Force commander Martin Walker, meets the situation with a combination of guilt and denial, causing him to compound upon the atrocities. The game is infamous for its “white phosphorus” scene, where you use the incendiary weapon to inadvertently commit a bonafide war crime. You never meant to be the villain in this game, but you quickly became one anyway.
Baldur’s Gate 3
Part digital Dungeons and Dragons campaign, part high fantasy dating sim, Baldur’s Gate 3 rewards players with a myriad of choices to make – including whether or not they want to embrace evil. When it comes to moral depravity and dating, you’ve got options. The best thing about Baldur’s Gate 3 is that gives you so many different ways to be evil! You can become a brain eating psychic alien! You can embrace your legacy as the spawn of a demon! You can convince your traumatized companions to embrace their dark sides! The game also lets you be a dick in real life ways. You can sleep around with your comrades and then break their hearts! You can belittle their sad backstories! You can choose all smarmy, petty, and downright rude dialogue options! You don’t have to be evil to be a total asshole, right?
Shadow of The Colossus
Like Spec Ops: The Line, Shadow of The Colossus fools you into thinking that you’re the good guy, when in actuality you’re a homicidal maniac! After traveling to a forbidden lands with the corpse of a maiden, a young man named Wander is tasked by an ancient god to kill wandering giants in order to resurrect her. As you bring each mountain sized creature crashing to the earth, you begin to feel… guilty. After all, those giants were just minding their own business until you came along and killed them! What did those poor colossi ever do to you? As the game goes on, you realize that the dark god that promised the salvation of the one you love might just be using you. Are you the hero? Or were you just a pawn all along?
Red Dead Redemption
From the makers of Grand Theft Auto comes Red Dead Redemption, a franchise that could have just as easily been titled Grand Theft Horse. Set in the dying days of the Old West, you take control of John Marston – an ex-criminal tasked by the FBI to hunt down his old gang in exchange for his family’s safe return. As Marston travels the lawless land, he can choose to retain his honor or leave it dying by the roadside. This game allows you to rob and murder as much as you see fit, though not without consequences. I don’t mean the law (though they’ll come for you) I mean moral consequences. Being a hero or villain changes the way the game’s characters treat you, and changes the legacy that you’ll leave for your young son. While Red Dead Redemption and its sequel let you be the bad guy, you might not actually want to be at the end of the trail.
Disco Elysium
A groundbreaking game that feels like a work of literature, Disco Elysium doesn’t let you be a villain in the “wanton murder” sort of way. However, you can choose to be extremely unpleasant to be around. Set in an alternate reality dystopia called Revachol, you play as a cop with a serious substance abuse problem – which you can choose to exacerbate to the detriment of your colleagues and loved ones. The ways to be an asshole in this game are myriad. You can become an authoritarian fascist, a soulless capitalist, a drunken mess, or an emotionally abusive menace to your close relations. You don’t get to be some mustache twirler hatching grand plans of evil, just a jerk. A selfish, violent, egotistical, and self-defeating jerk. A real world villain, lucky you.
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