Games where you can be the bad guy

[Pulse]

Villains are cool. And it's awesome when you can be evil, and when you have options on how you can do it. Some might like being the simple murder machine that just kills everything on sight, while others might want to be more the self-serving kind of evil, a bad guy who respects the institutions of power, and uses them to his advantage (for example the concept of lawful evil in BG). Or perhaps you are a protagonist, the townsfolk hail you as a hero, they trust you, but behind closed doors, you show your true evil self.

I feel that in most games we are always being pushed to be good. In the Baldur's Gate series, you can choose to be evil, but there's almost nothing to make it worth it or interesting. The series as a whole rewards being good much more.


I would like to see if we can make a list of games where it is actually worth it, or interesting, to play as the bad guy.

Checking some older threads (https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/rpgs-with-evil-protagonist.99689/), I saw Kotor 2, Skyrim and Dominions as some first possible choices.

Your experiences/thoughts?

 

[SilentSeeker]

Hmm... would you include those where it's not an option, but a requirement? Like Evil Genius, say?

 

[Falksi]

Tales of Berseria is not only a very good game in of itself, but the protagonist is someone who's sole goal is single minded revenge, and your crew are a bunch of rogues and misfits too.

More anti-hero than pure villainy, but Velvet herself is a bloodthirsty demoness who east souls with her hand, so I think that fits.

 

[Pulse]

Hmm... would you include those where it's not an option, but a requirement? Like Evil Genius, say?

Sure, this one looks interesting, comic book aesthetic.

 

[Pulse]

Tales of Berseria is not only a very good game in of itself, but the protagonist is someone who's sole goal is single minded revenge, and your crew are a bunch of rogues and misfits too.

More anti-hero than pure villainy, but Velvet herself is a bloodthirsty demoness who east souls with her hand, so I think that fits.

Anti hero conbcept works great as well, this looks interesting too, though I haven't ever played anime games.

 

[mkultra]

Rimworld
Postal (obvious one)

 

[ELEXmakesMeHard]

Doing an evil playthrough of Lands of Lore 2 is very satifying. Luther is gleefully evil in a "Blackadder II" kind of way. There's many creative ways to fuck people over.

 

[Sarathiour]

Overlord obviously.
Tyranny in rpg.

Most game will just give you the option of acting evil, but due to narrative restriction, you're still going to more or less do the same thing, expect you're a douchbag.

 

[Falksi]

Tales of Berseria is not only a very good game in of itself, but the protagonist is someone who's sole goal is single minded revenge, and your crew are a bunch of rogues and misfits too.

More anti-hero than pure villainy, but Velvet herself is a bloodthirsty demoness who east souls with her hand, so I think that fits.

Anti hero conbcept works great as well, this looks interesting too, though I haven't ever played anime games.

It's cheesy like most JRPGs of that ilk, but it's still brilliant. Here's a taster...

 

[spectre]

Dungeon Keeper is the first thing that springs to mind. It was the one of the game's selling points.
Don't remember 100%, but you might not be a good guy in Revenant.
And most definitely, you aren't a good guy in Blood Omen.

 

[Butter]

Call of Duty only allows you to play as the bad guy.

 

[Ninjerk]

Fallout

 

[Ghulgothas]

Dark Messiah's evil path is not only more enjoyable, it is objectively more fulfilling and compelling a narrative of that game's possible two.

 

[Sarathiour]

Dark Messiah's evil path is not only more enjoyable, it is objectively more fulfilling and compelling a narrative of that game's possible two.

Also a far superior waifu

 

[Pulse]

Dark Messiah's evil path is not only more enjoyable, it is objectively more fulfilling and compelling a narrative of that game's possible two.

Dark messiah of might and magic you mean? I just took a look at it, and wow its graphics hold up so well.

 

[Nano]

Being evil is more satisfying in KotOR 1 than 2.

 

[Modron]

Not one mention of Mask of the Betrayer? For shame.

 

[Pulse]

Call of Duty only allows you to play as the bad guy.

Don't you play as the Allies in the CoD games?

 

[Late Bloomer]

In Oblivion you can join the Dark Brotherhood a murderous band of assassins hired to do contract killings that are brought on by someone performing the Black Sacrement. They only way for someone to make the plea to the Night Mother is to perform the Black Sacrament. The invoker must create an effigy of the intended victim, assembled from actual body parts, including a heart, skull, bones, and flesh. They must then encircle that effigy with candles. The ritual itself must then commence. The invoker must proceed to stab the effigy repeatedly with a dagger rubbed with petals of a Nightshade plant while whispering this plea: "Sweet Mother, sweet Mother, send your child unto me, for the sins of the unworthy must be baptized in blood and fear." So when you accept a contract you are already dealing with a very grim situation. The murders usually involve some type of bonus for yourself if you perform some extra vile deed at request of the performer of the Black Sacrement.

You can forego the entire rest of the game and just do the Dark Brotherhood in both Oblvion and Skryim. As a bonus you could join the Thieves Guild in both but I dont feel they are evil exactly. Also, Morrowind doesnt get a nod because I dont believe the Morag Tong are evil. They are simply a place to work that is both respected and part of society.

 

[Viata]

Dark Messiah's evil path is not only more enjoyable, it is objectively more fulfilling and compelling a narrative of that game's possible two.

Dark messiah of might and magic you mean? I just took a look at it, and wow its graphics hold up so well.

Great game:

 

[Jack Of Owls]

I generally only played pure and truly evil in mods of existing games like NWN and Oblivion. In the former, I took the evil path mid-game and discovered that that way lies MUCH higher and punishing difficulty; with the latter, I played a murder hobo that would randomly kill imperial guards and use their life essence to increase my own stats through a new power I acquired; then I was apprehended, tried and hung. End. Of. Story (and the life of a character I had been playing since the beginning). So what's the moral of the story? Crime doesn't pay, at least not in RPG mods.

 

[SilentSeeker]

So what's the moral of the story? Crime doesn't pay, at least not in RPG mods.

Not always in the base game, either; my first Daggerfall crash came when I left Privateer's Hold (the starter dungeon), traveled to a random town (Ripmarket, as I recall), found the stores closed, decided to sleep until morning, got busted for vagrancy, and decided if I was gonna be Rambo, I might as well go all out.

I climbed a nearby house, suspecting (correctly) that guards couldn't climb, then pulled out my bow and started mowing them down. Eventually, the spawn rate got so high that I couldn't make out the individual "Halt!"s, and then the game crashed.

Man, the 90's were great, weren't they?

 

[luj1]

Dungeon Keeper obviously and both KotORs and NwNs

Also Black and White, Sacrifice, Populous

 

[luj1]

Have to share this

Early SoU - a bandit took a woman's baby hostage, went to get the child, ended up killing both the bandit and baby, then told the woman her baby didn't survive, she went into shock, then I told her I lied her and that her child is actually alive, she briefly rejoiced, then I said no I was just joking your baby is really dead

 

[deama]

The original fable had a decent narrative incentive to be evil, e.g. get revenge on your village/father and through that revenge you become evil.

In prototype 1 you play as a villain with super powers.

Spec ops the line does an interesting job at making you think you're the hero, but you're actually the villain.