gaming Playing the role of the villain

[Smarts 1,622]

Games are usually about the hero and his/her adventures. You learn to like or hate them as you journey on to fight the ultimate evil. You meet the villain and see that they already have plenty of power, an army, and seem untouchable. Have you ever thought about what the villain had to go through to get such power and respect? Have you ever wanted to experience their side of the story? See how they rose to power, the sacrifices they made, and why they chose the path of evil to begin with?

 

My point is, do you think a game where you play as the villain instead of the hero would be very interesting? Like, it's almost like the hero's story, but instead you are playing as the bad guy and end up taking down the hero and ruling the land, galaxy, or whatever with an iron fist.

 

I think there should be more games focused around the villain or at least have a secret mode where you play as the villain.

 

Feel free to discuss.

[Vinyl Scratch. 604]

Like, seriously why are there like no games like this. I would play the hell out of it...

 

But in the mean time heres something to think about: Mario...He's in love with princess peace but they dont really have a thing going on, what is bowser is the good guy and him and peach actually have a thing going on. So when bowser tries to steal peach back, mario goes and murders his entire civilisation and leaving an endless trail of destruction in his path to try and steal back a princess he doesnt even havea thing with, who is really the bad guy here?

[Hive King 2,001]

If it has both the hero and villain's side, that'd be great. 

 

I love the hell out of the Covenant in Halo, but no, we can only play them in multiplayer. I want a story mode where you can paly as a Grunt, Brute, Elite, Hunter, or Jackal slowly climbing their way through the ranks to defeat a Spartan.

 

Weirdly enough, fighting games are very good about this. If a fighting game has a story mode, chances are you'll play as the villain at some point when the story requires it. Most DBZ games have you play as Frieza or Cell when the situation demands it

[Ampharos 1,009]

If it has both the hero and villain's side, that'd be great. 

 

I love the hell out of the Covenant in Halo, but no, we can only play them in multiplayer. I want a story mode where you can paly as a Grunt, Brute, Elite, Hunter, or Jackal slowly climbing their way through the ranks to defeat a Spartan.

 

Weirdly enough, fighting games are very good about this. If a fighting game has a story mode, chances are you'll play as the villain at some point when the story requires it. Most DBZ games have you play as Frieza or Cell when the situation demands it

 

Fall of Cybertron is like this. Throughout the story you switch between Autobots and Decepticons until you get to play as either Megatron or Optimus Prime in the last level.

[Midnight Seeker 302]

I can name and recommend two games that have you play the villain.

First is Overlord
You and your minions on a quest for power. It has an even better sequel.

 

The other is a lost treasure (damn EA!).

Create a lair, attract monsters, crush heroes and torture them! Turn enemies and minions into chickens!!! What is not to love?

[Hive King 2,001]

@@Ampharos,

Sounds interesting. Games that follow the story of a movie or book nearly always have to have you play as the villain at one point.

 

For example, in the DBZ games I mentioned, you have to play as Frieza or Cell because of the fact that they did indeed win at that point.  

 

Fighting games usually allow you to play as villains

Edited January 10, 2014 by Evil Dragon Master

[Thrashy 2,800]

Not to me, honestly. I could see why others would like to, but I almost invariably prefer to play as characters who are generally considered heroic in at least some basic sense. Even if it's a borderline rotten anti-hero who's done arguably horrendous things, I can play as him/her as long as at the end of the day; when all's said and done; when the chips are down; when it comes right down to the wire (etc.), he/she is still a "good guy" in the grand scheme of things. Maybe this is just me, but I can't really get into the idea of playing a game where evil wins, especially if it's the type of villain whose main goal in life is to be a self-awarely evil, baby-strangling maniac who'll resort to butchery without a second thought; to me, it'd be like playing a serial killer.

 

And if evil ever does win, it should only be a temporary victory, IMO.

 

However, I do think it would be interesting to play through the story of a villain who, instead of winning and ruling X land with an iron fist, is ultimately doomed to lose to the "hero" (or from the villain's perspective, "villain"). Whereas you're almost guaranteed to save the day in 90% of games where you play as heroes, playing a game you know you are ultimately destined to lose - but you try anyway - makes for a tragic story that I think would be quite cool; it allows you to play as a villain, understand their motives and possibly sympathize with them, but at the end of the day, good still triumphs.

 

EDIT: Man, I butchered up my initial post. Here's to proof-reading! :comeatus:

Edited January 10, 2014 by Lord Thrashicane

[Smarts 1,622]

 

 

However, I do think it would be interesting to play through the story of a villain who, instead of winning and ruling X land with an iron fist, is ultimately doomed to lose to the "hero" (or from the villain's perspective, "villain"). Whereas you're almost guaranteed to save the day in 90% of games where you play as villains, playing a game you know you are ultimately destined to lose - but you try anyway - makes for a tragic story that I think would be quite cool; it allows you to play as a villain, understand their motives and possibly sympathize with them, but at the end of the day, good still triumphs.

 

Wow, I like the idea. He seems invincible at first, but as the story continues on, everything starts falling apart around him. He is forced to make tough decisions and has a growing sense of fear inside him. He knows that it may be all over for him, but he won't give up. Then, it gets sadder as it continues on because you start to feel for this villain. Maybe he had his own reasons for choosing the path of evil and you agreed with his ideals. Everything he worked so hard for becomes meaningless. 

[Thrashy 2,800]

Wow, I like the idea. He seems invincible at first, but as the story continues on, everything starts falling apart around him. He is forced to make tough decisions and has a growing sense of fear inside him. He knows that it may be all over for him, but he won't give up. Then, it gets sadder as it continues on because you start to feel for this villain. Maybe he had his own reasons for choosing the path of evil and you agreed with his ideals. Everything he worked so hard for becomes meaningless. 

 

Yep, pretty much. I can definitely see myself playing this type of villain, who believes, from his own perspective, that he is doing what is best for the world, even though it's clearly hurting everybody. ...Kinda describes most politicians in a nutshell, don't it? XD

[Hive King 2,001]

I just play the villains because they do cooler stuff. 

Villain move-set, I like it

Kind of boring compared to the villain moveset

[CornBreadGang 514]

I personally like the idea. I've seen games where you can take the role of an evil version of the hero, although I've never seen a game where you're the villain completely. The closest I've come to that would be "Spider-Man: Web Of Shadows", where you can do a completely evil pathway, and rule the world, "Infamous", where, again, you can be dark. Like I said, it's a cool idea, but it hasn't been done, sadly.

[Geek0zoid 1,468]

That would depend on how you're doing it. I've played a few games where you have to play as the villain (If Sonic Adventure 2 counts as one of those games.) But, yeah, I would enjoy that concept, but that would depend on why the villain is doing it in the first place. Is it for cold-hearted revenge? Is it to power over the land with an iron first, like you said? Is he doing it just to be a dick? It all depends on their motivation and how they pursue it.

[Scootalove 10,689]

I want a game like that made right now, make it happen! There should be a scenario where you're the villain and you get to decide whether you rule with an iron first or keep your subjects silent so they have no way of protesting against your oppressive power. Sounds like a plan!

[FractalMoon 378]

Games are usually about the hero and his/her adventures. You learn to like or hate them as you journey on to fight the ultimate evil. You meet the villain and see that they already have plenty of power, an army, and seem untouchable. Have you ever thought about what the villain had to go through to get such power and respect? Have you ever wanted to experience their side of the story? See how they rose to power, the sacrifices they made, and why they chose the path of evil to begin with?

 

My point is, do you think a game where you play as the villain instead of the hero would be very interesting? Like, it's almost like the hero's story, but instead you are playing as the bad guy and end up taking down the hero and ruling the land, galaxy, or whatever with an iron fist.

 

I think there should be more games focused around the villain or at least have a secret mode where you play as the villain.

 

Feel free to discuss.

Villain roles are better for tabletop RPGs than structured video games... I mean, Dungeon Keeper and Overlord were fun, but you need the freedom of a non-structured to be truly bad.

[Evil Nightmares 552]

i would argue that Alex Mercer from [PROTOTYPE] is a villain.

[Zekromic 1,054]

first one, you follow Gabriel to an epic quest, kicking butt until the end, only to find out it won't revive your wife. It's DLC shows how he acquire his vampiric AND demonic powers. LoS2 we will have a little taste of his full power only to lose them in the modern era, and we recover them kicking high tech demon butt to later kick the greater evil, doesn't matter if you have to do many Castlevania equivalent of "No Russian" from Call of Duty, including with little girls (I'm serious, your first innocent victims are a family of three, with the little girl)

Edited January 11, 2014 by Zekromic

[Mutemutt 773]

Yeah, but only if the villain isn't just evil because evil. The pure evil aspect just doesn't interest me, it disgusts me. As long as I get some good reason behind their character, I can usually come to love them. Maybe an "ends justify the means" villain, or an avenger, or something. I just really need a good story behind the character.

 

And I don't mind having games where evil actually wins at the end of the day, but that's much trickier to handle. There's only two games that I've played that come to mind where evil wins in the end -- one you play the good guys, and one where you play the bad guy but don't realize it till the end -- but I have to say I liked the endings. I guess it shouldn't be unusual for the bad guys to win in games centered around them, but losing the final battle as the good guys can be pretty good when handled correctly.

[FractalMoon 378]

Yeah, but only if the villain isn't just evil because evil. The pure evil aspect just doesn't interest me, it disgusts me. As long as I get some good reason behind their character, I can usually come to love them. Maybe an "ends justify the means" villain, or an avenger, or something. I just really need a good story behind the character.

And I don't mind having games where evil actually wins at the end of the day, but that's much trickier to handle. There's only two games that I've played that come to mind where evil wins in the end -- one you play the good guys, and one where you play the bad guy but don't realize it till the end -- but I have to say I liked the endings. I guess it shouldn't be unusual for the bad guys to win in games centered around them, but losing the final battle as the good guys can be pretty good when handled correctly.

Funny, that's what we would up doing with our villain campaign... I'd still have to say that the Beyond Her Blue Flame DLC from Valkyria Chronicles does a lot to humanize one of the villains of that game, as well as being a really well-designed game in general.

[Zekromic 1,054]

Yeah, but only if the villain isn't just evil because evil. The pure evil aspect just doesn't interest me, it disgusts me. As long as I get some good reason behind their character, I can usually come to love them. Maybe an "ends justify the means" villain, or an avenger, or something. I just really need a good story behind the character.

 

And I don't mind having games where evil actually wins at the end of the day, but that's much trickier to handle. There's only two games that I've played that come to mind where evil wins in the end -- one you play the good guys, and one where you play the bad guy but don't realize it till the end -- but I have to say I liked the endings. I guess it shouldn't be unusual for the bad guys to win in games centered around them, but losing the final battle as the good guys can be pretty good when handled correctly.

yeah, that's really important aspect, and I really have good expectations for Lords of Shadow 2 because of that. Gabriel Belmont, the LoS saga's Dracula, will not be a black and white character, many shades of grey will be explored about him and many other characters, including the supposed good guys, like Victor Belmont. Gabriel might not be completely amoral or ruthless, but that won't stop him doing questionable things like killing a family of three (little girl included), and not be a True Blood or Twilight vampire

[Doc. Volt 2,561]

MY FAVOURITE GAME OF ALL TIME! EVIL GENIUS! YOU HAVE TO CONQUEST THE WORLD!

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_Genius_%28video_game%29

[Trekkard 49]

There are some games where you play the villain, one them being the first Grand Theft Auto on PC. Same goes with the other GTA games where you play a character that isn't a good person. Same goes for fighting games, where every character has a different perspective, both good and evil. 

[Flash Fire 386]

Has nopony here ever played any of the infamous series?

[ghostfacekiller39 23,860]

I dunno much at all about vidyagames myself, but if no one's done that, woww.

 

I mean, I think someone would be able to come along with a creative mind and have you play as a straight-up villain, and not in some stupid sense like when you play as the zombies in Left 4 Dead (I've watched gameplay vids before.), and not as an anti-hero, either.

 

That's kinda appalling, really.

[Discordian 6,015]

Play Nier. While not strictly a villain by the time you get all four endings, or at least ending B as I haven't gotten the last two yet to say either way, you may end up hating the main character.

Ahem, anyway. I don't particularly care what the alignment of the characters you play as are but I do prefer when there's grey area. Things that make you think.

 

I don't particularly like to play games like Oblivion for story as you are pretty much forced into a good guy scenario. The dialog options for evil don't seem to be very well thought out and there's a very obvious bias towards heroes. At least in a game that doesn't give you free reign on dialog and story you are forced into a path instead of being given the illusion of choice but it's not really your choice.

[Doctor Blueberry 18]

Soul Nomad & the world eaters

While one might think it might be filled with as much comedy as the Disgaea series (it has its fun moments) it also has its darker scenes.

When you have played trough as the Hero the Darker path opens, much shorter then the main story it is very pleasing to be the villain

 

Hmmm.....Vacant Sky Awakening which was funded trough kickstarter will let you play as the villain, not out yet.