Bad guys we love to hate

Villains can make or break a video game. The antagonist to the player’s protagonist. Great villains are memorable and give the player a reason to struggle forward to complete a game, knowing they’ll get the sweet satisfaction of defeating them.

Let’s take a look back at some highlights of the best villains of all time. These games deserve to be played with the best graphics possible to show off the villain in all their sinister glory and the ROG Strix GTX 1080 is one of the baddest graphics cards ever created. Indeed it is ideal to be ready for any upcoming candidates for best villian of all time, but for these classics - ROG Strix RX 480 is more than enough to let you see these villians' true colors.

GLaDOS

Debut: Portal, 2007

The A.I. that runs the Aperture Science facility in Valve’s puzzle platform is cold and calculating. Her calm, robotic voice masks her anger and hatred towards the main character. As the game progresses, players have to solve the challenging puzzles she sets using the game’s signature portal gun, all the time being harassed and insulted by the sinister GLaDOS. 

GLaDOS isn’t memorable just because of how evil she is, but also because she’s incredibly well-written, with witty lines of dialogue delivered by the talented actor Ellen McLain.

SHODAN

Debut: System Shock, 1994

Another evil artificial intelligence (and most likely an inspiration for GLaDOS), SHODAN takes control of a space facility and sends her army of cyborgs and mutants after the player in a cyberpunk nightmare. Where GLaDOS is cold and calculating, SHODAN is much scarier. Her stuttering, chaotic voice is off-putting and creepy. Worst of all, SHODAN has a god-complex and is intent on wiping out humanity and creating her own reality. 

Handsome Jack

Debut: Borderlands 2, 2012

Handsome Jack is the de facto dictator of Pandora, the setting for the first person shooter Borderlands 2. Video game journalist Alice Bell described him as one of her favorite game villains: “He's an a#@hole, but you kind of have to admire the style.” Others have described him as gleefully, unapologetically nasty. He manages to balance a serious, villainous tone with the game’s signature humor. One thing that makes him stand out as a great villain is how, according to the game’s creators, Handsome Jack sees himself and his actions as heroic…

Kerrigan

Debut: StarCraft, 1998

Sarah Kerrigan starts off as a soldier in the Terran army in Blizzard’s classic real-time strategy game StarCraft, but has an amazing and dramatic arc across several games. Captured by the Zerg, an evil alien race of insect-like creatures, she is infested and turned into a human/Zerg hybrid and later dubs herself the Queen of Blades.

In later games, she takes control of the entire Zerg hive and seeks to take over the galaxy. She has often been praised as a distinct, believable character with plenty of depth. Her transformation at the hands (claws?) of the Zerg is disturbing and fascinating in equal measure.

 

By Luke Graham