Games where you are the bad guy (but don't know it)

[Legomaniac91_v1legacy]

Bioshock comes to mind as does Knights of the Old Republic; but in those game you had the option to turn good in the end. The biggest one in my mind is God of War 3. Kratos floods the world, unleashes anarchy in the underworld, blacks out the sun, unleashes a plague, and pretty much destroys the world; all in a petty quest for revenge on a guy who was trying to protect the world from his bloody, sadistic rampage.

 

[Artorius]

Bioshock comes to mind as does Knights of the Old Republic; but in those game you had the option to turn good in the end. The biggest one in my mind is God of War 3. Kratos floods the world, unleashes anarchy in the underworld, blacks out the sun, unleashes a plague, and pretty much destroys the world; all in a petty quest for revenge on a guy who was trying to protect the world from his bloody, sadistic rampage.

ahh totally forgot about GW3, and couldn't agree more.
to quote yahtzee ' This guy murders the god of the sea and the sun,doing untold damage to the world and for what?, resolve his daddy issues'

 

[daveman247]

Portal

Wait what? Unless you mean the coop then fair enough

Well in metal gear solid 3 and peace walker you play as big boss. So, yeah.

EDIT: Oh and pretty much any RPG in which the "hero" lets himself into a strangers house, interrorgates them for a bit and then proceeds to rob them blind "for the greater good of saving the land".

 

[Vault101]

Red faction Gurrella

I mean is starting a "civil" war and claim mars for yourself while earth is in a bad state REALLY a good long term plan?

 

[Raggedstar]

Hmm, no mention of Heavy Rain yet? One of your characters is the baddie. The reveal seemed rather rushed, but...there you go.

 

[Souplex]

Kirby: Any game in the series.
You're a cannibalistic, regicidal, mass murderer.

 

[Irridium]

RAGE.

Yeah, the game says the Authority is bad and the Resistance is good, but there's really no justification for it besides "because I said so".

When you break into an Authority prison to rescue a Resistance member, he's healthy, looks well fed, and doesn't look like he was tortured or mistreated. He was certainly healthy enough to start fighting right when you saved him.

When the Authority takes over Wellspring, they don't take anyone's property, don't hurt anyone, and don't disrupt any business. They do take the mayor, but he was jerking you around for his own needs, so going by how they treated our resistance friend, he'll just be in jail.

They are hostile, but that's because the only times you encounter them is when you're invading their areas. They only aggressively pursue you after you invade their areas and murder their soldiers. The character you play is kind of a dick.

I have seen no evidence to suggest that the Authority are really bad. There's rumors, but they're just rumors. Some say they're behind the mutants. Why would they make mutants? What goals would that accomplish? Are they doing it for kicks? To combat the large bandit population? What is the purpose of that?

Yeah they had Wellspring prisoners, but what did those prisoners do? For all we know they murdered Authority members "just because", kind of like what you do.

Yeah Cross set his ark to release early so he can seize society. But we're never told why he did it. Was he a mego-maniac? Did he just think he was doing the right thing and just wanted to help? The other Ark survivors join up with him, so maybe he's doing something right. We're told they're "taken" by the Authority. But, how is that much different than what you went through? You were taken by John Goodman who then tells you to do menial tasks for him and to kill people.

I just think it'd be interesting to hear the Authority's side of the story. Because based on what I've seen, they don't seem that bad.

 

[-Drifter-]

I feel that most of the people in this thread have missed the point. He's talking about games where the designated hero can, with a different perspective, easily be seen as the villain, not games where it's dramatically revealed or presented as a choice. At least, that's the impression I got.

On that note, Mirror's Edge. I can't shake the feeling that the Runners are probably drug traffickers at best and terrorists at worst, and there seem to be subtle hints that at the very least Faith and company aren't as noble as they make themselves out to be. In the first level Faith complains that the police "just opened fire," leaving out the bit where they warned her to drop the bag and put her hands in the air and only shot after she refused and ran away. Not that that's going to matter much in the face of the many murders you'll have committed before the game is over (murders of high-ranking law officers, no less.)

 

[artanis_neravar]

Gears of War.

The Locust are attempting to flee their War Torn home, beseiged by new and terrifying creatures from the deep. They develop a plan to escape to the peace of the surface world to re-group and save their people. Unfortunately, they've never set foot "topside" before.

In order to ensure that they're able to evacuate as many civilians as possible as fast they can, they send their largest animals to the surface first, to literally carve tunnels through the earth big enough to move them all at once. Humans, unfortunately, live up top. They see the presumed intentional destruction caused by their emmergence as an act of war.
Meanwhile, the Locust Governmental Sub-comittee responsible for the evacuation is lombasted by the Locust government for not doing their job - they literally dug into the middle of a densely populated city that they didn't even know was there. Attempts to communicate with the Humans are rejected by a never ending stream of bullets and blood.

The Humans further retaliate, slaughtering millions of Locust civillians without hesitation at the hands of American Super Soliders - claiming to be defeating the Locust Horde of monsters from the deep.
Unintentional or not, the Locust are forced to fight an un-winnable war on two fronts. With their civilisation in ruins, their families dead and rotting and no chance at survival, they abandon hope.
They throw themselves endlessly and mindlessly upon the waves Human soldiers, begging for the sweet release of death to free them from the horrors of their shattered lives, and hoping to be reunited with their families in the afterlife.

Wrong, the locust queen specifically says "we thought about making peace with you before we emerged but didn't believe that this was possible, so we choose war" not to mention that the locust killed off something like a quarter of the population of the planet before the humans could even mount a defense, and they chose to emerge in eery city across the globe

 

[alwaysrockon]

El Presidente!!! In a game you try to be so good, but end up finding yourself more and more at ends with yourself, your god complex slowly taking over, the value of life slowly diminishing in your eyes, even as you slowly pay more and more attention to individual citizens. It's a great game, because it truly shows that power corrupts, and you don't even realizing that it's happening.

 

[DestinyCall]

How about Planescape: Torment?

You are your own worst enemy in that game, in a number of ways. And while you may have good intentions at the time, your journey of self-discovery is marked by a pretty broad trail of bodies. In the end, it's kind of difficult to say if the Nameless One was a great hero or a great monster. Or maybe a little of both.

Although thinking about it does make me wonder, "What can change the nature of a man?"

 

[Smeggs]

Yes. The Gears of War series.

Okay, stick with me for a moment.

Gears of War.

The Locust are attempting to flee their War Torn home, beseiged by new and terrifying creatures from the deep. They develop a plan to escape to the peace of the surface world to re-group and save their people. Unfortunately, they've never set foot "topside" before.

In order to ensure that they're able to evacuate as many civilians as possible as fast they can, they send their largest animals to the surface first, to literally carve tunnels through the earth big enough to move them all at once. Humans, unfortunately, live up top. They see the presumed intentional destruction caused by their emmergence as an act of war.
Meanwhile, the Locust Governmental Sub-comittee responsible for the evacuation is lombasted by the Locust government for not doing their job - they literally dug into the middle of a densely populated city that they didn't even know was there. Attempts to communicate with the Humans are rejected by a never ending stream of bullets and blood.

The Humans further retaliate, slaughtering millions of Locust civillians without hesitation at the hands of American Super Soliders - claiming to be defeating the Locust Horde of monsters from the deep.
Unintentional or not, the Locust are forced to fight an un-winnable war on two fronts. With their civilisation in ruins, their families dead and rotting and no chance at survival, they abandon hope.
They throw themselves endlessly and mindlessly upon the waves Human soldiers, begging for the sweet release of death to free them from the horrors of their shattered lives, and hoping to be reunited with their families in the afterlife.

Wrong, the locust queen specifically says "we thought about making peace with you before we emerged but didn't believe that this was possible, so we choose war" not to mention that the locust killed off something like a quarter of the population of the planet before the humans could even mount a defense, and they chose to emerge in eery city across the globe

No, I recall the entire reason for E-Day coming to pass was because Marcus' dad did not stop the emulsion infection.

If I remember right the locust were perfectly happy derping underground when they suddenly realized the emulsion was a parasitic entity. Marcus' dad made a deal with the locust queen that he would find a way to stop it, and this deal was supposedly made twenty years before E-Day, I believe it was. He took to long because he was having trouble finding a way to set off the weapon he created so that it WOULD NOT kill all of the locust as well as the emulsion. Eventually the locust began to come topside to try to clear the humans out so they could get away from the emulsion.

Then the queen got all bitchy and went all, "KILL ALL THE HUMANS!"

And in the end his father didn't find a way to spare the locust from his emulsion-killing weapon, and so all of the locust were killed at the end of Gears 3.

 

[Gustof26]

Guild wars, like all of them.

Guild Wars Prop. When you get to the country Of Kryta you find that the local population follows a group of deities known as the Unseen Ones. Every year a group of people with magical powers are dragged out into the middle of a jungle and killed in order to keep shut a magical gate protected by the Unseen Ones.

Being the hero you are you are quick to join a random resistance and attempt to take down the Unseen ones. A long battle through the forces of a cult, a group of gods, and racist dwarfs you show those Gods who's boss around here and open their stupid magical gate. That'll show them to kill random unnamed NPC #42.

Turns out the gate was the only thing stopping an army of titans from invading the world and bring about the end times, and all that fun stuff. So yeah, your the biggest villain in game because pretty much all the "Bad guys" Have really good reasons for their lightly grey ideals.

 

[karcentric]

Eversion:
Blood:
I mean, how can this man who laughs like a mad man when he kill tons of zombies and sings "the best things in life are free" could EVER be a bad guy?? /quote]

Not to mention, he likes his hands covered in blood

 

[Yopaz]

Tales of Symphonia Dawn of the New World, Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn and Avalon Code comes to mind.

 

[ResonanceSD]

Guild wars, like all of them.

Guild Wars Prop. When you get to the country Of Kryta you find that the local population follows a group of deities known as the Unseen Ones. Every year a group of people with magical powers are dragged out into the middle of a jungle and killed in order to keep shut a magical gate protected by the Unseen Ones.

Being the hero you are you are quick to join a random resistance and attempt to take down the Unseen ones. A long battle through the forces of a cult, a group of gods, and racist dwarfs you show those Gods who's boss around here and open their stupid magical gate. That'll show them to kill random unnamed NPC #42.

Turns out the gate was the only thing stopping an army of titans from invading the world and bring about the end times, and all that fun stuff. So yeah, your the biggest villain in game because pretty much all the "Bad guys" Have really good reasons for their lightly grey ideals.

GW1: work for the bad guy for a bit in order to kill some other bad guys without realising that he's the ultimate bad guy who blew up an entire nation.

Factions: Undead Ninja is causing shit. Kill undead ninja.

Nightfall: Reborn evil god is causing shit to happen, kill reborn god.

EOTN: ...? Destroyers are returning for some reason that isn't explained that well. Also the Charr are bastards. Kill both.

 

[Darh Abdomino]

Any time you play a game from the prequel trilogy of Star Wars as the good guy, especially a clone trooper (a la Battlefront). You pave the way for tyrannny.

Mass Effect. You have a guy who's body count is now, by definite canon, probably higher than the First Contact War. He

Spoiler

Blew up a solar system

, he

Spoiler

killed an official Alliance stealth team

works with

Spoiler

a horrible terrorist organization and an information broker

and, this has got to be a crime, in the first game, the video recording from Eden Prime shows a marine yelling into a camera, now, unless this was a squad deteached to escort a film crew, it stands to reason that the society with anti-gravity, shields, theoretically impossible elements and compounds, and blue alien chicks, could figure out how to put a camera into a helmet. It may even be standard issue, so unit commanders can get on-the-fly tactical updates. So it stands to reason that the most famous person in the galaxy, besides Blasto, could spare the cash to get the upgrade. Now, if he had simply used the camera when talking to Sovereign, Harbinger or other undesirables, and sent an Mp503 or whatever number they're into at 2553, he could have given the galaxy a good 2 1/2 year head start on preparing for

Spoiler

attempted robotic annihilation

. But no, that would take time away from hooking up with the said blue alien chick (or the other one, or the other other one). In essence, you're a villain because you're so unbelievably absent-minded and/or stupid that it gets literally hundreds of people killed. Not to mention the fact that Shepard apparently works with expies from Jersey Shore as of the demo.

That last one was pretty much all the fan-rant I've got in me. Hopefully it won't seem stupid when I wake up.

 

[The Madman]

I have to agree with the God of War series. I remember in God of War 3 literally laughing at how outrageously evil Kratos had become, it's ludicrous. In any other series he'd be the enemy a scrappy band of underdogs are trying to defeat but here he's supposed to be the hero?

 

[Eddie the head]

InFamous

In a very literal sense

My first thought.