Summary
Open-world games are inherently about player freedom. The choice to go where they wish, complete objectives however they want, and achieve greater control or influence over the regions in which the games take place. The most twisted villains of open-world games often reflect these same traits in a darker and, arguably, more realistic guise.
Just as the player seeks to shape the world by their design, killing on a whim, deciding the fates of other individuals — and in some cases even the fates of the town, city, region or country entirely — so too does the villain. It is interesting that looking at these characteristics from an outside perspective leads to not only some of the most twisted villains of the open-world genre but perhaps some of the most unsettlingly twisted characters in video game narratives overall.
Spoiler Warning: Due to the nature of this list, major narrative spoilers will be touched upon for each entry below.
The absolute genius of the nemesis system is equal to the complete tragedy of it being denied further use due to Warner Bros. copyrighting the mechanic. Perhaps it is Warner Bros. that is the most twisted villain of this open world some call life.
Anyway, it is a brilliant idea and beautifully executed that allows for the player to essentially havetheir own villain createdfor them from their own individual experience. It’s unique to see a being become so twisted and hellbent on revenging themselves upon the player — and to know it is their own actions that have brought these rivalries into existence.
Usually, in these types of supernatural crime stories, the cruel twist of the narrative lies partially in that the regular humans are more evil than whatever entity might be behind the crimes taking place. And while there are a good couple of pretty unpleasant humans involved in the violations perpetrated inDeadly Premonition, Forrest Kaysen outdoes them all with his depraved actions and disturbing ideals.
Kaysen takes great pleasure in the cruelty he inflicts — and being the puppet master behind the ruined lives of his puppets and their numerous victims.
What makes Dimitri such a good villain, and perfect forGTA IVin particular, is how understated he is as a person. He isn’t a big colorful character — he doesn’t do disgustingly cruel acts or anything particularly over the top. There is even some sympathy built for his situation and a touch of likability to his character early on.
However, he is revealed to be sly and only loyal to himself, and as a result of his numerous betrayals and grasps for greater power, the protagonist Niko is driven into ever-worsening situations. There are inevitablevery real and heart-wrenching consequencesof this clash of ruthless and determined men.
Big poo man with big poo plans. It may seem ridiculous that someone going by this title could ever be intimidating, but out of all the monsters, demigods, and eldritch beings the player will encounter duringElden Ring,the Dung Eater sticks out to many as the most twisted. And there is asurprising amount of depthbehind the duke of defecation.
The voice acting by Jim Johnson is superb and very much gives the impression that there is nothing he would like to do more than destroy the nearest thing in sight if for no other purpose than to break it. His end goal is to curse the world and ensure everybody hurts forever, and he takes enthusiastic pleasure in his pursuit of said goal. He’s just not a nice guy!
Rockstar seems to have a penchant for creating believably horrible andhighly memorable villains. Edgar Ross is the epitome of a government man — all neat ties and clean suits while he dirties his soul through the enforced handiwork of others. He will ensure that the job, whatever it is, will be done by any means necessary.
Edgar Ross is someone who uses people in bad situations with no care for how his manipulations will impact them, and when he does get directly involved, it is typically to engineer situations for the worse. He is a good metaphor for one of the larger cogs of a huge machine that doesn’t see people as people but merely as a means to an end.
It takes a long time to actually meet Caesar inNew Vegas,but the player has plenty of time to see the impact of the man on the state of Nevada before they do (little of it good). Mythologized by his legion and feared by everyone else, Caesar is a charasmatic commander so well written that he evenconverted many playersto his cause.
Like many so-called “great men” who have a vision of the world under their control and start to have the means to make their vision reality, he believes he is doing good, so much so, that his beliefs trump what anyone else believes to the extent that disagreement can, and will, be met with death.
Charismatic, attractive, and completely off the chain. There are hints of tragedy about the character, no doubt partly thanks to the outstanding voice and motionperformance given to him by Michael Mondo, but there is also a ton of terror surrounding him too.
A smuggler of people and enforcer of prostitution who likes to torture and torment others, Vaas is lord of Rook Islands and a dark mirror of what protagonist Jason — and ostensibly, the gameplay loop of murder and gratification — can turn into.
While the name makes him sound like he could be a Saturday morning cartoon villain (Hideo Kojima’s specialty), if Skeletor did any of the things Skull Face does, He-Man would be a very grim show indeed. It is, of course, the place of a villain to have a pretty nasty end goal in sight, and not only does Skull Face have this, but the actions he takes to achieve it are also pretty horrifying in their cruelty.
Torture, rape, threatening genocide, and so much more — Skull Face is a much more realistic look at where stories of ideals and vengeance take the human spirit. While theMGSseries has had plenty of villains that were difficult to killdue to player sympathytowards the characters, Skull Face was certainly not one of them.
