10 Games That Unknowingly Have You Play As The Villain

From The Last of Us to Shadow of the Colossus, video games love to throw morality curveballs. Are we the hero, the villain or something in between?

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Most video games have the player step into the role of the hero to fight evil. However, a few will give you the option to be evil, like Mass Effect, while others require morally gray decisions to be made, like Fallout 4. Usually, though, you’re fighting for good.

When you are occasionally the bad guy, you know it. Nevertheless, there are a few games out there that subverted this expectation by making you play the villain unknowingly. This made for some incredible plot twists; curveballs that left us feeling confused, sickened and horrified, stunned as we realized everything we had done over the course of the game was to promote evil.

These ten games are considered the best examples of this, and needless to say, this article is chock full of major spoilers.

10 Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic

This is the only game on the list that has any form of happy ending or redemption for the main character, so enjoy it while you can. The player awakens on a Republic Ship under attack by Darth Malak, with no memory of who they are or how they got there.

It turns out the player was Darth Revan, Darth Malak’s master and Dark Lord of the Sith Empire all along. When Darth Malak betrayed him and gunned down his ship, his memories were shattered and the Jedi brainwashed him into being a good person. While the series ultimately has Darth Revan becoming a force for good, it was a shock to realize you were the big bad all along.

9 BioShock

In BioShock, the main character survives a plane crash to find a mysterious lighthouse leading to the underwater city of Rapture. The player is guided by the mysterious Atlas to fix what’s broken and confront the ruler of the broken kingdom, Andrew Ryan.

In an unexpected twist, it’s revealed that the player is a puppet of Atlas, who’s really Fontaine, sent to take down Ryan. Sure, the player exacts revenge on Fontaine in the end, but the cutscene where the player loses control of the character and watches the brutal demise of Andrew Ryan carried out was a horrible surprise.

8 The Last Of Us

This is bound to be a controversial entry, so it’ll take some explaining.

In the beginning of the game, Joel is a good guy trying to protect his daughter, but once his daughter dies all bets are off. Years later the player slowly sees Joel’s cruelty manifest as he ruthlessly takes others out and interrogates them for information. He even reveals he was once a Hunter who preyed on other survivors, causing him to part ways with his brother.

He might be operating on some personal moral code or need to survive, but players are still debating the morality of his actions (especially during the game’s final moments). Even for all the good he does, it’s apparent that Joel was and often is a villain.

7 Assassins Creed 3

Beginning the game as Haytham Kenway, players are tasked with a series of assassinations and heists to find and access a storehouse. As the story progresses, Haytham eventually reveals he is a member of the Templars, intent on establishing the tyrannical New World Order.

It was a surprising twist that players didn’t see coming. Realizing that everything they’d done as Haytham was to advance an evil agenda did not sit well. Fortunately, players then took on the role of Ratonhnhaké:ton and were able to undo the damage they had done as Haytham, but it was a disturbing moment nevertheless.

6 Prototype

In Prototype, players control Alex Mercer, a young amnesiac who discovers he’s infected with a virus that’s mutating his body and giving him incredible powers. That same virus has also spread to infect the entire city.

It’s learned that Alex was hired by Gentek to create the Blacklight virus. After Blackwatch concluded he was a liability, he stole a sample and tried to escape. Along the way, he was forced to infect himself to survive an attack, which also sparked the infection of the city. Not only is he responsible for the creation of the virus, he also caused the outbreak.

This explains why he doesn’t seem concerned about consuming civilians to regenerate his powers.

5 Amnesia: Justine

This strange bit of DLC for Amnesia: The Dark Descent tasked players with solving Justine’s puzzles, in order to save a number of innocent victims’ lives.

In the end, players were shocked when it was revealed that they were playing as Justine herself, that she had wiped her memories and created the puzzles as a psychological test to see if she possessed compassion. Sure, the character had amnesia and the player thought they were helping, but the realization that the freed victims were still doomed after she obtained her memories was deeply unnerving, putting this game in the top five.

4 Heavy Rain

Heavy Rain was an engaging game that had players solve a dark mystery, involving a kidnapping and a series of grim crimes perpetrated by the Origami Killer. The player fills the roles of multiple characters, all with different stakes in the kidnapping.

It turns out one of the playable characters, Scott Shelby (a private eye investigating the Origami Killer), is actually the criminal himself. It was another surprising twist following the tenderness he showed towards a baby in need, which made his true nature all the more disturbing for players who became attached to him.

3 Braid

Braid is a simple platformer that has the main character trying to find a way to reach the princess and save her from a fortress.

At first, it seems the princess is helping you save her, but when you reach the end you discover time has been playing in reverse. In reality, you are stalking the princess, while she’s trying to hinder your progress in order to escape.

It’s an effective twist that leaves players feeling a little uncomfortable for harassing the maiden. The only reason this game doesn’t rank higher is that its ending is ambiguous, suggesting that it’s possible the main character is trying to atone for their deeds by going back in time, but is ultimately unable to do so.

2 Shadow Of The Colossus

When it comes to unknowingly playing the villain in a video game, this is probably the first title that comes to mind. In Shadow of the Colossus, the player is tasked by the mysterious Dormin to slay sixteen Colossi in order to save their loved one from death.

It’s revealed that Dormin is an ancient evil, whose essence was split into sixteen parts and locked away inside the colossi. As the main character defeats each Colossus, he becomes corrupted, preparing to become a vessel for Dormin. It was a dark reveal, especially unsettling because it’s suggested that the character had an idea that this would happen after stealing the ancient sword.

Shadow Of The Colossus is widely considered the first game to bring the unknowing villain concept to mainstream audiences.

1 The Witch’s House

This is a lesser known indie game, except for fans of JRPGs or followers of famous YouTubers like PewDiePie or Markiplier. The Witch’s House starts out with a young girl named Viola trapped in an eerie home of a malevolent witch named Ellen.

After escaping the house, it’s revealed that the main character is not actually Viola, but Ellen, who took over Viola’s body in a body swap ritual. Viola, meanwhile, is trapped in the witch’s mutilated body.

Shortly after this reveal, the innocent girl’s father arrives on the scene and shoots what he thinks is the witch, while the real Ellen laughs gleefully behind him. It’s all very dark, especially because evil actually does win the day here.

Link Source : https://www.thegamer.com/video-games-surprise-villain-protagonist/