Evil will Always Triumph, Because Good is Dumb: Playing the Villain in Videogames

What is it about being evil in videogames that’s so fun? Well, we’re not really allowed to do it in real life. There’s all sorts of consequences for evil deeds and before you know it, everybody’s calling for your head on a platter. Videogames skip all that messy nonsense and just let you enjoy the (Ill-gotten) fruits of your labor. So, you decide you want to be a villain and you go looking through your collection for a good game, but then you realize that playing a compelling villain is almost impossible in most games. What’s a gamer to do?

Look at how much fun he's having! I wanna do that! I'll dress up in black!

What can a game to allow you to be a good villain? What games take (mis)steps on the road towards good villain gameplay?

It seems to me that a compelling villain, a good villain, doesn’t see themselves as the villain. They’re not cartoonish-ly evil, they don’t spout sermons about how they’ll kill everybody, etc. A good villain does evil things for an arguably “just” cause. Ozymandias of Alan Moore’s Watchmen is a great example. He destroys all of New York City, millions of people, to stop the world from destroying itself via nuclear weapons.

This might be the first time a villain has ever planned ahead for this sort of situation. Good on you, Ozy.

He’s a villain that merits discussion and argument, with complex motivations and ideas. Melisandre, the Red Woman, from George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones series is another villain with complex motivations. Games rarely offer you the full package of compelling villainy, but there are some standouts which take steps in the right direction.

Knights of the Old Republic, an RPG by Bio Ware, is an epic tale of discovery, adventure, and weighty decisions. In any Star Wars game, movie, TV show, etc., The Force is divided into two sides: The Light and the Dark. The Light Side of The Force is supposed to be harmonious, compassionate, selfless, and is the tool of the Jedi. The Dark Side of The Force is fueled by “negative” emotions such as anger, hate, rage, and is the tool of the Dark Jedi.

I feel like the Dark Side could use a little makeover. Maybe a bit less red, some more pastels. It would really help with their image.

KOTOR gives you hundreds of choices throughout the game that move you towards The Light or The Dark side. Thematically, going towards The Dark Side makes a lot of sense. The Dark Side is incredibly powerful and faster to achieve mastery in than The Light Side. Choosing the “evil” path over the “right” path makes sense, given what we’re told in the universe. It’s reasonable that you could think that you’re the best person suited to ruling the galaxy and that might is the only way to get there.

See, Darth Vader made the mistake of trying to turn this whole "ruling the galaxy" thing into a family affair. Nepotism is dangerous, my friend. Branch out a little.

However, this does not translate into gameplay in a meaningful way. There are times when you come in the conflict with your companions over your alignment (and have to kill some of them), but the actual mechanics of playing don’t change enough. You still use the same Force powers but now that you’re evil, “light” powers cost more of your energy. I would prefer it if certain powers were closed off to you entirely due to your hate. Another way to go would have been to reduce your health, but increase your damage output the more you slide towards evil. After all, fighting angry is no way to protect yourself.

Fable, an RPG by Lionhead Studios (recently closed), focuses on the Hero’s Journey in a sort of tongue-in-cheek way. You literally go to a “Hero” school where you learn all that’s required to become a protagonist, then you’re off doings quests around the land, discovering more about your past. Every little thing you do in Fable moves you towards “good” or “evil”. Eat some tofu? You get some good points. Slaughter a town of peasants? Bad points.

What happens if I'm just kind of an asshole? Do I just get a greasy comb-over? 

This system really impresses when it comes to the actual gameplay effect of your actions. Your body slowly changes either way you go, with goodness giving you a literal halo and evil causing you to spout horns. The more evil you get, the more the people around you will fear you. Many NPCs will attempt to run away from you and shops will refuse your business. On the combat side of things, mastery of certain kinds of spells were closed off to you, and upgrading opposite alignment spells is way more expensive, XP-wise. There are arguably compelling reasons for some evil actions, like the extra money you can make in arena by killing your partner but a majority of the actions don’t really make sense. If you murder civilians, they’ll close off their shops to you and you won’t be able to buy equipment. Villains should do evil things because they’re trying to do something they think is just, but in Fable there’s no ends to justify.

Mass Effect 3 is the culmination of a space opera the likes of which has never been seen in gaming before. Throughout the game you can make choices that give you Paragon or Renegade points, which align with “good” or “evil” respectively. Mass Effect 3 deserves praise for allowing you to gain both Paragon and Renegade points because few people are totally good or totally evil.

Like this guy. Not a very nice dude, but he did some heroic stuff. Snape is a complex character worth arguing over.

Mass Effect 3 is one of the few games to offer compelling reasons to take “evil” actions. In one instance, you discover an ancient race of insects that ravaged the galaxy a thousand years ago is still alive. They attempt to convince you that they will be peaceful if you let them live now. Exterminating them to preserve galactic safety is a reasonable action to take based on the information you have, even though the doing so is distasteful. In the second game, you have the option to give hyper advanced technology to a pro-human splinter group that you’ve been working for. They’ve been the ones protecting humanity while the Galactic Council sits on their hands, so giving them the tech is a reasonable thing to do even though the group has a dark past. In the third game, you have the option to stop a cure to a disease that causes 999 out of every 1000 stillbirths in a violent race of aliens. You need their help to defeat the Reapers (the seemingly-unstoppable race of machines aiming to destroy the galaxy), but in the past, these aliens have tried to conquer the galaxy themselves. In each of these situations, you undertake an “evil” action for justifiable reasons. The rest of the time, however, Renegade actions amount to “I’m an impatient asshole who just likes waving my gun around.”

Accurate depiction of 99% of Renegade actions. I feel like being nicer will get you more stuff than being a jerk, but maybe that's just me.

For a leader you need your people to respect (or fear) you but the Renegade actions in Mass Effect 3 would just make everybody around you think you’re a dick. Your actions also do not change gameplay in any way, which is a wasted opportunity. Maybe darker characters could get higher damage versions of offensive powers, or be able to access illegal technology through the black market.

Everybody likes playing the bad guy once in a while. Lots of games let you indulge in some bad behavior, but few of them offer any sort of compelling villainy. There are definitely a lot of challenges around designing stories that feature a compelling villain, let alone designing a game that lets you play as one. However, we’ve seen that games can take steps in the right direction; all that’s left now is putting them all together.

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What’s in a Sequel: Knights of the Old Republic and Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords

I love Star Wars. I’ve seen the original Trilogy more times than I can count, and I saw Episode VII: The Force Awakens somewhere around 7 times in theaters. I’ve played a lot of the Star Wars games as well, from Dark Forces to The Force Unleashed. Most of them are pretty good, but few compare to the Knights of the Old Republic series. Both games are held up as examples of how to do a role playing game right, and both are still popular today. As with any sequels, there were a few changes made from the first game to the second that are worth discussing.

Who doesn't love Star Wars? Idiots that's who.

So, what’s different between the games? Was it an improvement, or a detriment?

Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR hereafter) had an interesting tone; it was very mysterious and it had a great sense of discovery. You spend most of the game trying to find the mythical Star Forge, a place where the Dark Jedi Masters Malak and Revan supposedly fell to the Dark Side. You travel from planet to planet piecing together bits of a map to lead you to the Forge, all while completing quests, picking up companions, and dodging Darth Malak.

The Star Forge maps are hidden all over the galaxy and you get to see some really atmospheric parts of the Star Wars universe trying to find the maps.

The tight focus on this mystery made the game feel smaller than it should, but in a good way. You had a concrete goal to achieve and each time you found a new piece of the map, you felt yourself getting closer to the mysterious Star Forge and its secrets. You start as just a regular member of the Republic Army, caught up in a bad situation. Your humble beginnings give the game a real sense of a hero’s journey besides the usual leveling up in most RPGs. By focusing on a smaller start, you feel like a part of the universe, not some super special anomaly.

Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords (KOTOR 2 hereafter) was also rushed out to release a little early, so there’s a general unpolished feeling to the game, but it’s not a huge issue. The game has a much more standard Star Wars sort of plot, which hurt the game a little. In KOTOR 2, you are trying to assemble the last remaining Jedi Masters to combat a newly arisen Sith threat.

The Sith in KOTOR 2 are mysterious, and their backstory is dolled out throughout the game at a good pace, which keeps you interested.

The goal feels a little less concrete, which does rob the game of some of the focus in the first. You also don’t feel as if you’re progressing nearly as much because little changes as you find the remaining Jedi Masters, other than the fact that you’ve found them. You start as a renowned Jedi Knight, though you’ve lost your connection to The Force. You are keenly aware that your character exists outside of the natural order of the universe, the Jedi, and even your companions. You’re already defined as a character, so there’s not really anyplace to go besides the usual Light or Dark side choices. Interestingly enough, some of the main character progression has been transferred to your companions. In KOTOR 1, your companions were fairly defined when you met them, and though you discovered new things about their backstories and personalities, they didn’t change much. In KOTOR 2, a fair amount of them can become Jedi if you can gain the required influence.

You can turn all but one of your non-droid, non-already-Jedi, companions into Jedi throughout the game.

This is a really interesting idea, and there’s a lot of directions that the game could have gone with it, but all it amounts to is that some of your companions can also use force powers and lightsabers. The influence system itself was a new addition in KOTOR 2 where you would gain or lose influence depending on which choices you make and how your companions felt about them. It’s a neat idea, but it just means that you switch out your companions constantly for certain situations to get them to like you more, as there’s no benefit to them disliking you.

There are also a number of mechanical differences made from KOTOR 1 to 2. One of the biggest is the crafting system in KOTOR 2, which allows you to build various items, weapons, and upgrades if you have the required skills. In KOTOR¸ certain rare pieces of equipment (and lightsabers) could be modified with upgrades that you found around the world, but they were few and far between. The upgrades would do different things for different items and it was tough to find enough to upgrade all your items, so you had to make some choices around your equipment. In KOTOR 2, almost every weapon and armor piece can be upgraded with a huge variety of upgrades.

This allows for a lot more customizability, which a lot of people might appreciate, though it fell a little flat for me. When the customizable items were limited, it felt as if you found a more unique weapon/armor that had its own story. When you can modify everything, the items feel a little less special.

You can build a number of versions of all the upgrades, which gives you more options, but makes upgrading more of a chore and less unique.

There was also a huge jump in combat complexity from KOTOR 1 to 2. In KOTOR 2, you could use a variety of lightsaber forms that gave you different kinds of bonuses, hand to hand combat was a viable option if you had the right skills, and there was a number of new combat feats, force powers, and items. Combat was a lot more customizable in KOTOR 2, and it was interesting to have your companions be able to fill more roles than they did in KOTOR. In the first game, you would often just line your party up and have them wail on the enemy, whereas in KOTOR 2 you could specialize them more. There’s also more situations where you control one of your companions on a side mission, rather than always controlling your main character, which does give you an incentive to make sure that they’re upgraded in a sensible way. These missions start really early on, so you have a good idea that you’ll be doing it again. Overall, the combat was improved in KOTOR 2, despite some of the crafting shortfalls.

Both KOTOR 1 and 2 are great games, and more than worth your time, though the first one is 12 years old this year. KOTOR definitely has a tight focus, a great sense of discovery, and grounded, believable characters. KOTOR 2 improved the combat, offered a lot more customizability to your characters, and made your companions more useful in general. I think there were a lot of stumbles from the first to the second, but KOTOR 2 tried some new things and made some improvements, which is always better than going with more of the same.