Top 5 Video Game Antagonists Of All Time

sportskeeda.com:

Over time, video games have delivered many robust storylines and compelling characters. A good video game protagonist is crucial to elevate the gaming experience, partly because players generally play to escape reality, and stepping into the shoes of a protagonist in a virtual environment goes a long way to achieve that. Hence, it is the protagonist that makes or breaks the game experience.

The overall savoir-faire of the video game as a package, however, can only be transcended to legendary levels by having a well-crafted and well-written antagonist.

The value of a compelling villain is often undervalued or rather realized at a time when a game gains a cult following. Some antagonists are instantly unlikeable and can be easily touted as villains. They, however, need to be scrutinised in a different way. On the contrary, the best antagonists are often likable and, more often than not, are either victims of circumstance or idealistic motives.

Some antagonists are pure evil from the get-go, while some morph into their real selves and then become villains. It is not always the case that a video game will take its sweet time to have a dedicated story arc for its antagonist. Players are sometimes given a sufficient backstory and a believable motivation to consider them antagonists.

The following are some of the best antagonists in video games:

Andrew Ryan of Bioshock is one of the most complex characters in gaming. He was the creator of the beautiful and creepy utopia ‘The Rapture’, a city submerged in the depths of the North Atlantic ocean. What began as an ambitious endeavor to build a paradise, eventually began to crawl into his selfish motives. Players only encounter him once throughout the game, but up until that dreaded