Some villains are evil for the sake of it or because they enjoy it. However, modern video games need antagonists with more depth to them to pull audiences in. An easy way to make a villain sympathetic, if not likable, is to give them a well-fleshed-out reason for what they do.

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There are plenty of stock reasons for villainy in fiction. Some antagonists want to take over the world for power. Some want revenge on a person, organization, or nation. However, more and more games have villains whose motives might be unique, sympathetic, or well-explored. Whatever the case, they always end up being memorable and interesting.

10 The Fireflies Genuinely Want To Save Mankind

The Last Of Us

Joel and Ellie in front of the Fireflies symbol The Last of Us

An easy way to give conflict depth is to give both sides a point. If both the protagonist and the antagonist genuinely want to do good, it makes it hard to root for any one side. The Last of Us has plenty of hateful, spiteful villains. Its final antagonists, however, are genuinely heroic in their motivations but not their means.

The Fireflies are the only faction still seeking a cure for the cordyceps plague. They're trying to synthesize a way to innoculate all people against it and to stop the infection from spreading. To do this, however, they have to kill Ellie. This puts them into instant conflict with Joel and makes the player's actions incredibly grey. Fans still debate the morality of their plan years later.

9 Saren Tries For Salvation Through Subjugation

Mass Effect

Saren Arterius on Virmire in Mass Effect

The Reapers are the greater-scope threat of Mass Effect. Saren Arterius, in contrast, is a much more personal foe. He's a rival to Shepard and a rogue Spectre. He spends the game leading the Geth to find the Conduit, with the ultimate goal of bringing back the Reapers.

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However, Saren isn't a generic villain wanting to bring about doomsday. He's met Sovereign and is convinced that the Reapers' victory is inevitable. He hopes to spare at least some organic life by being useful to the Reapers. His motives are especially interesting because the audience knows he's wrong and because the game leaves it unclear how much of his actions is down to indoctrination.

8 Big Boss Fights For A World Where Soldiers Are Valued

Metal Gear

Big Boss talking to Solid Snake in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

The Metal Gear franchise's villains are interesting because most of them share the same goal. They all fight throughout the franchise to enact the Boss' will. A visionary and soldier, the Boss hated the way governments disposed of soldiers when they were no longer useful. Big Boss, Liquid, and the Patriots all try and make a difference for her in different ways.

Big Boss' attempt is integral to the series and the focus of several games. He tries to build nations where soldiers will always be valued: MSF, Diamond Dogs, Outer Heaven, and Zanzibar Land. His pursuit of this goal leads to darker and darker means, to the point where he threatens the world with nuclear weapons.

7 The Gravemind Has A Reason For Galactic Annihilation

Halo

The Gravemind introduces himself with "I Am A Monument to All Your Sins" in Halo 2 game

The Gravemind's goal in Halo 2 and 3 can look like pointless villainy. It wants to spread the Flood to all life in the galaxy. The Flood live a horrific existence, one of pain and stagnancy, but this is the point. The Gravemind and the Flood exist to keep life in a suppressed, helpless state.

The games only briefly touch on the history of the Gravemind, hinting that they have been defeated long before and that they bear a particular grudge against the Forerunners. The expanded universe reveals that the Flood is the new form of the Precursors. After their near-extinction by the Forerunners, they set about reducing the galaxy to a state that could never harm them again - adding a unique twist to a zombie plot.

6 Andrew Ryan Is An Objectivist To The Very Last

BioShock

The confrontation with Andrew Ryan in Bioshock

The BioShock games go out of their way to be political and philosophical. BioShock and BioShock 2 take place in a crumbling Rapture, brought to ruin by the obsessive following of philosophical ideals. Andrew Ryan, the villain of BioShock, builds his city on purest Objectivist ideals and watches as the same things bring it to collapse.

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Ryan gives a speech detailing his philosophy, one that is considered the best in gaming. He states that each person is entitled to the fruits of their labor, to do as they want without concern for others. What elevates his motives is that he holds to them even to the end. Ryan chooses to order his own death rather than let someone else do it, an Objectivist in his very final moments.

5 Edelgard Wants To End A Corrupt And Oppressive Church

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Edelgard at the academy in Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Each of the three Lords in Fire Emblem: Three Houses has their own goal. The game's unique structure lets the player side with any of the three and change whether they're a hero or a villain. Edelgard is one of Three House's worst villains in two routes, going down a dark path and committing monstrous acts.

However, she has her reasons, even at her darkest. Edelgard wants to bring down the Church of Seiros. She views it as a corrupt institution that holds Fódlan back, and it is not without merit. To destroy it, however, she dies with the villainous Those Who Slither in the Dark and plunges Fódlan into a hideous war.

4 Superman's Ends Justify His Horrific Means

Injustice: Gods Among Us

The evil tyrant Superman from Injustice: Gods Among Us

Injustice: Gods Among Us and its sequel follow an alternate version of the DC universe. In this universe, Superman sets himself up as a tyrant over all of Earth, enforcing his rule with an iron fist. Clark continues to see himself as moral throughout this, believing that he's genuinely doing what he's always been doing: saving lives.

However, he almost completely perverts what Superman stands for. He kills pre-emptively, blaming himself for letting the Joker live long enough to kill Lois and his child. He forcibly oppresses the world, thinking that people will only cause chaos if he lets them run free. It's a well-crafted examination of an all-powerful superhero's potential endpoint, and the game is all the better for it.

3 Queen Marika The Eternal Fights To Free Herself From A God

Elden Ring

Queen Marika the Eternal in Elden Ring.

Plenty of RPGs center around killing a god. Elden Ring is unusual, however, in that it's a worshipper of that very same god who wants to fight back. Marika never appears as a threat in the game, but she's responsible for nearly everything wrong with the Lands Between. Her plots and schemes lead to the Shattering and the Tarnished's journey.

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Marika does everything she does to free herself of the Greater Will. Despite being a goddess and queen of the world's most powerful empire, she's restricted by the will of a much more powerful Outer God. Marika desires freedom and executes a several-centuries-long plan to achieve it. Elden Ring doesn't pass judgment, letting the player decide if her actions are justified or not.

2 The Templars Strive For The Most Oppressive Kind Of Peace

Assassin's Creed

Haytham Kenway and the North American Templar Order in Assassin's Creed.

The Assassin's Creed franchise takes an increasingly grey view on both of its factions. The games hammer the point home that both sides ultimately want peace. Where the Assassins want a world of free will, only stepping in to deal with those who threaten that, the Templars believe that free will ultimately lead to conflict.

As such, the Templars and Assassins fight a war for millennia over these differing ideals. Assassin's Creed points out again and again that neither side is perfect and that both do awful things. Fans still debate if the Templars' argument has any merit or if they're simply dictators striving for moral justification.

1 Revan Brings Down The Republic To Save The Republic

Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic

Revan wielding red and purple lightsabers Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Revan's motives aren't well-explored in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. A Republic war hero, he disappears and returns several years later at the head of an immense Sith fleet. His war against the galaxy is brutal and overwhelming but he doesn't destroy planets, leaves manufacturing intact, and doesn't kill needlessly.

This is because Revan's trying to save the Republic. Star Wars: The Old Republic reveals that Revan has knowledge of the Sith Empire and the all-powerful Sith Emperor. Revan hopes to conquer the Republic and reforge it as a stronger military power to stand a chance of surviving the Sith's onslaught.

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