Villains are an integral part of video games and usually motivate the protagonist to act and be better. Without a good villain, a story will seem stale and boring. Even so, there have been many instances where video game villains have seriously rubbed us in the wrong way. They are despicable and their motives are unforgivable.
Today, we will be listing down the 10 most hated villains video games have to offer. These evil-doers are the top of the bunch and let’s see how their nefariousness sticks out.
Also, do not that this list will contain spoilers for the villains’ respective games, so do read at your own discretion.
1. General Shepherd (Call of Duty)
The army is all about loyalty and brotherhood. Apparently, these two values are not in General Shepherd’s dictionary. When it matters most, General Shepherd is a snake and betrayed his entire platoon and army.
Consumed by pride and greed for fame, General Shepherd will take extreme measures like killing his own mates to relish victory for himself. Once we saw “that” scene, we were genuinely appalled and lost for words. A great villain and an extremely hateable one.
2. Mark Jefferson (Life is Strange)
During the first hour of the game, Mark Jefferson seems to be a cool-young teacher that really takes his students’ studies seriously. Plus, he has an alluring charm around him and is a very skilled photographer.
However, this is actually all just a facade. Mark is actually a psychopath with sick thoughts. To quench his artistic thirst, Mark drugs his students and—without their consent—takes photographs of them. Just imagine a teacher doing that, it’s truly disgusting and we were really glad he got what was coming to him.
3. 343 Guilty Spark (Halo)
343 isn’t the evilest villain out there but boy is he annoying. This is a character that really made us want to turn off the audio because everything this bot mutters is a pure annoyance.
Yes, whatever you do and every action you make will be commentated with condescension with him. Adding salt to the wound, 343 is very less-threatening compared to other villains and it having the gall to insult the player is ear-piercing. Honestly, we really don’t know why this character is even here in this game.
4. Ghetsis (Pokemon)
It is not rocket science that Pokemon games are targeted toward children. That said, the introduction of Ghetsis really made us question this fact.
Ghetsis is a very manipulative man and he will negatively influence his adoptive son N with his misguided ideals. At first, Ghetsis paints himself with a noble cause, saying his ultimate goal is to liberate all Pokemon from their trainers. This is however a ploy for him to make all trainers lose their Pokemon while he is the only one having them, making it easy to conquer the region.
Overall, Ghetsis is a horrible guardian and a capital H hypocrite.
5. Handsome Jack (Borderlands)
Handsome Jack is another annoying one. Pompous and arrogant, Handsome Jack is very punchable and everything about him is very dislikeable.
Like with 343, Handsome Jack is painfully annoying. He is always there to annoy the player with his berating and on top of that, he is a horrible person with sadistic values. Constantly taking pride in the people he has killed, Handsome Jack is truly evil and purely cold-blooded.
Even so, his overall character is really well-written and all his villainous aspects are perfectly crafted.
6. Shido (Persona)
Persona has some really likeable villains like Akechi and Adachi who all have relatable motives for their villainous acts. This cannot be said for Persona 5’s Shido though.
Right from the start Shido presents himself as a cruel person. Obsessed with power and status, he holds total disregard for anyone beneath him and sees himself as a “saviour” of Japan. In hopes to achieve this, he will do anything even if it means murder to tie up loose ends.
From his looks to his behaviour, everything about Shido screams evil and anyone with a modicum of morality will almost instantly despise this villainous creature.
To know more about the story of Shido, be sure to purchase Persona 5 Royal for the PlayStation with our PlayStation Store Gift Cards here!
7. Zeus (God of War)
Greek gods don’t have the best track record of being kind and Zeus from God of War really solidifies this point. Paranoid and deeply in love with power, Zeus from the GOW games truly is despicable.
Zeus is also seen as a pretty heartless deity in the game where he—without hesitation—annihilates Sparta in a flash. Imagine being a god and using your powers to destroy an entire nation. It’s actually unheard of.
Other than that, Zeus also has some heinous acts up his sleeves. For instance, he imprisoned Hephaestus and enslaved him with constant torture while murdering several Titans as well. Even for an evil god, Zeus really goes the distance.
8. Heihachi (Tekken)
We’re not going to lie here, Heihachi is an awesomely designed character but his personality and actions really throw us off the edge.
Ruthless to even his family, Heihachi is a mastermind for most things evil in the Tekken universe. His Mishima fighting style is extremely brutal and the spirit behind it is very un-martial arts-like. Needless to say, it’s downright cruel.
His cruelty and darkness flowed to his future generations which we can see from both Kazuya and Jin. They are all about power and will commit to the most despicable acts to get it.
9. Scott Shelby (Heavy Rain)
At first, Scott Shelby seems to be on the side of good but like with General Shepherd, is another snake that turns out to be the actual villain. Though it has to be said, the game really did a great job setting him up as the ultimate antagonist.
Scott is a very intelligent villain who silently destroys evidence that will incriminate him. His betrayal was really well crafted and honestly, we really did not see it coming. It is one of those moments where the game really got us good.
10. Dong Zhuo (Dynasty Warriors)
In a time where war is wagered constantly, many warlords in the DW games strive for power and glory. Dong Zhuo is the same but he does it in a truly evil way and his lustfulness doesn’t make him at least a bit likeable.
Controlling the emperor like a puppet, Dong Zhuo is also very abusive with his power where he uses the nation resources for his own entertainment. Despite knowing Diao Chan is his adopted son, Lu Bu’s significant other, Dong Zhuo still went and lusts over her. He is a tyrant and someone who shows no respect, even to his family.
So that’s it! We have finally rounded up our list of the 10 most detestable villains in video games. These characters really grind our gears and even as villains, they are really the lowest of the lows.
