A game where you become the end

Fighting against insurmountable odds against a potentially world-ending threat and ultimately saving the world is the main storyline of many games. There's a natural appeal to playing a hero that draws people in, and the game capitalizes on that.

However, some games flip the script. Instead of saving the world from something, you are the one the world needs to save. In some cases, the truth is revealed and the game invites you into the chaos and dances on the ashes. In other cases, the fact that you're the game's ultimate villain is kept hidden until the final moment, when the developers pull the rug out from under you with a surprise twist.

furry

harbinger of death

The Stranger is a mysterious protagonist. furryHis only goal is to escape the prison he is in to secure his freedom by killing everyone who stands in his way. The stranger who finally escapes from prison learns that he is bringing death and corruption to the land with his mere presence. Simply standing on land causes all life around him to wither and die, indicating that his very presence is corrupting the free world. The Stranger escapes into orbit to find answers, where he discovers the Star, an AI-controlled mothership. This mothership informs us that it was originally a creation of the ship itself and was a vanguard to determine if the planet was worthy of assimilation.

The stranger is presented with two choices. He can either help The Star assimilate the free worlds to achieve its original purpose and bring about a complete apocalypse, or he can agree to fight The Star and turn against his own kind. However, The Star warns that the latter choice will not change the nature of his corrupt existence, and that even if The Star is destroyed, more invaders will come.

Elden Ring

Lord of Chaos

The fate of the Lands Between lies in the hands of the Tarnished, of whom the legend goes: Elden Ring. They can help maintain the current order, they can break the cycle in favor of something completely different, or they can reduce the whole world to ashes.

in Elden RingIn the ending of Lord of the Frenzied Flame, Tarnished becomes the Lord of Chaos and plunges the world into fire and brimstone, destroying not only the Greater Will but everything else. Likewise, the Blessing of Despair ending also brings about an apocalypse of sorts, but it's more of a slow death than an immediate cataclysm. In this ending Elden Ring Infected with the Fell Curse, all beings in the Lands Between are unable to escape, not even in death.

Plague Inc.

Design the perfect apocalypse

from the very beginning Plague Inc.There's no ambiguity about what the game wants from you: to end the world. Players can take on the role of a sentient plague and decide how it should grow and which mutations will help it circumvent human efforts to stop the plague. If managed correctly, an epidemic can grow from a mild influenza-level illness to an extinction-level event in a matter of months. The goal is to help the pandemic grow while ensuring it is not neutralized by the world's medical experts and vaccines.

The best part? The nature of the apocalypse is entirely in your hands. To start, there is a bog-standard evolutionary path that infectious diseases follow: bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites. But the real fun begins with special epidemics: the Necroa virus, which can turn people into zombies, the Neurax worm, which can turn infected people into mind-controlled slaves, the simian flu (inspired by Planet of the Apes), which can give apes intelligence, and the Shadow Plague, which can bring about the vampire apocalypse.

Destroy all humans!

Slapstick human extinction

Destroy all humans! is an open world action-adventure game where players take on the appearance of an alien named Crypto (Cryptosporidium-137). His goal is to harvest the brain stems of 1950s American humans to collect special alien DNA that could save his species from extinction. Crypto uses everything from alien guns and psychic powers to a UFO equipped with a death ray that can flatten the entire Earth, wreaking havoc on every human he encounters.

From the player's perspective, Destroy all humans! It's a fun game full of unchecked violence, slapstick comedy, and raunchy alien jokes. But for humans caught in Crypto's war path, it's like the end of the world.

Prototype 1 & 2

biological weapon of mass destruction

in Prototype 1Alex Mercer definitely falls into the antihero category. He is ruthless and violent, and doesn't seem to care much about the loss of life in his pursuit of survival and truth, but he can't be called 'evil' in the strictest sense. Between an army trying to wipe Manhattan off the map and super mutants indiscriminately threatening the city, Mercer appears to be making the best of a bad situation. By the end of the game, Mercer saves the city from a virus outbreak that would bring about its destruction, saving the lives of those inside.

Fast forward prototype 2Mercer is no longer the anti-hero that players knew, but a true villain disillusioned with humanity's cruelty. Betrayed by his lover, he comes to believe that all humans are worthless and deserve to be consumed as biomass to create a unified whole that will end all suffering.

infamous

Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

at the end infamousThe player learns that the antagonist Kessler was actually Cole from an alternate future who traveled back in time to stop the Beast, his enemies, and an extremely powerful conduit that killed his wife and children in the alternate timeline. Kessler's goal was to prepare present-day Cole for the future so he could kill the Beast instead. Two endings are possible, depending on what type of Karma the player accumulated while playing. infamous.

In the good ending, Cole decides to heed the warning given to him by Kessler (the future Cole) and prepares to take on the role of Empire City's hero and face the Beast. In the bad ending, Cole becomes arrogant and laughs at Kessler, who believes he is the strongest and fears the Beast. Empire City was reduced to ruins due to Cole's actions, and the once thriving metropolis was turned into a wasteland without laws or rules. There, the strong and the weak become slaves.

Special Ops: The Line

What was it all for?

Special Ops: The LineMartin Walker, the protagonist of , is one of the best examples of where the protagonist was always the villain. Believing that only he understands what is really going on in Dubai, he unleashes white phosphorus on a company of soldiers to kill every last man, gunning down “rebels” and “rebels” he believes are working for the enemy, and helping destroy the city's last water supply, sending everyone in Dubai to a slow death.

By the end of the game, Walker was suffering from severe hallucinations that made him think he was talking to Conrad, justifying the atrocities he had committed, when in reality it was revealed that Conrad had been dead for a long time. Due to the involvement of the CIA, he believed that the 33rd Battalion had turned traitorous, when in reality it was the CIA who had carried out a secret mission to kill everyone in Dubai to prevent news of American involvement in the region from leaking out. only at the very end Special Ops: The Line Does Walker truly realize the severity of his mistake? But until then, the only choice he has left is to face it head on or, like always, hide his head in the sand once again and shift the blame to someone else.

shadow of the colossus

deal with the devil

in shadow of the colossusIn it, players take on the role of Wander, an ancient sword-wielding warrior who seeks to revive the sacrificed girl Mono. In his quest, Wander encounters Dormin, a mysterious being who promises that he can bring Mono back to life if he completes his mission to kill the 16 giants that roam the ancient land. However, Dormin warns Wander that he will have to pay a heavy price to see the girl fully resurrected, but Wander agrees to complete the task anyway.

However, Dormin does not reveal the whole truth. When the player eventually succeeds in killing all 16 Colossi and returns to Dormin to resurrect Mono, they learn that the Colossi exist for a reason. In reality, these beings were living seals to confine Dormin to the sanctuary of worship. By killing them, Wander unknowingly freed these mysterious beings from their prison. Dormin is resealed by another NPC at the end, but the fact remains that all of Wander's efforts up to this moment may have been in the service of an entity that would bring about the apocalypse if released.