An open world game where you're secretly the villain.

It's not easy open world game It's all about pulling the wool over your eyes during the campaign. There's so much going on, so many missions, characters, and dialogue you want to hear, that trying to hide any pivotal twists becomes a futile exercise. Because the script will inevitably give something away and tell you everything.

At least that's how it should be. But these games achieve this in one key area. They disguise the fact that you are actually a villain the entire time you play. This is done in several ways. Sometimes it removes NPCs and flavor text entirely, sometimes it distracts you with other objectives so you don't notice the truth right in front of you. In any case, while you're trying to save the world in this game, there's a good chance you'll actually be doomed.

There are huge spoilers ahead.

shadow of the colossus

Be careful who you ask for help

There is an inherent mystery from the start. Shadow of the Colossus. Who is this woman that Wander is holding, and what is wrong with her? Where did he bring her? And who is this being that Wander comes to for help? It looks like a ray of light on the ceiling, right? The being, who identifies himself as Dormin, tells Wander that he can restore the woman by killing the 16 colossi living on the land. That's all you get. Wander sets out to do just that, and supporting his motivation is simple enough. Of course, killing this giant seems a little… wrong. The way they fall like majestic beasts, the last of their kind being slain by a fraction of their own size. But that's what Wander should do, right? Then he begins to change.

It's subtle, but definitely noticeable. Wander's skin gradually becomes paler, his eyes darken, and black stumps sprout from his skull, which gradually form horns. By the time the 16th Colossus is destroyed, the Wander will seem like a different species, but a deal's a deal. He returns to Dormin, only to discover that the Colossus is a seal holding Dormin prisoners. With the last one gone, Dormin takes over Wander's body, transforming him into a gigantic, shadowy beast. A group of warrior priests appears. deus ex machina-style, but it's too late to save Wander. They succeeded in re-locking Dormin, though not without some difficulty. You help in this struggle by playing like a beast. With the seal in place and the warriors gone, the fallen woman awakens. In the end, Dormin survived to his death. He just didn't explain the cost.

prototype

Amnesia can mask a lot of guilt

It's easy to see Alex Mercer as an ultra-violent antihero. prototype, Considering how he spends his days stealing information from people's memories. But he is at least assumed to be the lesser of two evils. Between the military occupation of New York and the monster created by the Blacklight virus, there were three evils. The problem is that Alex, despite his shapeshifting abilities and near-invincibility, suffers from amnesia. He doesn't remember anything before he was awakened by this super-powerful bioweapon. As it turns out, those memories may have provided some pretty useful information.

This isn't some “oops, wrong place, wrong time” superpower that Alex has. He participated in the Blacklight project. Not only that, he actually manipulated the Blacklight virus that spread throughout New York, turning him into a human-eating mutant. By the time you actually control him in the game, “Alex” no longer exists. He is merely a virus operating in the form of Alex Mercer, and that realization causes him to shed what remains of his humanity like old skin. That's why in prototype 2, Alex has finally become the outright villain he was always a part of in the first game, and someone else has to come in and stop him.

prey

That wasn't Morgan Yu.

In fact, Morgan Yu witnessed the Typhon invasion of Earth. prey. But from that point on, the character you are playing is not Morgan Yu. You don't know that. You think you're going about your business in Talos I, fighting Typhon pretending to be a plunger and a bar of soap, using a fancy glue gun to create a passage along the wall, while simultaneously making your way towards your brother Alex Yu and finding a way to destroy Typhon. Then comes the rug pull.

Morgan Yu is actually a Typhon imitating Morgan. Talos I is not actually a space station. It's a simulation. And you're not defeating Typhon in order to find a way to destroy him. They have already won. The invasion of Earth is in full swing. This Morgan-Typhon is just one of many such imitations, and it's testing its empathy. If it fails, Alex Yu destroys it, but if it succeeds, Alex releases it to broker peace between humanity and Typhon. This ending is actually pretty unpopular among the fanbase. Because unexpected twists make it feel like everything you've done during the game is undone. But the fact remains that Alex is definitely the best one. bigger The villain here, the Morgan you see prey One of the aliens trying to invade Earth.

crackdown

backed up the wrong statement

Sometimes, not only do you know as a player that you're a villain, but the character you're playing doesn't either. That's the case crackdown, The player is told pretty much from the beginning that the “job” he or she is doing – blowing up cars, taking down bosses, liberating areas – is for the good of Pacific City. That's what agents do, and because you're an agent, that's what you do too. This is why you have a cybernetic suit, the ability to leap tall buildings and run at incredible speeds, and why you spend every moment taking down Pacific City's three major gangs.

However, right after liberating the last area and defeating the last boss, you receive a call from the head of the organization. He revealed (with surprising candor) that the agency had been financing all of these gangs from the beginning. “why?” You're probably asking. Well, the idea was that making the gangs more powerful would be enough to instill fear in the residents of Pacific City so that they would welcome the arrival of the Agency and their gradual takeover. Then, once the gang is eliminated, the Agency can take full control of Pacific City and establish a new world order. It's a bit clumsy, but ultimately the player's agent is made to believe that his or her actions are for good, when in reality they are merely pawns in a game of agency and are serving the whims of a greedy organization.

Far Cry 2

What is it all for?

in Far Cry 2In , you play a mercenary who appears in an unnamed African country in search of an arms dealer named Jackal. You land, immediately contract malaria, and become embroiled in an ongoing standoff between two local militia factions. As you progress through the game, you will meet friends (companions, etc.) who will help you on your missions, and eventually you will eliminate the leaders of both factions, regardless of which side you are on. Soon after, your friends disappear in a loud explosion and you head south.

Once you get there, Jackal will recruit you to his cause. Believe it or not, he is an anti-war (yes, an arms dealer) and is trying to pit the factions against each other in order to help some locals escape the area. He demands that you steal the diamond, but coincidentally your old colleagues have it. To steal a diamond, you must kill it. Then comes the Jackal's final play. One blows up the bridge behind the fleeing locals, while the other uses diamonds to bribe the guards at the border crossing to allow the locals to pass. It doesn't matter which one you choose, as both will die on the spot. In fact, most of what you do doesn't matter. You started a civil war and killed all your allies (along with countless others). In total, about a dozen people were saved. In the end, the jackal's body was never found. The one person you actually had to kill got away, and everything you did only made the situation worse. Talk about a failed job.

Red Dead Redemption 2

look in the mirror

As a player, you will realize as you play that Arthur Morgan is not the best man in the world. Red Dead Redemption 2But this is a game about outlaws, right? The point is that it's bad. That's kind of how Arthur feels about it, at least at first. He robs banks and farmhouses with the Van Der Linde gang, kills rival gangs, and pretty much does whatever he wants. It doesn't matter to him that the West is being suffocated by industrialization. This is his way of life. Then he got sick.

Arthur's diagnosis of tuberculosis changed everything for him. He begins to realize the impact he has had on the world, and it is not positive. In the little time he has left, Arthur desperately tries to atone for all his past wrongs, and when he finally dies, he can feel like he's spent at least part of his life doing good things. You may have realized that Arthur is a bit villainous (or a lot more villainous, depending on how you play); Arthur You don't realize it until it's already too late.

infamous

Trying to fix my mistakes

for most of the time infamousCole's focus is on the First Sons, a group of shadowy criminals who emerged after the events that gave Cole his superpowers. But in the background, there's a mysterious figure named Kessler who seems to pull many of the threads despite rarely getting his hands dirty. However, no matter how many times Cole hears his name, he actually doesn't know exactly who Kessler is until the very end of the game. That's when Kessler himself filled in the blanks.

His name is not Kessler at all. That person is Cole. In the future, Cole ignores his powers and superhero duties and decides to settle down, marry Trish and start a family, and without his presence, a being known only as The Beast rises and destroys the world. In a final effort, Cole goes back in time and triggers the events that gave him his powers sooner, not only increasing his own powers, but creating a world where there is no reason to leave Empire City vulnerable. That means Kessler kills Trish. In many ways, Kessler/Cole succeeded. Cole actually sticks around, and the fight against The Beast goes like this. Notorious 2. It's a huge twist, and while you don't directly control the villain throughout the game, he and the character you control are one and the same, just in different time periods.