Sometimes Being Bad is the Point
Video games usually follow a tried-and-true formula: hand us a weapon and point toward somebody worse. But not every game pretends you’re the hero. In fact, some titles specifically run on evil playthroughs, and you don’t have a choice in the matter. There’s no late-game revelation explaining that your noble quest was secretly horrible, either—these 20 protagonists are nightmares from the jump.
1. Calm Time
Calm Time doesn't waste long pretending its protagonist is a good guy. No peaceful dinner party for you…or all the guests you hunt down. After grabbing a kitchen knife, you spend the short 2013 horror game pursuing guests who are desperately trying to hide from you (including children). Worse, there’s another horror waiting in the basement.
2. Hatred
Subtlety wasn't Hatred's strong suit, especially when people wanted it pulled from Steam. Long story short, you play The Antagonist, who’s sort of just an edge lord in a trench coat who goes on a spree against humanity. There isn't some big justification around the corner, either; it’s just shoot and don’t even ask questions later.
3. Destroy All Humans!
Surprise—a game with this title does, in fact, make you the bad guy! Crypto-137 arrives on 1950s Earth with no intention of becoming humanity's new friend. Players harvest human DNA, demolish government forces, use psychic powers on civilians, and just help the invasion whenever possible. The game's own description happily calls Crypto an “evil alien,” so you know what you’re getting into.
4. Overlord
Most fantasy games have some sort of sinister ruler in a big fortress, but not Overlord. This one hands you the fortress keys. Your Minions then happily steal, destroy, intimidate, and kill while you expand your power and conquer the surrounding kingdoms.
5. Evil Genius 2: World Domination
The title really saves us an argument here. Evil Genius 2 puts you in charge of a criminal mastermind who builds a lair, fights the Forces of Justice, and eventually develops a doomsday device. World domination isn't some optional bad ending—it's literally what you're fighting for.
6. Dungeon Keeper
Released in 1997, this one actually flipped the usual fantasy setup by putting the dungeon itself under your control. Instead of clearing monsters, you recruit them. You also build traps, protect your treasure, and eliminate heroes invading your territory. Your eventual objective is nothing less than conquering the world and wiping out the opposition in your way.
7. Carrion
Humans running loose in a lab is pretty common for a horror game…right? Well, Carrion has other plans. You play a creature that breaks free and consumes anyone unlucky enough to cross its path. Calling it “reverse horror” fits better than just fluffing it off as another random indie game.
8. Party Hard
Tired of asking the neighbors to keep it down? So was this protagonist. The objective is simple: you control a character who enters parties and wipes out the attendees using everything from traps, disguises, environmental hazards, and careful timing to avoid the cops.
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9. Lucius
Lucius isn't your average six-year-old. He's the Devil’s kid, and his objective is really just to murk the residents of his family mansion while disguising their deaths as accidents. Successful killings unlock stronger abilities, too, so the game essentially rewards you for getting the job done.
10. EvilQuest
Most retro RPGs send their dark knight toward redemption eventually, but Galvis doesn’t care about any of that. EvilQuest follows his pursuit of revenge, destruction, ultimate power, and conquest while he terrorizes towns. When the game's opening question is basically why you'd save the world when you could conquer it, you know what you’re in for.
11. Sea Salt
Being an angry Old God already puts you a few steps away from traditional hero stuff. Say hello to Sea Salt, a game where you command Dagon's nightmarish followers as they swarm settlements and punish the religious figures who refused to provide the sacrifice they promised.
12. Ruinarch
Plenty of god games encourage you to nurture civilizations, but not Ruinarch. This would rather you ruin their week. You play an evil god who spreads plagues and creates supernatural monsters. He also manipulates people to watch their communities collapse. Once you're bored with your evildoings, the game even lets you wipe everyone out and begin tormenting a new world.
13. War for the Overworld
Heroes wandering into your fortress aren't courageous adventurers—they're pests. As an Underlord, you recruit sinister minions and expand a dungeon specifically to destroy the forces above. The developers aren't coy about it either, describing the experience as discovering what it truly means to be the bad guy.
14. Iratus: Lord of the Dead
Iratus already tried conquering the world from the get-go, so redemption isn't really high on his agenda. After escaping imprisonment, the necromancer builds an undead army from body parts and resumes his campaign against the living. You're effectively helping an old supervillain correct the mistakes that caused his first world-domination attempt to fail in the first place.
15. Undead Horde
Undead Horde gives you a necromancer and then encourages exactly the behavior you’d expect. Villages can be razed, their inhabitants killed and resurrected into your army, and their possessions carried away while you conquer the world. Normally, it’d be creepy to watch former enemies get back up and join your side, but not in this one.
16. The Kindeman Remedy
Sorry, no healthcare for you under Dr. Carl Kindeman’s watch. No, he conducts horrifying experiments and uses prisoners as unwilling material to try and restore his ruined reputation. Even the official description announces that “you're the monster,” which saves us from having to break it to you.
17. Naughty Bear
Poor Naughty Bear begins with a grievance: the other bears mock him and reject his attempted birthday gift. His response, unfortunately, makes us lose sympathy pretty quickly. Naughty Bear straight-up terrorizes Perfection Island, attacking residents and accumulating points for nastier behavior.
18. Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse
Rather than surviving a zombie outbreak, Stubbs lets you create one. He eats the brains of Punchbowl's residents, converts them into followers, and leads his growing horde against innocent folk. By the time civilization starts collapsing, you've been responsible for nearly every step.
19. Ravenous Devils
At first, it seems like Percival and Hildred simply run two businesses. Well, they don’t! Percival murks customers in his tailor shop and sends their bodies downstairs, where Hildred turns the remains into meals for patrons at her pub. Talk about a health code violation.
20. Zombie Night Terror
The survivors in Zombie Night Terror do everything they can to stop the apocalypse, which is unfortunate because you're helping it happen. Players command an expanding zombie horde and work toward spreading the outbreak until society is totally overrun. Most zombie games ask how long humanity can survive—this one asks how efficiently you can make sure it doesn't.
