Current Events > Does anyone else struggle to play games as an evil character?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I only play evil characters if there's a good incentive to do so.

Only sometimes. For most action games, you are killing sentient beings in the first place (Mario, Zelda, Kirby).

Then you realize that they are not real.

Then you realize that they come back every single replay.

I've done pure evil for Deus Ex Human Revolution. And while it's satisfying and hilarious to kill guys like Taggart and Sandoval ironically after convincing him to not kill himself, I get a little bored trying to off everyone.

It's funny because on GTA, I had almost zero problems. But doing an evil run on KOTOR, I don't think I got very far lmao.

Its all fun to me

Renegade for life

RndmNmber1 posted...

I even struggle playing GTA.

But on the other hand, i have no problem playing Lu Bu in dynasty warriors.

Pretty much all the real life warlords were pretty crappy people. Zhang Fei deserved every thing he got. When I heard his memorial got flooded when the area around the 3 Gorges Dam got flooded. I said well he deserved to have no one remember him fondly

Doing evil things that have consequence in the game world is really, really uncomfortable to me. Even though it's fiction, if it feels like I'm hurting innocent people, it really gets to me and makes me not want to continue with it.

Doing "evil" things like stealing, pickpocketing, looting homes, etc., where there's no actual consequence programmed into the game for the affected and everyone just goes on with their lives as normal, doesn't bug me. It's just a gameplay element that lets you play with stealth a bit, in that case.

What I don't like about evil runs is that the game sees them as easy mode. Why do a work around in a moral dilemma when you can just kill somebody and solve it.

Sufferedphoenix posted...

In games where it's a choice I always do play a pure evil run at least once. In bethesda rpgs I almost never do a pure good run as at the very least I'm gonna be stealing stuff.

I've shared this story before but I will again. Skyrim I decided to do the most fucked up thing I could imagine

Kill and soul trap these two kids parents. Make them undead thralls.. enchant 2 daggers using the parents souls. Adopt those kids gift them the daggers then ocassially re kill the parents and leave the bodies in their bedroom. Still remember hearing the girl scream something like "who would do this?!" As I was about to do some alchemy and thought to myself oh she found her mother

I'm horrible for laughing about this

I find it hard to be evil and cruel towards my companions, but games like Detriot: Become Human, I found it very difficult to go full robot and kill all humans, or to kill all robots. It's just not in my nature to do that.

kinetika_ posted...

I'm horrible for laughing about this

I find it hard to be evil and cruel towards my companions, but games like Detriot: Become Human, I found it very difficult to go full robot and kill all humans, or to kill all robots. It's just not in my nature to do that.

Yeah just so happened I decided to do my pure evil run and do a pure mage run at thr same time otherwise I woulda never had the master level dead thrall spell.

Was a fun run. High elf woman master level in all forms of magic and evil as fuck.

That said my favorite run was playing a orc and I roleplayed they where of the tribal orcs. I'd hang around one particular orc stronghold and pretend I was part of that clan. They wherent good or evil.

I usually stick to good characters, even before considering some of the criticisms of evil routes already mentioned: sociopathic options between helping someone or punching a puppy, lack of development and reward on an evil path as it is mostly an afterthought, etc.

Where the lines can blur a bit is when there's an obvious pragmatic solution that benefits the overwhelming majority of people, but the game flags it as evil for some emotional reason. People mention Dragon Age: Origins as an example. In that game, for the ending, I had zero qualms about keeping Logain alive so he could be used as the sacrifice, even if it caused Alistair to whine about how he couldn't be a martyr and instead had to live a long life where he could actually accomplish good in the world.

In the case of Bethesda games, sometimes I would steal stuff if it was really useful. E.g. I learned 'Preston hated that!' when grabbing 4 Fusion Cores from a container in Diamond City. In comparison, for Skyrim, I usually tried to befriend or do an odd job for an NPC so that loose items in their home or shop could be taken freely without it being theft. It was great for alchemy shops, since a lot of base ingredients were considered cheap enough to be free game.

Depends on the game. Cartoony Bioware villains like Revan in Kotor? Yes. Grounded realistic villains like Caesar's Legion? No

I tried a renegade playthrough of mass effect once

...i got all the way to Mars in ME3 before i couldnt take it anymore.

And i was far more durable towards the subject back then

No way in hell can i do that anymore.

I can do a few "Evil" or rather, brutal, options here and there, but not full on Savage.

the_rowan posted...

Doing "evil" things like stealing, pickpocketing, looting homes, etc., where there's no actual consequence programmed into the game for the affected and everyone just goes on with their lives as normal, doesn't bug me. It's just a gameplay element that lets you play with stealth a bit, in that case.

Oh yeah definitely this. That's something I actually hope the next Elder Scrolls improves on, a mechanic where if you steal enough from a household you can actually leave them in a bad way but also vice versa where if you start depositing riches in places, they can benefit too.

Would totally do a Robin Hood inspired character.

DuneMan posted...

Where the lines can blur a bit is when there's an obvious pragmatic solution that benefits the overwhelming majority of people, but the game flags it as evil for some emotional reason. People mention Dragon Age: Origins as an example. In that game, for the ending, I had zero qualms about keeping Logain alive so he could be used as the sacrifice, even if it caused Alistair to whine about how he couldn't be a martyr and instead had to live a long life where he could actually accomplish good in the world.

There's a reason for that. at the time you'd have chosen logain, there's no way you should clearly know that killing an archdemon requires a sacrifice. So alistar being angry makes sense. Even if your plan was to just kill loghain.

My favorite evil run is playing as the Green Goblin in Spider Man 1 on Ps2/GCN/Xbox

pazzy posted...

There's a reason for that.

My memories on specifics were fuzzy, but I definitely knew the common knowledge went that way. There's probably a route with conversations that allude to it or something. Histories you could read, something.

I generally prefer to play as a righteous and moral character in RPG even if there are penalties and disadvantages from doing so. Otherwise if the game mechanic requires it (eg: Dungeon Keeper) then Im happy to indulge and just enjoy the game.

Bringit posted...

Oh yeah definitely this. That's something I actually hope the next Elder Scrolls improves on, a mechanic where if you steal enough from a household you can actually leave them in a bad way but also vice versa where if you start depositing riches in places, they can benefit too.

Would totally do a Robin Hood inspired character.

While that would be an interesting mechanic, the way Bethesda keeps stripping back it's games I wouldn't expect to see it.

Besides GTA games I don't like playing villains, and even in GTA Trever was too much. I hated when you had to play as him.

I don't really have a problem with playing the villain in a game where you are the villain. With morality systems though, I usually only do one play through of the game anyway so I often default to generally good skewed and making decisions like "I" would.

Oh in games where you can do good or bad stuff. I normally try to do good. Besides in Mass Effect with the Quarians any time I can make their lives worse I do it. Like they murdered people then did war crimes and want to act like the victims. And in the end they all die out because they won't stop trying to kill another group. .They really do get a pass for how horrible they are. And in Infamous on the PS4 , your character has to face the guy who set your brother up to be killed. And I always put that guy down,.