Most cartoonishly evil choices in games?

[MS-06FZ Zaku II Kai]

Hello fellow Doomworlders.

 

Ever since playing videogamea, we were sometimes presented with a truly out there cartoonishly evil choices (especialy in RPG's), that were too good to pass up, just so we could get a good chuckle or two.

 

I want to dedicate this thread to all of you would be despots, evil overlords and fiends.

What were some of the most hilariously evil choices you've ever done in videogames?

 

I'll start:

 

In Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic you are given a quest from jedi order on second planet to investigate a dissapearance of son of a wealthy land owner Ahlan Matalle.

You eventualy learn that the boy is hold prisoner by the fathers archrival Nurik Sandral, because he is grieving over the loss of his own son in a unrelated accident and clearly lost his judgement.

What complicates the matters further is that the missing son is in love with the fathers daughter, creating a Romeo x Juliet situation.

You can eventualy convince the two to escape together but upon leaving the estate, where the son was held prisoner, you are confronted by both fathers.

Now this is where things can get comicaly evil. Upon a rather humorous back forth arguing, you can convince the grieving Nurik Sandral (you evil evil person) that Ahlan is responsible for his sons death, in which Nurik decides to kill the captive son.

In retaliation Ahlan kills Nuriks daughter and then the two farts decide to finaly kill each other.

 

Now while this description may seem rather dark it's the delivery of said scene that makes this blatantly evil choice absolutely hilarious. I think it is something about the combination of line delivery and early Bioware character animations that has to be seen to be believed(evil option at 12:06):

 

[Murdoch]

I am a complete pussy. I do not like doing evil things in games at all. The only time I have enjoyed playing an evil character is Blood, where it's basically evil going after even more evil.

But off the top of my head, the most evil thing in the games I have played that comes to mind is wiping Megaton off the map in Fallout 3. I also did the Brotherhood in Fallout 4 once, and hated being forced to kill the Railroad in order to progress the questline and being given no way to negotiate a more peaceful resolution. Though that was forced by bad game design. Too little player choice in Fallout 4.

[gibfrag]

2 hours ago, Murdoch said:

But off the top of my head, the most evil thing in the games I have played that comes to mind is wiping Megaton off the map in Fallout 3.

Same! I didn’t even realize initially exactly what was going to happen. Then again, I’ve made up for it in multiple playthroughs. by defusing the bomb, killing that guy, and saving Lucas Simms from death (another thing I didn’t know was possible until many playthroughs later, making me upset that all that time I let him get killed).

Edited September 7, 2023 by gibfrag

[riktoi]

Off the top of my head, the only game that comes to mind is Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 2 (or mk2 if you're a nerd). The series is generally very low on substance and relies heavily on anime archetypes to drive it forward, and dumb videogame references. However, in this one game, you get an ending option where you kill all your friends to save the world. A complete tonal shift from the generally slice of life-ish dialogue, which was honestly refreshing.

 

It was also the only ending I bothered getting. The game was horrendously boring up until that point.

[MS-06FZ Zaku II Kai]

3 hours ago, Murdoch said:

I am a complete pussy. I do not like doing evil things in games at all. The only time I have enjoyed playing an evil character is Blood, where it's basically evil going after even more evil.

But off the top of my head, the most evil thing in the games I have played that comes to mind is wiping Megaton off the map in Fallout 3. I also did the Brotherhood in Fallout 4 once, and hated being forced to kill the Railroad in order to progress the questline and being given no way to negotiate a more peaceful resolution. Though that was forced by bad game design. Too little player choice in Fallout 4.

Man, now compare that to Fallout 2 where you can sell your best friend to slavers to 1000 dolars.

Get married... and  then pimp your spouse for 3 bucks. Or extract their brain to be used for combat cyborg.

Kill children, earn the reputation of childkiller and have bounty put on your head. Kill the bounty hunters sent after you.

Kill more children, commit ethnic cleansing, commit genocide, kill children, partake in organized crime like drug trafficing, racketeering, gun smugling,  assasinations, killing children, slavery, espionage and so much more!

Edited September 7, 2023 by MS-06FZ Zaku II Kai

[Jello]

5 hours ago, Murdoch said:

I am a complete pussy. I do not like doing evil things in games at all. The only time I have enjoyed playing an evil character is Blood, where it's basically evil going after even more evil.

But off the top of my head, the most evil thing in the games I have played that comes to mind is wiping Megaton off the map in Fallout 3. I also did the Brotherhood in Fallout 4 once, and hated being forced to kill the Railroad in order to progress the questline and being given no way to negotiate a more peaceful resolution. Though that was forced by bad game design. Too little player choice in Fallout 4.

I'm kind of in the same boat, I really don't like being evil in games. I did nuke Megaton in Fallout 3, but I saved before I did, and I went back to that save and didn't nuke it. As annoying as Moira was, I still kind of liked her. I live in the Midwest, and that Minnesota accent was just precious. And I did help the Ghouls take over Tenpenny Tower. I never really felt bad about that though.

 

But in general I just don't really like being an asshole in games, unless it carries no burden. I'm fine mowing down random people in GTA or Postal, but when I'm confronted with the consequences of being a complete dick, I still feel kind of bad, even though they're just NPC's. 

 

I still think back to playing Black & White when it came out, for anyone that remembers that game. It was Peter Molyneux's baby around the turn of the century, and you directed a creature that could do wonderful things for the populous, or create terrible atrocities, or something in between. Near the start of the game there was a woman who asked for your help because her husband had been lost at sea. Well, I found him, and had my creature pick him up out of the sea, still alive. And then slammed him against a mountain until he was dead, and put his body in front of her. And she was overcome with grief, kept crying about it. So I picked up his body and threw it at her, killing her.

 

So anyway, I was retelling that story to one of my friends and his older brother, the friend thought it was hilarious. His brother looked at me and said "Man... you're really fucked up".

[Lila Feuer]

I tried an evil playthrough of New Vegas where I did everything in my power to fuck over NCR and support the Legion in any way I possibly could. It was actually really fun going back to a convoluted quest line location like Forlorn Hope and just wiping it out. NCR were more often than not a headache when I tried unapologetically supporting them in my first completion of the game (before I went through route of independent Vegas at the very end like I'm sure 90% of players did on their first playthrough) so I was essentially having my revenge. I took out outposts, patrols, eventually their hit squads stopped showing up, I was also a cannibal so I would eat people and leave people's corpses on ghoulish displays to incite terror and kill morale for anyone who found them.

 

I say tried because after 60 hours I got bored. You remove an unfortunately large chunk of the game which is lore and dialogue rich as the Legion are undercooked due to Bethesda meddling with the game and it got to a point where I was just harming NCR in other ways like cutting off supply lines, slaughtering the miner town, destroying shops that I knew supported them, until it was asking myself what was I doing. A great big part of why FONV is so great is because of the dialogue and character interaction, the story, the amount of nonviolence options to resolve conflict, unlike FO3, and ultimately I just put down the game and didn't go back to the evil Legion playthrough. Not enough content and I was a psychopath.

[D4NUK1]

I created Sim City cities without proper Sewage uses, bad roads with a lot of stops, and the necesary stuff to live like shoping malls and works really far to the city.

[MS-06FZ Zaku II Kai]

Just now, D4NUK1 said:

I created Sim City cities without proper Sewage uses, bad roads with a lot of stops, and the necesary stuff to live like shoping malls and works really far to the city.

So just a real life modern city?

[riktoi]

5 minutes ago, D4NUK1 said:

I created Sim City cities without proper Sewage uses, bad roads with a lot of stops, and the necesary stuff to live like shoping malls and works really far to the city.

Suburbia simulator!

[Dark Pulse]

Three words: Nuke the hamster.

 

Those who know, know.

[RataUnderground]

This one. 

(Content warning: Animal abuse, gore) 

 

 

[Tangra]

Probably some of the most over the top evil things you can do are in the Mass Effect games. The whole "paragon-renegade" system is a complete joke, and a massive missed opportunity. You're either Space Jesus, or the biggest asshole in the universe, there's no middle ground. As a renegade, by the end of the third game you'll be stabbing and killing your own allies, you've spent two game bonding with, and causing genocide to an entire alien race... that fights on your side by the way. And for what? Nothing at all, the outcome of the game is always the same either way, so there is no moral reason to take that road.  So if you just want to be an asshole, Bioware takes care of you. 

[lazygecko]

World of Warcraft has/had a quest where you have to union bust some orc peons who decided to organize.

[Chezza]

The Fable series had a number of cartoonish evil choices available, but the game was essentially built that way. Adds to the charm. And I've always liked the Dungeon Keeper series. It's good to be bad.

 

I like to attempt playing the bad guy but the guilt becomes too much, so I tend to gravitate to more of a anti hero who ultimately does good but sometimes by bad means.

Edited September 13, 2023 by Chezza

[Panzermann11]

I have zero qualms on evil choices in games like RPGs, as long as it offers cash and some other neat rewards in return, and if it get things done much quicker. Some of the choices I didn't like doing was blowing up Megaton in Fallout 3 because would delay the Wasteland Survival Guide quest, and I liked doing that quest aswell, and harvesting the Little Sisters in BioShock because I'll miss out on that sweet hypnotize Big Daddy plasmid and the tonic to hack safes much easier, and because rescued Sisters will bring me some medkits, ammo and ADAM.

 

I've played Fallout: New Vegas, and with all the talk about which faction is the right choice, the NCR, Legion, House or indepedent Vegas, I think the most evil and depraved of the 4 has to be Caesar's Legion. Most of what I know about them is they go around pretending to be the Roman Empire while crucifying people they don't like, treat women and outsiders like piles of shit, enslave people, raid settlements, and much more.

 

Plus, there's hardly to no non-Legion-affiliated NPCs with any good opinions about the Legion, no settlements nor companion dedicated to the Legion and compared to NCR, they don't have much quests to do, giving very little reason to support them. The only good thing I recall about them is that according to Cass, they offer better protection for caravans than NCR, but that's all I know about it.

 

Aside from their military structure, probably the cruxificion stuff, their currency, I see barely any parallels the Roman Empire. The Imperial Legion in Elder Scrolls feels a lot more like the SPQR than these crazed maniacs.

Edited September 8, 2023 by Panzermann11

[PsychEyeball]

10 hours ago, Murdoch said:

I am a complete pussy. I do not like doing evil things in games at all. The only time I have enjoyed playing an evil character is Blood, where it's basically evil going after even more evil.

But off the top of my head, the most evil thing in the games I have played that comes to mind is wiping Megaton off the map in Fallout 3. I also did the Brotherhood in Fallout 4 once, and hated being forced to kill the Railroad in order to progress the questline and being given no way to negotiate a more peaceful resolution. Though that was forced by bad game design. Too little player choice in Fallout 4.

 

The first scenario is just so cartoonishly evil that it's kinda hard to take seriously, but again, this fits this thread very well. I mean, they want Megaton off the world because it's a heap of metal spoiling the overall view on their rich guy tower. There's probably people who have this cartoonish evil mentality so it does fit the bill. It just is funny that you can start the game, nuke the town and get -1000 karma, and proceed to be a goody two shoes and get all your karma back, up to the point where you get hunted down by mercs for being a good person. "Hey it's the saint from that Vault who nuked an entire town! Kill the mama's good boy!"

 

Fallout 4 is frustrating because it's so poorly written. There's literally no reason you'd want to identify with any of the game's factions because they all are ridiculous and overly shallow. I don't even remember why the Brotherhood even wanted the Railroad dead (weren't their aim to rehabilitate synths or something alike, which hinders the Institute's efforts?) but I barely could care because everyone there had the personality and intelligence of a potato. At this point, I can't even begin rationalizing this act in any way because it just feels so random and a weak attempt to try to instill a moral dilemma in a game void of any real choices.

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

Dark Messiah of Might & Magic had a point that allowed, if you so desired, that you could rescue Leanna from a monster just so you could kill her personally, although if I'm remembering right (it's been a while) it only changed the ending vs. leaving her to be eaten if you kept her alive long enough for her to initiate a certain event before killing her.

[Mr. Freeze]

Putting Morte back into the Pillar of Skulls in Planescape is up there with the most needlessly cruel things you can do. 

[BGreener]

This thread and playing the newest Armored Core reminded me of a mission you could accept in a previous one. In AC: For Answer, you could accept a contract that tasked you with taking down some flying megastructures that were housing civilians.

 

These giant flying structures are called “cradles” and each is holding roughly 20 million people. The mission has you take out five for a rough total of 100 million people murdered in a matter of minutes.

[mrthejoshmon]

30 minutes ago, BGreener said:

This thread and playing the newest Armored Core reminded me of a mission you could accept in a previous one. In AC: For Answer, you could accept a contract that tasked you with taking down some flying megastructures that were housing civilians.

 

These giant flying structures are called “cradles” and each is holding roughly 20 million people. The mission has you take out five for a rough total of 100 million people murdered in a matter of minutes.

Armored Core was always funny to me, you are supposed to be a morally grey mercenary but a lot of the missions involve straight up warcrimes like murdering a workers protest or getting a bonus for blowing up monorails filled with civilians.

 

Morally grey my arse, completely evil.

Edited September 7, 2023 by mrthejoshmon

[MrFroz]

6 hours ago, Mr. Freeze said:

Putting Morte back into the Pillar of Skulls in Planescape is up there with the most needlessly cruel things you can do. 

 

Don't trust the skull.

[Devalaous]

Fable 2 has been the only game ive played so far with very deep visible consequences for your dickish actions. The first consequence happens right at the start; the fate of a town district is determined by your behaviour as a child, and when you get there at a later point, you will see it has either remained a shithole, or become a relatively nice place to live. This happens a few more times in the first half of the game where you have quests that result in either massacring a town for an evil cult or defending it from said cult, you can cause a small community to spring up in the forest by helping a gay man find a husband, or cause it to never appear at all via murder/wrong choices, and the bandit shithole town by the arena can develop into a much better place or remain as it is. By taking all of the bad choices, you truly turn the world into a miserable place that you cannot undo, and once you return from a 10 year timeskip, you will really see the weight of your evil. I felt awful the first time, as I chose to get the evil playthrough out of the way first. The final decision of the game lets you make a choice of three wishes (where apparently you are too dumb to make your own wish) and its basically two moral dilemmas and a 'lol dickbag' choice:

Spoiler

You can choose to revive the hundreds/thousands of nameless unseen people that died building a giant tower that you yourself were enslaved in for 10 years, but you have to sacrifice your family and your loyal dog, who were murdered by the villain to spite you; he literally shoots your dog in the head in the final confrontation right in front of you. The other dilemma is you can revive your family (or families if your a bit of a horndog and your dog, aka the ones that actually MEAN something to you, but all those nameless people stay dead. I take this choice as my personal one. The third is 'fuck everyone, I wish for a million bucks lol' and everyone in the world permanently hates you after this, you can no longer emote people enough to love you.

 

Another dickbag thing is that to get 100% completion, you have to sacrifice your loving spouse to the dark temple to get one of the legendary weapons, and if you do this on a good run, and offset it by a million good deeds and donations to the good temple etc, people will always somehow know about it and comment on what you did to your own wife/husband, resulting in my hero guy being all nervous after sacrificing a bandit lady from the shithole town to get a cool sword. 'Noone will know or care!'

 

[Astar]

I'm so evil in one of my playthroughs of Disco Elysium that I kick every inanimate object I come across!

[BGreener]

5 hours ago, mrthejoshmon said:

Armored Core was always funny to me, you are supposed to be a morally grey mercenary but a lot of the missions involve straight up warcrimes like murdering a workers protest or getting a bonus for blowing up monorails filled with civilians.

 

Morally grey my arse, completely evil.

 

Oh yeah, they often allow you to be a horrifically evil merc if you want to. For what it's worth there's also the "defend these 100 million people for the love of god" variant of the same mission, and I don't think that genocidal contract is even available on initial playthroughs; it's been awhile since I've played through For Answer, and I only managed to beat it once.

Edited September 8, 2023 by BGreener

[Lila Feuer]

That seems to be a Gundam thing, you can't have militarized mech futures without accelerated war crimes.

[Murdoch]

17 hours ago, Jello said:

I'm kind of in the same boat, I really don't like being evil in games. I did nuke Megaton in Fallout 3, but I saved before I did, and I went back to that save and didn't nuke it. As annoying as Moira was, I still kind of liked her. I live in the Midwest, and that Minnesota accent was just precious. And I did help the Ghouls take over Tenpenny Tower. I never really felt bad about that though.

 

Plenty of great characters in Megaton. I like Moira a lot. There was a couple of lovely little moments where the overly chipper/slightly nuts facade she puts up cracks and you see how kind and caring she really is. And then there's Lucas Simms, who's got that pitch perfect cool as fuck black guy vibe. Whereas most of Tenpenny Tower were snobby assholes, the man himself especially. I had sympathy for the ghouls, except for the main guy (Roy?), who struck me as a legit psycho. I think I killed Tenpenny himself, but ultimately negotiated a joint housing thing at tower. I do remember getting them all killed in one playthrough though whether I stuck with that outcome I can't remember.

[Jello]

2 hours ago, Murdoch said:

 

Plenty of great characters in Megaton. I like Moira a lot. There was a couple of lovely little moments where the overly chipper/slightly nuts facade she puts up cracks and you see how kind and caring she really is. And then there's Lucas Simms, who's got that pitch perfect cool as fuck black guy vibe. Whereas most of Tenpenny Tower were snobby assholes, the man himself especially. I had sympathy for the ghouls, except for the main guy (Roy?), who struck me as a legit psycho. I think I killed Tenpenny himself, but ultimately negotiated a joint housing thing at tower. I do remember getting them all killed in one playthrough though whether I stuck with that outcome I can't remember.

It's been a long time, but I think the outcome with Tenpenny Tower that I stuck with was ending up with me killing Tenpenny, and having most of the residents either strike a truce with the Ghouls or leave. And I came across several of them wandering about the Capital Wastelands bitching about having to leave because they didn't want to live with Ghouls. And Roy took over the tower, and a few in game days later I went to a locked storage shed outside of the building and picked the lock and there was a bunch of bodies in it, and Roy admitted that they killed all the residents that stayed behind and the Ghouls were in control of the building. And I just left them to their own devices after that, but it pissed me off. He said that he wanted to make things right with the people in the building, and he wanted to get along with them; and then they killed them. So I never felt bad about killing a Ghoul after that.

 

I am kind of impressed that it still stuck with me fifteen years later, but it was just a shitty situation from start to finish, and everyone was trying to tug at your emotions the entire way. But I still think saving Megaton and disarming the bomb is the most human decision that you can make in Fallout 3.

Edited September 8, 2023 by Jello

[Murdoch]

1 hour ago, Jello said:

am kind of impressed that it still stuck with me fifteen years later, but it was just a shitty situation from start to finish, and everyone was trying to tug at your emotions the entire way

 

Yeah, bigotry on both sides really.

[Tetzlaff]

22 hours ago, Chezza said:

 And I've always liked the Dungeon Keeper series. It's good to be bad.

In Dungeon Keeper you have to care for all your dungeon dwellers, so you are actually good. While the „heroes“ just enter and smash things.