Rockstar Games are known for their brutal games which have taken over the world, such as Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption. As much as the main characters have excelled and been remembered as fantastic pieces of gaming history, sometimes it is the villains who are even more well-loved for their memorable performances squaring off against the player.
From the early days of Rockstar Games to the mega-hits they have produced, the villain has almost always been an integral piece of what they strive to create. Across their many franchises and stand-alone games, the best villains stand out as some of the best gaming characters there are.
7 Catalina (Grand Theft Auto 3)
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Grand Theft Auto III was the first game in the franchise to feature a real focus on the story. It changed the style of the franchise forever and was one of the first Rockstar Games mega-hits. The game opened with a bank heist enacted by the main character Claude and his girlfriend Catalina, who betrays him and shoots him during the heist.
Catalina moves up in the world, eventually becoming the leader of the Cartel and coming back into conflict with her former love when Claude is on a job for the Yakuza. Catalina is a brutal opponent, constantly outthinking everybody. She was always ready to betray everybody to keep herself on top, which eventually helped lead to her downfall. While she was a great villain, there wasn’t as much focus on her for such a large part of the game as there are better ones in Rockstar history.
6 Ira Hogeboom (L.A. Noire)
LA Noire was a different breed of game for Rockstar, and at the center of it was the rise of Cole Phelps through the ranks of the LAPD. While the protagonist’s journey was hugely important, the reveal of the eventual villain Ira Hogeboom was cause for a huge amount of interest as well.
Ira’s story was a fascinating one. He was a flamethrower during World War II under the command of Lieutenant Cole Phelps before he joined the LAPD. When he returned home, he suffered from PTSD and was subsequently tricked by psychiatrist Harlan Fontaine into burning down a series of houses. Unfortunately, some of the houses were occupied, and Hogeboom’s mind broke further from the stress and trauma of realizing this, leading to him murdering Fontaine and kidnapping Elsa Lichtmann. His story and character were tragic, but that doesn’t stop him from being a fascinating villain.
5 Dimitri Rascalov (Grand Theft Auto 4)
The primary antagonist of Grand Theft Auto IV, Dimitri Rascalov was a member of the Russian Mafia who betrayed everyone around him by forcing Niko Bellic to kill their boss Mikhail Faustin so that he could gain more power. While Rascalov dies no matter what choice the player makes in the game’s final act, he is a brutal mobster who rises to a height of power through his intelligent scheming.
Dimitri is so great because he is calm and collected about his decisions. He isn’t psychotic, he doesn’t engage in the sort of indulgences that others at his level do. Instead, he is just a cold, calculated, ruthless killer who is willing to betray or destroy anybody to reach the top.
4 Edgar Ross (Red Dead Redemption)
Red Dead Redemption was one of the biggest releases in Rockstar Games' history and had a story worthy of adaptation. While the story of this game is mostly about John Marston regaining his family from Edgar Ross, the ending is a really traumatic part of the story.
After hunting down his former associates so that Ross will return his family to him, John returns home and is faced with a unit from the U.S. Army led by Edgar Ross. This devastating betrayal wasn’t particularly surprising, but Ross was successful in killing off the protagonist, making him look like a much more intelligent betraying villain than most in Rockstar Games.
3 Steve Haines (Grand Theft Auto 5)
Grand Theft Auto V will be one of the most familiar games to many Rockstar fans, as it is still hugely popular today. While a game that dealt with three great protagonists could only lend so much time to a villain, it was done well with Steve Haines.
Like Edgar Ross, Steve Haines is a government agent coming after criminals, but mistreating them in their own attempts for a skewed style of justice. Haines wanted to make another government agency, the IAA, look bad, so more funds would go to him and the FIB. To this end, he got Michael, Franklin, and Trevor to do several crimes for him and then tried to have them framed, which didn’t work out for him. Haines was calculating and cold, but left behind too many messy tracks and enemies, leading to his downfall.
2 Gary Smith (Bully)
Bully is perhaps the best one-off game in the Rockstar Games repertoire. While they have made some of the most notable franchises in history, Rockstar also brought their violent tales of rising to the top in violent manners to the even more frightening location of a high school.
Gary Smith was the initial friend of Jimmy Hopkins when he arrived at Bullworth Academy, but he turned on him when he saw the potential for Jimmy to become too powerful. After Jimmy united the cliques, Gary managed to turn everything and everyone against him, getting him expelled and becoming a head boy. Gary was eventually brought down, but his power-hungry ambitious nature took him a long way at first.
1 Micah Bell III (Red Dead Redemption 2)
The crew of Red Dead Redemption II were all shady criminals, but it was Micah that became Dutch’s top lieutenant instead of Arthur and proceeded to sell the gang out while leading Dutch astray. He was the true villain and the one who even manages to kill protagonist Arthur if the player’s honor is low over the course of the hugely replayable game.
Micah is the most devious, villainous character that Rockstar Games ever created. Buttering up Dutch while bullying the rest of the gang whenever he can, Micah is shown to be a blend of unpredictable, wild, incredibly violent, and quick to anger. But he also manages to be calculating about his plans and gets away with playing every side for a surprisingly long time.