The general assumption is that heroes, as the name suggests, are supposed to be heroic, the shining moral center of a game's narrative who, despite the occasional straying from the righteous path, can always be relied on to do the right thing. Even antiheroes, those morally ambiguous figures capable of appalling acts of brutality, usually come out of things with their overall karma level somewhere in the black.
Then there are those protagonists who, despite being under the control of the player, possess such darkness within them that it's hard to consider them to be anything other than terrifying scoundrels worthy of as much scorn and revilement as fear and horror. Few of these guys are truly irredeemable, but they harbor dark streaks so disturbing that all the charity donations and appearances at the local soup kitchen in the world couldn't wash it away.
10 Kratos – The God of War Series
Kratos’ reputation as a ruthless and maniacal destroyer hellbent on death and destruction was somewhat transformed when the fantastic God of War reboot took the series in a more mature narrative direction, but it’s hard to deny that even the most seasoned killers would turn pale after hearing the exploits of the famed Spartan warrior.
Admittedly Kratos does have genuine justification for his actions across the original trilogy of God of War games, but the way that the Spartan indulges in his violent tendencies, often in the most bloodthirsty of ways, quashes any idea that he's some sort of flawless hero. Thanks to the all-consuming need for vengeance, Kratos’ heart is polluted to the darkest shade of black.
9 Scorpion – The Mortal Kombat Series
He may be Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon’s favorite fighter and the established face of the franchise, but let’s be under no illusions: Scorpion, AKA Hanzo Hasashi, is far from a conventional hero.
This being Mortal Kombat, no one is ever truly heroic, especially when kombatants are creatively hacking one another to pieces every five minutes, but Hanzo’s litany of misdeeds is particularly impressive. From dragging Sub-Zero to hell in MK9 to trying to kill Johnny Cage in the original Mortal Kombat movies, not to mention turning quite a few opponents into human toast, Scorpion has one hell of a mean streak.
8 Doom Guy – The Doom Series
The whole point of Doom Guy is that he’s essentially a blank canvas, a clean slate onto which the player can project their own attributes and aspirations and a lens through which the series’ eye-popping action can be viewed.
What this does mean, however, is that when all of those characteristics are stripped away, the only thing one can really assume about Doom Guy is that he revels in violence thanks to his constant exhibition of an unerring knack for dispatching the denizens of hell in the most brutal ways imaginable. Ok, so infernal demons aren’t necessarily worthy of too much sympathy, but some of them surely must have had friends and families outside the day job?
7 Trevor Phillips – GTA 5
Not one of the three main GTA 5 protagonists is anything close to what we might deem heroic, but the psychotic and deeply unpleasant Trevor Phillips is by far and away the least morally ambiguous of the game’s core trio. Franklin and Michael have their redeeming qualities, whereas Trevor seems to actively revel in doling out as much violence, misery, and despair as he is physically capable of.
Mentally unstable and deeply disturbed, Trevor’s litany of crimes is enough to put him away for a lifetime and a half. From murdering Wade’s friends to violating his own hockey coach, Trevor is as black-hearted as black-hearted scoundrels come.
6 Alex Mercer – The Prototype Series
Nothing screams unhinged, black-hearted rogue like returning for the second game in one's own franchise not as the triumphant hero but as the warped and twisted villain. Not that Alex was a particularly unscrupulous sort of fellow to start with.
Mercer’s exploits during the first Prototype game put him as a conflicted, corrupted antihero at best, but his nihilistic, cruel actions in the second installment put him firmly at the villainous end of the personality spectrum. Corrupted and consumed, it’s impossible to know how much of Alex’s dark soul is thanks to the corruptive influence of the Blacklight virus and how much is down to his inherently devious nature.
5 Galen Marek AKA Starkiller – Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
“Faceless, futureless, disposable, they're all the same to me.” Quotes like this, coupled with an ominously glowing red lightsaber, should tell players all they need to know about the protagonist of The Force Unleashed. This is no Luke Skywalker we’re dealing with.
Instead, Galen Marek, AKA Starkiller, could charitably be described as warped, a man bred and indoctrinated from birth to fulfill a nefarious purpose at the behest of sinister forces. Trained as Darth Vader’s apprentice and tasked with hunting down members of the Jedi during the Great Jedi Purge, Starkiller starts out as one of the most cold-hearted protagonists in gaming. While Galen might make strides towards redemption later in the game’s narrative, his callous disregard for human life and brutal means of disposing of anyone in his way are evidence of a man with, pun intended, a serious dark side.
4 Duke Nukem – The Duke Nukem Series
If 3D Realms’ 2011 underwhelming action shooter Duke Nukem Forever proved anything, it was that modern audiences had grown to recognize just how out of step the series’ long-standing protagonist was, and is, with contemporary social values. Black-hearted might seem a tad strong, but strip away the silly hairdo and the oversized sunglasses, and Duke is far from a saint.
Duke may have previously been able to pass off his obvious character defects as tongue-in-cheek, self-referential nods to the 80s action heroes of the cinema's golden age of action, but the excuse wears thin in Duke Nukem as the game’s attitude towards women starts to feel less like irony and more like distasteful, self-indulgent garbage. If Duke’s treatment of the opposite sex is anything to go by, we’d rather have someone else acting as the savior of the Earth. Anyone else.
3 Agent 47 – The Hitman Series
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The phrase "cold-blooded killer" might as well have been invented for Agent 47. The central protagonist of the relentlessly tongue-in-cheek Hitman series, 47 doesn’t boast the sort of depth, subtlety, or nuance that someone like Red Dead 2’s Arthur Morgan exhibits. Instead, the ruthless gun for hire shows one main characteristic above all others: a startling propensity for violence, chaos, and murder.
Yes, admittedly 47 is made somewhat redeemable when he ends up toppling a sinister and manipulative organization known as Providence to preserve global freedoms, but let’s not make the mistake of elevating the bald-headed killer to the status of white stallion-riding hero. As far as anyone can tell, our titular hitman shows no remorse, no morality, and absolutely no mercy.
2 Jason Brody – Far Cry 3
Far Cry 3 is easily one of the finest AAA open-world games of the last ten years. Following the trials of protagonist Jason Brody as he and his vacationing friends become stranded on a tropical island and forced to contend with the pirates, mercenaries, and other nefarious characters who make the Rook Islands their home.
Part of what’s great about Far Cry 3 is that it gives its protagonist a proper arc as Jason, once a cosseted, 20-something frat-boy transforms into a brutal, sometimes sadistic warrior capable of the most depraved acts of inhumanity and violence. Whether one views Jason as a truly black-hearted or a redeemable antihero greatly depends on the ending chosen at the game’s climax, but there’s no doubt that Far Cry 3’s central protagonist leaves the Rook Islands a far darker soul than when he first arrived. If he leaves at all...
1 James Earl Cash – Manhunt
Rockstar’s underrated cult hit Manhunt was never a stranger to controversy. Released in 2002, it received substantial news coverage thanks to its depictions of graphic violence and dark, nihilistic tone, Rockstar’s unflinching tale of a death row inmate forced to fight for his freedom in a fictional American city isn’t for the faint-hearted.
Such a cold-blooded premise needs a similarly cold-blooded protagonist, and that’s just what Manhunt provides in the shape of James Earl Cash, the game’s incarcerated anti-hero charged with dispatching a series of gang members sent to hunt him down. While the men killed by Cash are by no means angels, the relentlessly brutal methods of execution chosen by Manhunt’s central character, including breaking enemies’ necks, suffocating people with plastic bags, and beating gang members to death with a baseball bat, demonstrate the merciless streak that landed him in jail in the first place.