Highlights

  • Choice-based narratives in video games allow players to explore their own morality and make evil decisions for pleasure.
  • Some despicable video game choices involve robbing an elderly couple, abandoning allies, or killing innocent characters for personal gain.
  • Embracing evil decisions in video games can lead to devastating consequences and make players feel truly villainous.

Video games with choice based narratives have become increasingly popular. Players seem to love these explorations of morality under various different circumstances and settings. Some players will relish this style for its exploration of the complexities of morality, to simulate their own natural responses to various moral quandaries, or to play the ultimate virtuous, saint-like hero in a narrative.

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But that is not where every player will derive their pleasure. Some players love choice-based narratives to see what the most downright evil decisions they can possibly make are. For those who know it feels good to be bad, these are some despicable video game choices to relish.

10 Robbing The Elderly Couple

This War Of Mine

PlayStation 4 Survival Games This War of Mine
This War of Mine

Platform(s)
Android , iOS , PC , PS4 , Switch , Xbox One
Released
November 14, 2014
Developer(s)
11 Bit Studios
Genre(s)
Survival

This War Of Mine is one of those games that beautifully navigates the complexity of morality, and this choice isn't any different. But that doesn't detract from how evil it feels to enact. This War Of Mine players control a house full of survivors in a war-torn country, desperately trying to get by. Part of the core game loop involves traveling to different locations and looting them. One of the most resource rich locations, full of vital medication and food, is the home of an elderly couple.

They can't fight back but, the whole time players explore the house, the husband begs them not to steal his wife's medication as she will surely die without it. If players loot the couple and return to the house, they will find that the couple have perished as the result of their actions. Appropriately, looting the house or, even worse, killing the couple, will affect the sadness of the player's survivors. While it is a morally challenging choice, it doesn't stop the player from feeling truly evil.

9 Choose Money

Fable 2

Fable 2 box art
Fable 2

Platform(s)
Xbox 360
Released
October 21, 2008
Developer(s)
Lionhead Studios
Genre(s)
RPG , Action

At the conclusion of Fable 2, players are granted one wish for completing their adventure. There are three options that players can choose from. They can save the countless innocent citizens who were killed under a tyrannical rule, a very noble decision. They can give in to love and return their family to life (including their heroic self-sacrificing dog).

Or they can choose wealth. Just a fat sum of money. Fable 2 lets players embrace an evil play style, rewarding them with a devilish appearance, and getting to choose pure and selfish personal gain over the chance to save countless innocents or loved ones is a really great conclusion to an adventure as a despicable villain.

8 Abandon Salim

The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes

Dark Pictures Anthology House Of Ashes Salim And Jason
The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes

Platform(s)
PS5
Released
October 22, 2021
Developer(s)
Supermassive Games
Genre(s)
Survival Horror

Part of Supermassive's interactive horror series, The Dark Pictures Anthology, House Of Ashes is set during the end of the Iraq War. One of the player characters, Salim, was a Lieutenant in the Iraqi army, and proves to be one of the loveliest characters in the game, just wanting to return to his son for his birthday. Jason, another player character, is a Lieutenant in the US Marines. Naturally, the two initially clash drastically.

Facing a common supernatural enemy, however, the pair can form an unexpected and powerful bond. Despite this bond, Jason can make a climatic decision to abandon Salim to his fate at the clutches of the vampires they fought against. Even more devastating if Salim successfully manages to single-handedly fight his way back to the now long-gone elevator, abandoning Salim is a horrible choice with heartbreaking consequences.

7 Harvesting The Little Sisters

BioShock 2

Bioshock 2 Little sister Rapture
BioShock 2

Platform(s)
PS3 , Xbox 360 , PC , macOS
Released
February 9, 2010
Developer(s)
2K , Irrational Games
Genre(s)
First-Person Shooter

The Bioshock series is infamous for its testing moral dilemmas, and the most infamous of these is likely to be the Little Sisters in Bioshock 2. Each time players encounter them, they get the choice to save them or harvest them.

Saving them is self-explanatory, but harvesting them will grant players ADAM, a resource that lets players improve their abilities. While this makes it a very tempting decision, players will have to contend with the fact that they are killing children for their own personal gain.

6 Refuse Ending

Mass Effect 3

mass effect 3 crucible
Mass Effect 3

Platform(s)
PC , Xbox 360 , Nintendo Wii U , PS3
Released
March 6, 2012
Developer(s)
BioWare
Genre(s)
Action , Adventure

The Mass Effect series is a great one for players looking for impactful choices and the ability to choose very evil options. The ending of Mass Effect 3 was infamously disappointing for players, but that doesn't mean there isn't the option to make an evil decision.

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Oddly enough, the worst choice players can possibly make is refusing to make a choice. In this instance, Shepard's antagonists, the Reapers, will finish their quest to eliminate the galaxy's organic lifeforms, including the inhabitants of Earth and Shepard's own squad.

5 Nuke Megaton

Fallout 3

Fallout 3 blowing up megaton
Fallout 3

Platform(s)
PS3 , Xbox 360 , PC
Released
October 28, 2008
Developer(s)
Bethesda Game Studios
Genre(s)
Action RPG

Megaton is one of the largest settlements in Fallout 3, at least in terms of population. Its name refers to the fact that the settlement is built around an undetonated nuclear bomb. Whether this is a smart idea or not, it doesn't seem like something the many residents deserve to die for.

But, for players interested in being truly evil, there is the option to detonate the bomb, nuking Megaton and killing everyone in it. The Fallout series has a lot of brutal choices, but needlessly nuking a whole settlement is definitely up there as one of the most evil.

4 Sacrifice Your Friends

Far Cry 3

Killing or sparing Liza in Far Cry 3
Far Cry 3

Platform(s)
PS4 , PS3 , Xbox One , Xbox 360 , PC
Released
November 29, 2012
Developer(s)
Ubisoft Montreal
Genre(s)
FPS , Open-World

Throughout Far Cry 3, the player character, Jason, spends most of his time attempting to rescue his captured traveling companions, including his girlfriend and younger brother. He is supported in this noble goal by Citra, the leader of the island's native tribe, the Rakyat.

At the game's conclusion, however, Citra herself captures Jason's friends, telling him that he must kill them and remain on the island with her as his lover. A truly despicable betrayal to choose, Jason does face his comeuppance for this decision. After killing his own friends, Citra ritualistically murders Jason.

3 Abandon Alice

Detroit: Become Human

Alice hiding behind Kara
Detroit: Become Human

Platform(s)
PS4 , PC
Released
May 25, 2018
Developer(s)
Quantic Dream
Genre(s)
Adventure

Detroit: Become Human is a choice based narrative exploring the sentience of androids by following the stories of three different deviant androids. Perhaps the most human storyline of them all follows the android nanny, Kara, as she flees with a young girl called Alice from an abusive household. It is later revealed that Alice is also an android. Depending on the development of the plot, the pair can find themselves in an android detention camp, where androids are being dehumanized and destroyed.

Briefly leaving Alice to search for an escape, Kara can come across a truck preparing to leave the camp. There is no time to grab Alice. If Kara wants to escape, she would have to abandon Alice. After doing everything for Alice throughout the narrative, having Kara choose to abandon the child, alone and scared, to be destroyed, is one of the most evil decisions players can make.

2 Become The Absolute

Baldur's Gate 3, Elder Brain/Absolute Overpowers Dragonborn
Baldur's Gate 3

Platform(s)
PC , macOS , PS5 , Xbox Series X
Released
August 3, 2023
Developer(s)
Larian Studios
Genre(s)
RPG

The huge branching fantasy narrative that has made Baldur's Gate 3 an instantly beloved game, sees players fighting against the tyrannical and, well, 'absolute' control of a mindflayer elder brain, dubbed The Absolute. Players have many options to be brutally evil in this game, but the real climax to this evil comes when players confront The Absolute alongside their allies.

While a mindflayer ally weakens the elder brain enough for players to destroy it, they can instead use the opportunity to kill their companion and take over the elder brain, becoming the all-powerfully evil Absolute for themselves.

1 Force Zaalbar To Kill Mission

Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic

Star Wars Knights Of The Old Republic Screenshot Of Zaalbar
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Platform(s)
Xbox (Original) , iOS , Android , Switch , PC , macOS
Released
July 15, 2003
Developer(s)
BioWare
Genre(s)
RPG

One of the classic examples of seriously evil video game choices comes from the Star Wars game, Knights Of The Old Republic. Some of the earliest companions players can encounter are the Wookie Zaalbar and his best friend, borderline sister, Mission the Twi'lek. Players can completely embrace the dark side in this RPG, and this is likely to eventually cause Mission to turn on the player.

Since Zaalbar owes the player character a life debt, and serious business for a Wookie, players can force Zaalbar to kill his best friend, all while she begs him not to. Devastating for everyone involved, this classic example remains one of the most evil video game choices a player can make.

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