Star Wars knights of the old republic (it was so much fun exploring none skywalker Star Wars stories)
pong (first commercially successful game)
baldur’s gate II (because I love it)
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial ( it is universality recognized as the worst game of all time)
the legend of Zelda (it is universally recognized as one of the greatest of all time)
world of Warcraft ( the most successful English mmorpg of all time)
Warcraft III
sim city
Everquest ( it is called evercrack for a reason, this game literally gave rise to emotional support groups) The most amazing tidbit about that game. After it had been out three years I saw a guy playing his character in a Wizards of the Coast store, who had a really weird color name over his head. Apparently one got that color when you have looked 500 days on the character. I did the math… that is real time days. That meant he had played that game 1.5 years of the last three. My mouth fell open……)
Certain parts of the game haven’t aged well, but there’s no denying that Vaas was a wonderfully done villain. He’s a great test case for the “a good villain can’t be absent and mysterious” argument. Most of the memorable villains in gaming have been nearly omnipresent; Vaas, GladOS, Andrew Ryan, Handsome Jack, etc…
All of them are good villains because they are consistently present. They have enough screen time to actually develop into full fledged characters. They’re not just some dark and mysterious overlord, patiently waiting in the bottom of a dungeon for you to come fight them. They’re persistently in your face, interacting with you. Even if they’re not actively hindering your progress, the fact that they have a continued presence means their eventual downfall is that much more satisfying.
I mean, if that’s all you want in a villain, I guess, yeah - Vaas was constantly pestering the player. His dialogue and mannerisms were just awful though. Philosophy 101 freshman tweets level awful. I feel like putting him on the same level as GLaDOS should be criminal.
Hell, if philosophy is the driving factor for a good villain, then GladOS wouldn’t even be on your list. A villain doesn’t need to be morally grey to be a good villain. Plenty of good villains are evil just for the sake of being evil. Even GladOS would fall into that box.
The point was simply that players need an end goal to keep them focused, and having a consistently present villain acts as a moving end goal. The player is driven to chase that goal until the conclusion, because the villain is always just out of reach. If you see a goal waiting on the horizon, the march there feels like a slog. But if the goal is consistently at your fingertips as you chase it, you’ll chase it all the way to the horizon without even realizing.
Hell, if philosophy is the driving factor for a good villain
…I didn’t say it was? That’s just Vaas’ whole schtick - poorly understood philosophical quips that everyone eats up for some reason. Again, if all you need is a bad guy constantly needling you, then I suppose I see why you like Vaas. I just don’t think that’s enough to make him “museum worthy”.
If we wanna get into what I think makes a top tier video game villain, I’d say the critical characteristics would be menace, intelligence, and capability. In short, they need to be an obvious threat that know what they’re doing and are a challenge to best, both mentally and physically. To be honest, I can’t think of all that many villains in video games that I would consider that good. GLaDOS fits for sure. I think the Kingslayer in The Witcher 2 is also quite good. Fumbled ending aside, Mass Effect had a good run of baddies as well - Saren, The Illusive Man/The Collectors, The Reapers. There might be more, but that’s all I can think of atm.
As a 3D animator, I can confidently tell you we routinely act out the part and film ourselves for reference, usually under multiple angles and over multiple takes.
Sid Meiers Alpha Centuri, it’s the best 4x game of its era and is a perfect example of how well games from the 90s can play, in many ways it feels like a modern game made with severe technical limitations. Today the graphics are outright bad (they weren’t exactly jaw dropping at the time either), and the UI lacks a couple of modern sensibilities and QOL features but everything else is top notch.
Deus ex human revolution: explores a meta narrative of how you use power in computer games. Your character has incredible capability. You could obliterate every enemy with ease. It's a completely different game if you try to avoid killing those who are just getting by (sure a security guard will shoot you, but they are expecting lethal terrorists). You use the power you have to avoid killing, not to make it easy.
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