5 Worst Video Game Villains of All Time, Ranked

The characters in a video games story are critical to bringing the story to life, giving it meaning, and making it more impactful. This goes for everyone from protagonist to antagonist and everything in between. However, when a character doesn't play their part, as a player we lose our incentive and motivation. This is especially true for the main antagonist, or villain, as they are usually the driving force behind our desire to save the day, planet, universe, or whatever it may be. That's why in this list, we want to rank the worst video game villains of all time.

Notably, all of the villains on this list either missed the mark or fed us a spoonful of disappointment on a regular basis. And to get to the bottom of exactly why that is, we're going to have to go through a fair share of spoilers. So, if you see a name next to a title you're not done or still waiting to play, know that there will surely be spoilers with it. However, that could be a good thing, given that these are the worst video game villains of all time.

5. Zoran Lazarevic – Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

The Uncharted series as a whole is known for its immersive story, great gameplay, and pivotal moments. While we still loved all of this in Uncharted 2, Zoran Lazarevic as a villain didn't exactly hit the mark for us. That's why it's good Nathan Drake and Sully's characters are strong enough to pull our interest through the story. Because a stereotypical eastern European warlord villain such as Lazarevic really lacked depth.

His motive is no other than to abuse the treasure of the tree of life's sap in order to make him somewhat immortal. We get it, you're obsessed with power, we've seen it all before. What makes it even more cliche is that it is precisely this pursuit that kills him once he achieves it. With that, he brings down the entire mythical city of Shambhala with him, which means Nathan Drake could have been sipping pina colada's on the beach the entire time.

4. Mark Jefferson – Life is Strange

Life is Strange is another game series that doe's a great job of taking characters on an interactive and immersive story. However, when Mark Jefferson revealed himself as the true antagonist of the series, most of us were let down. The entire time the story was pointing toward Nathan Prescott being the villain. Which we were practically rooting for by the fourth chapter as his rich-boy attitude and nerve was getting on us all.

However, that's quite far from the case, instead, it's our high school photography teacher. Finally, when he straps Max into a chair and reveals that his intentions are simply to get candid photos of the subject and that in order to do so, he must commit heinous acts. That's by far one of the most far-fetched motives for a villain we've ever seen, and one that really doesn't make much sense at all.

3. General Shepherd – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

There's a high chance that General Shepherd might be the most worst video game villain of all time to some. So we don't disagree if you have him in your number one spot. This is mainly because throughout the entire game we idolized him as our entrusted leader. Well, that's quite the opposite because not only doe's he pull a revolver on you, Sergeant Gary “Roach” Sanderson, but also on the most beloved character, Ghost.

Expectedly it made for a great surprise, but a gut-wrenching one with it. And the only thing Shepherd said to justify the act was, “One less loose end”. At the time, it really made no sense to the story at all and quickly turned Shepherd into easily the worst video game villain of all time. So much so, modders have actually re-made the ending cutscene where the tables turn and you and ghost get your sweet sweet revenge.

2. Albert Wesker – Resident Evil

Albert Wesker is the main villain of the Resident Evil franchise, and as much as we love the game and hate to admit it, he was all too corny. Which is saying something considering Resident Evil intentionally mixed comedy with horror and action. He's by far the least liked member of the STARS team, which also maybe had something to do with the fact that he's the leader. However, his mannerisms throughout the game make him easy to hate, which actually made it a relief when we discovered he's the game's true antagonist.

Then do add to it, we see him brought back in Resident Evil 4 and 5. Which most of us followed up with an annoying exhale. While we're on the path of squad leaders who have turned against their teams, we imagine Albert Wesker and General Shepherd would be great friends. Because they both have completely unjustified reasons and intentions for betraying their squad, which easily grants them the status of the worst video game villains of all time.

1. 343 Guilty Spark – Halo 3

For us, the number one worst villain in video games of all time is Halo 3's 343 Guilty Spark. At first glance, the little AI ball appears to be a witty character looking to inject some levity into the game, which is uncommon in the Halo series until this point. Evidently, that's why we should have had our suspicions up from the start. However, it wasn't just because the bot became more annoying throughout the game, but it also resulted in one of the most anticlimactic boss fights we've ever seen.

343 Guilty Spark's skill set consisted of nothing other than a weird pulsing barrier, and shocker, lasers out of his eyes. It takes just a few shot's to his eye to kill him and then he blows up with the cartoon equivalent of Elmer Fudds TNT failing to go off. Thankfully, the impactful moment we all thought was coming in the boss fight was actually saved by a truly epic Warthog Run.

Honorable Mention: Creeper – Minecraft

Okay, this isn't exactly the aim we're going for, but the Creeper in Minecraft definitely deserves an honorable mention. Hands down, Creepers have to be one of the most invigorating villains we've ever come across in gaming. That's not just because they're walking sticks of TNT, but also because of their incredible ability to appear at the most inopportune time. Either, you've just done a big mining run, finished a build, or are taking a breather, all of which are somehow ample times for creepers to literally creep in and ruin your day. It honestly seems Notch added them to the game simply to ruin your day.

So, what's your take? Do you agree with our top five? Are there other worst video game villains of all time? Let us know in the comments below or over on our socials here!