Playing as the "evil" guy/girl - Is that possible?

Crni Vuk said:
I am curious, because I honestly can not imagine that with all the thousands of games out there, not to have at least some where you play exclusively evil characters, or at least get a chance to become one. Probably with role playing games, but really, any game is alright.

So, what games do you know, where you're allowed to play the evil bastard. Any kind of evil goes really. I would say, New Vegas allows you to do a lot of evil stuff. Fallout 1 and 2 as well. Selling companions into slavery etc. But in the end, you still have to do SOME good stuff, if you want to finish the game - you can't join the Enclave for example. It's sad that Fallout 1 didn't offered you to continue playing after joining the Unity, the game is simply over at that point.

So where are all those evil games?
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The Renegade Shepherd in the Mass Effect series went from being a sarcastic, condescending, snarky, self-centered but funny "renegade" in the first and second game to a downright evil bastard in Mass Effect 3. If you see some videos of Renegade Shepherd in Mass Effect 3 compared to 1 and 2 you can see how the series gets extremely dark if you play it as a renegade through the third game. It gets so dark that in one youtube video of Renegade Shepherd from ME 3, one of the comments was "Wow...I'm really glad I didn't play the game like this...this is...DARK."

You basically end up betraying characters who trusted you since the first game, deliberately manipulating them in ways that lead to absolute evil. And it's done fairly well because this kind of malevolent behavior has more purpose than simply "be an ass to everyone." Some of the most popular characters can be totally betrayed and their entire races destroyed. Many people agree that while the Renegade ("bad") Sheperd in the first two Mass Effect games was not really evil but more of a funny type of rude, the Renegade in ME 3 jumps right off a cliff into most evil villain territory.

In the end of the game, you can even decide to let the Reapers win and destroy the entire galaxy. If you save the galaxy, then the state of the galaxy that you leave behind varies dramatically if you play these games as a full Paragon or full Renegade. In Mass Effect 2, essentially the entire crew of the Normandy (not just your squadmates, but almost the ENTIRE crew) dies if you are a total bad guy and don't help anyone. In the third game, entire races are killed. If you really want to be bad, there's a decision in the end of the game that lets the Reapers actually win.

It's not a perfect example of playing a totally evil character, but when you see a character you have been invested in since the first game be totally manipulated and betrayed by Renegade Shepherd it shows how dark the series can get if you play it as a total butthole. At the same time, some of the Renegade options are quite amusing.

For all the controversy over the endings, the story of Mass Effect plays out in two very contrasting paths. And the endings were fine with me because they did what all great stories do - they left me wanting more.
 
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