A lot of video games play into a fantasy of being the hero, the savior, the one who brings balance to the world and beats up the baddies. However, there are also an increasing number of games that grant you the possibility to experience the complete opposite end of that, sometimes to a staggering degree. There's a reason why a lot of people struggle with completing a Baldur's Gate 3 full evil run, because developers have started adding some pretty dark options into games.
10 Best Open-World Games With A Focus On Player Morality And Consequences, Ranked
Lots of games make players make tough decisions, but these open-world games are full of hard moral choices and dire consequences.
Still, one has to respect the games that offer this kind of freedom to choose, especially when those evil paths are well-developed, with real consequences and just as much depth as the good paths. If you're not afraid of unleashing the worst version of yourself, give these open-world games with plenty of room for evil deeds a try.
Watch Dogs 2
Hero Or Psychopath, You Choose
While Watch Dogs 2 can be completed with non-lethal combat all the way through, there's a whole other world out there for those who prefer to stray from the path of a hero and watch Marcus turn into a murder hobo on the loose, no matter how non-canonical that might seem.
As a hacker, the game has some pretty fun things you can pull off: hacking into people's accounts and stealing their money, taze or fatally shooting random civilians, starting fistfights, remotely blowing things like water pipes up, and so on. And don't worry, if you get caught, you can hack into the emergency call that NPCs make to interrupt them.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2
Let Henry's Reputation Plummet
Somewhat similar to the systems seen in Infamous, Fallout: New Vegas, and Red Dead Redemption 2, Henry's actions and behavior are directly tied to his reputation in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. The more you commit crimes, kill innocents, and choose negative dialogue options, the lower your reputation will be. And the best thing is, these aren't just NPC-specific: people will talk about Henry's behavior, and word of his selfishness spreads.
The best ways to be an absolute menace in the game are to generally act selfishly, either by extorting NPCs for some extra pay for a job or by breaking the law. The latter has a few cool, different ways, with murder and thievery being the basic chaotic options. That said, you can also run bystanders over with your horse to piss them off or attack animals belonging to NPCs. There's some nice depth in there, ripe for evil medieval knight roleplaying.
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim
Assassin, Cannibal, And Nazeem's Worst Nightmare
Although Skyrim paints players as the heroic Dragonborn, there are plenty of opportunities to be the exact opposite of that. You can join the Dark Brotherhood and complete contracts, which sometimes have you kill innocent people who simply become the ire of another NPC. You can also join the cult of Namira in one of the Daedric quests, feasting on the bodies of the dead as a cannibal.
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There are many other heinous choices throughout various quests, and then there's also the freedom of causing mayhem as you wish by simply slaying anyone who gets in your way. Tired of Nazeem flapping his mouth? An arrow to his knee is the solution, though be prepared to run away from the guards or pay a bounty if you're not the Thane wherever you commit your crimes.
Rimworld
No Need To Be A Benevolent God
RimWorld has a ton of freedom in how players want to proceed. The colony can be a peaceful, happy place that just defends itself, or you can opt for something completely heinous and cruel. Like in The Sims, you can watch your colonists slowly spiral into mental breaks by neglecting their needs and their moods.
It gets even worse: maybe you resort to cannibalism or organ harvesting through kidnapping, just to selfishly keep the best of the best alive? Or maybe it's time to make a few extra bucks and sell a few people off to slavery. Against brutal raids, players need to sometimes get cruel and creative.
Infamous 1 & 2
Accumulate Evil Karma
Both Infamous 1 and Infamous 2 have some solid options for unleashing your worst self, and the Karmic system shows that. The more horrible acts you perform in the game, the more you accumulate bad karma, which will directly influence Cole's behavior, but also the color of his lightning. NPCs will also react to Cole's presence; the more negative karma you have, so if the idea of being so hated that civilians toss stones at you sounds appealing, be sure to behave selfishly.
The number one way is to forget about minimizing civilian casualties when using your powers, stealing blast shards, and making sure all enemies are actually killed, instead of just incapacitating them. There are also a few specific moments in the games where Cole can be truly heinous, like disrupting innocent street performers just trying to do their thing.
Grand Theft Auto 5
Los Santos Is Your Oyster For Horrible Deeds
GTA 5 is an open-world game that's very much like a sandbox, and it comes with all the bells and whistles you would expect from a game like it. Aside from all the horrible things you can do in missions and the main story (like straight-up torture and betraying your allies), you can crash vehicles, from planes to cars, to your heart's content while taking a few civilian lives in the process.
There's also robbery to be done, stealing cars in the middle of traffic, messing around with the police when they do catch up to you, and just randomly deciding to open fire or pull punches on anyone you don't like the look of. Bonus points for utter cruelty if the NPCs happen to be homeless.
Saints Row 2
The More Horrible You Are, The Better
Unlike some other games on this list, Saints Row 2 is built specifically around just how horrible a player can be. It's the whole goal of the game: to cause as much mayhem and destruction to bring respect to your gang. You can go full murder hobo in this game against everyone, and that includes innocent bystanders as well, who you can use as literal human shields during your shenanigans, not just rivals and the police.
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If murder hobo is too straightforward for you, not to worry, because there are other fun gang activities you can partake in, like robbing businesses or bystanders. The best part is the world will react accordingly to whatever you choose to do, whether it's to crash a vehicle into civilians on the sidewalk or open fire in broad daylight.
Red Dead Redemption 2
Be The Selfish Coyote
Red Dead Redemption 2 weighs the player's actions using an honor system, which affects a lot in the game, from how much loot can be extracted from bodies to vendor prices and even to the game's ending. It's a really deep system where you get to shape what kind of man Arthur becomes, and what ultimately happens to the gang.
If you're looking to be a truly selfish person, make sure not to help some of the game's important characters, like Sadie Adler or Lenny, during the Who the Hell is Leviticus Cornwall? Quest. Just generally murdering people, stealing, being hostile towards randoms or your own gang members, and even going as far as defacing corpses are fantastic ways of making sure Arthur turns into the most cruel version of himself.
Rust
Everything Goes In The Name Of Survival
As a multiplayer game, Rust is the perfect fertile ground for becoming the worst possible version of yourself. Social games always have an extra layer of villainry because real players and their very real progress are being destroyed or affected by your actions. There are some truly heinous things you can get up to in this survival game, from tormenting and trapping new players on the server and preventing them from ever progressing to raiding peaceful players just for fun.
You can set people back a lot by camping someone or blowing up their bases entirely to the ground while they're not around. There's even the strategy to play the long con of allying yourself with someone, only to turn on them later. Note that none of this behavior is condoned by TheBestWarGames, and may get you banned or shunned, depending on what kind of server you're on.
Fallout: New Vegas
You Are The Mojave Wasteland's Terror
Another great RPG with tons of freedom to do whatever you wish with its own karma system, Fallout: New Vegas is a classic open-world experience where the sky's the limit. One of the lowest things you can do is side with Caesar's Legion and support slavery to the extent that you can even sell off your companions. This gets even worse if you've initially been nice to the people of Goodsprings, for example, and then choose to betray them for profit and watch them burn at the hands of raiders.
That's just the tip of the iceberg, too. If you seek ultimate power over the whole Mojave Wasteland, you may want to side with Yes Man and get yourself an army of your own, made up of Securitrons. The utter chaos and cruelty available in the game is truly astounding, and without parallel, and that's without the option of just straight up shooting anyone who gets in your way, stealing from others, or even becoming a cannibal... Or calling down a deadly, orbital laser, as per one funny quest.
8 Best Open-World Games If You Want To Unleash Chaos, Ranked
If you are looking for a game that lets you wreak havoc and destruction, these open-world titles are perfect options.