7. Grand Theft Auto III
2001 | PS2, Xbox, PC
You are: Claude, a mute thug in a leather jacket
What's his deal? Later GTA anti-heroes like Tommy Vercetti and Carl Johnson were capable of horrible things when the player was in control, but during cutscenes, they came off as relatively decent guys who sometimes even helped people. Not Claude. Claude is a bastard to the core, and we've always suspected that his failure to talk never had anything to do with being mute. It's because he's an aloof dickwad, like those trendy kids at school who just stare at you silently when you try to talk to them. And like those kids, he gets a lot of attention from the opposite sex - until they've dated him long enough to get fed up, at which point they double-cross him during heists and leave him for dead.
Yep, just like school.
Moral justification: Revenge and a sociopathic willingness to do anything to achieve it.
Defining act of villainy: Betraying mob boss Salvatore Leone by sniping at him from a rooftop (or blowing him up, or running him over), all so Claude can prove his "loyalty" to a Yakuza family he's using to get at his treacherous ex-girlfriend.
Worst thing you can do: Steal a tank and see how big of a death toll you can rack up before the SWAT teams bring you down. Yeah, suck it, rule of law!
How evil? Balls-out psychotic. Other people are no better than insects to Claude, and he makes no effort to hide it. Not even when a dozen cops are breathing down his neck at once.
Above: Nothing kills a conversation faster than someone trying to take your picture
6. Destroy All Humans!
2005 | PS2, Xbox
You are: Cryptosporidium-137, an alien with the voice and temperament of Jack Nicholson after a five-day drunken bender.
What's his deal? Crypto heads to 1950s Earth for one reason: to harvest human DNA and use it to prop up his own fading, clone-dependent alien race, the Furons. He's not pleased about having to hang around all these primitive "monkeys," and he becomes even less so when he finds out that they've been experimenting on his predecessor clones who crash-landed at "Area 42."
Moral justification: Species survival and homicidal irritability.
Defining act of villainy: Using a terrifying anal-probe gun to explode the heads (don't ask) of random bystanders.
Worst thing you can do: Fly Crypto's death-ray-equipped saucer around unsuspecting 1950s cities and fry the inhabitants like ants under a magnifying glass.
How evil? Evil on a globicidal scale, but you'll root for Crypto anyway - who wants to side with a bunch of Eisenhower-era squares?
