5 Video Game Villain Archetypes (That We're Really Bored Of)

Video games, more than in any other medium, are defined by the villains in the story. Because you, as the player character, are often fighting the bad guys directly, you tend to pay attention to them as much or more than the other characters on the player's side. And when the stories often revolve around stopping the villains, either temporarily or permanently, it's hard not to notice when the bad guys are sucking the fun out of games. Let me be clear €“ archetypes aren't bad, if used creatively and executed well. For each and every example on this list, you can probably come up with tons of examples that counter my assertions (especially since I'm going to be sticking to examples from games from the last 13 years). And in sandbox games, some of these archetypes are great as the canvas to the paint brushes of your weapons or special abilities. But these archetypes are on this list for pretty good reasons, especially since they tend to keep cropping up in some of the biggest games out there. And keep this in mind, too €“ you can have some of these archetypes overlap, which can make for a truly horrible combination. With that said, here are the 5 worst villain archetypes in video games as of today, starting with...