10 Video Game Villains Who Stupidly Helped The Hero Win

10. The Ethereals - XCOM: Enemy Unknown

XCOM: Enemy Unknown does a surprisingly good job of weaving a compelling story into a traditionally simple invasion narrative. It also serves as a warning to any ambitious aliens out there of precisely what not to do.

During the game’s finale the antagonists, the Ethereals, are revealed to have attempted to uplift other alien races with the goal of creating the perfect fusion of physical robustness and psychic power. Their invasion of Earth was a test of humanity’s potential, a test that rather stupidly included allowing us to reverse engineer their technology and develop psychic powers – without any oversight on the part of the Ethereals.

Not surprisingly this turns out to be bad for them, because humans generally don’t appreciate being invaded, slaughtered in the thousands, or experimented on. So when the now powered-up humans assault their command ship, the Ethereals are shocked are to find that we’re not there to shower them with gratitude and take them on as mentors, but to kill them dead, very dead.

So to any aliens out there: pick up a copy of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, do what the Vogons did, and just blow the planet up. It will go better for you.