The constant sense of tension and anxiety is accentuated by the presence of the game's despicable yet oddly charismatic - and therefore likeable - villains, specifically Vaas, the maddenningly psychotic key antagonist of the piece, a pirate who manically murders your brother at the start of the game, imprisons your remaining friends and consequently gets a slave-trading operation going on the island. How Vaas baits Jason throughout the game, pulling him further into the madness that ultimately makes him capable of really winning the end game, is both ironic and thematically resonant. More so than any other villain in the game - though it has quite a few good ones - Vaas is without question one of the most memorable foes in recent video game history.