10 Awful Villains That Ruined Amazing Video Games
1. The Wild Hunt - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
There's little arguing with the claim that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is one of the greatest video games of all time - a rich, vibrant action-RPG set in one of the most lush open worlds ever conceived.
But what an absolute misfire the titular villainous cabal turned out to be. Geralt is tasked with taking down the spectral soldiers known as the Wild Hunt, led by their King Eredin, yet the entire outfit ends up feeling like a baffling afterthought.
Despite the incredible amount of detail CD Projekt Red put into the game's large cast of characters and even the most seemingly trivial side missions, they really dropped the ball with the primary villains.
Geralt battles several members of the Wild Hunt during the game, culminating in a fight with Eredin himself, yet the group as a whole takes a back seat for the vast majority of the story.
The decision to have Eredin kill fan favourite character Crach an Craite moments before his wildly underwhelming boss fight felt like a rather desperate attempt to elevate him in players' minds.
Considering there are several superior villains in the game - especially Gaunter O'Dimm from the Hearts of Stone DLC - framing the main story around the Wild Hunt and Eredin in particular feels like a misstep.
The Wild Hunt are basically part-timers in their own game, and Eredin rarely rises above generically evil, nuance-devoid villain status.