10 Video Game Villains Who Didn't Show Up Until The End

The rules of video game storytelling typically dictate that players are introduced to the villain at some point in the game's first act, explicitly making it clear who they'll be duking it out with at the end.

But not all games have the same ideas about video game narrative, and for some, things aren't quite that simple - for better or worse.

These 10 games all teased players and made them wait for the final Big Bad to make their illustrious performance, typically in the final hours or even the last few minutes of an otherwise riveting video game.

In some cases it absolutely worked, lending the villain an appealingly mysterious air which got everyone talking, but in others, it simply resulted in players shrugging at the sheer half-assed laziness of it, as though the game was completed on a lazy Friday afternoon when Happy Hour was a-calling.

And so, from villains who showed up in the final stretch totally out of nowhere to bad guys introduced in the final level with no fanfare whatsoever, these video game antagonists all got a surprisingly small amount of screen time...

Half-Life's G-Man has been the overarching antagonist of the Half-Life franchise since its inception, having been responsible for not only the original game's Black Mesa Incident, but also the Combine's occupation of Earth from Half-Life 2 onward.

Despite playing such a pivotal role in the series, however, G-Man's appearances have been incredibly sparse and generally non-confrontational.

Though in the first Half-Life you can technically catch sight of him a few times throughout the game in creepy Easter egg form, he doesn't directly address Gordon Freeman until the player has vanquished the proper final boss, the pesky Nihilanth.

G-Man finally pops up for two-or-so minutes during the ending cutscene to offer Gordon "employment," which the player can either accept or reject - resulting in them either being "hired" or "terminated."