10 Video Game Villains With Wasted Potential

Picking up the Halo franchise after Bungie’s departure, 343 Industries had a tough act to follow.

In all fairness to them they tried their best to separate their first original entry in the series from the rest by trying out a bunch of new things. Primarily, the Covenant were no longer the lead threat and instead Master Chief would face the re-emergence of an ancient Forerunner army.

The Halo series had had a couple of boss fights in its time but it was never really that kind of game. However, the Didact was designed to be next level stuff. A humanity-hating warlord from the past, able to freeze John-117 in mid-air and swat him away like a fly; he was a character that, after his first introduction, felt like an imposing challenge.

Halo has always had a healthy production line of additional worldbuilding in its novels and Halo: Cryptum was the first in a trilogy exploring Forerunner history. It detailed the Didact, his backstory and goals and primed fans for an exciting showdown in Halo 4.

And what becomes of this antagonist? Not only is he defeated at the end of his first and only appearance, it’s done by a simple quick-time-event. All that work to build him up in a dense 350-page novel undone by a single click of the left-trigger. How lame.