5 Video Game Villain Archetypes (That We're Really Bored Of)

4. Ancient Evils

Notable examples: The Reapers, every Halo villain that isn't the Covenant, every villain in Devil May Cry (except DMC 4) Ancient evils are a staple of science fiction and fantasy games, and they work in fantasy stories pretty well, because magic and/or fighting ability can be enough to beat the menace, depending on the story. Even if the bad guys are too hard to beat with widely available magic or the player character's initial strength, you can quest for a rare, secret solution, or work your way through enemies to gain strength until you can beat the villains. In general, the ancient evil archetype isn't a game killer in fantasy. In science fiction games? Totally different story. Why? Because most science fiction stories involve technology using factions, there are three options for a writer: give the ancient evil superior tech to the existing factions, the bad guys have tons of soldiers and ships, or both. The first isn't too bad, because there are several options to beat the bad guys depending on the game and its story €“ using superior numbers to make up for inferior tech, diplomacy, and stealth missions, to name a few. But what we usually get is option two or three, which means a deus ex machina is needed to save the day, because when sci-fi writers give the bad guys the edge in numbers, they tend to go overboard with it. How overboard? Try hundreds of thousands, at the low end. To be fair to the writers, going with the huge numbers does help establish that the heroes are up against long odds to win the day. But for savvy players, it's hard not to think ahead and wonder: "What BS plot device will solve the problem?", which isn't something a good writer wants. And to be honest, it's kind of depressing to see ancient evils shoved into sci-fi stories as the primary villains, when there are more interesting antagonists around. It's one thing to have a backstory villain that shaped the universe and then died €“ Star Trek and Star Wars had tons of those. It's another to have factions with relatable or comprehensible motives and behavior get overshadowed by villains that reduce the main conflict to a black and white affair. And game publishers/developers - when 4chan's video game board has its front page covered in threads mocking your use of the ancient evil archetype, it's time to put them to bed.