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

3. Faceless Aliens/Robots/Monsters

Notable examples: The Ceph, Prometheans Personality-less might be a better name for these guys, because some of them actually do have faces. But it says a lot when you can't even tell if your opponents have faces at a distance. Even if they're well crafted from a technical standpoint, it can be hard to get pumped while fighting these guys. Sure, they react to what you do, but it's usually a generic roar, charge, or lunge. After while, the subtle variations in shape and color (if there are any) just start blurring together, as you fight through wave after wave of enemies. Sometimes the only thing that makes these opponents memorable is your frustration at beating them, and not the work the developers put into them and show in the game. What's really depressing about this is the fact that it seems like enemy game design dropped off a cliff sometime in the last decade. Part of this has to be blamed on focus testing, since it's been publicly stated that Insomniac's Overstrike (a colorful, humorous co-op third person shooter) was rebranded as Fuse and was given drabber content based on the results of focus tests of adolescents. But a lot of it feels like the pursuit of realism has sucked the fun out of these less than realistic opponents. Gone are the days when Bungie could put in short aliens in bright colors that sounded silly when they shouted - and gaming is worse off for it.