8 Best 'Meet The Real Villain' Moments In Gaming History

3. Sovereign - Mass Effect

Looking back, the Bioware of the 2000s were an absolute juggernaut of RPG royalty. The immaculate Knights of the Old Republic was one thing, but opting to funnel that game's profits into their own IP - birthing Mass Effect in the process - is something I'll always treasure them for.

For the story then, Bioware went for a subversive take on sci-fi in general, placing you as humanity's first special agent in an established galactic hierarchy of alien races. You were tasked with bringing down the Turian Saren, a defector who only your squad know murdered a former companion in cold blood.

The whole thing is framed as taking down this one rogue element, save for teases of a wider mythology slowly coming into view. Come the point you're about to sabotage one of Saren's facilities, a terrifying bug-like hologram appears and talks to you.

Speaking with a dark, deep robotic tone, Shepard and the gang realise that the "Sovereign" ship Saren has referenced is actually a living synthetic overlord of space itself. Stating it and the other Reapers wiped out life in the galaxy 50,000 years ago, it's on you as this plucky human nobody believes in to try and save everyone.