Red Dead Redemption: Every Villain Ranked From Worst To Best

You have to give Rockstar Games a mountain of credit for what they create. Not content to just churn out a re-skinned copy of their last iteration each year, Rockstar spends years tailor-making their games, and crafting them to near-perfection. Seriously, more than half their back catalogue could be the Michelangelo's David of video games.

And we're not just talking about game-play mechanics, textures, graphics or immersion; but their story-writing ability too. While Grand Theft Auto games are a satire on contemporary society, the Red Dead Redemption are a brilliantly developed nod and appreciation of tales of the Old West.

The Red Dead Redemption games don't just tell a story of good verses evil; they deconstruct the very mechanics of these stories we tell (and play) and unfold for us what separates the good from the bad.

The latter is particularly rife in the Red Dead games, with Stranger encounters in the form of the worst ilks of humankind; roaming gangs that cackle maniacally as they hunt players down, or nuanced individual figures who wage war with the likes of John Marston or Arthur Morgan.

Throughout two vast and sprawling games, players have had to trade bullets on horseback with all manner of villains.

From corrupt lawmen to unhinged forest-dwellers, the players have had to fight them all. So in honour of these scummy individuals, this is a list of the fifteen best villains in the Red Dead Redemption games.

Red Dead Redemption 2 (or RDR2 as it known by fans) might be one of the few games that comes close to narrative perfection; the story arcs, character development and direction of storytelling fits the genre, and immerses the player so brilliantly it plays out more like an interactive novel than a video game.

Having said that, Chapter 5 is a lulling low-point in the game. The revolution in Guarma has no impact on the story going forward and is only alluded to by Angelo Bronte in the previous chapter. And while Chapter 5 is short and plays as an action-caper, it is tonally off and players all around must have been anxious to get back to Saint Denis.

Colonel Alberto Fussar is a nothing character; a nameless, almost faceless villain. His presence as a threat that must be dealt with could have been replaced by a horde of angry military militiamen. I understand that Rockstar wanted to put context behind the conflict on Guarma, and a loose tie to Leviticus Cornwall does make the villain more three-dimensional, but ultimately his presence and eventual death doesn't impact at all.

There are moments in Chapter 5 that demonstrate the cruelty of Fussar (tortured and amputated rebels particularly) but without seeing any glee or malice from Fussar, there was nothing to hold against the dictator of the island. The game makes more of a meal out of Alberto's right-hand man Levi Simon, but when he's just a henchman there's nothing to rave about.