The Most Evil Species in Gaming

What is the most evil creature in interactive entertainment?

February 8, 2012

 

Gaming, a medium built most often upon conflict, is full of evil. If we define evil as unnecessary suffering inflicted on undeserving victims, then we can find dozens of culprits brimming with it.

While certain species enter a gray area of morality, motivation, and their own sense of victimhood, some species remain shining beacons of pure, unarguable evil. Here are the most evil species in gaming, at least when it comes to crimes against humanity.

Locust

Call them misunderstood, point out that their Queen looks human, but the Locust Horde is evil to the core. They'll never stop trying to curb stomp humanity out of existence (well, in theory -- I won't get into the specifics of Gears of War 3). You'd be hard pressed to find anyone not willing to chainsaw a locust in the face. Sure, they had their own struggle against the Lambent, but any species willing to sink human civilizations using a giant worm automatically makes this evil breakdown.

Evilness: 75%

Annihilan Pit Lords

World of Warcraft is full of evil species, so it's hard to settle on just one. Orcs toe the line, but they have their own motives. You may never have heard of the Annihilan Pit Lords from World of Warcraft, but their history, appearance, and actions rocket them to the top of the evil list. With giant double-edged swords, hybrid dragon-demon bodies, and rows of nasty teeth, Annihilan aren't a species you want to run into in a dark alley. As a part of The Burning Legion, they just want to see their enemies suffer, and that means you.

Evilness: 90%

Reapers

The Reapers of Mass Effect, through their control of other species and their actions themselves, certainly deserve a spot amongst the most despicable creatures in gaming. With the help of the Collectors, Geth, and some misled other species, the Reapers want to destroy all life in the universe, you know, everything. Mass Effect 3 may write the final chapter in this species' history, but we won't know until next month.

Evilness: 95%

Dragons

You may have an immediate suggestion for a situation where dragons aren't an evil, destructive species, but there are more bad examples than good. Going back to the days of NES, that mechanical dragon from Mega Man 2 spawns bad dreams of falling off yet another tiny platform. Then The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim continued portraying these brutes as dangerous villains of the skies. Dragon Age made an entire franchise based on the concept of these evildoers, with both normal dragons and some ranked up to Archdemons. Evil, I say!

Evilness: 60%

The Flood

While The Covenant most often represent the great evils of the Halo universe, they're actually trumped by the parasitic Flood. Not only does the Flood desire to kill any and all sentient life, the Forerunners actually wiped themselves out many thousands of years before the Halo story began in order to (unsuccessfully) destroy The Flood. This evil species showed their ugly faces in Halo, Halo 2, and Halo 3. This fall we'll learn if they show up once again in Halo 4.

Evilness: 80%

 

The Combine

The enemy on the end of Gordon Freeman's crowbar is generally a member of the Combine. While represented by a whole collection of species, the actual Combine creatures are the most evil of the bunch. They look like a grub with a headset whereas the more "human" face of the Combine collective won't freak out the general populace (as much). Pulling the strings of domination, the Combine grubs and their inter-dimensional empire are simply bad news in the vein of 1984's police state.

Evilness: 85%

Chimera

Relentless in seeking a colder climate, Chimera are all about hostile takeovers. Attempting to wipe humans off the planet they claim as their own, the Chimera bring the temperature of the planet down as the final resisting humans try to fight back. They claim they're the evolution of humans, but they certainly aren't kind in their attempts to set things straight.

Evilness: 65%

Spiders

In life, spiders serve a very important purpose; controlling the fly population, decorating your ceiling with elaborate webs, and making people hop into each other's arms. Gaming, understanding the more terrifying elements of these creatures, adapted them well into the horrors of interactive entertainment. The spider in Limbo punctuates one of hundreds of in-game appearances, and swarms of them attempt to thwart Nathan Drake in Uncharted 3. Heck, modders specifically targeted the arachnids in Skyrim and replaced them with bears (somehow this swap is less terrifying). Gaming doesn't need fly control, so spiders serve no purpose outside of pure, villainous evil.

Evilness: 90%

Ceph

The aliens in Crysis are well-armed, organized, and deadly. Remnants of their technology lie scattered across earth, and when human scientists uncover the pieces, the Cephalopods, or "Ceph" as they're known, detonate an ice sphere that kills everything in its range and sinking an entire US fleet off the shores of Lingshan Island, the setting for the original Crysis. The Ceph lay dormant on Earth for millions of years until the humans came knocking. Then evil took over.

Evilness: 70%

Humans

When it comes to evil, we are our own worst enemy. Humans, more often than not, take the lead as villains in gaming. With world-dominating plots, back-stabbing twists, greed, and delusions of grandeur, human on human violence is the most prevalent element of gaming. We've all fought our way through violent hails of gunfire until tackling a megalomaniac boss with superpowers. So for every alien and arachnid, humans still hold sheer numbers when it comes to evilness. While we're at it, let's lump skeletons, zombies, and other offshoots into this category as well; pure evil.

Evilness: 99%


Gaming spans across years and years of evil creatures and characters, so this list is by no means the be-all-end-all definition of evil species in games. In fact, there are plenty of omissions and cutbacks on this list alone.

The only thing left to do is add your own favorite evil species and help round out the collection. Vote now and drop your vilest additions in the comments below.