Shocked to see no one's suggested Tyranny yet which is an isometric RPG where you specifically play one of the bad guys. Yeah you can make some "good" decisions but ultimately, you're a foot soldier for the bad guys. It's got plenty of that conflict about what's right and wrong that you're looking for too!
this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2026
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Echoing Spec Ops: The Line.
It's no longer available on Steam, but if you can find a way to play it then you should. Probably the most necessary game about war at the moment.
Came here to say this. It holds up really well and remains relevant.
Spec Ops: The Line?
They delisted this shit from Steam right before shit popped off next to Dubai in real life.
you're here because you wanted to feel like something you're not: a hero.
Since you left room for interpretation I have to mention Factorio :D
What are you talking about? The engineer just wants to get home.
KOTOR
I've just started The Necromancer's Tale, which lets you explore a minor noble's fall from grace into (I think) lichdom. Just came out last summer. The art style is what you might expect from a small, ambitious studio; the writing so far is rather good.
It looks good, ive wishlisted it for when i have the money. Thanks :)
Saints Row games. They're like GTA, but increasingly over the top in their parody. You're the boss of a criminal gang. 2 is still "normal parody" and a bit dated, 3 jumped the shark while doing a kickflip with a jet ski, 4 is even more insane.
Sleeping Dogs you play as a cop, but you can betray the law and side more with the criminals.
Warcraft 3 (old but gold) - the human campaign of the base game gets you from a hopeful young paladin prince into a cold, vengeful psychopath; the following undead campaign is said prince (well, king now) finishing the job of killing everyone and further fucking everything. The expansion has 3 extra campaigns, none with "good guys"
Divinity Original Sin (1 and 2) lets you play as big of an asshole as you'd like. Of the Elder Scrolls games, Morrowind is the one that lets you be the biggest bad guy around (you can still finish the game even if you kill every important npc and break every quest)
Spec Ops the Line is probably what you want. It's not open world, but the story is excellent.
Bard's Tale is old, but the story is fun and you aren't really a good guy.
Scarface is a GTA reskin that retcons the end of the movie to have Tony Montana live to build a cocaine empire.
Payday 2 (dunno about 3 since it's been called out for being a phone it home version of 2) but yea... you're %100 not the good guy at all. You're a thief robbing banks and peoples homes.
Disco Elysium's protagonist is a walking disaster and there are a lot of ways you can play him. Honestly playing him as a totally morally upright professional is one of the harder ways to play. You definitely don't feel like a hero while you're playing
Carrion
The Tropico series of city builders, you are the dictator of an island.
Disgaea!
The GTA series might be a good example. All of the protagonists of the games commit exceedingly worse crimes as the game progresses but they're made to be sympathetic since they just want success in a world with not much other opportunities.
Games with karma systems may work as well if the bad option isn't overtly evil. I'm thinking games like Dishonored, Fable 3, Undertale, or any Bethesda game.
Anti-hero protagonists like Kratos from God of War, Arthur Morgan from Red Dead 2, and V from Cyberpunk could also somewhat fit the bill.
Civ6
Lets get to war
The Dark Queen of Mortholme. You play as the boss, repeatedly killing the hero who comes back stronger and more skilled.
Not even one mention of Prototype. What have the world become.
Prototype. Man. What a fucking BLAST that was. The super powers you had by the end of the game combined with the techniques you could use.
Surfing corpses, eating people alive to clone their appearance. Slicing, smashing, or just tearing apart tanks. Throwing cars. It was just absolute mayhem and I doubt we will see another game quite so unhinged.
Yeah, when Activision still make good and innovative game. Prototype is a rare gem that escape a lot of people's radar somehow, despite that game selling quite well back then. I blame the name.
Some of the better RPGs allow you to play as an evil guy (equally fleshed out as the good guy playthrough), e.g. Baldur's Gate 3 (it even has a special evil background storyline called The Dark Urge) or (some of?) the Mass Effect titles.
Cult of the Lamb is also a great game where you play a cult leader. Although the game's design is strong on the entertaining/funny side, it's kind of dark also.
Stellaris is a grand strategy game where you can play anything, from a ruthless ruler trying to destroy the whole galaxy to a pacifist trader.
This might produce some arguments, but The Last of Us. Joel is far from a good guy. This is established in the first few minutes of the game and you get enough "hints" about that throughout.
There's actually a pretty new video about that on Second Wind: https://youtu.be/fY1FsMK_cos
Other more obvious games are many many Star Wars games where you can either choose or outright start as the bad guy, like TIE Fighter, the Jedi Knight series, Knights of the Old Republic 1+2 + The Old Republic, Squadrons, those Battlefield games and the Age of Empires clones (can't remember the names) and Force Commander as well I think. Oooh and Rebellion.
Destroy all Humans, Call of Duty, Bioshock
Dark Souls 3. NO ONE can convince me you're the good guy in that situation. It's a shit world that ISN'T worth saving and the people who all realize this are the only ones that can save it and refuse to. so your job is to force them to save it.
All you have to do is read the lore on Yhorm and then tell me you're the good guy.
The endings confirm the Lords were completely right to abandon their duties.
Tap for spoiler
If you take their souls and Link the Fire (as was done in every previous cycle), the First Flame sputters and barely reacts, completely spent after countless eons prolonging Gwyn's false Age of Fire.
The (IMO) best ending has you reveal the truth of the world to your Firekeeper, who then helps you end the Flame and usher in a new Age.
The secret ending where you take the First Flame into yourself and reunite it with the Dark Soul (presumably ascending to godhood while simultaneously returning the Flame to balance) is a close second, but it's doubtful anyone other than you gets the benefits.
Mouthwashing.
You could do a durge run in Baldur's Gate 3. Maybe also Hitman, but I think that's more anti-hero.
Entropy Zero 2. It's a mod of Half-Life 2 where you play as a combine soldier and it's actually very well made for a mod.
Well, I may as well keep plugging my current obsession, Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader. It's a CRPG somewhere between BG3 and XCOM in gameplay, with a grimdark-flavored splash of Mass Effect.
You have 3 "convictions" that many lot of your decisions fall under. Iconoclast is kind of your standard good guy, but maybe somewhat naive trying to be that good guy in the Warhammer verse. But more relevant to you are Dogmatic and Heretic.
Heretic is pretty much evil as far as I can tell. Chaos worship and slaughter for power. Dogmatic is more like Judge Dredd, maybe? You make some harsh fucking decisions as dogmatic, like liquefying a few thousand people to power a computer you need to use, but you are doing it for what your character truly believes is the greater good of the Imperium.
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, Owlcat's previous game, has some baddie paths too. You're still fighting demons, but it's more of an evil vs evil in some cases. Especially Lich or Swarm.
Any strategy game while you are evil laughing nefariously.
Dungeon Keeper comes to mind
The Witcher is quite famously morally grey, with no "good" choice to many of the major decisions.
Life and Suffering of Sir Brante (and the upcoming sequel, of Prince Jerian) sees you play a character who is generally morally neutral - you choose your own path and can absolutely "evil max" and it has benefits sometimes.
Overlord, the first game