You love to loathe them: gaming’s most hated characters

Falling in love with characters in video games is easy. No matter what genre you play, whether it’s story-heavy RPGs or class-based shooters, most games you love often have figures that you take a special liking to. This can be for a myriad of reasons: maybe your playstyle just clicks with them, or they possess commendable traits, or perhaps their role in the story is what makes them so likeable. They could even be the character that made you check out the game and fall in love with it in the first place. I’m talking about the stoic heroism of Halo’s Master Chief, the comedic depth of Undertale’s Sans or the stalwart allyship of Civilization VI’s Gilgamesh. Yet, there is, of course, the other side of the coin. Gaming has produced some tyrants of agony in the form of irritating bosses, buffoons, and betrayers. So, what makes up gaming’s most despised entities?

Of course, answering that question isn’t just about picking ‘evil’ or ‘villainous’ characters, as these often end up being some of the most beloved. Even for their many transgressions, the sharp wit of Portal’s GLaDOS, the cold arrogance of Resident Evil’s Albert Wesker, or the oddly lovable insanity of Far Cry’s Vaas Montenegro make them some of, if not the most, adored characters from their respective franchises. So, if it’s not villainy that correlates to loathsomeness, the real cause of frustration must be those characters who straddle the line between the two. That is to say, they’re annoying because, despite what the game tells you, you can’t know whether they’re really on your side or not.

When discussing hatred in gaming, you have to consider the online sphere

Ashley Graham is a name that players of the original Resident Evil 4 (RE4) quickly learnt to despise. She serves as the game’s damsel in distress who we must save and then escort through a cult-infested area of rural Spain. If only she didn’t tend to run into Ganado axes and cower in fear the moment a hostile foe was within a five-mile radius, not to mention her draining voice. Thankfully, her AI is far more proficient in the remake, but the original RE4 Ashley is the hallmark of video game frustration. She’s on your side, but she becomes such an inconvenience, so you’re swiftly convinced otherwise. The irritating ally trope is found across gaming, and it’s known to stir vitriol time and time again. Another example of this would be Slippy, Star Fox’s Frog copilot, whose constant high-pitch exclamations of failure hardly spawn much affection. Speaking of affection, The Elder Scrolls‘s Adoring Fan is supposed to be a source of just that. Yet, the overbearing nature of his admiration led to the game’s community taking matters into their own hands and getting rid of him – usually through the use of a cliff and gravity.

When discussing hatred in gaming, you have to consider the online sphere. Online games create tribalism amongst the player base, particularly when the inevitable competitive element is involved. Of course, whenever there is such an element, players often jump to characters who yield them, or their team the biggest advantage. These characters often become so frequently seen or are so fundamentally overpowered, that they starve the game of the enjoyment players flocked to the game to experience. Having played Overwatch soon after its initial launch, I quickly became conditioned to despise Mercy, who was in every single ranked game, usually hiding in a corner ready to resurrect the whole opposition team with a single press of Q. Throughout its history, Overwatch developed a reputation for having countless rage-inducing characters, including Bastion (a robot with a sentry machine gun producing unholy damage, remember “nerf Bastion!” anyone?) and Sombra (a seemingly unkillable teleporting hacker character in capable hands). Dead By Daylight is another online community plagued with a permanent fixation on gaining a competitive advantage. It can be a brutally enjoyable cat-and-mouse slasher experience in one game and quickly turn into a slaughter sweat-fest the next. High-level lobbies often only contain the strongest killers who resultantly become despised, especially The Nurse, whose often ‘un-counterable’ blink-teleportation causes swathes of swift disconnects. When Anakin Skywalker was first released in Star Wars Battlefront 2 the story was similar. His abilities were so broken they disrupted the game’s entire balance, facilitating staggering multi-kills with relative ease.

This leaves us with arguably the cream of the crop, the pinnacle of the despicable, the worst of the worst: betrayal villains

So, gaming’s most hated characters can be annoying or overpowered, with the former being an unfortunate cross to bear and the latter a gruelling inevitability in the hypercompetitive nature of modern gaming. These characters, however, are often improved over time. I already mentioned the much-needed rework of Ashley Graham in RE4’s remake, with the live service games often swiftly rebalancing broken characters to maintain high player counts. This leaves us with arguably the cream of the crop, the pinnacle of the despicable, the worst of the worst: betrayal villains.

Believing in a character, fighting with, alongside, or even for them, often builds a special bond you expect to last until the credits roll. Yet, this does not always come to fruition. You may build a particular character onto a mental pedestal, only for them to drop so far into the abyss of backstabbing immorality that they generate something visceral, a deep-seated abhorrence. Anyone who played Portal 2 knows the feeling. Wheatley is, at first, a comedic and fairly helpful companion as you puzzle your way through the laboratories of Aperture Science. After defeating GLaDOS, the game’s ‘antagonist’, Wheatley decides to seize control of the facility, becoming an inept megalomaniac, whose grating self-destructive behaviour only grows more frustrating as you continue your journey. Safe to say, he gets what he deserves when you get to vacuum him into space during the final boss sequence. Lieutenant General Shepard is another notable betrayal villain, with the reveal of his true intentions to start World War 3 in Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2’s campaign being arguably the most shocking moment in the whole series. You have to watch as he burns trusted allies alive, becoming one of, if not the most, punchable character in gaming history.

Whether it is unforgivable betrayal, poor coding or an annoying personality, gaming has plenty of easily deplorable characters. Yet, without them, we wouldn’t be as enamoured with the characters we do like and appreciate, those who stick by our side, make us laugh, or define our favourite games. So next time you’re cussing out the Red Dead Redemption’s vile scoundrel Micah Bell, laughing with a friend about your shared hatred of Berdly’s smarmy Deltarune dialogue, or generally being annoyed or angry at whoever in whatever you play, remember you always need the dark and the detestable to see the light and the lovable.