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Polygon has examined the complex and often misunderstood motives of eight video game villains from popular AAA titles, analyzing whether their controversial actions carried any underlying rationale. The retrospective covers characters across gaming history, ranging from Andrew Ryan in 2007's BioShock to Renoir in the upcoming 2025 release Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
Among the analyzed figures is Andrew Ryan, the builder of the underwater city Rapture in BioShock (2007), whose libertarian philosophy remained steadfast even as his unregulated allowance of the gene-altering substance ADAM drove the city to ruin. Similarly, Half-Life 2 (2004) features Wallace Breen, who negotiated Earth's surrender to the invading Combine empire and argued that collaboration was a necessary alternative to total human extinction, despite presiding over an oppressive regime.
Other examined antagonists include Solas from Dragon Age: Inquisition (2014), revealed as the elven legend Fen'Harel who spent centuries trying to undo the historical mistake of creating the Veil. In Final Fantasy 14: Shadowbringers (2019), Emet-Selch attempts to reverse a past apocalypse by engineering new ones to restore a dead civilization, while in Metal Gear Solid 5 (2015), Big Boss founds Outer Heaven as a haven for discarded soldiers, albeit while utilizing child soldiers.
