These Gaming Villains That Still Need Their Comeuppance

Usually, the core appeal of a video game villain is that you get to see them hoisted by their own petard by the end of the game. You take out the big bad, you save the day, credits roll, and everyone goes home happy. If we’re lucky, their downfall will even be ironic to their grand plans.

However, that isn’t always the case. Some villains manage to get away with their actions, or others are established for a follow-up release that never came to pass. The more audacious ones will even flaunt their lack of consequences to you. Here are the villains in gaming that still need their slice of comeuppance.

10 General Serrano – Bulletstorm

“You Will Live To Fight Another Day, Thanks To Me”

The bigoted, misogynistic, and sadistic General Serrano from Bulletstorm has been a thorn in the side of Grayson Hunt ever since Grayson found out Serrano was using Hunt’s crew as an illegal death squad. In an act of vengeance (or blind drunkenness), Grayson crashes both his and Serrano’s ship on an abandoned planet filled with hostile mutants.

While Grayson and his pal Ishii are forced to partner with Serrano for a time, the not-very-good General betrays Hunt and leaves them for dead, and while Hunt catches up and smacks him about a bit, he doesn’t finish the job. The game ends with a sequel stinger of Serrano and a brainwashed Ishii that never received a follow-up.

9 Aaron Griffin – Gears Of War

“We’ll Settle This Another Time, Fenix.”

Gears Of War 3 was seen as the conclusion to the Locust War era of the Gears series, with the COG’s fight against the Locust Queen reaching a bloody finale by the end of the game. What some might forget, though, is that the fourth act of GOW3 introduces a human character that’s– well, he’s not evil, just a bit of a prick.

After losing Dom, a broken Delta Squad reaches Char, a city devastated by the COG’s Hammer Of Dawn strikes. There, they encounter an Imulsion baron called Griffin. Griffin makes his hate for the COG clear, forcing them to run errands and shouting at Marcus when the Tower is attacked by Lambent and Locust. Griffin leaves with a promise of settling his and Marcus’ dispute at a later date, but we’re still waiting to give the guy a beat down.

Griffin did appear in the novel Ephyra Rising, set after the events of Gears 3, but he and Marcus don’t interact.

8 The G-Man – Half-Life

“Prepare For Unforeseen Consequences”

Look, do we know if The G-Man from Half-Life is a proper villain or not? Nope, as while the business suit clad mystery man is both responsible for many of the calamitous events of the series and has even been outwardly hostile to Gordon Freeman at times, he’s also shown mercy to Freeman and the gang. He’s not 100 percent evil, we’ll say that.

Even so, The G-Man is clearly a willing manipulator pulling the strings of the Half-Life narrative, and while the Combine’s utter brutality is the most outwardly evil part of the game, people don’t tend to like being controlled by otherworldly forces. We certainly don’t. It’d be nice to fling boxes with a Gravity Gun at The G-Man outside G-Mod, is what we’re saying.

7 Lan Di – Shenmue

“You Really Have A Death Wish, Don’t You?”

Gamers since the age of the Dreamcast have been waiting decades to give Shenmue’s Lan Di a bit of a beatdown after he killed Ryo’s father at the start of the game. After slaying the father, Lan Di mostly disappears from the series, leaving Ryo to chase his shadow, looking for some sailors or racing forklifts. Apparently it’s easy to get distracted while seeking revenge.

After Shenmue 2 didn’t resolve the conflict, fans were left to wait nearly 20 years for a follow-up, hoping that they might get their pound of flesh from Lan Di. Enter Shenmue 3, which does feature a showdown between Ryo and Lan Di, but Lan wipes the floor with you and the game ends with a tease of another fight further down the line. The lackluster reception to Shenmue 3 has probably nuked those chances, though.

6 Necromorph Moons – Dead Space

“Make Us Whole”

The Necromorph scourge in Dead Space isn’t a traditional villain. Their only motivation is to feed, kill, and perpetuate the mutation cycle by devouring new organic matter, making them space zombies essentially, but Dead Space 3 reveals a Necromorph hive mind disguised as a moon that’s been looking for the location of Earth. Think of all the yummy humans it can feast on.

Isaac Clarke and his new pal Carver spend the entire game trying to stop the Tau Volantis moon, successfully doing so in the climax. However, the DLC expansion Awakened follows the two as they try to return to Earth, only to find several more Necromorph moons waiting for them when they get there. Where’s the Sonic Adventure 2 Eclipse Cannon when you need it?

If everyone who reads this buys a copy of the Dead Space remake, maybe EA will make another one. Maybe.

5 Kingpin – The Punisher (2005)

“You’ve Been Duped. Someone Is Using You To Weaken Me”

The Punisher isn’t usually the type of guy to leave villains to get their comeuppance later. It’s shoot first, shoot some more later with Frank Castle, and the same could be said for The Punisher video game from 2005, as Frank butchers most of his rogue’s gallery in that game, including Jigsaw, Bushwacker, The Russian, The Gnuccis and even Bullseye.

One villain who lives to meddle another day is Kingpin. While Frank does shoot his way through Fisk Tower, he leaves Wilson Fisk alive for some reason. That decision could have come back to bite Frank, with an end credits stinger seeing Fisk swear to take down The Punisher, but no follow-up game was ever made. Shame, honestly.

4 Angelus – The Darkness

“The World Has Gone Too Long Without My Light”

Jackie Estacado has a bit of a complicated life. He’s already an accomplished mafioso, but on his 21st birthday, a power known as The Darkness awakens in him, which is as demonic as it sounds. During the course of the first game, his girlfriend Jenny is murdered, with Jackie going on a supernatural revenge spree for the rest of the game.

The sequel sees Jackie still in mourning, with the finale featuring Jackie literally fighting his inner demons through Hell in an attempt to save Jenny’s soul. He does, only to learn that Jenny is now the new vessel for Angelus, the direct antithesis to The Darkness. Angelus traps Jackie in Hell for eternity, where he’s remained, as the series hasn’t seen a new game in a decade.

3 Rorke – Call Of Duty: Ghosts

“There Ain’t Gonna Be Any Ghosts…”

Sorry that we’ve had to remind you about the existence of Call of Duty: Ghosts, but there are literally dozens of people who want some kind of resolution to the game’s climax. Set in a post-apocalyptic US that’s subsequently been invaded by a South American coalition known as the Federation, the campaign ends with brothers Hesh and player character Logan avenging their father by taking out former Ghost Gabriel Rorke.

The last shots of the campaign see an injured Hesh and Logan washing up on a beach, celebrating a job well done, only for a still-alive Rorke to blindside the brothers, batter them everywhere, and then kidnap Logan. The implication is that Logan would then be brainwashed like Rorke was, setting up a sequel that never came.

Has Rorke even reappeared as a Warzone character? Did Activision just fully abandon Ghosts?

2 Isabela Keyes – Dead Rising

“You’re The Ones Who Caused This Nightmare”

If there’s ever been a character in gaming who just keeps managing to get away with it, it’s Isabela Keyes. She was instrumental in orchestrating the outbreak from the first Dead Rising, and while she was remorseful, working with Frank West after seeing the horror her brother Carlito unleashed, she’s far from innocent.

Keyes was forced to work with Phenotrans to develop Zombrex, though Phenotrans would ultimately start intentionally causing outbreaks to harvest the queens needed to make Zombrex. Then, in Dead Rising 3’s post-credits scene, it’s revealed that Keyes started that game’s outbreak in an attempt to reveal Nick’s location and develop a true cure, all to clear her family’s reputation. That’s surely a sacrifice worth a few hundred thousand freshly turned zombies.

1 Victor Donovan – Dead Or Alive

“Then Phase 4 Is Ready To Proceed?”

Fighting game villains tend to get their comeuppance pretty often, either as part of the game’s story or just because you can load up a match with that character and wail on them yourself. It might not be a traditional comeuppance, but battering an idle Kazuya is good stress relief after the Tekken 7 story mode. His boss fight was brutal.

One villain who’s managed to dodge a beating, though, is Dead Or Alive’s Donovan. The shadowy corporate figure that’s been responsible for the Dead Or Alive tournaments, Donovan has been kidnapping fighters for cloning experiments to create the ultimate fighter. His plans are usually foiled, but Donovan is like a Saturday morning cartoon villain, already in the chopper planning his next phase by the time the heroes blow up his base.