Games That Make You Think “Am I The Bad Guy?”

When people start playing a game, they usually think of themselves as the hero – it’s what we’re used to from stories where the main character always saves the day. But some games break that mold. They might not reveal the truth until the very end, making players realize they were the cause of all the trouble along the way.

What makes these games so interesting is that they often turn players into villains without them realizing it. You might discover the monsters you defeated were actually harmless, or that you were tricked by the person in charge. Sometimes, it’s just that trying to do good has unintended consequences and you end up hurting people along the way.

This list contains spoilers.

Braid

A Stalker Posing As A Savior

Makes players believe Tim is a brave knight trying to rescue a princess from a terrible villain.
The final level moves in reverse to show that the Princess is actually terrified of Tim and is setting traps to escape his obsessive pursuit.

Braid initially seems like a charming and clever puzzle game where you play as Tim, trying to save a princess from a villainous knight. The game lets you control time – you can rewind it and fix errors – which is a really fun and unique way to solve puzzles. It encourages you to think creatively and experiment with different solutions.

The story takes a surprising turn at the end. Initially, it seems the princess needs Tim’s help to escape a villainous knight, but when time reverses, everything changes. We realize the princess was actually running from Tim, not the knight, and the knight was trying to protect her. This reveals that Tim wasn’t the hero we thought he was – he was the danger the princess was trying to avoid. The traps she was setting weren’t meant for a monster, but for Tim himself. The creature Tim believed he was rescuing her from was actually a helpful knight trying to save her from Tim.

NieR

The Shades Are Not The Enemy

Players kill shadow-like creatures called Shades to find a cure for Nier’s daughter, viewing the violence as a necessary sacrifice for his family.
The second playthrough reveals that the Shades are actually the souls of humans, meaning the protagonist is a mass murderer who eventually causes the extinction of mankind.

The game NieR is well-known for its shocking plot twists and emotional impact. You play as Nier, a man desperately trying to save his daughter, Yonah, from a fatal illness. The world is crumbling, overrun by mysterious creatures called Shades. Throughout the game, Nier relentlessly hunts these creatures, believing they’re dangerous monsters threatening humanity. Players feel justified in fighting them, as they believe they’re protecting an innocent child.

The game NieR is intentionally designed for multiple playthroughs to fully understand its story. On a second playthrough, you discover that the enemies, called Shades, aren’t monsters – they are actually the lost souls of the original humans. Long ago, humanity split their souls from their bodies as a way to survive a deadly plague. The people Nier is trying to save are actually artificial bodies called Replicants, which have developed their own minds. The Shades are simply trying to reunite with their original bodies, and Nier is unknowingly destroying them.

Spec Ops: The Line

Orders Followed, Atrocities Committed

Captain Walker leads a team into a ruined Dubai to rescue survivors, but he ends up using chemical weapons on innocent people to finish his mission.
The story reveals that Walker hallucinated his orders to hide the fact that he was committing war crimes, just so he could feel like a hero.

I remember starting to play Spec Ops: The Line and thinking it was going to be a typical military shooter. You play as Captain Martin Walker, and he leads his team into Dubai after huge sandstorms have wrecked the city. The goal is to find this Colonel Konrad and see if anyone’s still alive. At first, Walker really believes he’s the good guy, there to help. But things quickly fall apart, and he starts making some seriously tough – and violent – choices. He keeps telling himself he has to keep going, that it’s the only way to save what’s left of the city, but it all feels…wrong.

A key and disturbing moment in the game occurs when Walker deploys white phosphorus, a dangerous chemical weapon, against a large group of soldiers. Afterward, surveying the devastation, he discovers he’s not only killed enemies, but also innocent civilians. Instead of accepting blame, Walker accuses Konrad of being responsible. He then begins to hear Konrad’s voice on the radio, taunting him and urging him forward. The player, following Walker’s commands, continues a brutal killing spree, hoping to complete the mission and somehow rectify the situation. The shocking truth revealed at the end is that Colonel Konrad actually died long before Walker arrived – he took his own life. The voice Walker heard was a hallucination, a product of his own guilt and a way for his mind to avoid confronting the fact that he was the architect of all the destruction.

Silent Hill 2

A Journey Through A Murderer’s Mind

James Sunderland explores a haunted town to find his deceased wife, fighting monsters that he believes are external demons.
The town is actually a mental prison where James must eventually admit that he killed his wife because he could no longer handle her illness.

Silent Hill 2 is a chilling psychological horror game that explores the lengths people will go to in order to deceive themselves. You play as James Sunderland, who receives a letter from his deceased wife, Mary, beckoning him back to a place they both cherished. Despite Mary having been dead for three years, James travels to the eerie town of Silent Hill hoping to uncover the truth. Throughout the game, players battle grotesque monsters within a fog-shrouded landscape, experiencing Silent Hill as both a terrifying supernatural nightmare and a reflection of James’s profound grief. James appears to be an ordinary man grappling with immense loss, lost within a world of horror.

The town in the story isn’t simply frightening; it represents James’s inner turmoil. The monsters he battles are actually physical forms of his guilt and troubling thoughts. Pyramid Head, for instance, embodies James’s need for punishment. The truth is revealed when James discovers a videotape in a hotel room showing him intentionally killing his wife by suffocating her. He hadn’t lost her to illness, as he believed for three years – he ended her life because he was exhausted from caring for her while she was sick.

Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic

Discovering You Were The Sith

A soldier works with the Jedi to save the galaxy from the Sith, slowly gaining power and fame as a champion of the Light side.
The narrative exposes the truth: that the player is actually the former Dark Lord, Darth Revan, whose memory was wiped and replaced by the Jedi.

In Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, you start as a soldier who’s lost their memory. You discover a powerful connection to the Force and are trained as a Jedi to fight in a huge war. The Sith Lord Darth Malak is building an army and threatening the Republic using a powerful, ancient space station called the Star Forge. You’ll journey to various planets to locate Star Maps, which will guide you to Malak’s hidden base. Throughout much of the game, you feel like the Republic’s only chance for survival.

The game has a huge surprise: the player character isn’t who they think they are. During a battle on a Sith ship, it’s revealed the player is actually Darth Revan, the former Dark Lord of the Sith and the original master of Malak. After being captured, the Jedi Council erased Revan’s memory and gave them a new identity, hoping to use Revan’s abilities to locate the Star Forge and end the war Revan started.

Golden Sun

Saving The World By Breaking It

Isaac and his friends try to keep a group of people from lighting magical lighthouses because they are told that releasing Alchemy will destroy the world.
The sequel proves that the world is literally falling apart because it needs Alchemy to survive, making the original heroes the ones who almost let the world die.

The old saying, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions,” really rings true in the RPG Golden Sun. The game follows Isaac and his friends as they try to prevent a group from reactivating ancient elemental lighthouses and bringing back the lost art of Alchemy. Isaac sees himself as a hero, working to save the world, and believes keeping the lighthouses unlit is the right thing to do, even as he battles tough enemies along the way.

The sequel, Golden Sun: The Lost Age, dramatically shifts the narrative by putting you in control of Felix, who was an opponent in the first game. Playing as Felix reveals that the world of Weyard is fading because the power of Alchemy has been locked away. The lighthouses provide the energy keeping the world stable, and Isaac’s group, the heroes of the first game, were unknowingly causing its destruction. When the two parties finally meet, players discover that the villains from the original game were actually the ones trying to save the world.

Shadow Of The Colossus

Colossi Are Mostly Peaceful Creatures

Wander enters a forbidden land to bring a girl back to life, hunting down sixteen peaceful colossi that have done nothing wrong.
Each kill corrupts Wander’s soul and appearance, pushing him further towards his own doom.

I’m a huge fan of Shadow of the Colossus, and what always gets me is the moral complexity. It starts with this incredible premise: to save someone he loves, Wander has to do some pretty terrible things. He ventures into this forbidden land and makes a deal with this mysterious being, Dormin, to bring a girl named Mono back to life. But the price? He has to defeat sixteen absolutely massive creatures called Colossi. It’s a really powerful story because it makes you question what you’d be willing to do for someone else.

These massive creatures are generally harmless, but the player, as Wander, must track and defeat them. Throughout the game, Wander’s health deteriorates, and he begins to show disturbing symptoms – his skin pales, veins appear, and eventually, horns grow from his head. Despite successfully defeating all the Colossi to save Mono, Wander unknowingly releases Dormin, a powerful entity, from its confinement, who then takes control of Wander’s body. So, in a surprising twist, this open-world game subtly transforms players into the very villain they were trying to prevent.

Papers, Please

The Agent Of A Cruel Government

A border guard must follow strict laws to earn enough money for his family’s survival, often leading to heartless decisions at the inspection desk.
Players become the villain by choosing to ignore the suffering of refugees and innocent people, just to follow the rules and protect their family.

The game Papers, Please puts players in a difficult position: deciding where to separate simply following orders from doing something morally wrong. You play as a border control inspector in the made-up communist country of Arstotzka, with the basic task of checking travelers’ documents and deciding who is allowed in. However, you also have a family to support, meaning you need to earn money to provide for their basic needs like food, heat, and healthcare.

The game penalizes players financially for any errors made while processing border crossings. This forces a difficult choice: be compassionate and help people, or strictly follow the rules to earn enough money. Helping those in need, like listening to a refugee’s story, can slow down processing and impact the player’s family’s well-being. Many players find themselves becoming increasingly harsh, prioritizing efficiency over empathy simply to ensure their family’s survival. They begin to disregard genuine pleas for help, driven by the desperate need to protect their loved ones.

Heavy Rain

The Investigator Working For The Killer

Scott Shelby is a private detective who helps the families of murder victims, and the player believes he is a kind-hearted man seeking justice.
The mystery ends with the reveal that Shelby is the actual serial killer, and the player has been helping him destroy evidence and silence witnesses the whole time.

In the game Heavy Rain, players are faced with difficult decisions that have lasting effects. You control four different characters as they try to catch the Origami Killer, a dangerous criminal who targets young boys. The killer leaves his victims to drown in the rain, with a small paper origami figure placed in their hand. You’ll play as Ethan Mars, a father desperately searching for his kidnapped son; Madison Paige, a journalist hoping to break a major story; Norman Jayden, an FBI agent using advanced technology; and Scott Shelby, an experienced private investigator. Players often find themselves trusting Scott Shelby the most; he appears as a compassionate and determined man who is dedicated to finding answers and bringing justice to the victims’ families.

The big surprise of the story is that Scott Shelby is actually the Origami Killer – the very criminal the other characters are trying to catch. This is especially shocking because, as the player, you’ve been controlling Shelby throughout the game. When he investigates crime scenes, he’s secretly looking for and destroying any evidence linking him to the murders. The game cleverly misleads you, presenting his actions as legitimate detective work when he’s actually covering his tracks.

BioShock

Obedience Disguised As Free Will

The player follows commands without question, believing they are acting by choice.
A major plot twist shows that players were never truly in control, only programmed to obey.

BioShock is a game that rewards players who think for themselves, especially when a major plot twist is revealed. The game begins after a plane crash, leaving the player, Jack, stranded in the underwater city of Rapture. He receives guidance from a man named Atlas through the radio, who appears to be helping him survive and defeat the villainous Andrew Ryan. Throughout the game, Atlas consistently prefaces his requests with the phrase “Would you kindly.” Players naturally obey these commands, as most video games rely on players following instructions. Jack fights enemies and completes tasks as directed, believing he’s the hero, but the true nature of these instructions is far more complex.

The shocking truth comes to light when Jack confronts Andrew Ryan, who reveals Jack was artificially created and brainwashed. Jack discovers the phrase “Would you kindly” isn’t a polite request, but a hypnotic command he’s compelled to follow. He has no free will, realizing he’s been manipulated by Atlas, who is actually the criminal Frank Fontaine. Players then understand they weren’t truly making choices as a hero, but were simply a puppet acting on orders. Ultimately, Jack was a weapon used to kill people whenever someone spoke to him through the radio.

2026-01-25 04:08