Best Open-World Games for Unleashing Your Worst Impulses

Many video games let you feel like a hero, saving the world and defeating villains. But increasingly, games are offering the chance to play as the villain instead, and they’re doing it in surprisingly detailed and immersive ways. That’s why completing an ‘evil’ playthrough of a game like Baldur’s Gate 3 can be so challenging – developers are including truly dark and complex choices.

It’s impressive when games let you choose to be truly evil, especially when those choices have meaningful consequences and are as fleshed out as the heroic paths. If you’re willing to explore your darker side, check out these open-world games that offer plenty of opportunities for villainy.

Watch Dogs 2

Hero Or Psychopath, You Choose

You can play through Watch Dogs 2 without killing anyone, but the game also allows you to go on a violent rampage as Marcus, even if it doesn’t fit the main storyline.

In this game, you can do a lot of mischievous – and sometimes dangerous – things as a hacker. You can break into accounts and steal money, use a taser or even shoot people, start fights, and remotely detonate objects like water pipes. If you get caught by the police, you can even hack into their emergency calls to stop them.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2

Let Henry’s Reputation Plummet

In Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, your choices as Henry have a real impact on how people see you, much like in games such as Infamous, Fallout: New Vegas, and Red Dead Redemption 2. Committing crimes, harming innocent people, or being rude will damage your reputation. What’s interesting is that this isn’t limited to how individual characters react – news of your actions and selfishness will spread throughout the game world.

To really cause trouble in the game, focus on being selfish. You can shake down characters for extra money, or just break the law. There are lots of ways to do that – you can commit crimes like murder and theft, or even annoy people by running them over with your horse or harming their animals. It offers a lot of options for players who want to roleplay as a villainous knight in a medieval setting.

The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim

Assassin, Cannibal, And Nazeem’s Worst Nightmare

While Skyrim casts you as the noble Dragonborn, the game actually lets you be quite villainous. You can become a member of the Dark Brotherhood, accepting contracts that sometimes involve killing innocent people who have simply angered others. Additionally, a Daedric questline allows you to join a cannibalistic cult devoted to Namira and consume the remains of the deceased.

The game offers plenty of difficult decisions throughout its quests, and you’re also free to create chaos by attacking anyone you choose. Annoyed by a particular character, like Nazeem? You can always eliminate them, but be warned: you’ll either have to escape the guards or pay a fine if you’re not considered a local hero in that area.

Rimworld

No Need To Be A Benevolent God

I’m totally hooked on RimWorld because you can really play it however you want! You can build a nice, peaceful colony where everyone’s happy and just focuses on surviving, or… you can go full villain and make things really tough for your colonists. It’s kind of like The Sims in that way – you can watch your people slowly fall apart if you don’t take care of them, but RimWorld takes it to a whole other level!

Things can quickly become desperate. You might be forced to make horrifying choices – like resorting to cannibalism or kidnapping people for their organs – just to keep a few valuable survivors alive. Or, you might consider exploiting others by selling them into slavery to gain resources. When facing relentless attacks, players will need to be ruthless and resourceful to survive.

Infamous 1 & 2

Accumulate Evil Karma

Both Infamous 1 and Infamous 2 let you really embrace your dark side, and the game’s Karma system reflects that. The more cruel actions you take, the more bad Karma you earn. This affects not only how Cole acts, but also the color of his powers. People in the game will react to how much bad Karma you have – so if you enjoy being a feared figure who gets scorned by citizens, make sure to act selfishly.

To maximize your power, the game encourages you to prioritize eliminating enemies completely, even if it means ignoring civilian safety and ensuring no one is left alive, rather than just subduing them. There are also opportunities to act cruelly, such as intentionally interfering with harmless street performers.

Grand Theft Auto 5

Los Santos Is Your Oyster For Horrible Deeds

Grand Theft Auto 5 is an open-world game that gives players a lot of freedom, similar to a playground. It has everything you’d expect from this type of game, including a controversial storyline and missions. Players can engage in shocking acts like torture and betrayal, but also enjoy more carefree activities, such as causing car crashes and mayhem, often with unintended consequences for bystanders.

The game lets you commit crimes like stealing cars right in the middle of busy streets, and even taunt the police when they chase you. You can also attack anyone you want, and the game rewards you for being especially cruel, even to helpless characters like the homeless.

Saints Row 2

The More Horrible You Are, The Better

Unlike many other games, Saints Row 2 actually encourages players to be as chaotic and destructive as possible. The main objective is to build your gang’s reputation through widespread mayhem. You can freely attack anyone – even innocent people – and use them as shields during fights, alongside enemies and the police.

If simply running around and killing people isn’t your style, you can still have fun causing trouble in other ways, like robbing stores or people on the street. The game world will respond realistically to your actions, whether you’re causing a car crash or starting a shootout in public.

Red Dead Redemption 2

Be The Selfish Coyote

In Red Dead Redemption 2, your choices matter thanks to an honor system. This system significantly impacts the game – everything from the amount of money you can collect from defeated enemies to how much merchants charge you, and even the final outcome of the story. It’s a complex system that lets you determine the kind of person Arthur Morgan is and how the fate of the gang unfolds.

Want to play as a truly ruthless Arthur Morgan? Avoid helping key characters like Sadie Adler or Lenny during the “Who the Hell is Leviticus Cornwall?” mission. Consistently choose selfish actions – kill people, steal, antagonize others (even your own gang), and disrespect the dead – to ensure Arthur becomes as cruel as possible.

Rust

Everything Goes In The Name Of Survival

Rust is a multiplayer game that often brings out the worst in people. Because you’re interacting with real players whose progress you can impact, it’s easy to act like a villain. You can do some truly cruel things, like trapping and tormenting newcomers, or raiding the bases of peaceful players simply for the thrill of it.

Destroying another player’s base while they’re offline, or constantly waiting for them to return to their base (camping), can be very disruptive. Some players even pretend to be allies before betraying others. However, TopMob does not approve of these actions, and you could face a ban or be ostracized by the community, depending on the server’s rules.

Fallout: New Vegas

You Are The Mojave Wasteland’s Terror

Fallout: New Vegas is a highly-regarded role-playing game known for its incredible freedom and unique karma system. It offers a vast open world where you can truly shape your own adventure. The game allows for morally complex choices – you can even align yourself with the brutal Caesar’s Legion and support slavery, going so far as to sell your allies. This feels especially impactful if you’ve previously helped people like those in Goodsprings, only to later betray them for personal gain and witness the consequences firsthand.

That’s only a small part of what the game offers. If you want to truly dominate the Mojave Wasteland, aligning with Yes Man and building an army of Securitrons is a good strategy. The level of freedom to cause chaos and be ruthless is incredible – and that’s before you consider simply shooting, stealing from, or even eating other people! There’s even a hilarious quest where you can call down a devastating laser strike from orbit.

2025-12-16 08:36