Best & Worst "Evil" Paths

[Forsaken Lover]

So as I replay Knights of the Old Republic (1) this thought crossed my mind.

See, KOTOR 1's Dark Side path really bugs me. Contrary to popular belief, evil people do not have ridiculous mustaches, cackle a lot and etc.. True, Sith tend to be rather one-dimensional but that's fine for a non-PC character. The whole point of an RPG protagonist is so you can insert some of yourself into them. I could never properly RP as Revan because it's just too hokey. There is a lady early on you can kill. She's a captive being forced to be a waitress. Now, I suppose you could rationalize away killing her as "can't be too careful." Maybe she's lying. But no, the dialogue for killing her is some horrible joke that I think wen tlike "I'm gonna punch your ticket!" And then at the end the game forced me to kill Mission! I'm not some kind of a monster! She was awesome and my favorit echaracter besides Canderous.

But yeah, that's my choice for potential Worst. There's just no ambiguity and no sense to that playthrough and thus no enjoyment, either.

I think it can be contrasted pretty well with the KOTOR II Dark Side playthrough but I still wouldn't say that's my favorite. I think my favorite would be Mass Effect 2's Renegade run, if you want to count that as evil. As the commander of a ship full of various degree of murderers, being some boy scout doesn't make sense. These are not nice people and your mission is not to be nice. It's to take down the Collectors and whatever gets that done, so be it.

What about you all?

This doesn' thave to be RPGs, by the way. I was also thinking of InFamous here because it's evil path makes a lot of sense seeing as how Cole faces so much trout for stuff that wasn't even his fault. It doesn't make him right but I can at least understand it.

[Skyblade]

I think Mass Effect doesn't really handle Renegade well. Paragon Shepard has a defined personality, goals, and objectives. Renegade Shepard doesn't. Half of the Renegade options are directly contradictory because the only real theme to Renegade Shepard is "be a jerk to everyone". It was supposed to be a "ruthless but focused on the mission", but a lot of the decisions are just "be a jerk to whoever you're talking to". There are only a few that I feel actually capture the idea of Renegade well.

[Fynn]

In general, not a fan of morality systems in games because it usually boils down to bring either a shining paragon of justice or a vicious murdere of puppies, while in real life people are more nuanced, so it's just hard for me to role play that. I'm much more partial to systems that use a law/chaos scale as its primary system. Games like the SMT series or Tactics Ogre are great about this.

[blackmage_nuke]

I dont know if it's the "Evil" route but I do like everyone has some reaction to performing actions that they don't agree with morally in Alpha Protocol.

I also liked how a lot of the "evil" promotion quests in Might and Magic VII aren't very much evil though I'm not really 100% on the plot of that game.

I heard Undertale had a pretty kickass evil route but unfortunately I'll never play it.

[Karifean]

Undertale's Genocide route was an incredible experience.

In regards to VNs, G-senjou's bad ends are basically what happens if you don't "turn good"; they're vexing to say the least. Also, Umineko's Trick ending is just one scene but it still gave me the chills.

[Laddy]

I also liked how a lot of the "evil" promotion quests in Might and Magic VII aren't very much evil though I'm not really 100% on the plot of that game.

Oh bro don't get me started. The good/evil binary of the game is just absurd. The different promotions based on alignment basically boil down to "what class name sounds coolest", "what quests do you want", "what color interface do you like", or "do you maybe possible wanna be a skeleton". Great game, but it's so underwhelming in that department.

I feel like the early Fallouts & New Vegas and The Infinity Engine RPG's do this swimmingly. Fallout does a good job of incentivizing you to be evil for the most part, as it allows you to acquire awesome abilities and items at the risk of most everyone hating you. In New Vegas you could make the case the game's "Evil" faction is the superior ethical choice from a pragmatic perspective. Sure, it's an argument made by edgelords or guys who'd vote for Ron Paul, but it's better than nothing.

As for Baldur's Gate or Torment, the game almost *begs* you to go evil since it makes sense in both games for canonical reasons to do so. In Baldur's Gaye, the best characters are Evil and the best ability your character gets essentially forces you to play Evil if you must. As for Torment, it's harder to explain without being a Pike-esque lore whore but it's brilliant.