Summary
Horror games have presented many kinds of villains to gamers over the years, from slasher villains to supernatural entities that haunt the dreams of players after the game is over. Several villains introduced have been female-presenting, which adds new kinds of threats as well as an angle of storytelling.
The idea of female villains has allowed developers to create characters that have become iconic parts of gaming history. Some are tragic products of their upbringing and trauma, while others are vindictive monsters that show no qualms about killing or conquering to accomplish their goals.
TheOutlastgames are known for their multiple antagonists, withOutlast 2having some of the scariest. Marta is one of the most recurring, wielding a massive crucifix as a weapon and, despite her towering stature, she is fast enough to keep up with the player.
The chase music and her screams are terrifying enough to raise the hair on anybody’s neck. Sincethere are no weapons or combat mechanicsinOutlast 2, the only options are to run or hide, otherwise, Marta will find and impale the player with her crucifix, making for a brutal death.
Mixing Celtic and Eldritch horror,Clive Barker’s Undyingfeatures a whole family of undead monsters twisted by the curse they had cast upon themselves. While all of them are evil, Bethany is arguably the worst, worshiping the Undying King most faithfully to the point of wanting to conquer the world at his side as his queen.
This results in Bethany transforming from a human to a demonic witch. With the ability to summon monsters, the blindly faithful Bethany Covenant is the prime example of what the Undying King’s power is capable of, and through pages found in the game, the player can learn of the disturbing history of her corruption and that so much of the Covenant’s family curse was because of her evil.
Following the old legend that if a person resorts to cannibalism in a cursed location, they will be forced to transform into a monster known as the Wendigo. ThroughoutUntil Dawn, the Wendigo is hinted at until revealed to be the true main antagonist of the game and happens to be a tragic one once its identity is revealed.
Hannah Washington and her twin sister Beth seemingly died in the opening chapter ofUntil Dawn. It’s revealed that only Beth died and Hannah consumed her sister to survive, resulting in her becoming cursed with changing into a Wendigo. When the main characters arrive a year later, they become Hannah’s new victims,depending on the player’s choicesin the story-driven horror game.
InResident Evil 7: Biohazard, all the horrors Ethan Winters endures originate from Eveline, a young girl who is a living bioweapon created by The Connections, a rival of the Umbrella Corporation. Eveline, in her desire to create a family, corrupts every person she meets with her virus, creating more advanced mutations such as the Baker family and Mia Winters that serve her will.
Even though the girl is only seen in the latter half of the story, Eveline was present throughoutResident Evil 7and first-time players wouldn’t even know it until the final act. Those not worthy of being in her family become giant fungal monsters known as The Molded that serve her like pawns, showing how dangerously powerful she is.
Taking direct inspiration from films such asThe RingorThe Grudge, Alma is a seemingly typical long-haired ghost girl in a white gown that haunts players in theF.E.A.R.games. Due to her supernatural abilities, Alma Wade was experimented on as a child by her own father, thus making her story a tragic one despite the many horrors she inflicts on the player.
Throughout theF.E.A.R.trilogy, Alma gradually becomes more and more of a villain,utilizing her abilities as a ghost, becoming no better than the people who tortured her. It leads to theF.E.A.R.operatives' senses being warped by Alma, seeing twisted visuals, and having to fight hordes of enemies under her control.
Though her tall stature and beauty have resulted in thousands of parodies and memes on the internet, Lady Alcina Dimetrscu is far from a joke. She is a powerful genetically-engineered vampire who stalks Ethan Winters inResident Evil: Village, and despite her not being the main antagonist, she remains one of the most memorable of the game and the entire franchise.
Alcina’s beguiling beauty is only a ruse, as she is a terrifying monster to encounter and be chased by inResident Evil: Village, with her charming voice swapping to a booming one and featuring long blade-like claws. That’s not even getting to her final transformation into aneven more disturbing and powerful bossthat looks like something out of an Eldritch horror story.
While thedemonic villains of theDiablofranchisehave always been horrific by design,Diablo 4is when the series went the furthest into horror. Lilith, the mother of demons, is a powerful being on a physical level, but her corruption of soul and mind is where she is terrifying, able to twist the humblest of humans into murderous zealots.
Whether it’s her followers speaking about her or actually seeing what her influence is capable of via cinematics inDiablo 4, Lilith is unlike any other demon in the franchise. Being the daughter of Mephisto and the creator of the Nephalem, she proved to be a worthy successor to the main villain role for the franchise.
SHODAN is a concept that has been explored many times in fiction: an artificial intelligence going rogue. However,System Shockwas one of the more influential games in the genre by having SHODAN convert the people aboard the space station into mutant pawns for her to control as she attempts to satisfy her god complex, creatingan iconic space horror game.
Throughout theSystem Shockstory, SHODAN is constantly taunting and belittling the main character while stroking her own ego. It shows that SHODAN is more than just an unfeeling program operating on logic, she is truly evil, and she relishes her rebelling against humanity, showing that she is not that different from a living being in terms of her thought process.
