The iLL Panel is a series where the iLL Gaming staff pick their brains over topics related to the game industry. Given the nature of our staff, it can end up being either a mosh pit of fanboy nerdgasms or a bitter fight usually accompanied with death threats and all-out war (ok, maybe we’re not that extreme).
This month India celebrates two festivals commemorating the triumph of Good over Evil. In keeping with the spirit of these festivals we look at the Antagonists in Video Games. Why the antagonist, you might ask, and to that we answer that the protagonist’s deeds are made all the more glorious and heroic by the evilness of the Antagonist. There would be no celebration if some great evil were not vanquished and the world was set right again. Taking part in this iLL Panel are Sahil, Anikait, Tathagata, Ajay and Chirantan.
[divider]
That first Antagonist
The Panel begins with Chirantan querying as to who was the first antagonist that really stuck with the individual members of the iLL Staff. Sahil mentions Liquid Snake from Metal Gear Solid, Anikait abhors General Raam from Gears of War and Tathagata despises Zeus from God of War. Ajay goes old school with bosses from Contra while Chirantan makes known his preference for strategy with Mal’Ganis from Warcraft III. There’s a bit of reminiscing of all the games with Chirantan and Sahil getting tearfully nostalgic about Prince Arthas and his transformation from hero to anti-hero as well as the evil yet not quite the antagonist Lich King.
The cake is a lie
The mention of Kerrigan takes the panel to a new direction. She is a good example of a good person doing evil things simply due to circumstance. A manufactured antagonist. This prompts Tathagata to mention that in Dark Souls, the true villain is you as all your actions are the disturbing force in that world. That’s the irony of a game with some of the most epic bosses notes Ajay. Going off on a philosophical tangent, the panel thinks that it’s quite easy for the player character to be the antagonist from the point of view of the game world’s characters given how you gain power and disrupt the existing status quo of the world, all in pursuit of a personal agenda that proclaims you to be the good guy who is setting things right.
The discussion takes a GLaD turn towards the purely evil antagonists and Chirantan is quick to mention that ruthless, polite and devious AI who does everything for Science, GLaDOS. And the Panel agrees that indeed they have found their choice for Best Antagonist Ever. GLaDOS does evil things so effortlessly without even bothering about the concept of good or evil. For her it’s all Science and she takes greater pleasure from a failed test rather than a successful one. As far as character development goes Portal 2 is a far better game to understand the psyche of GLaDOS, but the original Portal is where she is at her antagonistic best in the opinion of our Panel.
The makings of a good Antagonist
The Panel is steered on course from random mentions of notable antagonists to discussing what makes for a good Antagonist. The general consensus is that the following key points should define an Antagonist that is memorable.
- The motives of the Antagonist should be clear in the story and the player should be convinced that these are something they are justified in opposing.
- These motives should be revealed throughout the course of the game as well as reminders to reinforce that the player is doing the right thing.
- The encounter with the antagonist should build up to a proper climax with teases throughout the game.
- Any plot twists should make sense with the entire story as well as personality of the Antagonist.
Of course, one should understand that in real life, people aren’t purely good or purely evil. Theirs is more of a spectrum of good and evil. For example, Ravan wasn’t wholly evil nor was every action of Ram saintly. But, they are remembered more for their defining tendencies which are Evil for Ravan and Good for Ram. And that is their legacy. Thus, to make an Antagonist believable, they should be shown having both good and bad sides with a greater concentration of the bad. After all, even good people can do bad things if the circumstances force them to. Looking from a game mechanic point of view, the evilness of the antagonist is not as important as them giving you a cause to be motivated to defeat them.
It’s all about Motivation
Antagonists are necessitated by game design as a means to motivate the player to keep playing the game and finish the story. They are driven by their own motivations too. Tathagata mentions the supervillains from comic book adaptations like Batman, especially pointing out that without the Joker, there would be no Batman. And the first two Arkham games drive this point home quite nicely. Of course, when acting as motivators, antagonists need not be the very epitome of evil. Chirantan points to Razor from NFS Most Wanted (2005) who merely frames you and steals your car, but the whole game is built around getting that car back. And then there’s Wheatley from Portal 2, who is just a fool given power and makes you want to replace him with GLaDOS instead.
Boss Fights
The panel now discusses their most memorable boss fights. Ajay loved climbing unassisted atop his first Colossus in Shadow of the Colossus, while Sahil again mentions the Solid vs Liquid Snake fight before switching to the showdown with GLaDOS in Portal. The Arkham Games get mentioned by Tathagata and Chirantan with the build up to the Killer Croc fight and the definitive Scarecrow sequences. But when it comes to crazy finishes, Chirantan picks shooting the moon to beat Portal 2. Sahil nods to Gandhi for Civilization, whose behaviour is so contrary to his real life persona though the nature of that game doesn’t make it a boss fight per se.
Talking about forgettable bosses, names like Iraq from Watch_Dogs and Phillipe Loren from Saints Row the Third crop up among others. And they’re soon forgotten by the panel in favour of discussing what makes for a good boss fight. The iLL Staff is unanimous in decrying the use of Quick Time Events (QTEs) in boss fights because they tend to ruin the flow of the action. A good boss fight is one that tests all the skills you’ve learned in the game previously while throwing in a surprise new mechanic. It’s better if the level is designed for the sole purpose of preparing you for that encounter. Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor’s nemesis system is a game changer in this regard as you can create your own boss by successively losing to a particular enemy which makes the success of defeating him taste all that much sweeter.
But there is another school of thought to this as Ajay points out. Some players love the difficulty of going in blind when facing a boss and learning from repeated failure enhances the experience for them. There are some games that introduce a new enemy type as a boss first and subsequently these appear as part of the enemy mobs in later levels when your character is levelled up high enough to beat them with ease. Chirantan says that he prefers this type of approach.
And with the boss fights concluded, the credits start to roll, and it’s a happy ending for this iLL Panel. Tell us about your favorite antagonists in the comments below.
