These gaming villains who still need their compunctions

Usually, the main appeal of a video game villain is that you get to see them hoisted by their own petard at the end of the game. You pull off the big bad, you save the day, the credits roll, and everyone goes home happy. If we're lucky, their downfall will be ironic to their grand plans.

However, that is not always the case. Some villains manage to get away with their actions, or others are set up for a follow-up release that never comes to pass. More courageous people will also show you their lack of results. Here are the villains in gaming who still need a piece of their comeuppance.

10 General Serrano – Bulletstorm

“You'll live to fight another day, thank me”

Bulletstorm's fanatical, abusive and sadistic General Serrano has been a thorn in Grayson Hunt's side ever since Grayson discovered Serrano was using Hunt's team as an illegal death squad. In an act of revenge (or blind drunkenness), Grayson crashes both his and Serrano's ships on an abandoned planet full of hostile mutants.

While Grayson and his friend Ishii are forced to partner with Serrano for a while, the not-so-nice general betrays Hunt and leaves them for dead, and when Hunt grabs him and punches him a bit, he doesn't finish the job. . The match ends with a sequel stinger from Serrano and a brainwashed Ishii who never gets a follow-up.

9 Aaron Griffin – Gears of War

“We'll make it up next time, Fenix.”

Gears Of War 3 was seen as the conclusion of the Locust War era of the Gears series, with the COG's battle against the Locust Queen reaching a bloody finale by the end of the game. What some may forget, though, is that the fourth act of GOW3 introduces a human character–well, he's not evil, just a little bit.

After losing the Dome, a broken Delta Squad reaches Char, a city devastated by the COG's Hammer of Dawn strike. There, they meet an emulsion baron called Griffin. Griffin makes his hatred for the COG clear, forcing them to run errands and yelling at Marcus when the tower is attacked by Lambent and Locust. Griffin leaves with a promise to resolve his and Marcus' conflict at a later date, but we're still waiting for the guy to beat him.

Griffin appears in the novel Ephyra Rising, set after the events of Gears 3, but he and Marcus do not interact.

8 G-Man – Half-Life

“Be Prepared for Unexpected Results”

See, do we know if the G-Man from Half-Life is a proper villain? No, while the business suit-wearing mystery man is responsible for many of the series' catastrophic events and has at times been outwardly hostile to Gordon Freeman, he has also shown compassion towards Freeman and the gang. He's not 100 percent evil, shall we say.

Still, G-Man is clearly a manipulator willing to pull the strings of the Half-Life story, and the sheer brutality of the Combine is the most outwardly evil part of the game, with people not liking being controlled by otherworldly forces. . We certainly don't. Blowing up boxes with the gravity gun on G-Man outside of G-Mod would be cool, is what we're saying.

7 Lan Di – Shenmue

“You really have a death wish, don't you?”

Players since the Dreamcast age have been waiting decades for Shenmue to give Lan Di a bit of a beatdown after killing Ryo's father at the start of the game. After killing his father, Lan Di mostly disappears from the series, leaving Ryo to chase after his shadow, find some sailors or racing forklifts. Obviously it's easy to get distracted when looking for revenge.

After Shenmue 2 didn't resolve the controversy, fans were left to wait nearly 20 years for a follow-up, hoping they'd get their pound of flesh from Lan Dee. Enter Shenmue 3, which features a showdown between Ryo and Lan Di, but Lan wipes the floor with you and the game ends on the edge of another battle. Shenmue 3's poor reception likely nuked those chances, though.

6 Necromorph Moon – Dead Space

“Make Us Whole”

The Necromorph outbreak in Dead Space isn't a traditional villain. Their only motivation is to feed, kill and perpetuate the mutation cycle by eating new organic matter, essentially making them space zombies, but Dead Space 3 reveals a necromorph hive mind disguised as a moon that is searching for Earth's location. Think of all the delicious people can feast on this.

Isaac Clarke and his new friend Carver spend the entire game trying to stop the Tau Volantis moon, successfully doing so in the climax. However, the DLC expansion Awakened follows the two as they attempt to return to Earth, only to find several Necromorph moons awaiting them upon arrival. Where's the Sonic Adventure 2 Eclipse Cannon when you need it?

If everyone reading this buys a copy of Dead Space Remake, maybe EA will make another one. maybe

5 Kingpin – The Punisher (2005)

“You cheated. Someone is using you to weaken me.”

The Punisher isn't usually the type of guy to let villains get their comeuppance later. It's shot first, shoot later with Frank Castle, and the same can be said for The Punisher video game from 2005, as Frank butchers most of his rogues gallery in that game, including Jigsaw, Bushwacker, The Russian, The Gnuccis and more. Bullseye.

A villain who lives to intervene another day is the kingpin. When Frank shoots his way out of Fisk Tower, he leaves Wilson Fisk alive for some reason. That decision may come back to bite Frank, with an end-credits stinger seeing Fisk vow to take down The Punisher, but no follow-up game was ever made. Shame, honestly.

4 Angelus – dark

“The world has been too long without my light”

Jackie Estacado's life is a bit complicated. He is already a skilled mafioso, but on his 21st birthday, a power known as The Darkness awakens in him, which is as monstrous as it sounds. During the first game, his girlfriend Jenny is murdered, Jackie goes on a supernatural revenge spree for the rest of the game.

While the sequel sees Jackie still grieving, the finale shows Jackie fighting her inner demons through Hell in an attempt to save Jenny's soul. He does so only to learn that Jenny is now a new vessel for the Angels, the direct antagonist of The Darkness. Angelus traps Jackie in Hell for eternity, where he remains, as the series hasn't seen a new game in over a decade.

3 Rorke – Call of Duty: Ghosts

“There will be no ghosts…”

Sorry to have to remind you of the existence of Call of Duty: Ghosts, but there are literally dozens of people who want some sort of resolution in the game's climax. Set in a post-apocalyptic US that has been invaded by a South American alliance later known as the Federation, the campaign ends with brother Hesh and player character Logan taking revenge on their father by taking out the ex-ghost Gabriel Rorke.

The final shots of the campaign see a wounded Hesh and Logan washed up on a beach, celebrating a job well done, blinding the surviving Roarke brothers, beating them up everywhere, and then kidnapping Logan. The implication is that Logan will be brainwashed like Rorke, setting up a sequel that never came.

Did Rorke even appear as a Warzone character? Has Activision completely given up on ghosts?

2 Isabella Keys – Dead Rising

“You're the one who caused this nightmare”

If there's ever been a character in gaming who just manages to get away with it, it's Isabela Keyes. She was instrumental in orchestrating the disaster from the first Dead Rising, and while she's remorseful, seeing the horror unfolded by her brother Carlito, who was working with Frank West, she's far from innocent.

Keys was forced to work with the Phenotrans to develop the Zombrex, though the Phenotrans eventually began causing havoc on purpose to harvest the queens needed to create the Zombrex. Then, in the post-credits scene of Dead Rising 3, it is revealed that Keyes started the outbreak of that game in an attempt to reveal Nick's location and develop a real cure, all to clear his family's reputation. That's certainly a sacrifice worth a few million freshly made zombies.

1 Victor Donovan – Dead or Alive

“So step 4 is ready to proceed?”

Villains in fighting games tend to get their comeuppance, either as part of the game's story or simply because you can load up the game with that character and wail on their own. It might not be a traditional arrival, but beating the passive Kazuya is a nice stress reliever after Tekken 7's story mode. His boss fights were brutal.

One villain who managed to dodge the beat, though, is Dead or Alive's Donovan. A shadowy corporate figure responsible for the Dead or Alive tournaments, Donovan is kidnapping fighters for cloning experiments to create the ultimate fighter. His plans usually fail, but Donovan is like a Saturday morning cartoon villain, already in a helicopter planning his next move after the heroes blow up his base.