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[To Far Away Times]

Eggman Robotnik

No wait... This is most competent villains, not least competent, so I'll go with Shodan from System Shock 2.

 

[hteng]

persistent mother fucker, he comes back every time

 

[Shotgun Kiss]

Massively disagree, Liquid is utterly incompetent.

Lets ignore the fact that his guards are ordered to stop searching for an infiltrator when a certain amount of time has passed. Lets ignore the fact that his second-in-command is Ocelot, the most untrustworthy bastard who ever lived. Lets ignore the fact that he could have killed Snake at any point when he was captured. Lets ignore the fact that his guards all wore facemasks so that someone in disguise could not be identified. Lets ignore the fact that he uses the Codec to relay his ENTIRE PLAN to you in supervillain style.

Lets ignore all of them and go with the moment when Metal Gear explodes. Snake is knocked unconscious, and Liquid is not. So what does he do? Shoot him when he's down? Call backup? Escape to fight another day?

Or drag Snake onto the top of the very-high Metal Gear for a fist-fight? Yeah.

Let's not ignore all of those things. Because his goal was to

Spoiler

manipulate Snake into finding the keycards and activating Metal Gear for him; a goal that wouldn't have seen much success if Liquid pulled out all the stops to kill Snake. He even specifically says "you didn't think you made it here by yourself, did you?". Hell, he even posed as Master Miller in order to HELP Snake. As for wanting a fist-fight, I fail to see how wanting to prove himself better than his brother in a fair fight is incompetent. Especially considering that Shadow Moses was about to be bombed, and he and Snake had only minutes left to live (Campbell managed to cancel the airstrike, but only after the fight was over). What good would shooting Snake/escaping have done? He'd still die moments later. He decided to end it with a one-on-one fist fight. Are only heroes allowed to have pride?

 

[Johann]

The Practical Incarnation in Planescape: Torment

Spoiler

He was the one incarnation of the Nameless One that came closest to breaching the Fortress of Regrets. He successfully gathers a small group of the. One of them is an extremely gifted woman who he manipulates into falling in love with him. Another is a powerful warrior-mage he entraps into a lifetime vow of obedience. He was the only incarnation who new the power of the bronze sphere. Not to mention he tricked someone else into searching for the sphere for him and keeping it long enough for another incarnation to find it. In the case of his death, he takes steps to ensure that new incarnations have enough clues (vague enough that it doesn't attract attention) to reach his disembodied spirit.

He is defeated either by the player entering a fisticuffs (he's pretty tough) or merging with the practical incarnation in a contest of sheer willpower (better have good stats).

 

[Cat in the Hat]

The camera from Ninja Gaiden

This devious villain will do everything in its power to blind you, the player. Is there a wall anywhere in the general vicinity? Rest assured that this enemy will look at it and probably get stuck behind it instead of you. An enemy more than two feet away from Ryu? The camera rides so far up Ryu's ass you probably won't see it until it's already hit you.

:lol :lol

 

[wolfmat]

Spoiler

I'd hardly call him a villain. He saves you time and time again in an environment where all your friends are willing to kill you for a little money. His actions at the end also make him one of the few noble characters in the game.

Well, you know, he is proclaimed as a villain, which should count for something.

I really just wanted to point out that the voicework was exceptional.

 

[TurboLibre]

I really just wanted to point out that the voicework was exceptional.

Yeah, it really was.

 

["God's Beard!"]

Any truly competent villain strikes fear into your heart that has been buried deep into your psyche after a series of unbroken defeats. No one can hide from his all-seeing eye, his all-knowing mind.

If you disagree, you can just stop right there, criminal scum.

 

[tafer]

The motherfucking Shivans from Freespace. A riddle wrapped in an enigma that grew larger as more layers were removed.

The

Spoiler

Sathanas fleet

at the end of Freespace 2 was probably the most awe inspiring thing I've seen in a videogame.

We need a proper sequel of these amazing games.

Dude, I would love to know what happened to the earth at the end of Freespace 1.

 

[Peronthious]

The Practical Incarnation in Planescape: Torment

Spoiler

He was the one incarnation of the Nameless One that came closest to breaching the Fortress of Regrets. He successfully gathers a small group of the. One of them is an extremely gifted woman who he manipulates into falling in love with him. Another is a powerful warrior-mage he entraps into a lifetime vow of obedience. He was the only incarnation who new the power of the bronze sphere. Not to mention he tricked someone else into searching for the sphere for him and keeping it long enough for another incarnation to find it. In the case of his death, he takes steps to ensure that new incarnations have enough clues (vague enough that it doesn't attract attention) to reach his disembodied spirit.

He is defeated either by the player entering a fisticuffs (he's pretty tough) or merging with the practical incarnation in a contest of sheer willpower (better have good stats).

The only right answer, though the transcendent one comes close.

 

[∀ Narayan]

We need a proper sequel of these amazing games.

Dude, I would love to know what happened to the earth at the end of Freespace 1.

Aren't the Freespace games available for free now? If so, where does one get them?

 

[timetokill]

Now, Ryan was competent.

Only problem is Ryan wasn't a villain, so he doesn't qualify.

 

[EmCeeGramr]

Massively disagree, Liquid is utterly incompetent.

Lets ignore the fact that his guards are ordered to stop searching for an infiltrator when a certain amount of time has passed. Lets ignore the fact that his second-in-command is Ocelot, the most untrustworthy bastard who ever lived. Lets ignore the fact that he could have killed Snake at any point when he was captured. Lets ignore the fact that his guards all wore facemasks so that someone in disguise could not be identified. Lets ignore the fact that he uses the Codec to relay his ENTIRE PLAN to you in supervillain style.

Lets ignore all of them and go with the moment when Metal Gear explodes. Snake is knocked unconscious, and Liquid is not. So what does he do? Shoot him when he's down? Call backup? Escape to fight another day?

Or drag Snake onto the top of the very-high Metal Gear for a fist-fight? Yeah.

Surprised to agree with you, but yeah. Liquid (and Solidus) were not very competent villains. Their plans were fatally flawed*, they were being used as tools, and were both being deceived. Imposing and memorable villains, yes. Competent? Not really.



*

Spoiler

Liquid's plan to shoot REX's warhead had two flaws: the first, he planned to have the nuclear strike forcing the US into revealing REX and its theft to China, thus bringing the terrorists world notice. Problem is, the warhead was designed to be undetectable, and the site would be a nuclear test site. China would have no way of knowing if the US had done it, or Japan, or terrorists, or what. Second problem is that as In the Darkness of Shadow Moses revealed in MGS2, REX's rail gun had severe accuracy issues since it was still a prototype.

Solidus' plan had flaws as well. He planned to detonate a nuclear device over Manhattan to create an EMP via Compton scattering, to "free" NYC from Patriot control via electronic infrastructure. Problem: an EMP close enough and powerful enough to disable ALL electronics in New York City would almost certainly be able cripple Solidus' forces and Arsenal Gear as well, leaving them defenseless against a counterstrike. As Ocelot put it, Arsenal is a floating coffin without massive land, sea, and air support. And that's not even taking into account the effects of atmospheric fallout. Finally, the fact that New Yorkers might not exactly LIKE being "liberated" in the first place. A few hundred mercenaries against over 8 million people might fly for a conquistador, but I doubt it'd work here.

 

[TurboLibre]

I remember Nishiki from Yakuza being a pretty competent villain. It's been a while since I played it though, so I could be wrong.

 

[lastplayed]

Depends how you play the game of course.

 

[tafer]

Aren't the Freespace games available for free now? If so, where does one get them?

I read about it ages ago, something related with open source or something, never found anything relevant... sadly.

At the same time, I found my old copy of Freespace 2 the other day (a year ago) and had one of those really lovely moments: Some people is having a nasty problem with windows xp with no known solution... Game detects the shift (or was it alt?) key to be pressed all the time, ALL the time. As you may expect, the game is unplayable.

 

[IceMarker]

The most compelling...? Hmm...

 

[someguyinahat]

Roy Philips from Fallout 3.

Spoiler

Manipulates the player into doing his dirty work for him. Even after you manage to convince people in Tenpenny Tower to allow ghouls in for a peaceful co-existence, the ghouls kill everybody. To top it off, if you kill him it's considered an evil act, karma-wise, so he's a villain even the GAME considers a good guy.

 

[Saiyar]

Dormin from Shadow of the Colossus.

He manipulates the player into doing exactly what he wanted all the time making you think you are doing something good. He is only defeated by the last minute intervention of Emon.

 

[Fimbulvetr]

Dormin from Shadow of the Colossus.

He manipulates the player into doing exactly what he wanted all the time making you think you are doing something good. He is only defeated by the last minute intervention of Emon.

Actually, Dormin's status as a villian is unconfirmed.

1) He warned Wander there'd be a price.

2) He does actually revive the girl as part of the bargain they made.

He's more Chaotic Neutral if anything. :|

 

["God's Beard!"]

Roy Philips from Fallout 3.

Spoiler

Manipulates the player into doing his dirty work for him. Even after you manage to convince people in Tenpenny Tower to allow ghouls in for a peaceful co-existence, the ghouls kill everybody. To top it off, if you kill him it's considered an evil act, karma-wise, so he's a villain even the GAME considers a good guy.

But I killed all the ghouls and all the tenpenny residents. I was the most competent villain in Fallout 3.

 

[Akuun]

Kerrigan in Starcraft.

Well aware that she is not an all-powerful being on her own, she schemed and manipulated her way to power, effectively destroying all rivals (and rival races) without taking them head-on. She only showed her hand to gloat when it was clear that she had already won.

When she was turned in the original game, I wondered - like Raynor - if there was some way to turn her back. But by the end of Brood War, all most people could do was hope that there was some way to kill her for what she's done - if it's even possible.


The Shivans in Freespace 2.

This is kind of a cop-out since the game explains almost nothing about them, but they carried a very strong sense of menace whenever you encountered them. Both numerically and technologically superior, these guys were not your typical alien race that sent idiots with big glowing spots on their chests to signify their weak points. Time and again, the sight of a serious attack from them is something that instills fear.

You don't know why they take the actions that they do, but all you know is that if you don't fight them, everyone will die. It's that simple.