6) Far Cry – Dr. Krieger/Harland Doyle
The first Far Cry game doesn’t feature a single antagonist in the same way the recent games do. Also, the game isn’t as open about the identity of its villains, revealing, at the end of the game, that there’s someone above the person you’ve been working against the whole time.
The initial villain, Dr. Krieger, is a renowned scientist who used to work for Department of Defense as a geneticist. In the game, he is the controller of the Trigens (beings who have been mutated by Krieger) and is intent on improving the human race in any way possible. However, you kill him late in the game, and it is revealed that Harland Doyle is actually the main antagonist.
Doyle is your main contact once you wash up on the island and is an undercover CIA Agent working as a scientist to uncover what is happening there with Dr. Krieger. While he presents himself as a good guy, it is revealed after you kill Krieger that he plans to make a fortune off of the acquired mutagen, to make more of Krieger’s plans. While the twist is interesting, the fact that you see so little of the bad side of Doyle makes him an underwhelming villain in comparison to the likes of Vaas and Pagan Min. Krieger is more of a treat throughout the game, but the reveal weakens his position as a menacing villain.
5) Far Cry Primal – Ull/Batari
While Far Cry Primal offered a fresh perspective for the series while moving to a completely different time period, it lacked the iconic villains of the games that came before it. Ull and Batari were leaders of their own tribes, each with their own aims and visions for the region you play in. However, neither of them are as threatening as the villains in the series, and they don’t have as interesting of a personality as others. They’re simply there to shout at and threaten you, without having much influence on the region itself or your ability to explore it. Of course, they can be menacing – moving quickly and violently – but they ultimately offer less of a lasting threat than many of Far Cry’s other villains.
4) Far Cry 2 – The Jackal
Far Cry 2 was the first game to introduce the main antagonist that causes havoc in a country, seemingly alone. He’s a notorious arms dealer who has been selling weapons to the warring factions in the fictional African country; even the guns you find or buy can be traced back to him. Aside from a few choice meetings – one at the start, in particular in which he threatens you while waving a machete around – The Jackal isn’t so much of a menace to you, the player. It is the impact he’s had on the fictional country, through the distribution of arms and increase of violence, that makes his presence felt. He doesn’t have the most unique of personalities, especially in comparison to others in the Far Cry series, but he is an important starting point for the individual, threatening villain motif that the series adopted for many of the subsequent entries.
3) Far Cry 5 – Joseph Seed
The structure has changed slightly for Far Cry 5. While there’s still a main antagonist at the centre of everything that happens – Joseph Seed – your focus for much of the game is his equally unstable siblings John, Faith, and Jacob. Those three are the ones chasing you, threatening you, and capturing your friends, and they’re the ones you see more often.
However, taking down Joseph Seed is the end goal. He is the founder and leader of Eden’s Gate, the doomsday cult based in Montana, and he uses violence and coercion to grow the influence the cult has in the region. He’s softly spoken and calm, yet his language and control over his following are terrifying. The way he often appears out of nowhere and moves in an almost ghostly fashion also makes you fear his presence. However, since he isn’t the focus for much of the story, his psyche and motives aren’t explored as much as those of other Far Cry villains, until the closing moments, making him less memorable.
2) Far Cry 4 – Pagan Min
Pagan Min is certainly the most powerful of enemies in Far Cry’s history. Not only is he physically imposing, he is the monarch or Kyrat rather than a glorified henchman like many other antagonists. Min is a dictator who controls nations and millions of people rather than a tradesman above his pay grade. His status alone makes him one of the series’ most menacing villains. His eccentricity (he loves a pink suit) and kind demeanor make him interesting at first, but his violent outbursts and charisma make him more and more terrifying as the story progresses. What keeps him from the number one spot isn’t necessarily a flaw of his own, but more of the game he is in. He simply isn’t in Far Cry 4 very much, appearing from time to time to threaten you, with much of his screen time coming at the start and end of the game. He demands your attention every moment he is on the screen, and he is voiced superbly by Troy Baker, but you don’t see enough of him for him to be considered the best the series has had to offer.
1) Far Cry 3 – Vaas Montenegro
The release Far Cry 3 was when everyone sat up and took notice of the series. The beautiful, tropical setting and the unpredictable open world were important but the move towards a singular, unique villain set Far Cry 3 apart from the rest of the games in the series and other first-person shooters.
That villain was Vaas Montenegro and he has become one of the standout characters of the last two generations of video games. At face value, he’s a standard bad guy. He’s involved in kidknapping, drug trafficking, and general violence, and he’s happy to cause harm in any way if it means financial gain for himself. However, it’s his personality that makes him stand out. He’s more mentally unstable than any other character in the series – his tone of voice changing wildly in the space of just a few sentences. The mixture of his unpredictability and sadistic streak make him consistently menacing. He may not have the physical power of a Pagan Min but he’s more than charismatic enough to stand out in any scene he’s in. His “definition of insanity” monologue alone conveys exactly how insecure and unstable he is, and the performance from the voice actor, Michael Mando, makes it even more effective. Vaas is arguably the most memorable part of any Far Cry game and he played a huge role in making the series what it is today.
