Video game main protagonist as Complete Monster

Well, for starters, I only found out about the real Alex Mercer from Prototype as a Complete Monster.

So, is there any other protagonists that can be Complete Monsters?

The Commander?

Any game with a good/evil system has a chance of letting you go to that extreme. But as a default I could not tell you.

Kratos. The redemption subplot in III was the worst thing in that game.

^He 100% qualifies in GOW 2.

The issues regarding his family in the first kinda knock it down to 99% monster.

Soul Nomad: The Demon Path. I will not go further on this, since this is spoilers.

Riiight, completely forgot about Kratos.

I think he qualifies more in III (warning: massive spoilers). His methods of killing his enemies are brutal and sadistic to the extreme. His No-Holds-Barred Beatdown of Poseidon, his ripping off Helios' head wih his bare hands, smashing Hercules' face in, etc...

He does this despite knowing that it would cause untold destruction. The world is flooded, de-sunned, diseased, ghost-infested and all plantlife is killed, all of which doubtless caused millions of deaths, and when this is mentioned he simply states "Let them suffer". It's pretty easy to call him the most evil man in the world by this point, and yet this is when they chose to redeem him? At no point is it indicated that he felt remorse for anything other than the death of his family which makes the "All you have to do is forgive yourself!!" ending more of a copout.

edited 5th Nov '10 9:12:24 PM by GabrielGloom

This thing is, the game treats the lame redemption plot seriously. One of the CM qualifiers is for the guy to not be a Karma Houdini.

edited 5th Nov '10 9:18:26 PM by JotunofBoredom

I consider it a Karma Houdini of the worst order. He deserved far worse than what he got.

The problem what from I can tell is they flanderized Kratos completely in 2. In the first he was like a classic Greek tragic hero. As the series went on he just became less of tragic hero and more of a raging psychopath.

Agree, but about the only thing that maybe(still not sure if it counts) stopped Kratos from being a CM in the first game was his family.

edited 6th Nov '10 11:40:13 AM by JotunofBoredom

Kratos a hundred and thirteen times over. Just ask the Poseidon Princess.

EDIT: Never mind, I didn't notice that the TC was talking about the real Alex Mercer and not the one you actually play as, who ends up becoming more of The Atoner after the Tomato in the Mirror reveal.

edited 5th Nov '10 10:34:21 PM by Ryusui

I'd say Overlord and The Suffering both allow you to push the Karma Meter towards the monstrous end of things (although in the former you might take a while to realize it.)

Valkyrie Profile Covenant Of The Plume, if you make a habit of using the titular Plume.

Pretty much damn near any Eroge in which there's rape going on and it's being done by the protagonist.

The dark side path in the first Knights Of The Old Republic really takes the cake, in my opinion. Not only can the PC practically skydive past the Moral Event Horizon with horribly evil panache, but the sequel and other tie-in materials give an Omniscient Morality License that retroactively justifies every single thing done in-game on top of the numerous atrocities perpetrated by Darth Revan pre-Mind Wipe to nearly God-Mode Sue levels.

Willingly serving an evil despotic nation by slaughtering horrific amounts of flora and fauna? Repeatedly breaking the body and spirit of a harmless bumbler who's the closest thing to an enemy he has? Using friends and family as tools to boost his own ego? And all so he can get some action with a woman he's been obsessed with for over two decades now? Scrap that, he gets action every night, while she bakes cakes and 'gets kidnapped' to deal with the trauma.

Damn straight Mario is a Complete Monster.

More seriously, I play The Boss and Blackwatch Alex Mercer with little regards to such trifling issues as 'morality' and 'preservation of human life'. If those civilians didn't want to became flambe ala RPG, they should've run faster.

edited 6th Nov '10 5:19:07 AM by DarkDecapodian

If we're referring to how we choose to play a protagonist, then, well, let's see how many dwarves/goblins/both I can kill with the flip of a single lever.

Cole can end this way too.

edited 6th Nov '10 7:09:15 PM by NLK2

Ty The Tasmanian Tiger. just watcth the commercial for the first game.

Not a default option, as in many games with Karma Meter, but evil actions possible for player in Planescape Torment often cross Moral Event Horizon. By pushing others past Despair Event Horizon and then some, among other things.

edited 6th Nov '10 10:45:20 PM by Beholderess

Not exactly the protagonist, but Adam from Metroid Other M certainly qualifies as an unintentional example. He's practically there to limit your progress, seems to secretly hate Samus judging by the amount of shit he puts her through, and frequently does some very very wrong things like put her in a killbox only penetrable by a certain beam and shooting Samus with very little provocation and a very flimsy excuse(you could have stopped Samus from going into Sector Zero just by asking her, she's already kisses up to you at every turn!), and YET he gets off the hook scott-free too many times to count. That and Samus constantly Shilling the Wesley makes him the worst character in the game.

edited 7th Nov '10 6:52:04 AM by MrW

^ I'm not sure you can really count Adam as NEW...