"José, a slave driver who forces outcasts to grow that poison Viviro tobacco...(he) has a fucking torture chamber filled with outcasts."
"Now, there are only three company rules you have to follow: First, protect my product. You can fuck them, boys, but be gentle. Second, kill any native on sight. Finally, all profits go to me. I'm an understanding boss, but if you break one of these rules, I roast you in the furnace until your skin crackles like chicken!"
— Hoyt Volker, Far Cry 3
In a franchise exploring the many shades of good and evil, these monstrous villains stand out as the darkest shade of evil.
All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
Video Games
First game & related games
- Original game: Doctor George Wilhelm Krieger is a famous scientist who got fired from the Department of Defense for his experiments on humans. Deciding to conduct his experiments on a remote island, Krieger hired mercenaries to act as his personal army, treating them extremely poorly. Creating his ultimate project, the extremely dangerous mutants Trigens, by experimenting on monkeys and humans alike, often using his own men as test subjects, Krieger reduced all victims of his experiments into barely sapient feral abominations who killed anyone they see. Turning countless people into Trigens, Krieger was completely apathetic when the mutants escaped and slaughtered most of his men.
- Instincts:
- Dr. Krieger is a rich biochemist who decided to uncover the abilities that humanity has lost over the years. To this end Krieger ordered his men to kidnap dozens of innocent people, on whom he then performs numerous painful and horrific experiments. Reducing all subjects of his experiments to yellow-skinned corpse-like mutants who attack anything they see, Krieger has his men capture Jack Carver, after which he ordered them to inject him with improved serum and deliver him to his laboratory for dissection. After Colonel Crowe betrayed him, Krieger ordered his army to slaughter all Crowe's men.
- Colonel Richard Crowe is the commander of Krieger's army of mercenaries, who gleefully assists Krieger in his experiments. Crowe personally captures and delivers countless innocent people to Krieger's laboratory to be experimented upon, fully aware of the horrific nature of the experiments. Deciding to betray Krieger later on, Crowe forced Krieger's underlings to give him access to Krieger's mutants, who Crowe unleashed upon the jungle, not caring that his men got slaughtered by the mutants as a result. Later on abandoning all his men to be killed by Krieger's forces, Crowe joined Krieger's side again for a chance to control his mutants.
- Vengeance: Semeru lacks the honorable aspects of his original counterpart. Waging war against the Micronesian government, Semeru leads his men in attacking military bases, where he would have many soldiers brutally slaughtered. Introduced by attacking the military base that held Jack Carver, which led to many deaths, Semeru stalks Jack, sending his men to attack him, solely to test him out. Offering Jack the chance to join him, Semeru kidnaps Jack's newfound friend Kade, openly announcing his intention to make her his "breeder". Brutally mutilating and torturing to death many people across the island and encouraging Jack to kill most of his men, Semeru dreams of unleashing his enhanced warriors upon the world to cause the fall of civilization and end the age of humanity.
- Sean McKay is the closest thing Antón Castillo has to a business partner in his dictatorship, McKay using his vast corporate connections and ownership of McKay Global to fund and endorse the Castillo dictatorship. McKay pays for everything, from the slave driving to the vile experiments that go on in Yara, the sleazy racist basking in all the pain he's causing to an "underdeveloped" country. Weaponizing PG-240 into a chemical warhead, McKay tests his new toy on a rebel base and horribly kills dozens of people—notably El Tigre and Jonrón—before mass-producing the warheads. McKay plans to sell his "PG-240X" WMDs on the Black Market to terrorists and warlords galore, and rubs his apparent immunity from justice in Dani Rojas's face by bragging not only of the kinds of death his weapons will bring, but also the fact that he is a sex trafficker of children, and plans to send a batch of "fine young treats" to his buyers alongside his WMDs. McKay's own proclivities heavily imply he himself is a pedophile, one former employee of his outright accusing McKay of having raped and impregnated the man's teenage daughter.
- Dr. Edgar Reyes is the creator of the PG-240 chemical, who seeks to further perfect his work no matter the cost. To create PG-240, Reyes subjected thousands of people to lethal, agonizing experiments, creating entire "Outcast camps" to cover up the mass murders performed on his watch. Reyes then supplies the chemical to McKay and José, uncaring of the thousands more who are exposed to its wicked effects. Capturing Dani Rojas, Reyes performs a sadistic experiment on them involving PG-240 and sewing a cell phone inside their body, and brags that his favorite test subjects are young orphans who he specifically has his men round up after murdering their parents. Reyes's main lab is littered with dozens of corpses and screaming victims, the madman gleefully bragging that his favorite thing in the world is carving into people's skin while they're still awake.
- General José Castillo is the sadistic, impulsive nephew of Antón who uses his position to satisfy his every basic whim. A brutal slave driver of thousands who overworks and beats those under his heel, José also exposes his slaves to PG-240 fumigations on a daily basis, killing hundreds and giving countless others cancer from the exposure. José is introduced by stabbing one of his own men through the skull, and later hosts a particularly cruel public hanging of rebels; when the rebels are nearly rescued, José prompts to just stab them all to death. In his free time, José tortures "Fake Yarans" to death and records their screams for his amusement, having done so to well over a hundred people. When rebels Dani and Espada confront him, José promises to turn the former into his torture slave and force them to watch as he kills their loved ones, while taunting the latter over his murder of her father.
- "Model Citizen" sidequest: Rodrigo Lecoste is a relatively minor villain with a despicable niche. Having gained the support of the Castillo regime, Rodrigo uses armed soldiers to round up dozens upon dozens of villagers across Yara and then pour melted steel on them to capture their agonizing final moments in metallic statues that he decorates Yara with. His "art" visible throughout the game and showcasing the many innocents subject to this horrible fate, Rodrigo goes so far as to target his own wife as his latest "piece".
- "The Vanishing" DLC: Chernobog is an eldritch horror that resides in The Shadow Place, with designs to invade Earth and consume all of Yara. Chernobog would forcibly possess hundreds of people brought to its domain, while having its El Devoradors slaughter countless Russian Soldiers and innocent Yarans. When Dani Rojas travels to the Shadow Place to rescue Chorizo, Chernobog commands its thralls to kill them and enter the portal to Earth so that it may enact its invasion.
Other games
- Far Cry 3 & related games:
- Original game: Hoyt Volker runs the largest Human Trafficking ring in the South Pacific. Raising himself up from the rank of privateer, Hoyt made his authority clear to the other pirates by executing his former boss in front of the man's family. Using drugs to corrupt Vaas Montenegro into his addled, sadistic right-hand man, Hoyt lets Vaas loose on his prisoners, letting him abuse and kill them as he sees fit. Introduced forcing a group of civilians to run across a minefield, Hoyt later burns one of his own men alive and tells his other privateers to kill any native islander they come across. Hoyt also forces Jason Brody to torture his own younger brother to prove his loyalty. When Hoyt discovers Jason means to betray him, he kills Jason's friend and begins cutting off Jason's fingers, determined to draw out his suffering before finally killing him.
- Blood Dragon: Colonel Ike Sloan was once the leader of cybernetically-enhanced soldiers, and the ideal hero, but upon learning that America and the Communists wee making a peace agreement, he went rogue with his soldiers. Enhancing himself with the blood of the Blood Dragons, Sloan considered himself the strongest and best suited to be leader. Sloan plots to use the blood to enhance nukes which he'll launch all over the world, resulting in a new apocalypse, and then he'll build a world where the strong rule over the weak, with him as supreme leader. When Sloan first encounters two of his former soldiers, Sergeant Rex "Power" Colt and Lieutenant T.T. "Spider" Brown, he kills Spider and later praises Rex for killing some of his men, as he sees it as culling the ranks of his weaker soldiers.
- Far Cry 4: Yuma Lau is Pagan Min's second-in-command, but plans to usurp him, and stands out as the only one in Pagan Min's Royal Army with no moral restraints. Running the Durgesh Prison, Yuma has all her prisoners exposed to the prison's brutal conditions and climate, while also subjugating them to constant Mind Rape via hallucinogens, destroying their minds and leaving them suicidal, causing many to throw themselves off the prison's cliffs. She would also have her men poison the Golden Path's water and food sources and bring people to her prison against their will. Encountering Ajay Ghale, she drugs him with her mind raping hallucinogens and takes advantage of him sexually, before attempting to kill him, while promising to mix his mother's ashes in pig slop out of spite.
- Primal: Batari is the prophet and leader of the Izila clan plaguing the land of Oros. Batari uses her tribe to kidnap, enslave, and torture countless people from the clans of Wenja and Udam, working them to exhaustion then burning them all alive in sacrificial slayings. Personally castrating a prisoner and laughing as he bleeds out before her, Batari also burned her own son, Krati, alive for crossing her years ago, and propagates the legend of "Krati the Destroyer" returning from the grave to destroy the Izila as a threat to keep her terrified people in line under her. Batari ultimately intends to put all of Oros to the flame if it will not cow to her, and tries to start by destroying the Wenja village.
- Far Cry 5's "A Dish Served Cold" sidequest: The Cook is the most despicable member of Eden's Gate. An utter madman who specializes in starving innocents he is given charge over before crucifying and burning them alive, the Cook has served Eden's Gate for years, killing countless people—often against his superiors' orders. The Cook earned his moniker due to an event where he kidnapped a family of four, starved and tortured them for days, flayed and mutilated the parents before force-feeding the parts to the children, then burned the parents alive while laughing at the children's screams of horror. His only motivations being sadism and a sick desire to use his victims' screams as "hymns" as he ascends to Heaven, the Cook makes the most of his limited screentime to be a repulsive psychopath, even in the ranks of Eden's Gate.
Other Media
- Film: Dr. Krieger here is just as evil as his original video game counterpart. Conducting many experiments on an isolated island, Krieger turned dozens of men into mutated mindless savages, who were driven only by their desire to kill. Using the squad of his own men as a "test" for his mutants, Krieger releases his mutants to brutally slaughter them, solely so he could test their abilities. When all his mutants escaped and started to massacre his soldiers, Krieger tried to force them to sacrifice their lives to slow down the mutants, and sent his right-hand woman, Katja Chernov, to murder Parker, the leader of the soldier team, because he refused to obey his command. Having Chernov kill all who turned on him, Krieger in the end abandoned everyone so he could try to escape from the island.
