6 Games Where the "Monsters" Were Actually Innocent

Some games cast us as a mighty warrior who blows away or cuts down wave upon wave of enemies. As brutal as this can be, we're typically reassured and spurred on by the thought that those enemies are evil. For instance, the Doomslayer, as vicious and merciless as he is, is fighting the armies of Hell. On other occasions, though, our enemies are far from chaotic evil.

Some "monsters" are sorely and terribly misunderstood. They might simply be fighting relentlessly out of self-defense, or otherwise completely unable to control their actions. We might have pre-conceived ideas about a creature's intent, only to be proved very wrong. The monsters in the below games, though they might be powerful enemies, really aren't monsters at all.

6 Resident Evil

Lisa Trevor, Perhaps The Most Tragic Character In The Whole Series

The Resident Evil series certainly has its share of truly evil, duplicitous villains. Albert Wesker, for instance, last seen having a tremendously bad day in a pool of lava. Often, these villains have the goal of unleashing the series' trademark "bioweapons." These are the monsters; the humans or animals who have been infected by different virus strains (either as part of shady organizations' experiments or through accidental leaks). In only a very few cases are these infections or mutations voluntary on the host's part. The true monsters, really, are those who created these beings.

I think this is most evident in the tragic case of Lisa Trevor, who was first seen in Resident Evil Remake, perhaps one of the scariest Resident Evil games. Repeatedly experimented upon by the precursor to Umbrella after her abduction, Lisa's body reacted in unpredictable and disturbing ways to the Progenitor Virus, and the trauma of her imprisonment and the death of her mother ultimately made her a huge security threat that the company believed it had executed. As horrifying as the experience of being pursued by her is, as deadly a face-collecting threat as she is, Lisa is another victim of the horrors the company perpetrated. The boss fight, in which we can reveal the grave of Lisa's mother to her and witness her distraught reaction, was just so poignant. Those moments where we catch a glimpse of the humanity that's still within a mutated shell add so much more depth than simply having a hideous creature to blast at.

5 Look Outside

The Neighbors Aren't The Monsters You Think They Are

There was something very much human still inside Lisa Trevor, despite the terrible transformation that was forced upon her. The same, really, is true of the denizens of Look Outside. This eerie pixel horror game sees the unfortunate Sam awaken in his apartment, visited by a creeping feeling that something's extremely wrong (which it is) and an intense urge to look outside (which he shouldn't). Doing so causes an immediate game over. What's outside? The engimatic Visitor, that's who, and simply seeing them is enough to transform most of the unfortunate denizens of Sam's apartment block (and much of humanity beyond it) into hideous beasts.

I was initially concerned that the game would be a bit more of a point and click adventure around the apartment building (those games aren't my forte at all), but I was glad that it proved to be a pixel RPG instead. In your efforts to survive the 15 days until the Visitor disappears into space and hopefully learn some more about its arrival and effects, you'll gather a small party and engage in some battles against the aforementioned horrors. The most tragic thing for me, though, is that so many of these enemies are just your neighbors who have been cursed by the sight of the Visitor. They can't help what they're doing and certainly didn't ask for this. The saddest of all is the case of Jeanne from Apartment 20. Her curse advances quickly and extremely eyeball-ily, but the human who is still inside her is aware that she's losing control of her body. Parts of it, in fact, are off of their own accord eating people, and she's horrified by the situation.

As absurd and grotesque as the game is, it's really interesting, and pulled on my heartstrings several times along its short run. I did enjoy replaying several times over in pursuit of the different endings, which dramatically change how things play out depending on the amount of evidence about the Visitor you're able to collect and how you choose to react to certain people.

4 Factorio

Can You Blame Them For Biting?

Factorio is a title all about building a huge industrial enterprise to help you escape a mysterious planet. Did the locals ask you to do so, though? No, no they didn't, and they're not so thrilled about what you're doing to their world.

You're not simply free to build infinitely (not by default, that is). As your factory becomes larger, it pollutes the planet more and more. There are certain thresholds at which the biters decide to fight back. The combat in the game, such as it is, consists of fighting off the alien hordes before they destroy your structures.

Of course, potentially setting your progress way back absolutely makes these creatures villains in the player's eyes, but they don't really seem to want to fight at all. Really, you can't build a huge rocket out in the middle of a barren wasteland without the locals noticing, nor without having a significant effect on pollution levels in the vicinity. The player is able to see the amount of pollution they're creating and how far on the map it has reached. Reaching creature nests, it will cause more of them to spawn and, in short order, spark an attack. A well-defended base and clever manipulation of the way you aggro them will help assure your survival, but I can't help but feel a little sorry for these seemingly monstrous critters.

3 Nier Automata

I Thought They Were Strangely Endearing

Now, Nier: Automata has some spectacular boss battles and wonderfully ludicrous setpieces. When it comes to the regular enemy encounters, though, I was struck from the beginning by the designs of the Machines. They just don't look like vicious enemies to me, and, often, they didn't behave like it either. I was particularly struck by an early scene in which 2B and 9S pursue one particular Machine, who seems terrified of them ("They don't give up. Run! Must run!").

We later learn that the conflict between the parties is, ultimately, long-since over, without any human survivors on the moon regardless of what our protagonists believe. The planet, however, retains some form of life in the shape of these Machines, many of whom simply want to be free to live the unique lives they've been granted.

Famously, this is not a game you complete just once: The story develops and more details emerge over the course of several playthroughs. It'll somehow manage to make you feel worse each time, as you learn of the protagonists' true purposes and the fact that, in some ways, their greatest enemies are each other. We're so used to powerful enemies that attack us on sight in games, and so rarely feel the need to question who we're fighting and what we're fighting for. There's a lot of depth to Automata, and because I was new to the games when I first played, I really wasn't expecting it.

2 Monster Hunter World

I'm Not So Sure They're The Monsters

My first foray into the series was Monster Hunter Tri, and though I bought it mostly out of curiosity to try something new, it clicked with me immediately and several hundreds of hours would disappear with it. It's utterly engaging to seek that last rare item to complete an armor set, and practicing with a new type of weapon and building sets is enormous fun. Targeting parts and slicing tails keeps the combat strategic and varied, but it's also quite brutal, as is the whole carving concept.

What did these creatures do to us? Well, in some cases, they're encroaching on human territory and posing a huge threat that must be addressed. You can certainly see the danger of an Elder Dragon in particular. They do often seem to simply be out in the wild defending themselves, though.

I tihnk it's Monster Hunter World that strikes me the most in this regard, and perhaps it's because this title took a much more open-world approach than any that had come before. We were exploring vast regions with the help of those Scoutflies, learning more about the ecosystem and different creatures' places within it. Before we hunt them down. The reasons given in the quest details for some of these hunts are more than a little dubious too. Still, there are city- or even planet-leveling threats like Magnamalo throughout the series, so the definition of 'monster' is certainly ambiguous here.

1 Cuphead

Are They Evil? That's a Matter of Perspective

Every boss in Cuphead has surely earned the ire of the fanbase hundreds of thousands of times over. Even Goopy Le Grande and The Root Pack have racked up kills on players. By the tenth attempt at a brick wall of a boss (Grim Matchstick was my particular nemesis; that took many, many attempts the first time around), you might have concluded that they're absolutely evil. Really, though, they're victims just as much as Cuphead and Mugman.

Being forced to claim their soul contracts one by one and being forced to surrender your soul contract are both grim fates. It's lucky for every boss that the duo chooses to defy the Devil at the end and not hand them over. It's not entirely clear how each of the lovingly-animated bosses got into debt with the Devil in the first place, so perhaps they're not innocent in his eyes. From their perspective, though, it's the two beverage-faced brothers that are really the villains, if only during their encounters. Still, everyone buries the hatchet at the end (except King Dice and the Devil). If only there'd been more after The Delicious Last Course.