Everyone loves to be the hero, but sometimes it's fun to be a little bad ass. This is where the antiheroes come in. A flawed person in the right place can turn them into the hero of a narrative. The games below take it a step further and include an entire team of them fighting against the odds.

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Some of these teams have redeeming qualities that show them as complicated characters doing their best in an evil world while dealing with their own personal demons. Other times they're just downright bad guys who could just as easily be the villains of someone else's story if the players were following someone else's perspective.
7
The suicide squad
Task Force X kills an Evil Justice League in Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League
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February 2, 2024
A lot of negativity is thrown around Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Much of this focuses on repetitive gameplay designed around a live service model and comparisons to Arkham games with which it shares a continuity. It's a shame the game went this route, because nuggets of goodness are evident in some of the cutscenes.
Controlling Suicide Squad while them taking out the members of the Justice League is a great idea and a nice subversion of expectations as the next step for Arkham universe. The team's personality shines through in many of the cinematics. It's just a shame it's wrapped in a live service title.
There's nothing wrong with live games, but it wasn't what most fans of the narrative-driven single-player game Arkham games wanted for a sequel.
6
3rd Street Saints
Gang of Saints Row excels at taking over cities and overthrowing alien empires
Saints Row

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September 1, 2006
The Saints Row games evolved from a Grand theft auto-influenced the open-world game into a quirky show that parodied games and pop culture with endearing humor. At the center of it all were the titular Saints, a gang that rose from the dirt streets to the White House.
In the first two games, the Saints, along with the player-created protagonist, are more ruthless and unforgiving. The third part takes the series into a hyper-reality and adds much more humor to the criminal entrepreneur and moves to the fourth game, where players are the literal alien-killing US president. Yes, it's safe to assume these are the good guys.
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Tav's party
Tadpole-infected ragged adventurers from Baldur's Gate 3
Baldur's Gate 3
With a narrative as flexible as Baldur's Gate 3the party can go in a completely heroic direction or go downright evil maniacs. Still, this RPG is smarter than most games, and many choices fall into a narrative gray area that more often than not turns the party leader and the rest of the crew into anti-heroes.

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Many of the characters individually have traits common to antiheroes. Lae'zel is from a brutal race of disciplined and unyielding warriors, Astarion is an unwilling vampire with the urges typical of mythological creatures, and Shadowheart worships a dark goddess.
Despite being the third game in a series, Baldur's Gate 3 it can be played as a standalone title without confusing newcomers.
4
Kane and Lynch
Grimey Killers of the Criminal Underworld for two dead people in Dog Days
Kane and Lynch: Dead Men
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November 13, 2007
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Eidos Interactive
The titular characters of these two games are brutal criminals with zero morally or socially redeeming qualities. They are the stars though, and players control them as they make their way through the criminal underworld, indiscriminately leaving a trail of corpses in their wake.
Lynch is also dealing with intense psychological issues. Although the gameplay has aged, they are still interesting to play because of their unwavering devotion to the protagonist's cruelty and unpleasantness. Both games are also fully playable in co-op.
continuation, 2 days for dogsplay as if an unseen camera crew is filming the two characters. There's a filter to make it look like a video camera is recording, and the audio sounds like a boom mic is picking it up. This adds to the dirty aesthetic of the game, but also adds to the disorientation of players.
3
Franklin, Trevor and Michael
Grand Theft Auto 5's trio of heist protagonists have good days and bad days
Grand Theft Auto 5
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September 17, 2013
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Rockstar North
The fifth main game in this legendary series introduces the mechanic of having multiple protagonists. Each of them is engaged in the life of crime, but for different reasons and at different stages. Franklin is looking for a better station in life, Michael is looking for meaning and purpose to escape his comfortable but boring life in the witness protection program, and Trevor is just a psychopath.
They deal with all kinds of criminals throughout the story. What separates the three from many other gangsters, both street and corporate, is their sincerity. A character like Devin Weston is a backstabbing greedy while the FIB stoops as low as the protagonists but tries to justify it in the name of the greater good. Anti-hero protagonists don't try to pretend they're better than everyone else.
2
Vault Hunters
Borderlands vault hunters do some bad and a little good for their plentiful loot
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October 14, 2014
Each walking group from Border countries games can be considered anti-heroes to some extent. Even by this standard, the playable characters in The Pre-Sequel stands out as particularly worthy of this list. The vault hunters here are sent to Pandora's moon at the behest of Jack, who eventually becomes known as Handsome Jack, the villain Borderlands 2.

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Although greed is at the center The Pre-Sequel story, the characters still do some heroic things, like keep the moon from being blown to pieces. There are six characters to choose from, including DLC, such as corporate assassin Atlas Athena and a doppelgänger of Jack.
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The Van Der Linde gang
Gang of Outlaws in Red Dead Redemption 2 Rob and kill, sometimes for better or worse
Red Dead Redemption 2
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October 26, 2018
This is complicated because of the mode Red Dead Redemption 2 the story unfolds. The Van der Linde Gang is a group of bank robbers fleeing modernity on the fringes of society. During the story, certain characters become equally villainous as the gang slowly falls apart.
However, some stick right by Arthur Morgan until the end, so a semblance of an anti-hero gang remains until the epilogue. At first, the Van der Linde gang feels like the romanticized outlaws so often depicted in Wild West media.

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