Unsurprisingly for a series that's dropped one game a year for well over a decade now, Call Of Duty has amassed a mighty collection of video game heroes. More importantly, however, it's also produced its fair share of bastards.
To be clear, I'm not talking about those players who scream down the mic and call you a hacker when you kill them, but the actual bad guys that the various COD development teams have created as part of the numerous campaigns and story experiences.
Join me then, dear reader, as we embark on a voyage of discovery. Using a complex algorithm that I couldn't possibly explain to you in less than 10,000 words, I've definitely ranked the ten biggest scumbags in Call Of Duty history. My main takeaway? Modern Warfare and Black Ops really are just the most interesting bunch of games in the franchise, aren't they? Anyway, read on and enjoy this stroll down bad guy memory lane.
Gabriel T. Rorke (Call Of Duty: Ghosts)
Here we have the only character not to have originated in a Modern Warfare or Black Ops game. Don't blame me for the lack of variety, they just have better villains. Anyway, what makes Gabriel T. Rorke such an astonishing douche?
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For my money, it's the fact that the former leader of the Ghost team-turned-leader of the Federation Armed Forces was so desperate for revenge. He was so thirsty for some kind of payback, in fact, that that he tracked down his former teammate Elias Walker and brutally murdered the poor guy in front of his two kids.
I get Rorke thinks he was "left for dead" and all that, but come on. Killing a guy in front of his children is a serious party foul.
Friedrich Steiner (Call Of Duty: Black Ops)
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Steiner immediately gets a spot on this list for working with the Nazi organization Waffen-SS. Frankly, that's more than enough to secure anyone a spot as a disgusting and hateful piece of scum - but Steiner clearly wanted to excel to new heights of scumbaggery.
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See, Steiner was also the man behind the deadly neurotoxin Nova 6, a chemical weapon that could instantly end the life of any human being. A pretty catastrophic thing to fall into anyone's hands, I would have thought. It wasn't ideal then, that Steiner agreed to continue refining Nova 6 for the Soviets in exchange for his own sorry life.
Edward Richtofen (Call Of Duty: Zombies)
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Another Nazi scientist, although Richtofen is decidedly worse than Steiner. While Steiner did a lot of what he did to try and look after his own self interests, Richtofen was considerably worse. He was a fanatic who truly believed all the awful things he did were for the greater good.
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What kind of awful things was he involved in, you ask? How about torturing and experimenting on live humans, turning them into zombies as part of a misguided attempt to create the perfect soldier? Yeah, that definitely qualifies as awful. Anyone who's referred to as "The Butcher" can't be good news. Unless they're about to sell you six sausages for a pound, that is.
Nikita Dragovich (Call Of Duty: Black Ops)
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I mean, with a surname like Dragovich you couldn't really be anything other than a a classic bad guy, could you? Sure enough, Nikita Dragovich is a real piece of work. Utterly devoid of emotion and driven by a single-minded desire for power, this piece of work created Soviet sleeper agents, treated his soldiers like disposable pawns, and "encouraged" Steiner to refine Nova 6 into an even deadlier chemical weapon.
Oh, and in the Call Of Duty universe, he's essentially the man responsible for the assassination of John F. Kennedy. That's pretty evil.
Imran Zakhaev (Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare)
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A Cold War arms dealer with a mercenary army and a fearsome arsenal at his disposal. Not exactly someone you'd want babysitting your kids, is he? No, Imran Zakhaev is (or rather was) one of the scariest SOBs in Call Of Duty history. Unable to let go of his blinkered view of the past, he was willing to murder millions if it meant bringing back the Russia he loved.
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A man with access to a near-unlimited supply of weapons, as well as a cast-iron belief he's right and everyone else is wrong is... well, it's a horrifying combination.
Khaled Al-Asad (Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare)
When people call you "The Second Horsemen", it's unlikely that you're gonna turn out to be all sweetness and light. Certainly, I wouldn't want to bump into Khaled Al-Asad in a dark alley. Ruthless, murderous, and desperate for power, the first time we meet Asad he kills President Yasir Al-Fulani on live television. He doesn't get any better from there.
His most heinous act, without a doubt, is the detonation of a nuclear warhead in his own city, killing 30,000 troops and countless innocent civilians.
Lev Kravchenko (Call Of Duty: Black Ops)
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Lev Kravchenko served as a Colonel in the Soviet military, ultimately securing a position at the side of Dragovich. A sadistic, brutal killer who carried out orders without question, Kravchenko established his evil bastard credentials fairly early on. As a younger man, he mutilated and murdered his own sister when she revealed she had no romantic interest in Dragovich.
Things didn't get much better from there. Kravchenko was soaked in the blood of his enemies, gleefully following Dragovich anywhere if it meant he could attempt to satisfy his undying lust for violence and death. Dragovich might have been the brains, but his muscle was a terrifying monster all of its own.
Raul Menendez (Call Of Duty: Black Ops II)
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Nicknamed "The Messiah of the 99%", Raul is an extremely likable and charming fella on the face of it. Unfortunately, he's also the leader of a terrorist organisation dedicated to bringing the West to its knees. Ain't that always the way?
Menedez's highlight reel includes taking control of the entire U.S. Military's drone fleet and using it to cause countless casualties around the world. Horiffic, yes, but the worst thing about him? He's got a massive YouTube following. Raul Menendez is basically our first look at the damage an influencer could do if they decided to use their power for evil. Because, you know, that's never happened, has it?
Commander Shepherd (Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2)
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Is Commander Shepherd the most-hated character in all of Call Of Duty? I can't speak for everyone, but he certainly boils my rhubarbs. Shepherd taught an entire generation of gamers the true meaning of betrayal in one of Call Of Duty's most shocking moments.
I'm still not entirely over the fact he murdered Ghost and Roach in cold blood, betraying everything we thought he stood for in the process. The worst part of all though, is the way he turns his death at the hands of Soap and Price into an exercise in propaganda. Shepherd dies a "war hero", while the real heroes were reduced to criminals. What an evil sack of old farts he is.
Vladimir Makarov (Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 & 3)
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Who could possibly be a more terrifying threat than the likes of Khaled Al-Asad and Commander Shepherd? Probably the man who was pulling the strings the entire time. Vladimir Makarov is pure evil. Patient, manipulative, and immensely cunning. Al-Asad might have detonated that nuclear warhead, but he did so on Makarov's orders.
Almost every shocking or controversial moment in the Modern Warfare games came as a result of this terrorists desire to ignite a war between the West and Russia, in fact. The intensely graphic "No Russian" mission, for instance, in which Makarov leads a band of men through an airport to gun down innocent civilians. Few video game levels have left quite the same impact as that one.
Makarov's deadly game of chess was, without a doubt, the driving force behind three of the best and most surprising games in the Call Of Duty series.
Featured Image Credit: Activision
Topics: Modern Warfare, Infinity Ward, Warzone, Call of Duty, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Activision