Vampires are a classic monster in fiction, undead monsters of the night that feed off of the blood of the living, often with a hefty set of supernatural powers in the bargain. As such, they make for great villains in video games, serving as ready antagonists across many different games.
The most iconic of any video game vampire is the iteration of the world-famous Count Dracula found in the Castlevania series, one of the best-known villains of all gaming. Other games have their own denizens of the night, however, many of which can give Vlad Dracul a run for his money.
7 Dettlaff van der Eretein Is Both Human And Inhuman
Geralt of Rivia has faced all manner of otherworldly and terrifying foes in The Witcher series, yet one of the most fearsome comes in the Blood and Wine expansion to The Witcher III: Wild Hunt. An Elder Vampire, Dettlaff van der Eretein is an immensely unsettling foe, lethal and visually unnerving, particularly in his monstrous forms.
However, his most fearsome aspects actually come from his human side. Dettlaff reveals himself over the course of the expansion to be driven by his passions as much as any human, wielding his immense powers and causing death and suffering out of loyalty to a friend.
6 Kain Can Become As Terrifying A Villain As Any
In the Legacy of Kain series, the character of Kain is actually a hero in many of the games, a morally ambiguous figure who seeks revenge after being turned into a vampire and who becomes a powerful player within Nosgoth, the game’s settings.
As a hero, Kain is still a perfectly frightening figure between his physical appearance and his more extreme actions. However, in the ending of Blood Omen, the player can choose to damn the world and have Kain ascend as a villain and the most powerful figure in a devastated wasteland. As seen in Soul Reaver, Kain makes a perfectly terrifying villain if he does so.
5 Vlad von Carstein Can Dominate The World
The Vampire Counts are a prominent faction in the Warhammer universe, and as such, they appear as one of the first four available armies in the Total War: Warhammer series, waging a war of conquest against the Empire. Of their leaders, Vlad von Carstein is the most competent and the most fearsome in both lore and gameplay, being a ruthless and ambitious leader.
The player can playing as Vlad or leaving him to be controlled by an AI. In either case, he sets about forcing the world to submit under his rule with edicts like “surrender and serve me in life, or die and slave for me in death.” Depending on the individual game, he may well succeed in his goals.
4 Annalise, Queen Of The Vilebloods Is A Dormant Threat
In a game like Bloodborne, where the setting is a city where everybody consumes blood, the concept of a vampire may seem redundant. Nonetheless, the faction known as ‘Vilebloods,’ a noble dynasty who live in a gothic castle and are hated by the local church, are clearly meant to echo the bloodsuckers closely.
Within the game itself, there is only one Vileblood left, and she is largely dormant and trapped. Nonetheless, Annalise is an unsettling figure, implied to have a dark past and caught up in a mutually villainous war between her faction and the Executioners. In particular, her goal of using blood to become pregnant with the child of a Great One is best left unfulfilled.
3 The Red Queen Is A Calmity-Causing Vampire
The game Vampyr immerses the player in the vampiric underbelly of 1918 London, exploring the morality of creatures that live on blood and death. Many of its vampires are surprisingly human figures, with diverse moralities and even a high level of sympathy for some. Its antagonist, however, reaches back toward the monstrous.
The Red Queen is a powerful vampire who has been alive since ancient times and who was once worshipped as a goddess of death. On her own, she is intimidating enough, but her awakenings also cause untold calamities for all, spreading plagues among human beings and causing vampires to descend into vicious bloodlust.
2 Lady Alcina Dimitrescu Is An Iconic Vampire Villain
The first villain the player goes up against in Resident Evil: Village, and the focus of much of its marketing, is Lady Alcina Dimitrescu, the matriarch of Castle Dimitrescu. She is an elegant, sophisticated, and regal woman who is fond of torturing men and draining human beings of their blood for her and her daughters to drink.
Plenty of players focus on Dimitrescu’s impressing and appealing design, but there is no denying her more terrifying aspects. She conducts herself with a cold and casual butchery at all times, sprouts fearsome claws from her fingertips, and reveals a terrifying, dragon-esque form when wounded enough.
1 Andrei Embodies The Terror Of The Tzimisce
Vampire: the Masquerade draws on a wide number of vampiric inspirations for its characters, and so too does its video game adaptation, Vampire: the Masquerade – Bloodlines. One aspect of vampires they explore is that of the calm and polite mask hiding a monster, in the form of the Tzimisce clan.
In Bloodlines, Andrei is one of the more prominent Tzimisce. He is an unfailingly polite man with a terrifying physical exterior who uses formality to hide the true depths of his sadism and cruelty. Determined to bring down the Camarilla and transcend vampirism at all costs, he is a calm, quiet villain who knows full well the terror he causes and exploits it.
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