In video games, the lines between the "good guys" and the "bad guys" are usually pretty obvious. There's the POW versus the Nazis, the genetic super-soldier versus the invading alien race, the kindly plumber versus the princess-napping dinosaur, etcetera etcetera. But what about certain games where there's a definite good guy that doesn't seem all that good when you take a closer look at them? Here are four "good guys" from video games that actually aren't all that good.

4. Gordon Freeman (Half-Life series)

Good Guy?

In the Half-Life world, Gordon Freeman is celebrity and practically a superhero. He's apparently built up quite the reputation for being a badass who somehow possesses both an acute knowledge of firearms and a PhD in Physics. Armed with his trusty crowbar, Gordon has led the fight against an invading alien race and helped in winning some key battles for the human resistance.

Bad Guy

Of course, if it hadn't been for him, maybe this whole alien invasion thing wouldn't have happened in the first place. In the first Half-Life game, the whole reason Freeman was around to fight the aliens and hired mercenaries was because he was involved in the experiment that opened up portals to the alien world, Xen. He is literally the guy that threw the switch and started this whole mess, pretty much dooming the human race to alien slavery in the process.

You might be able to chalk that up to the mother of all lab accidents, but then there's the whole fact that Freeman's not really helping the resistance of his own accord. He's really doing the bidding of the mysterious "G-Man" and whoever that guy answers to. At the end of the first Half-Life, Freeman is given a choice to either work for the G-Man or to be killed by a horde of aliens. Considering there's a Half-Life 2, it's pretty easy to see which choice Gordon ultimately went with. Of course, none of the game's have revealed the G-Man's true intentions yet, but there has been some pretty convincing evidence so far that he's up to no good.

  3. Samus Aran (Metroid series)

Good Guy?

Samus is the hero of every Metroid game, leading the fight against the parasitic Metroid race and the Space Pirates looking to control them. She has been called on time and time again to defend humanity and stop the spread of the Metroid menace and the Space Pirates' evil experiments. And on top of that, she's really a hot girl under all that armor.

Bad Guy

She does seem to have this nasty habit of blowing up almost every planet she sets foot on, but that's not the worst of her offenses. That would be the one time she had the opportunity to make the whole Metroid race extinct -- which has been her ultimate goal the whole time really -- but didn't. In Metroid II, on the old brick-sized Gameboy, Samus was tasked with traveling to the Metroid home planet and eliminating every last one of them for good. The whole game is spent exploring every crevice of this world and killing each Metroid she finds, until she destroys the last one and comes across an egg containing the very last of the whole species. Then the egg hatches, releasing a baby Metroid that assumes Samus is its mother and floats around her harmlessly. This was the last of a race that posed a threat to every living creature in the universe, and what does Samus do? She takes it on board her ship as a pet. The Space Pirates eventually get their hands on it, start breeding more of them, and the whole mess starts all over again.

It's probably a good thing she didn't kill it, since the best Metroid games were released afterwards. Still though, she had an opportunity to put an end to this whole thing, but she didn't. And why? Because it was cute? How many people ended up being killed because of that one decision? For someone who's such a badass, Samus certainly picks weird times for her motherly instincts to kick in.

2. Marcus Fenix and the COG Soldiers (Gears of War)

Good Guys?

In Gears of War, Marcus Fenix, Delta Squad, and the COG army are fighting an ongoing battle against the evil Locust hordes. They may be grossly outnumbered, but their ingenuity, perserverance, and chainsaw-gun hybrids have saved the human race from extinction numerous times. In the games, they are the main defense against an alien race hellbent destroying their home.

Bad Guys

At least, that's what the situation would be if this took place on Earth. Instead, the game takes place on Sera, an alien world that it seems the human race has now populated. That wouldn't be so bad, but then they set about trashing the place by fighting endless wars amongst themselves and draining the planet of its imulsion and other resources. Really, this whole war against the Locust just adds "genocide" to the list of horrible things the humans have done to this planet. The Locust simply started fighting back to protect their homeworld. How do you think all those Locust forces suddenly appeared? It's because they were already there and apparently tolerating the "surface-dwellers" up until giant drills started poking into their homes. They may have some ruthless tactics -- torturing people and putting them into slave camps -- but they're responding to what looks to them like an infestation. It's like having an anthill springing up in your backyard, except those ants keep raiding your fridge and throwing loud parties every night.

That's about the gist of it, but there's a much more in-depth article on GamesRadar about this.

1. Dr. Light (Mega Man)

Good Guy?

Dr. Light is one of the most wholesome good guys in the history of gaming. With a name like that, you pretty much have to be. He's defended the planet from rogue robots and mad scientists countless times, mostly by building and aiding Mega Man to fight them. He's also basically responsible for the peaceful utopia that the games take place in. And to top it all off, he looks like Santa Claus in a lab coat. He couldn't be more of a good guy unles she came to every gamer's house and showered them with candy while they played.

Bad Guy

Yes, Dr. Light is quite the genius...whose creations eventually lead to the end of humanity. Did you ever wonder why there were no human characters in the Mega Man X series? Probably because the robots eventually took over and replaced the human race entirely. I'm sure the calculation in their CPUs went something like this: ROBOTS MUST END WAR. HUMANS CAUSE WAR. ROBOTS MUST END HUMANS. Say what you will about Dr. Wily, but at least he's never directly caused an apocalypse.