The gaming industry has created and introduced a wide range of colorful and diverse characters over the decades. These characters can be heroes, villains, or somewhere in between. As long as their stories have a strong narrative backbone, there are bound to be enemies that challenge them. However, sometimes, if we look closely, we realize that some of these characters, more than anyone else, are their own biggest enemy—even if the game itself doesn’t explicitly highlight this!
In this article, we’ll discuss some characters whose greatest adversary was none other than themselves. It’s worth mentioning that we’ll be talking about characters from different franchises, and to properly explain some of them, we’ll need to go into key story events—meaning there will be spoilers ahead.
Max Payne
Max Payne is, at his core, a deeply tragic character. His entire personality is built on sorrow and loss. He was a father and a husband who had to witness the brutal slaughter of his family with his own eyes. This, combined with an overwhelming thirst for revenge, intense anger, and uncontrollable rage, led to his self-destructive tendencies. The path of vengeance put Max in incredibly dangerous—often deadly—situations, all in an endless effort to silence the burning fury inside him.
Over time, pain and revenge became an inseparable part of Max’s identity. The anger that fueled him constantly drove him into situations where the odds were stacked against him, almost as if he was deliberately trying to get himself killed. In Max Payne 2, as the title The Fall of Max Payne suggests, we witness his descent into psychological and personal chaos. By the time we reach Max Payne 3, he is a completely broken version of himself—addicted to painkillers and alcohol, having lost all sense of who he once was.
Max had multiple chances to start fresh, but he never took them. The reason? His addiction to pain and revenge, as mentioned earlier. Instead of allowing his wounds to heal, he clung to his suffering, keeping his pain alive and using it as fuel to keep going.
Max Payne was a man who believed he didn’t deserve happiness. The death of his family consumed him to the point where he punished and blamed himself, trapping him in an endless cycle of violence, death, and suffering. In his mind, this was all he had left. So, when he finally decided to break the cycle and set himself free, it was already too late—because by then, there was nothing left for him to hold onto.
Isaac Clarke
From the very beginning of the first game, Isaac was his own worst enemy, but this isn’t something players realize until much later in the story. One of the strongest aspects of the first game is how the narrative slowly builds around this idea. At the start, all we know about Isaac is that he has traveled to the USG Ishimura with the Kellion crew in hopes of reuniting with his wife, Nicole.
However, as we progress through the game, it becomes clear that his mind is gradually deteriorating. This breakdown leads to a situation where Isaac loses the ability to distinguish reality from hallucination, causing him to see and hear things that aren’t necessarily real. In a way, his own mind betrays him, turning into a source of fear and instability. Of course, the Marker also plays a significant role in this mental deterioration. For most of the game, we believe that the Marker is solely responsible for Isaac’s breakdown, but by the end, we learn the truth—Isaac had known all along that Nicole was dead. He simply couldn’t accept this reality, so he buried it deep in his subconscious.
If Isaac had been able to accept the truth, he might have never stepped foot on the USG Ishimura, which means he wouldn’t have been dragged into the horrors brought upon him by the Marker and its connection to him in later games. In this alternate scenario, the Kellion crew might have gone to Ishimura without him, and eventually, both the crew and the Marker—along with all the Necromorphs—would have been swallowed by the abyss of space, trapped aboard the doomed ship. However, as seen in the Dead Space: Salvage comic, we know that the events of the Dead Space universe would have unfolded in some way regardless of Isaac’s involvement.
Still, if we focus solely on Isaac as a character, we can say that his refusal to accept reality and his fight against it led him straight into a nightmare—one that he could never escape.
Kratos
In the original God of War Greek trilogy, Kratos was portrayed as a ruthless, vengeful, and merciless warrior. His burning rage didn’t just consume the gods—it also destroyed those he cared about. The path he started in the first game ultimately led to nothing but death and devastation by the end of God of War III. Olympus, with all its virtues and flaws, was left in ruins, with Kratos’ wrath leaving its mark on every corner of the fallen kingdom.
In the Norse saga, we see a version of Kratos we’ve never encountered before. He understands that he is his own greatest enemy, and because of this, we often see him trying to protect those around him—especially Atreus—from both his past and his own violent nature. He wants to change, but this journey isn’t easy. At times, he comes face-to-face with his past, and more importantly, his deeply ingrained aggression and inner turmoil.
In fact, Kratos is fully aware that the greatest threat to the people he loves is himself. This theme is explored in even greater depth in the Valhalla DLC, where we see his past dissected more directly than ever before. For the first time, Kratos confronts the lingering shadows of his past that still haunt him. He acknowledges that he is the cause of his own suffering and finally admits to the pain he has inflicted upon himself.
Booker DeWitt
BioShock Infinite is one of those unforgettable gaming experiences that leaves a lasting impact on anyone who plays it. One of the biggest reasons for this is its narrative and protagonist. The entire theme and core of its story perfectly align with today’s topic: a character who, quite literally, is his own worst enemy. In fact, Booker is both the protagonist and antagonist of BioShock Infinite.
Booker is a former soldier who committed terrible acts during the war. The weight of his actions haunted him afterward, filling him with guilt and driving him into alcoholism and gambling addiction. His downward spiral eventually led him into massive debt, pushing him to make a desperate and heartbreaking decision—he sold his infant daughter to pay off his debts. Not long after, Booker realized the horrific mistake he had made and tried to get his daughter, Anna, back. However, he failed, and the weight of his actions consumed his life.
At this point, BioShock Infinite introduces both the player and Booker to an alternate reality, one ruled by a ruthless leader named Zachary Comstock. The biggest plot twist of the game revolves around this character—Comstock is actually an alternate version of Booker. Instead of drowning in guilt and self-destruction, this version of him turned to religion, reinventing himself as a prophet. This means that every step Booker takes in the game is, in some way, countered by himself!
A key part of the story revolves around Elizabeth, the girl Booker is trying to save. However, the shocking twist is that Elizabeth is actually his own daughter. Throughout the game, we see Booker come close to realizing the truth multiple times, yet he repeatedly denies it and turns away at the last moment.
When Booker finally accepts the truth—that Comstock is really him—he makes a fateful decision. To break the cycle and face reality, he chooses to destroy himself. This ensures that Comstock never comes into existence. This leads to the game’s final, emotional scene, where Booker allows Elizabeth to drown him, putting an end to the cycle of sin, mistakes, and self-inflicted suffering that defined his existence.
Nathan Drake
Nathan Drake’s greatest enemy is his inability to step away from danger, a trait that is explored deeply in Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. Nathan is addicted to adventure and risk, and he doesn’t know when—or how—to stop.
At the start of the fourth game, we see him settling down with Elena, trying to live a normal life. But it doesn’t take long before he is once again pulled into a dangerous quest. Why? Because he simply cannot resist the thrill of adventure. This, of course, begins to take a toll on both his life and his relationship with Elena.
Nathan knew that his brother Sam’s proposal wasn’t the best idea, yet he still risked his life and his marriage to go along with it. Even in Uncharted 3, we saw how Nathan repeatedly put himself in deadly situations just to prove himself. His mentor, Sully, often warned him that his reckless behavior would get him killed. But if there’s one thing we know about Nathan Drake, it’s that listening to reason has never been his strong suit.
Nathan’s obsession with finding treasure became more than just a thrill—it turned into a part of his identity. At some point, treasure hunting became the only way he could justify his existence. This mindset, combined with his recklessness, constantly placed him in life-threatening situations—situations that had nothing to do with the game’s villains but were entirely of his own making. Many times, he could have simply walked away and chosen stability, yet he never did.
Ultimately, this rebellious and adventurous nature is what made Nathan Drake such a compelling character. Over the course of four games, his inability to resist the call of adventure led us on some of the most exciting journeys in gaming history.
James Sunderland
The core concept of Silent Hill 2 is built on the idea that everyone creates their own personal hell, and the town of Silent Hill eagerly brings that hell to life. James Sunderland is another character who is directly his own worst enemy, sharing many similarities with Booker DeWitt, whom we discussed earlier. Unlike the first and third Silent Hill games, where the protagonist faces clear external enemies, in the second game, the protagonist is also the antagonist, and everything he experiences comes directly from his own mind and guilt.
James couldn’t accept Mary’s death—and, more importantly, the fact that he was the one who killed her. This denial led him to create a false reality in his mind, a story where Mary is still alive and waiting for him in their special place in Silent Hill. His inability to face reality is so extreme that the letter he receives from Mary at the start of the game is actually just a blank piece of paper. Yet, in his delusion, he sees the words he wants to believe. His journey to Silent Hill is ultimately a form of self-inflicted punishment.
If we were to name his greatest enemy in the game, it would undoubtedly be Pyramid Head—who, in reality, is James himself. Pyramid Head is the manifestation of James’s guilt and his subconscious desire for punishment. While at first glance, Pyramid Head may seem like a terrifying enemy, he is, in fact, James’s greatest ally in confronting the truth. Pyramid Head exists to remind James of what he has done and to prevent him from escaping reality. In the end, Pyramid Head succeeds—he forces James to see the truth and accept the horrifying reality behind everything he has experienced in Silent Hill.
James is the cause of his own suffering and fully embraces his punishment. He was never the hero of a story, but rather, the greatest victim of his own sin.
Final Thoughts
In this article, we explored several characters who, before facing any external threat, were the architects of their own pain. Some suffered because of wrong choices, some ran from reality, and others found their own truth in pain and suffering. This is precisely what has made many of these characters so memorable and compelling.
Most of them aren’t even heroes of their own stories. They are the products of their circumstances, and in the end, each of them is faced with a unique path—one where they alone must decide how to navigate their suffering and how to confront their demons.
