For anyone who has ever felt like their own worst enemy, a situation in which they are forced to wrestle with their evil carbon-copy counterpart might sound like an ideal venting sesh. For everyone else, the idea of a DNA-identical facsimile running around in the same threads, breathing the same air, and generally being a jerk sounds less than ideal.
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However, the trope has been compelling enough to generate several titles over the years featuring soured clone foils of the protagonist. Whether the result ofsome mad science tamperingor tangled alternate timelines, these mirror-image mavericks know all the good guy’s best moves (but not necessarily how to dodge them). Here are some of thebest games that make players fight their own evil clone.
10Mass Effect 3 (2012)
In space, heroes either die a hero or live long enough to see their own xenophobic clone steal their ship and use it as a weapon in a crusade to build a “humans only, no aliens allowed” club. Well, that’s true for any space commander whose surname happens to be Shepard, in any case.
Smug, arrogant, and jealous of the real deal, Shepard’s clone appears inMass Effect 3’s Citadel DLC. Being so knuckle-smashingly annoying, the clone is one of the most satisfying boss battles in the game, in part because (spoilers) the player gets to kill them at the end of it.
9ECHO (2017)
The tragically overlooked 2017 sci-fi gameECHOfeatures a mechanic in which the planet-sized palace that the main character finds herself trapped in creates copies of her and her abilities, depending on if she’s using them at the time of duplication. This means that players must be wry about the skills they showcase when trying to complete sections of a level.
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If players aren’t careful, they may find their own abilities weaponized against them by the multitude of deadly clones scattered around the palace. In many ways,ECHOwasa somewhat prescient vision of the future, considering the advent of AI and its skill-snatching capacities.
8Caves Of Qud (2015)
Caves of Qudis an already bizarre top-down, open-world roguelike adventure with an enormous world bursting with psychedelic creatures, magic mixed with cutting-edge tech, and a procedurally generated nightmare mash of monsters and marvels that really stretchesthe science-fantasy genreto its limit.
With such an “everything including the kitchen sink” design philosophy, it should be no surprise that the setting ofCaves Of Qudinvolves a multiverse: a multiverse of evil versions of the player out for their blood. Granted, these evil dimensional clones only appear when taking the “evil twin” defect, a trait that spawns hostile copies (from presumably even more hostile dimensions) whenever the player enters a new zone.
7Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath Of Cortex (2001)
Crunch Bandicoot is the logical conclusion to the popular proverb, “If you can’t beat them, create and mind-control their genetically enhancedsuper-cyborgclone and get them to fight them.” While Crunch fromThe Wrath of Cortexdoes a lot less spinning than Crash, he does a whole lot of jumping and crushing, as his namesake might imply.
The Crash series debatably hosts another clone, but this one was created from a time-travel mishap. Fake Crash first appeared in a Japanese commercial forCortex Strikes Backand has made minor appearances throughout the series ever since. It is implied that N.Tropy and N.Tranced created him during an ill-fated time-traveling marsupial kidnapping effort in the GameBoy AdvancedCrash Bandicoot 2: N.Tranced.
6Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (2008)
She may have all of Samus' moves, but definitely not her looks, at least not the ones under her suit (her weird three-eyed skull doesn’t count). Technically not a perfect clone, Dark Samus is a human-metroid hybrid created from one of Samus' discarded suits at the end ofMetroid Prime. She makes several appearances throughout theMetroid Primegames.
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Cold, calculating, and occasionally partial to manic fits of evil laughter, Dark Samus is able to outdo theiconic intergalactic bounty hunterin every way. She’s more durable, has faster movements, and stronger attacks, making her a prime candidate for evil arch nemesis.
5Bioshock Infinite (2013)
Spoiler warning to readers from the dimension in which they haven’t finishedBioshock Infiniteyet. Zachary Hale Comstock, the charismatic fanatic behind the “city in the sky” Columbia, started his life before rebirth with a different name: Booker DeWitt.
Without a feel-good, all-is-forgiven baptism after leading a brutal massacre at Wounded Knee, DeWitt holds his guilt close and decides not to commit himself to the establishment of a multiverse-powered ethno-national dystopia. Because of all the “science radiation,” Comstock wassubject to advanced agingand is unrecognizable to the protagonist through most of the game. However, Comstock knows who Booker is and will stop at nothing to see him shot out of the sky.
4Saints Row 4 (2013)
InSaints Row 4, the Boss' evil clone sports both an eyepatch and a goatie, which makes them seem more than a little sinister from the get-go, especially after they spontaneously execute a defenseless prisoner just for a laugh. Well, they had to find some way to make a villain seem even more black-hearted thanthe canonically evil protagonist.
They also beheaded the Boss' best friend’s squeeze, which, again, is still probably not as bad as the stuff the player subjects the hapless population of Santo Lleso to (most notibly with objects of an unspeakable nature) between missions.
3Tomb Raider: Underworld (2008)
The first appearance of Lara’s evil twin was inTomb Raider Anniversary, in which the intrepid explorer discovers a skinless mimic that copies all of her movement (and even hurts Lara if shot at). However, this was not a true Lara lookalike, as seen inTomb Raider: Underworld.
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The Doppelgänger seems to be a twisted reflection of Lara, sporting her classic gear and look, albeit with dark red hair and golden eyes. Faster and stronger than the original, she was also under a kind of mind control at the time (which is something an evil clone would say!) but manages to shake the spell in the end.
2Metal Gear Solid
While Solid Snake and Liquid are technically twins, they’re also clone copies of the legendary soldier Big Boss. While the genetics get a little scientifically muddy, Liquid is supposedly the clone that got all of Big Boss' “recessive genes,” but inMetal Gear Solid’s end-game phone call with the president (also a clone, don’t worry about it), it turns out that he was actually the stronger of the two, making his defeat that much more satisfying.
It seems somewhat obvious by the end of the game, considering the number of bullets ol' Liquid takes from a machine gun during the driving escape sequence, his fall from Metal Gear, and his ability to fool even his twin/clone with a pair of sunglasses.
1Dragon Ball Fighter Z (2018)
It’s difficult to match thepower levels of the fighters in theDragon Balluniverse, so what better way to even the playing field than to make them fight themselves? Each clone has about the same strength and moves, but lacks the “essential spark” that makes each of the fighters (and the villains) special.
Presumably, because they’re depressed about their lack of autonomy, each clone appears in darker clothing than their real counterparts and tends to have sinister red eyes, presumably a symbol of their origin as Red Ribbon Army clones (or just because red eyes are sinister).
