Spoiler Warning: This article contains details that can be considered spoilers for main stories that happen in the following video games. If you consider the knowledge that a game has a twist a spoiler itself, and are worried about that, we don’t recommend reading this article.
A good, jaw-dropping twist is an important piece of storytelling, and video games are no exception. Sure, the gameplay is king, but there’s nothing that instigates an impassioned freak out more than a plot development you hadn’t dreamed of seeing unfold.
So, that leads to an important question: what are some of the most iconic twists in video game history? What moments made you jump out of your chair, nearly choke on whatever food or beverage you have, and hastily call up your friends out of both excitement and confusion? What plot twists truly made you feel truly alive, you know? Let’s kick the tires and get right into it!
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Best Video Game Twists
Given the fact it’s one of the biggest entertainment properties on the planet, the world of Star Wars has had plenty of stories that made their mark in the video game medium. Knights of the Old Republic is perhaps the apex example of the many, many attempts made. It served as an extension to an already-lush universe — one that opted for showing us events from a period far before the iconic original films took place — and with its own ideas, from branching dialogue choices to different character relationships. It’s something developer Bioware would further succeed upon in the future with its acclaimed Mass Effect series.
But maybe the most memorable thing to come from Knights of the Old Republic was its shocking twist: that your character was actually a Sith lord. Indeed, the player’s main character was originally a powerful Sith lord named Darth Revan, but was unaware of it due to the Jedi having erased his memory. It’s a detail you never quite think about too much in the early going, given that you awaken on a Republic ship and are being attacked by another Sith lord’s forces, Darth Malak, and simply assume there isn’t any kind of connection. With such a detail revealed, it puts everything the player has done up to this point in an entirely new context — something the designers sought out from the beginning — and makes the branching paths between the light and dark side all the more impactful.
Metroid
Best Video Game Twists
The original Metroid, which made its debut on the NES in 1986, is at least half of the reason the famous gaming term “Metroidvania,” exists, as its revolutionary backtracking level design helped form the foundation for an entire sub-genre of gaming. But aside from its impact on game design, the release date is particularly noteworthy here since the game’s major twist might be viewed as being ahead of its time.
After completing everything in the game, it is revealed that Samus is, in fact, a woman. It’s a small, but remarkable moment given that nearly every title from back then featured a male protagonist. Even today, though, one might argue such a reveal would still remain shocking. Its understated execution, with there being hardly any clues to the reveal beforehand, and intentionally making her gender irrelevant to her bravery as a character, is what makes the twist all the more profound and special, all these years later.
Super Mario Bros. 2
Best Video Game Twists
One might argue that the entirety of the Super Mario Bros. 2 experience is, in fact, a twist. As a sequel to the original game, you’d expect there to be some gameplay changes, for sure, but there’s a certain chaos present here that isn’t what many fans would’ve had in mind, and it’s more than just the box art suggests.
In Super Mario Bros. precision platforming was the name of the game, while this sequel featured multiple characters, the ability to pick up and throw items, like plants — and even the enemies themselves, contrary to the original which would encourage you to avoid them — and less linear level design. But aside from the gameplay, Super Mario Bros. 2’s biggest twist was, to paraphrase the great Notorious B.I.G., that it all a dream.
Upon completing the game and defeating Wart, the main antagonist, Mario is shown to awaken in his bed, confirming that all the weirdness was, in fact, a fabrication inside of the legendary plumber’s mind. The idea of a story’s twist being that the entire thing was a dream may be a cliché, of sorts, but it does explain why the game felt like such a departure from the original. Regardless of how you feel about it, though, there’s no doubting how memorable it was.
Braid
Best Video Game Twists
Braid is one of those games that’s not done enough justice by simply looking at its screenshots. The 2008 indie darling is a clever puzzle platformer that tasked you with utilizing a slew of time-manipulating powers to beat levels that earned it numerous awards and recognition from around the industry. But it’s the game’s signature twist that helps it make it truly timeless (pun intended). You’re the bad guy.
The entirety of Braid is predicated on the belief that you’re trying to rescue a princess from a “horrible and evil monster.” This plays out as one would traditionally expect, until the final level which plays the story’s events in the correct time order, showing the exact opposite.
Braid almost the equivalent of playing through Super Mario Bros. and, upon reaching Princess Peach, realize that Bowser — the poor Koopa fellow you just drowned in lava — was actually trying to save her. It raises the question of whether or not, depending on the perspective, anyone can be made to look like the good or bad guy, and that’s just one aspect of the many themes at play in Braid’s twist ending.
Spec Ops: The Line
Best Video Game Twists
Spec Ops: The Line is not your typical military shooter, but instead one that seeks to completely upend your expectations for what the genre is capable of as a storytelling experience. In an era of hyper-masculine, save-the-world shooters, this reboot of the series produced a story that was anything but.
Throughout the game, you’re led to believe the main character, Captain Martin Walker, was communicating with his supervisor, Colonel John Konrad. You’re led to believe that Konrad is a manipulative, dastardly war criminal that must be stopped by Walker and his team at any cost.
Decisions are made throughout Spec Ops: The Line to stage executions and, most horrifically, an incident in which the deployment of white phosphorus resulted in the death of innocent civilians. Well, as it turns out, that was a lie.
It turns out Walker has been suffering through a dissociative disorder after feeling guilt over his horrific actions and decisions using Konrad — who is revealed to have been dead all this time — as a way of justifying it to himself. This dark twist sets the game apart from most and raises plenty of questions around the violence, and cost, of war.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Best Video Game Twists
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 doesn’t need any introduction. To this day, it remains one of the most impactful first-person shooters to ever be released on consoles. One of the reasons for that is that it has one of the best campaigns in the series, boasting plenty of memorable single-player missions to go alongside its notoriously good multiplayer content — something that the series often fails to do currently.
One such mission, titled “Loose Ends,” hit gamers over the head with a crowbar of emotions as you and the rest of Task Force 141 — including fan-favorite Ghost — are betrayed by Commander Shepherd in cold blood. The moment is a true gut-punch, especially given how much you had endured getting to this point.
Whether it was rescuing Captain Price from prison or tracking down Makarov all over the world, Task Force was practically executing missions on the level of the Avengers. The moment remains etched into our brains forever and makes the games ending fight with Shepherd that much more satisfying.
inFamous
Best Video Game Twists
Do you know what’s fun? Playing as someone with superpowers! And do you know what else is fun? Choosing whether or not you want to be a hero or villain.
One of the PlayStation 3’s finer exclusives, inFamous, is a title that helps you live out such a fantasy, as you’re placed in the shoes of an ordinary bike messenger, Cole McGrath, who gets superpowers thanks to a mysterious package he was tasked with delivering explodes. Although Cole is, indeed, granted awesome powers, the explosion destroys most of the city and results in a massive quarantine being implemented along with gangs, and other super-powered beings, running amuck and terrorizing its citizens.
Aside from dealing with the baddies and learning to better control his powers, Cole also slowly discovers the behind-the-scenes plot taking place and how an FBI agent, Moya, was actually lying about her true motives in helping him. But at the very end of the journey, it’s revealed that Kessler — the game’s primary antagonist — is actually Cole’s future self that is the biggest shock of all.
As it turns out, Kessler was attempting to mold Cole into a hero that’d be powerful enough to thwart a future apocalyptic threat, even if it meant sending his life into a tailspin and even killing the love of his life. In a game that feels very much like a comic book story thanks to its visual style, the reveal is just as It’s a true cliffhanger, but the execution was so perfect that you couldn’t help but wish that you could get your hands on the sequel immediately.
Red Dead Redemption
Best Video Game Twists
Rockstar Games may be known primarily for their Grand Theft Auto series, but that doesn’t mean it’s the only one with top-level quality. Red Dead Redemption, released back in 2010 — and sequel to the often forgotten 2004 title, Red Dead Revolver — ditches the gangsters and crime for, well, gangsters and crime but in a western setting. The oversimplification aside, the game allows you to live out your cowboy fantasies in more ways than one but, like many famous western stories, it doesn’t have a happy ending.
Despite doing everything asked of him by the government, hunting down his old gang members, and swearing off his life of being an outlaw, John Marston is betrayed and ruthlessly brought down in a gunfight you can’t win at the end of the game by the people he is working for. Thankfully, his wife, Abigail, and son, Jack, are able to escape. Unfortunately, though, the epilogue doesn’t end with John’s death.
Instead, the cycle of violence that John had hoped to avoid passing on to his son occurs, as Jack hunts down and kills Edgar Ross, getting revenge for his father. Sure, it’s satisfying to see Ross get what was coming to him, but knowing that it means a lifetime of sadness ahead for Jack leaves the game off on an even more depressing note.
Batman: Arkham Knight
Best Video Game Twists
The Batman Arkham series showed what happens when a talented developer is given time and resources to create a gaming experience based on a beloved property. The third game in the trilogy, while not necessarily a highly regarded entry, features one of its most shocking moments involving everyone’s favorite clown prince of crime, the Joker.
As it turns out, the Joker — who had been thought to have died in the previous game, Batman: Arkham City, is actually alive…sorta. Joker’s infected blood actually transferred to multiple people, including Batman himself, and slowly turns their personalities into his.
It’s an early twist and one that allows for the Joker to appear in hallucinations in Batman’s mind throughout the game. And it is further compounded by the reveal of Jason Todd as the game’s other primary antagonist, who was thought to have been killed by the Joker previously.
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
Best Video Game Twists
The Metal Gear Solid series is, in a word, bold; there’s a reason why series creator Hideo Kojima is revered so highly because even to this day, the series boasts some of the most iconic twists in gaming history. It’s tough to choose just one, but Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty making the decision to strip away the player’s control of fan-favorite Solid Snake in favor of newcomer Raiden, without any prior warning, is at the very top.
Not only does Snake’s mission to start the game end in his failure, but he’s framed by the media as a terrorist and believed to have been killed in the ordeal. Flash forward two years later and you’re tasked with playing as the aforementioned Raiden, who comes off as being far whinier and less stoic than Snake.
The number of advertisements and coverage that led fans on to believe that they’d be returning as the beloved Snake adds on to this stunt being one of the boldest in gaming history. It’s like the equivalent of making a Batman game except halfway through the entire second half of the game you play as Robin. There’s not a single soul that saw this one coming.
The World Ends With You
Best Video Game Twists
A cult classic released back in 2007, The World Ends With You has endured largely thanks to its style and story. The game follows protagonist Neku, who is forced to take part in the Reapers’ Game: a week-long competition amongst deceased individuals that grants the winner a second shot at life.
That’s not the only aspect of this competition that stands out, though, as evil creatures that spawn from people’s negative emotions called “Noise” hunt down the players. On top of this, players are granted magical powers via the use of unique pins, with each one granting a variety of interesting skills that help you overcome your enemies.
While there’s plenty of noteworthy twists throughout the game, the ending is particularly profound, as you learn that one of your previous partners in the story, Joshua, is actually the creator of the entire system and had made a wager, of sorts, with who was believed to be the game’s creator, Kitaniji, to determine the fate of all of Shibuya.
On top of that, it turns out Joshua is the one who had killed Neku and sent him to the Reapers’ Game in the first place so he could be his proxy in the wager.
Final Fantasy VII
Best Video Game Twists
Final Fantasy VII is one of those games that, even if you haven’t played it, there’s probably a kernel of knowledge lurking somewhere in your brain about the game given its impact on the RPG genre. But despite how revered the game is, there’s a specific moment that is not for the faint of heart.
The death of Aerith at the hands of the game’s antagonist, Sephiroth, remains one of the most shocking in the series history given just how innocent her character was. It’s even more brutal given she was not only just a party member and playable character but how both she and Cloud were beginning to show signs of a budding romance.
It’s a cruel, unforgettable death that still sends fans into spirals of unrelenting depression whenever it’s brought up. To those fans, we send you as many virtual hugs as possible, and maybe even suggest you consider playing the original Kingdom Hearts just so you can exact some cathartic revenge against Sephiroth in one of the game’s many secret bosses.
The Last of Us
Best Video Game Twists
While the sequel remains as divisive a story to be discussed on the interwebs as any — even beyond video games — with the risks it took, that doesn’t take away from what a crowning achievement of cinematic storytelling The Last of Us was. Graphically impressive, sure, but it was one of the defining games of its era to lend credence to the clichèd statement that “it looks like a movie!”
But unlike many blockbuster movies, The Last of Us had an ending that hardly took the safe route. After finally meeting up with the Fireflies and being told that a potential cure for the virus could be found at the cost of Ellie’s life, Joel — who has grown closer to Ellie and already saw his own daughter killed in front of him — goes into a fit of, admittedly, selfish rage and kills the Fireflies and saves Ellie from the hospital.
Some view the shocking turn of events as Joel ostensibly becoming the villain, while others view it more in line with a flawed human being, well, human. Either way, it remains unforgettable, especially since it sets up the events of the sequel.
BioShock
Best Video Game Twists
Years from now, we’ll still be talking about BioShock. Just ask anyone and they’ll tell you the game was a showcase for environmental storytelling, with the underwater city of Rapture becoming the golden standard. The famous “would you kindly” twist from BioShock is simply magnificent.
While it was believed that Jack, the game’s protagonist, had simply stumbled upon the underwater city after surviving a plane crash, it turns out the man named Atlus was actually controlling you all along.
Atlus, or Frank Fontaine (his real name), was a rival to the man who founded the city of Rapture, Andrew Ryan. Prior to the events of the game, Fontaine had made it so the phrase “would you kindly” was essentially a trigger phrase.
Every action you took, including the plane crash, which was revealed to be something you caused, was all part of Frank’s plan. It doesn’t get more mind-melting than that.
Shadow of the Colossus
Best Video Game Twists
With just a single image — from its gargantuan Colossi to its minimalist style — Shadow of the Colossus pulls you right in. You could even go as far as to say that Shadow of the Colossus is the apex of gaming boss battles, which says a lot. But there’s more than just giant beasts to be slain, as the story is far more complicated than what is initially presented.
It turns out the protagonist, Wander, is actually on the bad side of things. Although on replay, there are some warning signs throughout (e.g. the way each Colossi you killed felt eerily dark, the ominous voice telling you what to do, etc.), it turns out that the Colossi you destroyed were all part of an evil entity, Dormin, regaining his power.
While Wander’s intentions of bringing his loved one back to life are honorable and, more importantly, understandable, this tale had no such happy ending. But a happy ending isn’t always what makes something a true work of art, and Shadow of the Colossus is exactly that.
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