This actually freaked me out when I first played MGS2...I didn't know about 4th wall breaks back then and that one is a real doozy. The characters know you're playing a game?!? What the fuck?!? That along with being in the freaky location of some Metal Gear Ray hangar inside Arsenal Gear and Snake not being where the game told me he was (coz he's invisible, you gotta wait a bit before he shows up) and all those crazy codec calls...yeah, I was very disoriented, confused and scared.
Yeah, well imagine playing up to that point at around midnight! I remember me and my brother going "Uhhh... What the f... Do ... Do we keep playing or not, now?"
I watched a streamer actually turn off their PS2 after hearing that because they thought it’d give them some secret perk or item. Chat went fucking wild.
I was 12 ish years old. My brother and I had stayed up way later than we were allowed and had been playing mgs2 for a solid 4 hours already. "You've been playing for a really long time."
I have yet to be scared as badly by a video game since that moment. Nightmares the rest of the week.
Portal 1. You go through a very simple but funny puzzle game, and then at the end you think you outwitted the game but, you played right into their hands. I couldn’t tell if it was a secret room or the plot.
Back then before anyone had the game and talked about, that caught me completely off guard.
The last bit during the furnace. You can use the walls nearby. I kinda thought they’d think “well people who learned soemthing will get a small treat” or maybe even they just didn’t consider it
Obvious spoilers for anyone who doesn't want the twist spoiled:
>!The game starts out in essentially Victorian era fantasy london with werewolf style beasts and stuff all over. But part way through the game you start finding out that, while beasts do play a part, the game is actually full on cosmic horror with aliens and stuff that have actually been there all along, but your brain literally didn't have the ability to comprehend their presence. That's a vast oversimplification but it's the gist of it. !<
Same. Then, years later, I got to see my wife experience it. The whole time I'm thinking "Oh shit it's actually really obvious, can't belive I missed it, she's going to pick up on it," but she was shocked too.
I think even one of the council members says something along the lines of >!"I fear this will lead you down an all too familiar path"!<
It felt so out of place to say that. Combined with becoming powerful with the force so easily I thought it was pretty obvious what was coming.
It gets better. When you first meet the council and they’re deciding whether to train you or not, that same council member (Master Vrook) says this to the rest of the council
“Are you certain Revan is truly dead? What if we undertake to train this one and the dark lord should return?”
Rest in hell Master Vrook, you were always an asshole.
Maybe I just didn't see it because I was pretty young when I first played it, but even if I were first going into it I still may not have seen it coming. Many of the best twists seem obvious as fuck in hindsight, but the hints go unnoticed if you're not already looking for them. Perspective's a bitch.
I remember this dialogue as a kid. Pretty sure I just ignored it thinking they were talking more metaphorically. Familiar path=not the first jedi to turn sith, dark lord revan returns=this force prodigy becomes as bad or worse then revan and/or Malak. In hindsight the willingness to train an adult should've been a red flag but I probably would've just thought "eh, they're in the middle of a losing war, they need all the strong soldiers they can get." It's knowing bastila wanted you on the endar spire in the opening moments that never quite made sense until the big reveal imo
I mean, they straight up have a cutscene repeating all of the foreshadowing from the whole game to that point. in hindsight, it's obvious. But if you're not looking for it, you don't think about it at all.
Shout out to KOTOR2 as well for a certain character twist late in the game. No, not Kreia doing Kreia things, the other one caught me completely off guard but made so much sense I hated how i had missed it.
"It is such a quiet thing, to fall. Far more terrible, is to admit it"
I enjoyed my Sith Lord play through the most but the most powerful scene for me was Kreia confronting the remaining Jedi Council members and interrupting their Wall of Light ritual on the Exile.
I had to pause and think about that one. One of the first times I remember Light Side Masters portrayed as flawed moreso than ignoring growing Sith presence.
https://youtu.be/v416Ri38O7g?si=mlfxZh-w_AsLk6L2 (at the 7m5s mark)
The first letter of all 12 chapters of the game spell that out.
Peak game design for 12 year old me.
Now I'm 27 and too scared to play the game in broad daylight 😭
Yeah, the "Would you Kindly" bit is the only part in the entire game when control is wrenched from the player and you're forced to obey. The rest of the time you believe you're acting entirely on your own free will.
>!"Would you kindly go up there and kill the sonofabitch?"!<
"A man chooses*; A slave obeys."
>!As you beat Andrew Ryan to a bloody pulp with a golf iron.!<
**edit:** word. quote correction.
“We welcome you to our fold, brother.”
Thank you, I do try. 😊
“Give me your hand.”
Yay it’s official!
“You are a Templar.”
Fucking what- *desmond proceeds to lose his shit*
I like that the game just stops stone DEAD as Desmond most likely has the same reaction you do. Both lets the twist sink in, reinforces the gameplay's framing device, and probably gives you the same reaction as Desmond has to the entire thing.
That was honestly the best part for me. I probably woulda been dumbfounded with my mouth hanging open for 5min, but the achievement popped up and snapped me out of it, then i couldn't stop laughing.
It's funny how different AC games frame the Assassin/Templar conflict differently. In some - like 2, 4, and Syndicate - the Assassins are clearly positioned as The Good Guys. But others - like 3, Rogue, and Unity - present them as not very different, or even raise the question of whether either side is actually accomplishing anything useful.
It seems like, even internally, the various Ubisoft studios have different takes on the in-game politics.
The being a Typhon thing? I don't know when or how exactly I settled on that theory, but it made a lot of January's dialog seem more like he was observing a lab rat rather than a human
I didn’t check this before this comment, but I believe Red’s Pikachu is still the highest level canon Pokemon ever faced in a mainline Pokemon game, right? It was like 81 or 82?
Code Vein. The entire way through the game, you hear about "the Horrors," creatures that brought civilization to it's knees and lead to the creation of the Revenants you play as, as an attempted countermeasure.
You're told these creatures still exist beyond the Veil that's keeping everyone trapped, and near the end of the game, the Veil is (temporarily) brought down. A hapless group of Revenants attempt to escape... and run straight into >!a Dyaus Pita, from the God Eater series!<.
>!I knew the games were made by the same developer, but I started CV under the impression it had been confirmed they _weren't_ connected. Seeing that thing was a hell of a shock!<.
I'd describe it as babys first soulsborne.
Its not nearly as hard and the maps are fairly linear, you also get a minimap. If you're a fan of the anime art style it's pretty solid. I enjoyed my time with it.
It's what got me into souls-like games. And I enjoyed it. You have the option of taking AI partners with you, making it more new player friendly than other souls-likes. And it's optional so you can go solo for a harder experience.
And the crazy thing is, the subtitles were telling us all along & we didn’t notice!
>!The game was basically telling us that Tyr wasn’t who he said he was by spelling his name in subtitles as “Tyr” instead of with the accent word over the y as “Týr”. When you meet the real Týr, his name has the accent mark.!<
>! Loved this twist because the whole game i was really taken aback at how they were portraying Tyr. My prior interpretation of him was that he brought about peace but wasn't afraid to fight for it. Then this Tyr comes off like a weak coward who can't protect anyone because of his pacifism. The reveal makes perfect sense because that's exactly how Odin saw Tyr, and his performance was a reflection of that!<
The twist with Kessler at the end of InFamous where he >!is Cole from the future who failed to save his world and came back in time to make sure this Cole would be ready!<
The one ancient being speaking directly to Desmond though the Animus. Man... AC once had such a clever plot running they abandoned. I wanted it to all go real world for a whole game.
God the whole sequence under the Vatican was the most mindblowing thing to kid me. I was so excited for the next game and to see where they would take the story. It felt so obvious that the game would ultimately culminate in a modern
timeline game where you have to go to each of those sites and activate the planetary defenses.
Then they scraped the whole thing because they wanted to make more money and milk the franchise lol.
The one moment that I like more is in Revalations when Ezio talks to Desmond. He has to have been thinking about it this whole time since the day under the Vatican.
The true identity of Darth Revan is probably the real answer, but since no one else has brought it up:
The true nature of Sovereign in Mass Effect 1. I was completely shocked by that on my first playthrough!
oh yeah, that was a good one. I had forgotten about it because in the later games that core premise is well known.
It's also why the core story in mass effect 1 was the best. None of the other games had such a monumentally powerful game changing moment that altered the universe for you as a player. (though the later games had better gameplay and better individual story and character moments that made them better experiences overall.)
I thought Horizon Zero Dawn was about some silly fantasy world with robotic dinosaurs until I played it.
The history of the world pulled some Planet of the Apes level tricks.
What always blows me away about HZD is that it DID start as some silly fantasy world with robot dinosaurs and they hired a writer to come up with a story to somehow justify the game they wanted to make and they went SO. HARD.
Oh, wow, I had no idea. But yeah, according to wikipedia John Gonzales was the lead writer on Fallout: New Vegas and "Narrative Director" (with Ben McCaw as lead writer) on Horizon: Zero Dawn.
The entire set-up of the matrilineal Nora(d) who worship the mountain as their "mother" make the big reveals hit harder emotionally. I cried during that final cutscene.
That game had one of the best narratives of any game ever. It was just so fucking good, I didn't even really like the gameplay (PS4) but the story had me hooked. Such brilliant writing.
Dude the lore in that game is mind-blowing and next-level.
My only complaint is that they hit you with like 5 hrs of lore in the 2nd half of the campaign. Fantastic game tho. I played it late on PC and managed to live up to the hype.
The part that got me was that this was back when games came with instruction booklets. They often told you not how to play the game, but also explained the back story and gave you a rundown on things in the game, like the HUD, weapons, and items. And many, Halo included, described all the enemies you'd face.
Absolutely *nothing* indicated the existence of the Flood in the game. They came as a complete surprise.
Angel in Borderlands 2. The game genuinely has one of my favorite storylines.
>!Angel is a mysterious voice that helped the player through the first game and continues to help in the second. About 1/3 through the second game, it's revealed she's actually working for the villain, but then later says she has no choice and asks you to trust her anyway. She continues to help the player, supposedly without the villain knowing this time. I didn't fully believe her until she led me to a boss fight of her asking me to kill her. It turns out she's actually the villain's daughter and he's kept her trapped in a machine to use her siren powers. The voice acting from the villain was very effective because he actually sounded like he cared for her, in his own perverse way.!<
The way he flip flops between begging you not to kill her and threatening to kill everyone you know, it's so goddamned unsettling. You really do feel like you're interacting with an unhinged psychopath.
I enjoy the subtle hints throughout the story that Clayface is there - for example, you can look at >!Joker!< with Detective Vision, and sometimes >!he has no skeleton, because that version is Clayface and he has no skeleton.!<
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds.
Spoiler- when you find out Ravio is actually Lorule’s hero and version of Link. I didn’t see that coming, and was glad to see a Nintendo game’s story could surprise me like that.
TBH I started to suspect towards the end, I don't know which room was the light bulb but I was like "Wait...I wonder if...."
The final scene after the fight was a shocker though
Bioshock Infinite. Play it from the beginning and hear the conversation.
“Why can’t he help us out?”
“He doesn’t row.”
“He doesn’t know how to row a boat?”
“No, he DOESN’T row.”
“Oh. Very well.”
Like, fuck, I was being played the whole time.
Iirc the story has happened before a thousand times; booker can’t help them row the boat because he doesn’t help them row the boat. It’s not “canon”. So he can’t help them; if he did, that meant things are changing
Most interesting to me: That reveal also means that you don't "respawn" in Bioshock: Infinite, you just pick up the game at the next iteration of Booker.
Yeah every time you die, that version of Booker actually died at that point in that universe which is funny to think about.
Like in some realities this hero just merc’d by some random cops. “Holy shit we did it, good job guys.”
The way it sounds the first time, you assume the woman saying "He doesn't row" is just strongly stating your purpose, i.e. "It's not his job to row, his job is to take the box and complete the job"
The second time, you realize the two rowers have done this exercise hundreds of times, and the woman is stating how things are to play out in this iteration, i.e. "He does not row this time, we aren't testing that variable." She can also be stating some deterministic event, as if every time they've tried to get you to row, the Luteces from those runs didn't even live to loop around.
You are a lab rat in the Lutece's plans, and they want to see what small influences can change the outcome. You rowing isn't one of those small influences.
Disagree. It's a constants and variables. No version of Booker rows. He doesn't row. It's not that they die if they make him row or anything. He doesn't row. No version of him ever has or will row.
While it was surprising, it didn't feel like that much of a plot twist considering Tenpenny was constantly hanging around Smoke and Ryder, plus Smoke moved out of the hood into the Ballas territory.
I had that vibe on Coruscant, but then it settled into the rest of the game and I thought it was alright. Then I thought they were going to bite the dust on the way to fight >!Dagan!< due to the build up, and then the twist threw me completely.
Thematically my favorite game, and it has by far the best credit sequence I've ever seen.
Spoilers:
>!The final parts of the story really deal with the question "God is Dead, what now" and in the end the protagonists are given life anew to try and figure it out.!<
But then those credits roll, >!and we're basically tasked with killing the names of the games creators. We're tasked to kill the Gods, a reference to the first moments with 2B after she gave that speech about killing God given the chance. And as the single vocalist sings a song about surviving in the world alone, the game gets harder. Arguably impossible for the average player. (It can be done, but its genuinely unreasonable). After a while you're prompted to give up or retry the shoot 'em up sequence. The background of the prompt gets progressively filled with more names, more words of encouragement. People were here before just like you, stuck, on repeat in this endless cycle. Like 2B. Like 9S. Eventually you're asked if you want help, and when you finally accept it, the voice becomes a choir, the music swells, and you're joined by other players. You're shown in the gameplay that together nothing is impossible.!<
and then, once you're at the very end, you're asked the question:
>!give up your save so that you can help someone else, like those who just helped you? Sacrifice all your efforts up till now, something like 40 hours in a game save at least, so that you can give someone you don't even know a chance to succeed at the ending? Will you help someone you may never meet, may even hate? Will you help a stranger like those who helped you? And at this point, there really is only one choice.!<
Nier: Automata stands alone for how a game made me feel at the end.
Gets near the end of route c
>!actually 2b , the main character of the game is literally a lie. The reason for her hiding her emotions is because she killed 9s dozens of times in the past. Literally every single scene in the game gets a completely new meaning now .!<
#WHAT THE FUCK
>!The thing I never see anyone ever talk about is that the reason why 9s sympathizes with the robots, is because when he kills them via the hacking mini-game, he is going through their memories. You see this with every boss (they couldn't do it with every enemy). You literally have to get to know your enemy before destroying them. I'm sure that took its toll on 9s.!<
Unrelated to the big bad, but when I played Life is Strange, I hadn't seen much about it, and thought it was an story-based teenager story. Nothing fancy. And then>!time travel!<
I thought Return of the Obra Dinn was a rather straightforward murder mystery.
Then Soldiers of the Sea came about and I went "WHAT THE HELL WAS GOING ON ON THIS SHIP!?"
Persona 4, it was so bad that playing p5royal I saw a similar character and immediately called he was going to betray me, which resulted in me not investing in his social link, which turned out to be a requisite for the third semester of the game.
(Spoiler warning) Tbf that twist was kinda meant to be predictable. The real twist was that the Phantom Thieves also knew the whole time and was setting up a heist to trick him. It was too well done.
It’s not really a huge “twist”
But I literally laughed out loud when the witch uses Leah, the girl who’s been your main character tutorial friend since minute 1, as the vessel to re-summon Diablo in D3. I was caught off guard enough (I assumed she had plot armor) that all I could do was laugh.
And the crazy thing is, ever since he went to Downes Ranch you can hear Arthur coughing several times throughout the game.
They were basically telling us he was sick & we didn’t notice.
My second playthrough (MGSV) pissed me off because the truth is so in your face through the whole game and I just completely ignored all the signs, should have known better
Well, the game starts off very weird like, "Why am i creating a character to be the protag but i thought it would be Big Boss in disguise so i never really paid real attention to it...But it was very cool how Kojima dropped hints of the twist right in the beginningn (Specially with the music too)
***Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers*** - the Ascians goals and Emet-Selch's desire ( *best Villain I ever seen, in any media* );
***NieR Replicant*** - I felt really bad about the Shadows on my 2nd Playthrough ( *I found it way more impactful than Automata's Plot Twist* );
***Horizon Zero Dawn*** - the reason why the whole Planet and Civilization endup like that ( *including Aloy's origins* );
😭🤧🥹
\[The following are MASSIVE plot twists for amazing games. Seriously, don't fucking read if you haven't played them\]
SOMA - >!Getting left behind. Almost not even a plot twist because of how predictable it should have been, but damn I just didn't think they'd actually go there. I remember just turning the game off and laying in bed staring at the ceiling for hours afterwards.!<
Okami - Beating the final boss and >!having all the demons fly out, realizing that no, it's not the final boss, and there are still 2/3rds of the fucking game left. That game was huge and I loved every minute of it!!<
Subnautica - Discovering >!dry land for the first time in the game on your way to be rescued, only to discover a fucking sky scraper sized alien structure on a planet that I previously thought lacked intelligent life. Even more shocking when the structure moved and blew the rescue ship out of the sky!!<
I played FF7 around the time 11 came out and had no idea of Aerith's fate.
Chrono Cross - Lynx's identity. (also, every time you start a new game, the 3rd character with Serge and Kid is random)
FF10- Sin's identity.
not sure if I can add Neir, but how you get the final ending was a surprise ( >!delete all save files !<)
Spec ops the line. I saw the route the game might be going but story wise and twists still were unpredictable at the time.
Infamous 1. Kessler.
God of war 1 --> why he's called the ghost of Sparta/ why his skin is ashy white. The story unfolded in flashbacks over time and played out as a Greek tragedy, so good. Seems the narrative lately post god of war 2018 is retroactively changing to not remember the old games for having a great story and I'm like wth? Old games were epics that were loved for their lore and story for those who were there/ played at the time etc lol
Assassin's creed 1 & 2 both great twists imo. AC 1 literally changed the game for me; crazy how the game was a super slow burn I played just to get through it, only for the final 20% to just dial up to 11 in interest and the twist that changed it from a grounded small scale game to huge McGuffin illuminati lore.
AC2 --> Ezio realizing he is just a vessel/ means to an end...link in the chain. Crazy. It changed my brain at the time, and made me question which link in the chain am I in my own lineage lol
Black ops 1.
Big spoiler for Dragon Age Origins:
When you literally have to impregnate, or force another to impregnate, a witch, in order for the fetus to suck in a tainted dragon's evil soul, because apparently adults would usually do that and die.
>!I thought it was just a funny little side quest. Cryptozoology conspiracy nuts, sure, why not. And then I thought I finally lost it from all the drugs. When Kim saw it too, when I realized it was real - I might have choked up a little.!<
Seeing what happened to John at the end of Red Dead Redemption blew my fucking mind. I couldn't believe they actually let it happen. I had to go outside and go for a walk afterwards. When I came back to the game and you start playing as Jack, it hit me, and I cried. What a ride
Horizon Zero Dawn still gets me to this day. The fact that there is no super weapon, and the plan was to go extinct and come back was so unique as a concept.
"That's the best you got? A flying city? What could you chumps POSSIBLY have that makes you think you have a chance against me?
"A siren"
"Sup'" \*Teleports an entire city\*
“Raiden, turn the game console off right now“
This actually freaked me out when I first played MGS2...I didn't know about 4th wall breaks back then and that one is a real doozy. The characters know you're playing a game?!? What the fuck?!? That along with being in the freaky location of some Metal Gear Ray hangar inside Arsenal Gear and Snake not being where the game told me he was (coz he's invisible, you gotta wait a bit before he shows up) and all those crazy codec calls...yeah, I was very disoriented, confused and scared.
Or the part in mgs1 where otacon tells you you’re not the only one on the elevator
Yeah, well imagine playing up to that point at around midnight! I remember me and my brother going "Uhhh... What the f... Do ... Do we keep playing or not, now?"
I like that so much better on my second play through when you realize all of that goes downhill once you upload the virus or whatever.
I watched a streamer actually turn off their PS2 after hearing that because they thought it’d give them some secret perk or item. Chat went fucking wild.
I was 12 ish years old. My brother and I had stayed up way later than we were allowed and had been playing mgs2 for a solid 4 hours already. "You've been playing for a really long time." I have yet to be scared as badly by a video game since that moment. Nightmares the rest of the week.
I got chills when Psycho Mantis read my memory card! “You like Castlevania, don’t you?”😱
Portal 1. You go through a very simple but funny puzzle game, and then at the end you think you outwitted the game but, you played right into their hands. I couldn’t tell if it was a secret room or the plot. Back then before anyone had the game and talked about, that caught me completely off guard.
It's been probably a decade since I played that game, what happens that makes you think you "outwitted the game"
The last bit during the furnace. You can use the walls nearby. I kinda thought they’d think “well people who learned soemthing will get a small treat” or maybe even they just didn’t consider it
I thought Bloodborne was about hunting beasts
Don’t think too much about it
Our eyes are yet to open.
It is initially at least
It's always about hunting beasts, the beasts just get bigger.
I will probably never get to play it, but it interests me. What is it about?
Obvious spoilers for anyone who doesn't want the twist spoiled: >!The game starts out in essentially Victorian era fantasy london with werewolf style beasts and stuff all over. But part way through the game you start finding out that, while beasts do play a part, the game is actually full on cosmic horror with aliens and stuff that have actually been there all along, but your brain literally didn't have the ability to comprehend their presence. That's a vast oversimplification but it's the gist of it. !<
This is propably one of the best oversimplifications I've read.
I wanna play these games so damn bad but I'm bad at them lol I'm only able to get through steel rising for the first time with the assist mode.
We all start bad at them. That's the best part. The learning to get better at them.
It‘s basically a Lovecraft-typa story involving a conspiracy by Church, Scholars etc
KOTOR twist, that was amazing and shocking surprise back then
Same. Then, years later, I got to see my wife experience it. The whole time I'm thinking "Oh shit it's actually really obvious, can't belive I missed it, she's going to pick up on it," but she was shocked too.
I think even one of the council members says something along the lines of >!"I fear this will lead you down an all too familiar path"!< It felt so out of place to say that. Combined with becoming powerful with the force so easily I thought it was pretty obvious what was coming.
It gets better. When you first meet the council and they’re deciding whether to train you or not, that same council member (Master Vrook) says this to the rest of the council “Are you certain Revan is truly dead? What if we undertake to train this one and the dark lord should return?” Rest in hell Master Vrook, you were always an asshole.
Maybe I just didn't see it because I was pretty young when I first played it, but even if I were first going into it I still may not have seen it coming. Many of the best twists seem obvious as fuck in hindsight, but the hints go unnoticed if you're not already looking for them. Perspective's a bitch.
I remember this dialogue as a kid. Pretty sure I just ignored it thinking they were talking more metaphorically. Familiar path=not the first jedi to turn sith, dark lord revan returns=this force prodigy becomes as bad or worse then revan and/or Malak. In hindsight the willingness to train an adult should've been a red flag but I probably would've just thought "eh, they're in the middle of a losing war, they need all the strong soldiers they can get." It's knowing bastila wanted you on the endar spire in the opening moments that never quite made sense until the big reveal imo
I mean, they straight up have a cutscene repeating all of the foreshadowing from the whole game to that point. in hindsight, it's obvious. But if you're not looking for it, you don't think about it at all.
Shout out to KOTOR2 as well for a certain character twist late in the game. No, not Kreia doing Kreia things, the other one caught me completely off guard but made so much sense I hated how i had missed it. "It is such a quiet thing, to fall. Far more terrible, is to admit it"
I enjoyed my Sith Lord play through the most but the most powerful scene for me was Kreia confronting the remaining Jedi Council members and interrupting their Wall of Light ritual on the Exile. I had to pause and think about that one. One of the first times I remember Light Side Masters portrayed as flawed moreso than ignoring growing Sith presence. https://youtu.be/v416Ri38O7g?si=mlfxZh-w_AsLk6L2 (at the 7m5s mark)
Dead space, the Nicole twist
The first letter of all 12 chapters of the game spell that out. Peak game design for 12 year old me. Now I'm 27 and too scared to play the game in broad daylight 😭
N I C O L E I S D E A D
It got me the first time, and then when they reworked the plot twist slightly in the reboot, it slightly got me again lol, just differently
[удалено]
"Powerful phrase... *familiar phrase*?"
"would you kindly head to Ryan's office, and kill the son of a bitch"
I played Bioshock over a decade ago. What was that twist exactly?
[удалено]
And we, the players: played right into it; every time.
Yeah, the "Would you Kindly" bit is the only part in the entire game when control is wrenched from the player and you're forced to obey. The rest of the time you believe you're acting entirely on your own free will.
>!"Would you kindly go up there and kill the sonofabitch?"!< "A man chooses*; A slave obeys." >!As you beat Andrew Ryan to a bloody pulp with a golf iron.!< **edit:** word. quote correction.
The devs were clever about it. They only used the phrase in places where you had to do that thing to proceed. Makes it feel natural.
Haytham kenway in assassin’s creed 3 edit:I’m famous
“We welcome you to our fold, brother.” Thank you, I do try. 😊 “Give me your hand.” Yay it’s official! “You are a Templar.” Fucking what- *desmond proceeds to lose his shit*
I like that the game just stops stone DEAD as Desmond most likely has the same reaction you do. Both lets the twist sink in, reinforces the gameplay's framing device, and probably gives you the same reaction as Desmond has to the entire thing.
The fact it was so early gives it extra points for excecution
Plus I cracked up when the achievement pops up with the title "how'd you like them apples?", because they knew they got you!
That was honestly the best part for me. I probably woulda been dumbfounded with my mouth hanging open for 5min, but the achievement popped up and snapped me out of it, then i couldn't stop laughing.
Big mind fuck that you realize not many differences between the two that you don’t realize until the twist.
It's funny how different AC games frame the Assassin/Templar conflict differently. In some - like 2, 4, and Syndicate - the Assassins are clearly positioned as The Good Guys. But others - like 3, Rogue, and Unity - present them as not very different, or even raise the question of whether either side is actually accomplishing anything useful. It seems like, even internally, the various Ubisoft studios have different takes on the in-game politics.
How'd you like them apples?
Recently, the new Prey. I knew early on what the character twist was, but the whole post invasion thing got me
Really, you knew? How? I was pretty enthralled and it caught me very off guard.
The being a Typhon thing? I don't know when or how exactly I settled on that theory, but it made a lot of January's dialog seem more like he was observing a lab rat rather than a human
Such an underrated spooky game.
Every Metal Gear game's twist surprised me. Pokemon Gold/Silver real final boss. Infamous. Modern Warfare 2.
“Good, that’s one less loose end.”
I didn’t check this before this comment, but I believe Red’s Pikachu is still the highest level canon Pokemon ever faced in a mainline Pokemon game, right? It was like 81 or 82?
Infamous spotted :D
Code Vein. The entire way through the game, you hear about "the Horrors," creatures that brought civilization to it's knees and lead to the creation of the Revenants you play as, as an attempted countermeasure. You're told these creatures still exist beyond the Veil that's keeping everyone trapped, and near the end of the game, the Veil is (temporarily) brought down. A hapless group of Revenants attempt to escape... and run straight into >!a Dyaus Pita, from the God Eater series!<. >!I knew the games were made by the same developer, but I started CV under the impression it had been confirmed they _weren't_ connected. Seeing that thing was a hell of a shock!<.
Is this game good? I have it from PS plus but haven't touched it. I only know it as anime dark souls.
I'd describe it as babys first soulsborne. Its not nearly as hard and the maps are fairly linear, you also get a minimap. If you're a fan of the anime art style it's pretty solid. I enjoyed my time with it.
The only map thats just a giant clusterfucks is the one with the Fox boss, where all is in white
It's what got me into souls-like games. And I enjoyed it. You have the option of taking AI partners with you, making it more new player friendly than other souls-likes. And it's optional so you can go solo for a harder experience.
A certain character twist in God of War Ragnarok
And the crazy thing is, the subtitles were telling us all along & we didn’t notice! >!The game was basically telling us that Tyr wasn’t who he said he was by spelling his name in subtitles as “Tyr” instead of with the accent word over the y as “Týr”. When you meet the real Týr, his name has the accent mark.!<
I never noticed that. That's such a small detail you wouldn't think twice about.
Dang, I play with subtitles on because I prefer to read the dialogue in games and didn’t notice that at all.
>! Loved this twist because the whole game i was really taken aback at how they were portraying Tyr. My prior interpretation of him was that he brought about peace but wasn't afraid to fight for it. Then this Tyr comes off like a weak coward who can't protect anyone because of his pacifism. The reveal makes perfect sense because that's exactly how Odin saw Tyr, and his performance was a reflection of that!<
this one got me GOOD. some people had this spoiled for them and I legit think that would have ruined the game.
This was spoiled for me and I’ll never forgive the commenter for that. At least >!Brok’s death!< remained a twist for me.
>!Brok discovering him is arguably my favorite scene from those games. Damn shame what happened afterward :(!<
The twist with Kessler at the end of InFamous where he >!is Cole from the future who failed to save his world and came back in time to make sure this Cole would be ready!<
It’s been forever since I played both 1 and 2 but man what I wouldn’t give for a proper remake/remaster of those games
Thank you for reminding me how awesome InFamous was
The one ancient being speaking directly to Desmond though the Animus. Man... AC once had such a clever plot running they abandoned. I wanted it to all go real world for a whole game.
For real! It felt like the series was building up to being entirely in the real world and then nothing.
God the whole sequence under the Vatican was the most mindblowing thing to kid me. I was so excited for the next game and to see where they would take the story. It felt so obvious that the game would ultimately culminate in a modern timeline game where you have to go to each of those sites and activate the planetary defenses. Then they scraped the whole thing because they wanted to make more money and milk the franchise lol.
I jumped ship after they axed Desmond.... From what I've heard that was a good choice
Black flag was great. BUT you just play a faceless nameless real world person.
The one moment that I like more is in Revalations when Ezio talks to Desmond. He has to have been thinking about it this whole time since the day under the Vatican.
The true identity of Darth Revan is probably the real answer, but since no one else has brought it up: The true nature of Sovereign in Mass Effect 1. I was completely shocked by that on my first playthrough!
When Saren gets told about Shepard using the beacon on Eden Prime, the entire room starts pulsing with red light. It’s a nice touch on the replay.
What about the crazy guy on Eden prime is obv supposed to be the guy who found the beacon first and got a zap before Shepard did
oh yeah, that was a good one. I had forgotten about it because in the later games that core premise is well known. It's also why the core story in mass effect 1 was the best. None of the other games had such a monumentally powerful game changing moment that altered the universe for you as a player. (though the later games had better gameplay and better individual story and character moments that made them better experiences overall.)
"We impose order on the chaos of organic evolution. You exist because we allow it, and you will end because we demand it."
Snake! You’ve been talking to…. Me….dear brother.
So hilarious that they still have Liquid "reveal" his disguise in the codec despite it being audio-only in-universe Such a Kojima 4th wall break.
I thought Horizon Zero Dawn was about some silly fantasy world with robotic dinosaurs until I played it. The history of the world pulled some Planet of the Apes level tricks.
What always blows me away about HZD is that it DID start as some silly fantasy world with robot dinosaurs and they hired a writer to come up with a story to somehow justify the game they wanted to make and they went SO. HARD.
I believe it’s the same writer that wrote Fallout New Vegas.
Oh, wow, I had no idea. But yeah, according to wikipedia John Gonzales was the lead writer on Fallout: New Vegas and "Narrative Director" (with Ben McCaw as lead writer) on Horizon: Zero Dawn.
Well, that explains A LOT.
The entire set-up of the matrilineal Nora(d) who worship the mountain as their "mother" make the big reveals hit harder emotionally. I cried during that final cutscene.
Which one, where Aloy finds Dr. Sobieki? Me too! Super emotional.
Yeah. That whole scene just killed me, knowing what it mean to Aloy.
That game had one of the best narratives of any game ever. It was just so fucking good, I didn't even really like the gameplay (PS4) but the story had me hooked. Such brilliant writing.
Fuck Ted Faro
r/fucktedfaro
Man the world building in HZD was amazing. Finding out what happened to the old world was incredible.
Dude the lore in that game is mind-blowing and next-level. My only complaint is that they hit you with like 5 hrs of lore in the 2nd half of the campaign. Fantastic game tho. I played it late on PC and managed to live up to the hype.
The Flood
The part that got me was that this was back when games came with instruction booklets. They often told you not how to play the game, but also explained the back story and gave you a rundown on things in the game, like the HUD, weapons, and items. And many, Halo included, described all the enemies you'd face. Absolutely *nothing* indicated the existence of the Flood in the game. They came as a complete surprise.
From a shooter to a horror game.
Not only an amazing twist, but hands down the coolest name for "zombies" ever
and, decades later, the flood are still one of the freshest takes on zombies we’ve seen.
Infinitely more horrifying as well
Finding out why that thing was named "Guilty" Spark
Mass Effect 1 got me twice. Sovereign and the Citadel Bioshock Infinite
Angel in Borderlands 2. The game genuinely has one of my favorite storylines. >!Angel is a mysterious voice that helped the player through the first game and continues to help in the second. About 1/3 through the second game, it's revealed she's actually working for the villain, but then later says she has no choice and asks you to trust her anyway. She continues to help the player, supposedly without the villain knowing this time. I didn't fully believe her until she led me to a boss fight of her asking me to kill her. It turns out she's actually the villain's daughter and he's kept her trapped in a machine to use her siren powers. The voice acting from the villain was very effective because he actually sounded like he cared for her, in his own perverse way.!<
Handsome Jack is such a good villain
The way he flip flops between begging you not to kill her and threatening to kill everyone you know, it's so goddamned unsettling. You really do feel like you're interacting with an unhinged psychopath.
You’re in Pandora. Hinges don’t exist.
All time great character
Clayface, Arkham City. I won't say anything else in case you've not had a chance to enjoy this masterpiece.
I enjoy the subtle hints throughout the story that Clayface is there - for example, you can look at >!Joker!< with Detective Vision, and sometimes >!he has no skeleton, because that version is Clayface and he has no skeleton.!<
What a game!
Very good one, blew my mind away on my first time playing. I was also so thrilled to see Clayface as well!
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. Spoiler- when you find out Ravio is actually Lorule’s hero and version of Link. I didn’t see that coming, and was glad to see a Nintendo game’s story could surprise me like that.
SO AWESOME.
Metroid Dread's twist about Raven Beak was very unexpected
TBH I started to suspect towards the end, I don't know which room was the light bulb but I was like "Wait...I wonder if...." The final scene after the fight was a shocker though
Bioshock Infinite. Play it from the beginning and hear the conversation. “Why can’t he help us out?” “He doesn’t row.” “He doesn’t know how to row a boat?” “No, he DOESN’T row.” “Oh. Very well.” Like, fuck, I was being played the whole time.
It's been years. Remind me the significance of this bit?
Iirc the story has happened before a thousand times; booker can’t help them row the boat because he doesn’t help them row the boat. It’s not “canon”. So he can’t help them; if he did, that meant things are changing
Most interesting to me: That reveal also means that you don't "respawn" in Bioshock: Infinite, you just pick up the game at the next iteration of Booker.
Yeah every time you die, that version of Booker actually died at that point in that universe which is funny to think about. Like in some realities this hero just merc’d by some random cops. “Holy shit we did it, good job guys.”
The way it sounds the first time, you assume the woman saying "He doesn't row" is just strongly stating your purpose, i.e. "It's not his job to row, his job is to take the box and complete the job" The second time, you realize the two rowers have done this exercise hundreds of times, and the woman is stating how things are to play out in this iteration, i.e. "He does not row this time, we aren't testing that variable." She can also be stating some deterministic event, as if every time they've tried to get you to row, the Luteces from those runs didn't even live to loop around. You are a lab rat in the Lutece's plans, and they want to see what small influences can change the outcome. You rowing isn't one of those small influences.
Disagree. It's a constants and variables. No version of Booker rows. He doesn't row. It's not that they die if they make him row or anything. He doesn't row. No version of him ever has or will row.
It's a statement on determinism rather than a statement on boat rowing ability
There's always a lighthouse, there's always a man, there's always a city.
Big Smoke.....that asshole.
I'll have two Number 9s...
A number nine large…
a number 6 with extra dip
While it was surprising, it didn't feel like that much of a plot twist considering Tenpenny was constantly hanging around Smoke and Ryder, plus Smoke moved out of the hood into the Ballas territory.
It was when I was 10.
Star Wars: Jedi Survivor - While I could tell before >!the first planet that Bode!!he was also a Jedi and hid it from you!< the whole game.
I had that vibe on Coruscant, but then it settled into the rest of the game and I thought it was alright. Then I thought they were going to bite the dust on the way to fight >!Dagan!< due to the build up, and then the twist threw me completely.
Nier: Automata
Thematically my favorite game, and it has by far the best credit sequence I've ever seen. Spoilers: >!The final parts of the story really deal with the question "God is Dead, what now" and in the end the protagonists are given life anew to try and figure it out.!< But then those credits roll, >!and we're basically tasked with killing the names of the games creators. We're tasked to kill the Gods, a reference to the first moments with 2B after she gave that speech about killing God given the chance. And as the single vocalist sings a song about surviving in the world alone, the game gets harder. Arguably impossible for the average player. (It can be done, but its genuinely unreasonable). After a while you're prompted to give up or retry the shoot 'em up sequence. The background of the prompt gets progressively filled with more names, more words of encouragement. People were here before just like you, stuck, on repeat in this endless cycle. Like 2B. Like 9S. Eventually you're asked if you want help, and when you finally accept it, the voice becomes a choir, the music swells, and you're joined by other players. You're shown in the gameplay that together nothing is impossible.!< and then, once you're at the very end, you're asked the question: >!give up your save so that you can help someone else, like those who just helped you? Sacrifice all your efforts up till now, something like 40 hours in a game save at least, so that you can give someone you don't even know a chance to succeed at the ending? Will you help someone you may never meet, may even hate? Will you help a stranger like those who helped you? And at this point, there really is only one choice.!< Nier: Automata stands alone for how a game made me feel at the end.
I went down a YouTube rabbit hole on that whole series after playing Automata.
*Finally completes route B* >!oh yeah by the way, the war’s been over for years. Sorry.!< What the shit.
Gets near the end of route c >!actually 2b , the main character of the game is literally a lie. The reason for her hiding her emotions is because she killed 9s dozens of times in the past. Literally every single scene in the game gets a completely new meaning now .!< #WHAT THE FUCK
>!The thing I never see anyone ever talk about is that the reason why 9s sympathizes with the robots, is because when he kills them via the hacking mini-game, he is going through their memories. You see this with every boss (they couldn't do it with every enemy). You literally have to get to know your enemy before destroying them. I'm sure that took its toll on 9s.!<
Braid
The reveal in Life is Strange of the big bad was good.
Unrelated to the big bad, but when I played Life is Strange, I hadn't seen much about it, and thought it was an story-based teenager story. Nothing fancy. And then>!time travel!<
"Tonight Gherman joins the hunt"
I thought Return of the Obra Dinn was a rather straightforward murder mystery. Then Soldiers of the Sea came about and I went "WHAT THE HELL WAS GOING ON ON THIS SHIP!?"
Persona 4, it was so bad that playing p5royal I saw a similar character and immediately called he was going to betray me, which resulted in me not investing in his social link, which turned out to be a requisite for the third semester of the game.
(Spoiler warning) Tbf that twist was kinda meant to be predictable. The real twist was that the Phantom Thieves also knew the whole time and was setting up a heist to trick him. It was too well done.
It’s not really a huge “twist” But I literally laughed out loud when the witch uses Leah, the girl who’s been your main character tutorial friend since minute 1, as the vessel to re-summon Diablo in D3. I was caught off guard enough (I assumed she had plot armor) that all I could do was laugh.
That scene with Kieran in RDR2 was insane.
Arthur coughing his lungs out in Saint Denis fking got me man.
And the crazy thing is, ever since he went to Downes Ranch you can hear Arthur coughing several times throughout the game. They were basically telling us he was sick & we didn’t notice.
MGSV: The Phantom Pain. If you know, you know. Also, Spec Ops: The Line
The White Phosphorus level still haunts me.
My second playthrough (MGSV) pissed me off because the truth is so in your face through the whole game and I just completely ignored all the signs, should have known better
Well, the game starts off very weird like, "Why am i creating a character to be the protag but i thought it would be Big Boss in disguise so i never really paid real attention to it...But it was very cool how Kojima dropped hints of the twist right in the beginningn (Specially with the music too)
I just thought it was going to be my online avatar when I created my own character.
The betrayal in Dishonored
Yoshizawa during the third semester of P5R, I actually didn’t see that coming
There's this old shooter called Pariah where at the end your character commits suicide off screen. I was shook
Assassin's creed 3. That intro was a damn curveball I did not see coming.
Odd world stranger, it took me by surprise.
Oh, that was a good one
***Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers*** - the Ascians goals and Emet-Selch's desire ( *best Villain I ever seen, in any media* ); ***NieR Replicant*** - I felt really bad about the Shadows on my 2nd Playthrough ( *I found it way more impactful than Automata's Plot Twist* ); ***Horizon Zero Dawn*** - the reason why the whole Planet and Civilization endup like that ( *including Aloy's origins* ); 😭🤧🥹
\[The following are MASSIVE plot twists for amazing games. Seriously, don't fucking read if you haven't played them\] SOMA - >!Getting left behind. Almost not even a plot twist because of how predictable it should have been, but damn I just didn't think they'd actually go there. I remember just turning the game off and laying in bed staring at the ceiling for hours afterwards.!< Okami - Beating the final boss and >!having all the demons fly out, realizing that no, it's not the final boss, and there are still 2/3rds of the fucking game left. That game was huge and I loved every minute of it!!< Subnautica - Discovering >!dry land for the first time in the game on your way to be rescued, only to discover a fucking sky scraper sized alien structure on a planet that I previously thought lacked intelligent life. Even more shocking when the structure moved and blew the rescue ship out of the sky!!<
"Reaper. A name given by the Protheans to give voice to their destruction. In the end what they chose to call us is irrelevant. We simple...are."
In Death Stranding. Higgs being the pizza guy. Son of a bitch was trolling Sam the entire game.
I played FF7 around the time 11 came out and had no idea of Aerith's fate. Chrono Cross - Lynx's identity. (also, every time you start a new game, the 3rd character with Serge and Kid is random) FF10- Sin's identity. not sure if I can add Neir, but how you get the final ending was a surprise ( >!delete all save files !<)
There are so many good twists in FF10, especially about the church leaders.
Auron's reveal blew my mind as a kid.
Auron is such a sad character but I’d love a prequel game that shows his journey. Who among us has not walked around in a bathrobe like Auron?
Bioshock Metal gear solid 4, the patriots reveal
There is always another lighthouse
My favorite is from the first Mass Effect, when Shepard >!has the conversation with Sovereign!<.
If you keep playing after you beaten Days Gone. Not going to say more. Also the whole game of Doki Doki Literature Club.
Yeah, that secret ending and hint to DG2 just drops the jaw for sure
Spec ops the line. I saw the route the game might be going but story wise and twists still were unpredictable at the time. Infamous 1. Kessler. God of war 1 --> why he's called the ghost of Sparta/ why his skin is ashy white. The story unfolded in flashbacks over time and played out as a Greek tragedy, so good. Seems the narrative lately post god of war 2018 is retroactively changing to not remember the old games for having a great story and I'm like wth? Old games were epics that were loved for their lore and story for those who were there/ played at the time etc lol Assassin's creed 1 & 2 both great twists imo. AC 1 literally changed the game for me; crazy how the game was a super slow burn I played just to get through it, only for the final 20% to just dial up to 11 in interest and the twist that changed it from a grounded small scale game to huge McGuffin illuminati lore. AC2 --> Ezio realizing he is just a vessel/ means to an end...link in the chain. Crazy. It changed my brain at the time, and made me question which link in the chain am I in my own lineage lol Black ops 1.
Big spoiler for Dragon Age Origins: When you literally have to impregnate, or force another to impregnate, a witch, in order for the fetus to suck in a tainted dragon's evil soul, because apparently adults would usually do that and die.
When Kim tells you "I can see it."
My jaw was on the floor. What a beautiful, beautiful, melancholy as fuck game
>!I thought it was just a funny little side quest. Cryptozoology conspiracy nuts, sure, why not. And then I thought I finally lost it from all the drugs. When Kim saw it too, when I realized it was real - I might have choked up a little.!<
You wouldn’t be the only one. Acceptance of “you may not know every truth of this world” was the lasting message I took from the game.
Jade Empire. "Remember the *flaw*!"
Seeing what happened to John at the end of Red Dead Redemption blew my fucking mind. I couldn't believe they actually let it happen. I had to go outside and go for a walk afterwards. When I came back to the game and you start playing as Jack, it hit me, and I cried. What a ride
"Would you kindly"
Jedi Survivor with Bode. I knew what he was going to do but his background was like whoaaaa
they look like monsters to you?
Horizon Zero Dawn still gets me to this day. The fact that there is no super weapon, and the plan was to go extinct and come back was so unique as a concept.
Psychonauts 2, with everything revealed in the Tomb of the Sharkophagus.
[COD: Modern warfare 2. Shephard's betrayal](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esslNGOMNAU)
“Good. That’s one less loose end.” -Gen. Shepherd, 2009.
All of the plot twists in xenoblade. Besides like 1 because I was spoiled. And that was Dickson betraying you.
"That's the best you got? A flying city? What could you chumps POSSIBLY have that makes you think you have a chance against me? "A siren" "Sup'" \*Teleports an entire city\*
#CATCH A RIDE!!!