8 Video Game Plot Twists that Surprised No One

[Darth_Payn]

I think Cracked.com had a similar article a while ago, because that's where I recognized the twists from CoD:BlOps and Dead Space from. I forget if they called them brilliant or stupid.

This just makes me want to go dig up good twists as a contrast.

*Makes note for future GotD*

Alternatively, you could do one for games that had twists that came out of left field or had little to no foreshadowing that they couldn't reasonably be predicted.

Like the Betrayal of TF 141 in Modern Warfare 2(which even after replaying several times, it's still really difficult to see that moment coming from clues gathered beforehand), or the Time Loop in the first Final Fantasy.

Or the entire game Cyrostasis, which is just weird.

I'm just getting sick of the Betrayal trope being pulled without any foreshadowing. Yahtzee shares my annoyance.

 

[09philj]

While these are obvious, there is one which is much much worse. It's so bad that I don't think it even counts as a twist. When it finally revealed, the only surprise is how surprised the protagonists are. I'm referring, of course, to Airy turning out to have been a bad guy all along in Bravely Default. For the first two acts of the story, they subtly reference it in a way which is just enough to make the player feel uneasy, but not enough for them to really understand what is going on. And then in the third act they basically come right out and shout it in the player's face, to the extent that they put a huge hint on the bloody title screen, by having the subtitle "Where the Fairy Flies" turn into " airy lies". No, really.

 

[WouldYouKindly]

Now lets look for the surprising twists in games.

This is already a spoilerific thread so, yeah, deal with these too.

Spec Ops. You are just a crazy murderer like everyone else.

FF VII. You stole your dead friend's life and everyone(or maybe just Tifa) just lets you do it for a while.

Bioshock Infinite. Comstock=Booker unless you're equipped with some sort of super brain that let you figure that out way before hand.

Bioshock. You're just a puppet.

You'll notice that all of these relate to something the PC didn't know about themselves. These are the ones that stuck in my head because 90% of surprise twists are betrayal and 90% of them are pretty obvious.

 

[Dalisclock]

Now lets look for the surprising twists in games.

This is already a spoilerific thread so, yeah, deal with these too.

Spec Ops. You are just a crazy murderer like everyone else.

FF VII. You stole your dead friend's life and everyone(or maybe just Tifa) just lets you do it for a while.

Bioshock Infinite. Comstock=Booker unless you're equipped with some sort of super brain that let you figure that out way before hand.

Bioshock. You're just a puppet.

You'll notice that all of these relate to something the PC didn't know about themselves. These are the ones that stuck in my head because 90% of surprise twists are betrayal and 90% of them are pretty obvious.

Pretty much all of these have clues foreshadowing them, but like any good twist, you see the clues but don't notice them for what they are.

Bioshock Infinite drops a lot of clues, but you have to recognize them for what they are. For me, one of the biggest clues was when Booker was in the Hall of Heros where Slate's reaction to Comstocks "Heroism" at wounded knee is that "Comstock wasn't there!" Which fits perfectly with the fact that Booker was and didn't change his name until later, but during the first playthrough, I figured it was just because Comstock was full of shit. Considering pretty much everything we see at there is self serving and heavily biased towards Comstocks POV(treating wounded knee like it was some sort of glorious victory, blaming Daisy for the death of his wife), it's obvious you're supposed to think that.

 

[Elfgore]

I must be quite the daft fellow, as of the three games I've played and beaten on this list. Two of them I didn't see coming. I never thought Reznov was dead, neither did all of my friends. The twist in Dead Space was pretty big for me.

 

[mysecondlife]

I was surprised by Bioshock Infinite as well.

I'll give you one better: In Prince of Persia The Warrior Within, Kaileena (the lady the Prince rescues) who wears ostentatious red dress turns out to be the (pseudo-villain) empress.

That always seems to go over people's head when it comes to unsurprising plot twist.

 

[Imre Csete]

When Booker first meets Comstock and *zap* nosebleed happens, I thought it was some kind of Butterfly Effect-esque memory altering brain damage stuff, so I had my suspicions to look out for twists. Then alternate universes got into the picture, and that's as basic as a twist as it gets, so it wasn't a surprise. I also thought for a while that Elizabeth is Lady Comstock, but that Time Traveler's Wife stuff got shot down halfway through the game, so I guess I was too paranoid.

The game was still good despite it's weak twist, but the DLCs are outright horrible. Shame they were BioShock praising crossover fanfictions. They had massive potential to tell a cool story on its own.

 

[Callate]

One of the problems I've long had with Bioshock: Infinite is that by the time the Comstock reveal comes about (and pretty much forever after), the whole alternate-reality gig has become applied phlebotinum: it does whatever the plot needs it to do, whenever it needs to do it, with ill respect for both constancy and possibility. It makes you look old and tumor-ridden enough to disguise your identity, except when it doesn't. It gives you nosebleeds when you encounter your alternate selves, except when it doesn't. It travels through time, when it's convenient to the plot, but not when it could be used to avert terrible things from happening in the first place. It presents infinite possibilities but still forces its users into "tragic" (big ironic scare quotes, thanks) inevitabilities.

And it sort of makes ghosts. Because, sure, why not.

Back when the game was getting its promotional trailers, we got an Elizabeth with all her fingers and a bell sliding down the street tearing up cobblestones. I wish we had gotten that game; it looked awesome. Instead we got something that feels like it was patched together out of mismatched pieces. And yes, the setting is great, the sense of place is unrivaled, and the characters are still compelling. But the plot, and several of its biggest drivers, are a mess.

 

[Super Cyborg]

Usually I don't think a whole lot about the story when playing games, as they aren't usually that engaging. These games may not be surprising if you've seen stories similar to it before or think about it. For Bayonetta and Infinite, I didn't "see" it coming, but I never really thought much of it. Even then, the twist didn't do anything.

If I could make a suggestion, would it be possible to name the games that will be mentioned? I know part of the gallery will be for people guessing what you put on there as they go through there. The other problem is people are at risk seeing a spoiler for a game they might want to play at some point. So perhaps they see that Bioshock Infinite is going to be on here, and if they haven't played it but want to see the other ones, they know what page to skip and can still enjoy the others. The list would only need to be there for galleries that have potential spoilers of the game.

 

[Chester Rabbit]

Oh bullshit everyone say the Bioshock Infinite one coming. Bull fucking shot. * attacks your high horse with an axe at the knees*

 

[Glongpre]

I'd also nominate "Ninja Gaiden", when you discover that the Emperor is that guy you met at the beginning. Except I honestly have no idea what the hell was going on in that game so maybe that doesn't count.

He isn't the Emperor. The Emperor is the dude you fight before him, who is huge and shoots lazers, and then turns into the skull pile. You are thinking of Murai, the nunchuk guy. It was kinda surprising for me, but I could have cared less for the story so I was like, "Oh, it is the nunchuk dude...I'll just kick his ass again."