Most surprising story twists in gaming (Spoilers)

[Amaror]

I personally love a good story and i particulary enjoy it when a story has a good surprising twist in the end. Not a forced one for the sake of having a twist, but a good one that comes surprising, but is reasonable all the same.

For me the game with the most surprising twist is not any of the bioshock games or something like this but rather Spellforce - The order of dawn. The twist comes out of nowhere, exspecially considering it's a strategy game, yet makes perfect sense and was just mindblowing when i first experienced it.

Here's the twist in a spoiler tag:

Spoiler

A group of particular powerfull wizards discovers a book describing a ritual that should give the performer near unlimited power, should it be performed at a special time. The story starts when a young ambitious wizard tries to perform the ritual.
He gets interupted by an older wizard named Rohen, who tells him that the ritual is a trap set by ancient evil beings and will rip the world apart.
They start fighting and sure enough the world gets ripped apart by the ritual. Only a few islands protected by magic now swim in an unpassable ocean.
The old wizard tries it's best to rectify the situation and sets up magical portals that allow travel between the islands.
The young wizard, thinking the ritual wouldn't have turned out this way, if he wouldn't have been interupted now tries to travel back in time using magic and keep Rohen from interrupting the ritual.
He kills Rohen halfway through the story.
Then it's up to the player to chase him through several worlds and try and stop him from traveling back in time. After the last battle however the mage still manages to get away and travel back in time. Only that he arrives a few centuries to early. He begins studying the ritual more closely. Discovers that it indeed was a trap and goes to stop his younger self from destroying the world. It turns out that he is Rohen.

So what's your favourite, most surprising twist in gaming? Please put the actual story bits in spoiler tags to avoid spoilers.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

-snip-

Actually, I look at the various deaths in Mass Effect less as a tragedy for Shepard than as a celebration of who that character was. One of your marines died because the strategic reality of the moment demanded someone make it out alive - they died so you could carry on the fight in their stead and upheld what is almost certainly seen as a universal human virtue. Mordin died correcting the mistake he'd made on his life's work. He died because he got it wrong and didn't want anyone else to get it wrong either. Thane died protecting a man in a final act of atonement for a life spent killing - he had one last chance to prove he didn't kill people for the money but because his targets did more harm alive than would be done killing them. And Legion died so that his people would live - because there needed to be some final proof of the humanity of the Geth.

I don't think my Shepard would have mourned their loss; he'd have been thankful that such allies existed.

 

[Tom_green_day]

I cba to write spoiler tags so I won't actually say it, but anyone who's played Black Ops 1 to the conclusion- Victor Resnov. Biggest 'oh shit' story moment in a game came from a Call of Duty.
EDIT: Also, not so much a story twist but a genre twist, that bit half way through Uncharted 1 where it stops being an adventure game and starts being an Indiana Jones game.

 

[FrozenLaughs]

Aeris in FF7 got me the most as a kid. I'd never had a game do that to me. There was always a way to get them back, as part of the main story or a sidequest. Sometimes it was a "clone" replacement, but you always got something.

Nope. She's dead, said FF7. Here, keep finding her gear and limit breaks as you progress through the story. It's cool, I'm just gonna keep reminding you of her once in awhile for the next 100 hrs.

 

[Collegeboy21]

The Revan twist in Knights of the Old Republic. Blew my mind when that happened and it's still the very first thing that springs to mind when someone mentions game twists.

 

[TehChuckles]

I have to say for me the "would you kindly" gottcha' from the original Bioshock. though it wasn't smart of poor Andy to order his own murder to prove a point.

 

[PPB]

I'm going to be unoriginal and say Knights of the Old Republic.

Many people like to say they saw it coming from a mile away. I didn't and the reveal was a mixture of jaw-dropping disbelief and exaltation because I thought the character in question was really cool. The little cutscene where they show all the hints you've had so far was pretty neat as well. I only wish the game recognised the twist more extensively for whatever planet you have left at this point (as I recall Kashyyyk is the only one that acknowledges it when you get to the star map).

 

[Scarim Coral]

As two people already mention, it's KOTOR for me.

Honestly I should of seen it coming since I did question my character on how he just happened to learn the force eventhought you have to be a child when you first discover your connection to the force (even then a Jedi Knight would of search for you when you discover it as a kid).

 

[Tahaneira]

Honestly I should of seen it coming since I did question my character on how he just happened to learn the force eventhought you have to be a child when you first discover your connection to the force (even then a Jedi Knight would of search for you when you discover it as a kid).

That was the brilliance of it, though. There have been so many 'special cases' and exceptions to that rule that it was easy to assume that the PC was just another one of these. Something that many characters comment on in surprise and that is, in fact, suspicious, is just written off by the player as another exception to the rule. Except, as it turns out, it isn't an exception. It's something else entirely, something that is highly suspicious, and something that the vast majority of players glibly pass right over. Crafty bastards.

And then KoTOR 2 went and played it straight again. Adults? Many of them old? Most never used their Force abilities or were even aware of them? Sure! Make them fully trained and highly skilled Jedi in a few hours! At least the Disciple had an excuse.

 

[vid87]

The first 2 Batman Arkham games, I think, set up a powerful theme that directly contradicts what players were expecting from a Batman game, which I found both important and bold.

Spoiler

Asylum - The Warden was the Spirit of Arkham, a madman who tortured prisoners and plotted mass extermination. Batman has to save him no matter what, but finding out the truth is a shift in perspective. Also, he has the plans for Arkham City.

City - Batman, despite finding out the Warden's motives, can't stop the City from opening. The climax sees Tyger helicopters raining missiles on unarmed inmates, killing hundreds. / Joker's death in spite of Batman's wish to save him.

Catwoman DLC - Not rushing to save Batman at the end results in a special scene with Barbara's radio message that Batman and Gordon are dead and a cured Joker is destroying Gotham.

Harley DLC - Batman becomes distant, almost suicidal, after the events in City and gets captured / Harley is hinted to be pregnant, then loses the baby.

Despite the series boasting how you can "be Batman" - an invincible ninja badass - everything above shows how flawed he really is: he can't do everything and he can fail, horribly.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Oh god, someone put "spoilers" in the title of this thread. I'm not even going to look at the posts in it just in case.

 

[Zipa]

The Revan twist in the original KOTOR floored me at the time. Jade Empire as well did a similar thing.

 

[GundamSentinel]

Oh god, someone put "spoilers" in the title of this thread. I'm not even going to look at the posts in it just in case.

Honestly, it says 'surprising story twists' in the title. Were you expecting anything other than spoilers?

OT: I'll join the KotOR crowd. When I first played it I was so absorbed in the story that I was really shocked at the Revan reveal. That is one that really stood out to me.

 

[Storm Dragon]

The Revan twist in Knights of the Old Republic. Blew my mind when that happened and it's still the very first thing that springs to mind when someone mentions game twists.

This was my first thought, too.

I have to say for me the "would you kindly" gottcha' from the original Bioshock. though it wasn't smart of poor Andy to order his own murder to prove a point.

Also a good one.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Honestly, it says 'surprising story twists' in the title. Were you expecting anything other than spoilers?

OT: I'll join the KotOR crowd. When I first played it I was so absorbed in the story that I was really shocked at the Revan reveal. That is one that really stood out to me.

I think any thread discussing "surprising twists" at random should be spoilered to within an inch of its life, both thread and posts. It's almost inevitable that you come in wanting to share a twist of your own and accidentally stumble across one for a game you were planning on playing.

Who has played EVERYTHING?

 

[scorptatious]

Well there's Valkyria Chronicles:

Spoiler

When Isara died. RIGHT when Rosie finally got over her prejudice against darcsens and befriended Isara, she gets shot.

Was like a punch in the gut.

The scene afterwards nearly brought me to tears.

You stood, always smiling, ever quiet, ever tender...

 

[Iwata]

The two that instantly spring to mind, the only ones where I literally got off my seat and put my hands in my head, were in Bioshock and KOTOR.

You know the ones.