Just like the obligatory “your mum” jokes I throw into most articles, the best twists in video games are the ones where the set up flies under the radar. Everything can be going so straightforward, only for the rug to be pulled out from underneath you, and the rest of the game then has a different meaning. From ones which happen halfway through the game, to the ones only meant to frame the final battle, today we raise a glass to the best of them all. Here’s your final warning for spoilers people, so don’t yell at me if you haven’t played any of these games.
Need For Speed Carbon
Just like your mum in the bedroom, some things get better with age (There you go editor), and this game packs two doozies. It’s the first game of the lot that really packs a punch though. Like nearly every game in the Need For Speed franchise, you start the game with a race, but the build up and format of this race should have been a warning. It’s not just a race down the mountainside, it’s a chase, and whilst you’re in the more powerful car, your chaser seems to have unlimited amounts of Nitrous Oxide. Once you’ve finished the race, the reason for this chase becomes clear: You’re on the run, and was perceived to have betrayed the street racing community and robbed them blind several years ago.
However, in one true doozy of a twist later on in the game, it transpires that you were framed, Nikki doesn’t hate you and that the guy getting you into the races is the true thief of the $20,000. Darius, who’d had your back all the way through as you took down Kenji, Angie and Wolf, turns on you, and tries to take you out for good (well, in a way that is allowed in a 12+ rated game from the ERSB). The final part of the game gives you access to some of the most powerful cars in the game, but also ramps up the difficulty to reflect this, as you take down Darius and his not-too-originally themed racing crew
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
If you’ve read my review of Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag, then you should have some idea of what’s coming here. If not, then here’s the link, and come back to me once you’ve read it. Now that we’re all caught up, we’re aware that Edward Kenway helped to found the Pirates’ Republic in Nassau with Ben Hornigold, James Kidd and Ed Thatch/Teach (Blackbeard). Hammy accents aside, each of these aforementioned pirates pack one hell of a scene at points throughout this game. For those who follow me on Twitter, you’ll be aware that Blackbeard’s exit in a blaze of glory made me cry, along with that immortal line. Seriously, I get a lump in my throat even just thinking about it.
For the uninitiated, as Blackbeard starts to lose his battle on board a ship, he yells “In a world without gold, we might have been heroes”. Honestly, given Ubisoft’s more generous attitude towards the man, it’s not hard to see why. In this, the more eccentric aspects of the man are toned down, and you end up empathising with the bearded Bristolian.
Ben Hornigold shows himself to be the traitor of the group, as he gives himself and his crew up to King George and his governor, Woodes Rogers. In accordance with avoiding the gallows and getting a royal pardon, Hornigold turns himself in with the majority of his crew. He gets betrayed, however, leading to the sequence of events that culminate with the death of Blackbeard.
James Kidd’s twist however, comes in a form that a few people saw coming, but maybe it’s because I’m autistic, but I didn’t. Assassin turned pirate James Kidd helps you take out a Templar that has held The Sage hostage, but it’s during the preparation for this assassination that Kidd performs the rug-pull that nobody saw coming. Kidd isn’t Kidd. The Prestonian accented pirate isn’t even a man, but a lassie by the name of Mary Read, and she uses her charm and knowledge of “British” chilvalry to allow you to perform the assassination in Kingston, Jamaica. It doesn’t got according to plan, but perhaps this twist is an early example of a non-binary person in video games, so I guess that’s a start for representation.
Heavy Rain
Oh dear lord gamers, from three twists-in-one to a rug pull that gamers around the world never saw coming, Heavy Rain certainly packs a punch to the gut. In this game, there are several narratives you follow as you try to catch a particularly nasty serial killer. The Origami Killer is a truly twisted individual, and one that wouldn’t look out of place in a Batman graphic novel. The characters might have been badly characterised (don’t get me started on these, as they’re likely to end up on a list after Christmas), but there’s one hell of a twist with Scott Shelby.
Scott Shelby isn’t a particularly likeable character to start off with, but throughout the first few sections of the game, he garners your sympathy. He’s gruff, politically incorrect and a bit of a cliche, but you feel sorry for him at parts, and it’s easy to identify with the man. That is, however until the rug gets pulled from under your feet. The twist is that Scott Shelby has been The Origami Killer the entire time, and we just didn’t see it coming. Whilst Heavy Rain isn’t a game I’d call a masterpiece, the twist is worthy of one from a M Night Shyamlan movie. If you’re on your own this festive period, as we’re all locked away at home, I’d give this game a playthrough. It took me to my third playthrough to start noticing the intricacies that led to this reveal.
Metroid
Do I have to talk about how good this twist is? For those moaning at spoilers, you’re about 3 decades too late, and this one really shouldn’t be a shock. In an era where Aloy, Ellie and Lara Croft are gracing our screens in glorious 4K resolution, having a female protagonist shouldn’t be surprising. Even at the time this game was originally released, we’d already seen Ellen Ripley escape and be the sole survivor of the Nostromo in Alien. If this offends you at all, I suggest you grow the fuck up and fuck off. Women need empowering across the entertainment franchise, and Samus frankly kicks ass
However, seeing as so many new players who are late to the gaming world react with shock at the reveal that Samus is a woman, I guess we’d better talk about the execution of said twist. Metroid is fastidious in the approach of not giving Samus a gender, to the point where they make her mute to disguise her voice. So, at the end of the game, where you’ve saved the universe, Samus removes her helmet to show that pixelated face, and boys across the world tried to break their controllers. There’s actually a phenomenon of this on YouTube as I found out during the research for this, and seriously, it’s 2020, not 1920.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
This game was surprising for two reasons. Firstly, it was a return to form for the Star Wars franchise, after years of horrible games, and the fiasco that was Star Wars: Batllefront II. One of the things I really love about this game (which is now available to play using the EA Play thing added on to Microsoft’s Game Pass) is that the difficulty was akin to that of Dark Souls, but without the ensuing frustration and tears. The graphics are amazing, the soundtrack is exquisite, but the story, well, the force is strong with this one.
The character work on this game cannot be denied either, as all the main ones are fully fleshed out and feel like people with individual aims and emotions. Around half an hour into the game, you meet an ex-Jedi called Cere, who has literally cut herself off from the force, for reasons unclear. She explains that she’d been made to give up her padawan by an evil character, and so cut herself off because of the guilt. So far, so straightforwards, right? Wrong.
It transpires that the Second Sister (I don’t have the word count to explain, but a villain nonetheless), who’s been hunting you through the course of this incredibly tense and fun game, is actually Cere’s padawan, disguised and disfigured, which makes you view the narrative of this game in a whole new light. Have we all been played from the beginning? I’ll leave that particular decision to you.
The Last of Us
Get the Kleenex ready folks, here’s the saddest plot twist on this list. For those who haven’t played The Last of Us or it’s sequel, the game focuses around a young girl called Ellie, as she fights and tries to survive through a zombie apocalypse. Throughout the course of the first installment, she’s too young to be doing much in the way of fighting and is protected by a man named Joel, who’s also survived the end of the world. Because this game’s narrative is beautiful, I’m advising you now to get to the next entry before you read any spoilers because this one is a doozy.
We find out that Ellie cannot be infected by the infected hordes of people, due to her having an immunity to the virus that brought down humanity. Once everyone realises this, a bunch of scientists ask that she submit herself for testing, to find the source of this immunity. It’s at this point where the real dick-punch comes in. Joel is left with an impossible choice. Either he lets Ellie die from the “experiments” and saves humanity, or he saves Ellie, but humanity is doomed. Ultimately, you end up saving Ellie, but wow! This game didn’t pull any punches.
Resident Evil
There’s a certain trope we use in neo-noir horror films and cartoons: Usually, if a character is wearing sunglasses and a short leather jacket, they’re secretly the bad guy. Resident Evil for the PlayStation is where this trope originates from, as your team investigate some truly messed up shenanigans in the Arklay Mountains. For 65% of this game’s runtime, the game seems easy as your team really are great in helping you survive the mansion as part of Bravo team.
However, as we find out, Wesker has been corrupted by The Umbrella Corporation and he betrays the team and lets out hordes of the undead to roam free, headed for the nearest metropolis, Raccoon City. I’m not going to expend too much of the word count here, because the phrase “doing a Wesker” is now used in story analysis across most storytelling mediums, which should explain how well executed this twist really was. And now, I really do feel old.
Fallout 4
This opinion might shock you, but I genuinely dislike Fallout 4. Yes, it’s a huge, open-world Fallout game, but the game lacks the humour and the fun of the previous installments in the franchise, and let’s be honest, it paved the way for the worst game in the franchise. The game is a good entry point to the franchise, yes, but to be honest, Fallout: New Vegas is better in nearly every way. Now that I’ve annoyed everyone, let’s talk about the twist.
In Fallout 4, you’ve survived the nuclear apocalypse courtesy of Vault-Tec, but like all the previous instalments, something’s gone very, very wrong. In this game, your son was kidnapped whilst you were cryogenically frozen, and raised to become the leader of a villainous group called “The Institute”. Unless you side with your son at one very key point in the game, the final part of the game is having to fight and kill your own son. Deftly executed and heartbreaking, this is one of the few plot twists that redeem the game from being utter rubbish.
Pokemon Gold/Silver
After the success of the first games in the Pokemon franchise, Game Freak really had to pull something special out of the bag to keep the franchise alive. Considering that Pokemon is now the biggest entertainment franchise globally, and Pikachu is more recognisable in some parts of the world that Mickey Mouse, I’d say that they succeeded.
In this game, set some three years after the events of Pokemon Red and Blue, your character has to complete the PokeDex, defeat a resurgent Team Rocket, and get all of the gym badges to be the very best. However, after the game’s first act, you get to take on all the gyms from the Kanto region of the previous games. However, Cinnibar Island’s volcano has gone boom in a Vesuvius-style manner, and once you’ve given Indigo Plateau’s Pokemon League a hiding for the second time, you have to climb Mount Silver to face the protagonist from the first game, Pikachu and all. A word of warning to those who bring a rock type to take out Red’s Pikachu, it knows the water type move Surf, which can easily knock out your Rhydon or Golem.
Bioshock
In a game that questions the very ethics of free choice, Lassiez Faire capitalism and Ayn Rand’s objectivism in an abandoned underwater metropolis, the twist here really should have been spotted a mile off. However, it doesn’t matter how many times you play through this game, as I did recently for you, the twist still hits harder than a Stormtrooper on the forest moon of Endor.
Throughout the game, you’ve been helping Atlas attempt to save his wife and son from the clutches of the tyrannical architect of the city, Andrew Ryan. When that failed, and “Moira” and “Patrick” were seemingly killed by the hands of Ryan, the game changes into a bloodthirsty revenge story, helping Atlas get the vengeance that we all felt he rightly deserved. So, after a meeting with the bloodthirsty bastard, and a game of golf that goes very wrong indeed, the rug gets pulled from under our feet.
It turns out that we’re the biological son of Andrew Ryan, who’d been genetically tampered with to age up quick, imprinted with false memories and controlled using post-hypnotic suggestions. Every time Atlas asked us, the players to do something, he always included the phrase “would you kindly” to control us, making us question the very nature of free will in this game. Truly, this twist is a masterstroke, and one that really shouldn’t have been played around with in the sequels.
And that’s my list? Are you angry because I’ve spoiled some of the biggets twists in video gaming, or have I missed one out? Whatever you think, I hope you’ve enjoyed this list, and don’t forget to visit the Gamerhub tomorrow for my next article.
Till next time,
Davey
