This article contains major spoilers for multiple games.
A plot twist in a game has the potential to hit way harder than in any other medium. After all, if the developers have done their jobs right you’ll feel as if you’re directly involved in the story, making any giant rug-pull all the more effective.
Many games attempt some twist, though a select few manage it so well that they will never be forgotten. Here are ten of the absolute best the medium has to offer.
Whoa, whoa, whoa she’s a lady? – Metroid (1986)
Samus Aran is now such a gaming icon it’s easy to forget that 1986’s Metroid kept her true identity hidden. The manual to the English language release referred to Samus as a man, and her armored power suit and the 8-bit graphics gave no reason to think otherwise.
Even finishing the game may not tip you off, as Samus stays in her suit in the first and second endings. But get good at the game and she’ll reveal her true self. This post on Reddit gives us an indication of how mid-’80s gamers received the big reveal:
“It was f**king mind blowing. No way a woman could be a hero. But man was I wrong. I was about 8. At the time heroes had all been male.”
I’m the bad guy – Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003)
I can still remember the chill that went down my spine when Knights of the Old Republic played its most shocking card. BioWare’s classic RPG stuck closely to the template of the original trilogy, despite being set thousands of years in the past. And so, perhaps inevitably, they needed an “I am your father”-style second-act twist.
But revealing that your amnesiac player character had been an incredibly powerful Sith Lord and the former master of your foe Darth Revan (and that the Jedi Order had been lying through their teeth)? Wowsers. From that point on you had a choice: prove that you’d turned a new leaf by playing the hero or embrace your past and start tossing lightning about and cackling like a maniac.
I feel I’m knockin’ on heaven’s door – Red Dead Redemption (2010)
By the time you get to Red Dead Redemption‘s twist, you’ll have spent many hours in the saddle as John Marston. John is far from your usual Rockstar Games protagonist: riddled with guilt for his past, wanting nothing more than a quiet life, and loving his family. All of which means he’s not happy at being blackmailed into working for the government, who want him to take out his former outlaw buddies.
Then comes the relatively late twist. John completes his mission and returns home, only for the government to tie up loose ends by sending the U.S. Army to take him out. This is a fight you cannot win, leaving John a bullet-riddled corpse in the dust. Three years later, you take control of John’s son Jack, out to avenge his father’s death. This character switch was controversial then and now, though every time we play out John Marston’s death we think that this time we just might be able to deadeye shoot all those soldiers…
Hello darkness, my old friend – Dark Souls (2011)
Dark Souls tells its story in such an obscure way that if you’re not paying attention you might not even realize there’s a twist at all. At first glance it appears like a typical chosen hero adventure: you are the last hope of a world about to die and must “link the fires” in order to prevent the “Age of Dark”.
But pay close attention to item descriptions and obscure characters (or, uh, watch a YouTube lore video) and you’ll realize that there is nothing special about your character, that you’re being manipulated into maintaining a fundamentally broken world, and the Age of Dark is part of a natural cycle of existence. The moral: never, ever trust a God in a Souls game.
To the beat of my heart – Doki Doki Literature Club (2017)
Arguably the biggest twist in Doki Doki Literature Club is that it isn’t actually about flirting with girls in a poetry club, but a truly chilling horror game in disguise. But, let’s face it, everybody that’s playing it must know that by now.
The real twist comes when the literature club’s leader Monika demolishes the fourth wall, reveals that she has become self-aware, confesses her love for the player, and begins to manipulate the game’s code. But the fun doesn’t stop there: Monika will promptly scan your PC and begin addressing you by your real name (well, your username) and have reactions to any external programs you’re running (like video capture software). To ‘beat’ Monika you must delve into the game’s install folder and delete her system file.
It’s the end of the world as we know it – Final Fantasy VI (1994)
Most Final Fantasy games feature some kind of twist, though few are as grand and unexpected as the franchise’s 1994 SNES swansong. Throughout the game, you’ve been battling an evil military dictatorship, led by Emperor Gestahl and his second-in-command Kefka. It’s predictable that Kefka kills the Emperor and takes his place as the lead bad guy, but what he does first is what few other video game villains ever manage.
He destroys the world. Yup, with newfound magical powers combined with screwing with some statues, Kefka destroys most of the planet’s surface. We pick up the story a year later in a miserable post-apocalyptic world where the survivors struggle to stay alive. Kefka gets his comeuppance in the end, but hats off to him for going the distance.
Ain’t got no tears left to cry – God of War: Ragnarök (2022)
God of War: Ragnarök has a surprisingly shocking sting in the tail. The game sees Kratos and Atreus taking on the Norse pantheon and gradually building a squad of unlikely allies to help you out. A key member is Odin’s son Týr, a former God of War who has renounced his violent ways and been imprisoned.
Týr is an affable sort, always ready with a helpful word of advice and a patient ear… all of which makes it quite the shock when he turns out to have been Odin in disguise all along. In retrospect, the game does drop a lot of hints, notably that in the subtitles the fake is “Tyr” while the real one is “Týr” (with an accent).
But I didn’t pick up on any of that, and the revelation that the most dangerous foe had been right under my nose the entire time knocked me for six.
If I need you now, would you kindly calm me down? – Bioshock (2007)
It really wouldn’t be a list of great twists without BioShock. This isn’t just an incredible story moment but examines player agency in all video games, essentially asking whether you’re playing the game, or it’s playing you. Throughout the story you’ve been following the guidance of Frank Fontaine as he points the path forward, acting as a voice over the radio like so many other games.
You obey, because what else are you going to do other than follow an objective marker? Then you’re hit with the horrible revelation that you’ve been psychologically conditioned, and will do anything so long as the command is proceeded by “Would you kindly”. Soon after learning that, it’s golfing time.
Driver, surprise me – The Last of Us Part II (2020)
But Bioshock isn’t the only iconic game to deliver its twist via golf club. 2013’s The Last of Us introduced us to Joel and Ellie, with the pair instantly becoming one of the iconic gaming double-acts. Going into The Last of Us Part II everyone knew the player character would switch to Ellie, though nobody (well, save those who spoiled themselves on the pre-release leaks) could have predicted Joel’s death would be quite so traumatizing.
So, let’s not beat around the bush. The inciting incident that begins Part II is everyone’s favorite guitar-pickin’, comic-book findin’, surgeon murderin’ Texan hero getting graphically beaten to death with a golf club. Well, it’s certainly one way to begin a sequel, and, three years later, many fans are still furious. We’re morbidly curious about how this will go down on the HBO show.
Joy, set my mind free – Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (2004)
There are many reasons Snake Eater often tops the rankings of best Metal Gear games, but a major contributing factor is the saga of The Boss. Described as “the mother of U.S. Special Forces”, she’s the mentor to Naked Snake (i.e. Big Boss) and makes her debut during the game’s opening mission as a radio contact.
She’s a good source of infiltration information over comms, though, in your first physical encounter, she destroys Snake’s weapon, cracks his ribs, breaks his arm, tosses him off a bridge, and then gives a portable nuclear weapon to the villains. Rude.
It’s only in the closing moments of the game that you realize what she’s been doing. She’s a scapegoat for both the U.S. and the Soviet Union, both of whom are blaming her in order to prevent nuclear war. For her sacrifice, she will forever be known as a traitor, and by killing her Snake will become a garlanded hero. The fatal gunshot at the end of Snake Eater effectively kicks off the tangled saga of every other entry in the series. As Big Boss admits, many years later, “Ever since the day I killed The Boss … I was already dead”. A good twist recontextualizes everything you think you know, and Snake Eater nails it.