A good story doesn't need a twist or a surprise to be considered good. However, sometimes surprises or twists can improve stories, or at least help make a game more memorable. To list any game twists from the 90s would spoil things, but let's say Final Fantasy VII and Super Metroid are good examples.
8 game twists introduced very late in their games
Have you been to these moments in games that changed the gameplay in a bizarre way?
In 2010, it seemed like developers were racing to add twists and turns that would help define their experience over others. Even though they're all memorable, that doesn't mean they're all good. Some twists are a little creepier than what most players wanted from their endings. That said, let's round up the biggest surprises and discuss their effectiveness.
Full spoilers ahead.
Heavy rain
A Solid Attempt At A Twist
Heavy rain is an interactive thriller in which players try to catch a murderer and kidnapper named Origami Killer. Players switch between four characters, Ethan, Madison, and Norman, and Scott is secretly a murderer.
When Ethan gets to the finale, when he gets to Scott holding his son captive, it's one of the wildest revelations on PS3. Come to think of it, the plot doesn't make much sense, which is why it's ranked a little lower, but upon initial inspection, it couldn't have been a cooler twist.
Final Fantasy 15
Most depressing entry yet
Final Fantasy 15 it also has a bit of a convoluted story that is kind of happy for about half the game, or maybe even two thirds. The last piece is full of misery and death, with one big reveal where the main character, Noctis, has to travel back in time to a future where he's aged and the world has been overrun by monsters.
He teams up with his three friends and together they take on the final boss, who kills them, but they save the day. It's one of the darkest endings ever Final Fantasy.
Spec Ops: The Line
Head Games
Clearly something is wrong Spec Ops: The LineThe platoon leader, Captain Walker, seems to keep having episodes. Players might have exhausted it in the heat of battle, but what ends up happening is that the man they're trying to chase has been dead all along.
He was merely a figment of Walker's imagination trying to come to terms with the atrocities he committed before the game began. It's one of those gaming stories that's better the second time players experience it from a different angle.
NieR: Automata
Everything is a lie
NieR: Automata it is divided into three main campaigns that start with 2b, go to 9s and then A2. The concept of the game is about how the Earth was taken over by robots in a war from the past, so people had to flee to space.
10 games with stories so complex you'll have to talk to someone
You'll need a thousand-page translation guide or a dumb friend to understand these games and their complex stories.
In humanity's last sanctuary, the space station, they developed battle androids like 2b and 9 to try to take back Earth one mission at a time. By completing these campaigns, players gain more insight into the conflict and eventually learn that humanity was completely wiped out ages ago. The humans on the space station aren't human at all and are instead driven by the mandate that humanity must endure no matter what.
The last of us
What would a father do?
The last of us is a journey across America from Boston to Seattle. Joel and Ellie must get to the last remnants of The Fireflies, who could use Ellie as a cure for a plague that turns people into parasitic zombies.
It's a long journey, and once they get there, Joel finds himself having to kill Ellie just to try to make the cure, which isn't even a guarantee. Unhappy with this news, Joel kills everyone, saves Ellie, and later lies about it, saying that they couldn't use Ellie for the cure after all. Even though it's a dark act, Joel did what he thought was right as a father figure.
Brave Default: Flying Fairy
Fairy tales
Brave Default: Flying Fairy was a return to the classics Final Fantasy formula, even if it wasn't official Final Fantasy game. The four chosen warriors set out on a journey, battling monsters and enemies with various Jobes while rekindling the power of the elemental crystals along the way.
When the journey seems to be at an end and the final crystal lights up, the group finds itself back at the beginning in the time loop. Not only that, but after one full loop, they eventually learn that their fairy companion Airy, who was always helpful and sweet, was actually the mastermind behind it all. No one could have seen it coming.
BioShock Infinite
Salvation by drowning
BioShock Infinite takes place in Columbia, a flying utopia in the sky, where detective Booker is tasked with saving a girl Elizabeth from the ruler of the city, Comstock. It is revealed that this story is also a time loop that is connected to Booker and Comstock because they are one and the same.
At some point in history, Booker, having lost his daughter, gets baptized as Comstock, changes his personality, and it leads to a cult and the building of Columbia. To break the cycle, Elizabeth and her other multi-dimensional versions drown Booker with his blessing, and to call it a dark ending would be an understatement.
Face/Off
This saga begins Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroeswhere the ending sees Big Boss fall in a helicopter explosion. Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain begins with Big Boss in the hospital having lost his arm before he is eventually rescued and transported to the newly formed Mother Base courtesy of Master Miller and Revolver Ocelot.
8 Open World Games With Biggest Plots, Ranked
These open world games had story progression that many players definitely didn't see coming.
The trick is that to fool his enemies, Big Boss actually had memories implanted into one of his soldiers to become him through plastic surgery while the real Big Boss was there, laying low and gathering more information. In other words, the game's so-called “Venom Snake” was not the real Big Boss.
Red Dead Redemption
A change in heroes
Red Dead Redemption it's about old gangster John Marston, who once upon a time set out to start a family. When his old gang wanders into town, he decides to take revenge alongside the government, who are pushing him into the role.
In the end, John is betrayed and shot dead in his own home, which seems like a bittersweet ending for the cowboy, but that's not the last twist. The game then flashes forward several years later as Jack, John's son, now a playable character, goes after the lawmen who shot his father, and once Jack gets it, it's one of the most satisfying kills in any game.
Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow
Reinventing the franchise
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow has the biggest twist of the 2010 gaming era simply because there's a lot of baggage attached to the reveal. Castlevaniaas a series, it started in 1986 in Japan and most of the games feature one of the Belmont family who have been after Dracula or his minions for centuries.
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is basically a reboot where Gabriel Belmont is tasked with destroying an evil group known as the Lords of Shadow and ends up becoming Dracula thanks to a curse. This means that the Belmonts will cause their own cursed enemy over time, which was an interesting take on the lore.
8 video game stories that are perfect from start to finish
The perfect pace of action in these video games makes them a real joy to play.
