Best Plot Twist in a Game EVER

[Zeraki]

Since I haven't seen it mentioned yet, Darkness II.

Spoiler

It turns out the visions Jackie was having about his dead girlfriend wasn't the Darkness messing with his head, but the Angelus who had taken Jenny as its new host.

I saw that twist coming from the beginning of the game, but I still enjoyed it.

Bastion

Spoiler

The Bastion as actually a machine that has the power to reset reality, perpetuating an endless cycle of destruction and rebirth with nobody being any the wiser.

Grandia II

Spoiler

Granas(God) is actually dead, having been killed in his battle with Valmar(The Devil). Then it is revealed that Pope Zera is actually the main villain, and is attempting to take Valmar's power for himself.

Prey

Spoiler

The Keepers turn Tommy's girlfriend--who he had been spending the entire game trying to save until that point--into an abomination... and Tommy is forced to euthanize her himself. Then it is later revealed that the entity that has spent the entire game chiding Tommy was a Human once.

Mass Effect Trilogy

Spoiler

Sovereign is actually a Reaper... and the Mass Relays and Citadel are actually a Reaper trap designed to keep Galactic civilization from getting too advanced.

The revelation about the Keepers.

The Collectors were once Protheans.

The Protheans were actually a very brutal empire who forced lesser races into subjugation, instead of the benevolent Paragons of society that we had been lead to believe until that point.

EDI was the Rogue VI that Shepard "killed" on Luna in the first game.

Knights of The Old Republic

Spoiler

You are Darth Revan.

I actually had that one spoiled for me, but it is still a very memorable twist.


Final Fantasy VI

Spoiler

Kefka betrays and murders the emperor, destroys the world and literally becomes a god in the process.

 

[teebeeohh]

mass effect, that the reapers build the mass relays, it became such a central plot point that it kinda lost its effect but it was really good.

but the best one is system shock 2, it was spoiled on the cover but still

 

[DaWaffledude]

KOTOR. I actually knew it was coming. I only got the game last year, which of course meant that I already knew the big plot twist. Still blew my mind anyway. In fact, I'm goign to go watch that cutscene now.

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

Grandia where...

Spoiler

Leen commits suicide in an attempt to stop Gaia. The music played during that scene was a tear jerker.

Also, from the same game...

Spoiler

Leen is resurrected by the Spirits after Justin and Co. smash Gaia's tainted Spirit Stone

Finally, in Wild ARMs 1...

Spoiler

You find out Rudy is actually the equivalent of an android - possessing a human likeness but with a metalic body, much like the "demons" he, Jack and Cecilia were fighting throughout the game. It also explains why he is able to command the use of ARMs so easily in the process

 

[risue]

no love for the witcher series? some great plot twists in there
Witcher 1

Spoiler

Salamandra being a puppet for the Grand Master, who you find out may or may not be Alvin

Witcher 2

Spoiler

all the hidden motives of each group and Letho being an old friend

 

[Soxafloppin]

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within

Spoiler

The wraith that has been pestering you for half the game is actually you from the future wearing a destiny altering mask, and actually saved your/his own life at one point

Quite liked that one.

 

[Vigormortis]

Hmm, I'm surprised it hasn't been mentioned more often, but for me it's:

Spoiler: Braid

The game spends its entirety setting up a very cliched, Mario-esque "journey to save the princess" tale. Yet, by the end, you discover that the protagonist is the villain, the antagonist is the hero, and that the princess is actually attempting to escape from the player.

I know a lot of people claim "they saw it coming" (bullshit) and even more give the game, and it's creator, all kinds of flak for any number of reasons. But honestly? Braids plot-twist was one that stayed with me long after the game was done. Even more than Bioshocks. More than System Shock 2. More than Portal or Portal 2s. More than any other.

It reemphasized for me how strange even the most stereo-typical of plot setups can become with a simple alteration or reversal of roles. When I first played, I was so accepting and complacent with the basic idea of the story. That being that I was playing the hero, chasing after the princess to save her. It hadn't occurred to me that, with a simple change of context, that could make the player the villain. A very sinister, creepy villain. And that all of my efforts, my trials and tribulations, had been towards the detriment of the princess instead of her rescue.

That hit me much more profoundly than, say, learning my guide had been dead the whole time (System Shock 2) or hearing the words "Would you kindly" for the first time.

 

[Kiefer13]

Knights of the Old Republic.

Spoiler

You are Darth Revan.

It's brilliantly set up. There's enough foreshadowing that it makes sense and doesn't just feel like it comes out of nowhere, and yet not so much that it's obvious.

 

[TheIronRuler]

Legacy of Kain: too many to enumerate. It's about a quarter of the series. I'm not really exaggerating (well, maybe, but not by much).

Other than that

Spoiler: Spec Ops: The Line

Ooh, boy. It's so sweet, I can hardly describe it. The entire plot twist revolves around not actually being about the plot but about you the player. So good.

Also, a game that gets too little mention around here:

Spoiler: Second Sight

This one is really good. I didn't see it coming and it was really engaging. So - start off, the main character - John Vattic, wakes up in a scientific facility with little memory of what happened. And he finds out he has some supernatural powers (ESP, telekinesis, etc, although he gradually gains knowledge and usage of them) and John has to escape as well as find out what happened. As the game goes on, you get to live through some flashbacks that shows that Vattic was a non-military attached as an advisor to a secret marine operation, which apparently failed. The game goes on as Vattic unlocks more and more of his powers, find more information about what happened in the failed mission and the flashbacks reveal even more than that. And suddenly, the twist - the flashbacks are the actual present in which he lives. The time where he wakes up with amnesia and so on, is, in fact, the future - his latent ESP triggered and showed him a horrible vision of what would happen, if he didn't act to prevent the failure of the operation.

.
I loved playing Spec Ops The Line, but HOLY SHIT IS THAT SECOND ONE SOUNDS SO FUCKING AWESOME.
I can't believe I read it and now I can't enjoy the twist. NOOOOOOO.

 

[dancinginfernal]

While it's much debated, and argued about its legitimacy, mine would be in KoTOR2

When it finally clicked that Handmaiden/Brianna was Kreia's Daughter, and Kreia was in fact Arran Kae.

One of Revan's first teachers. I mean god damn. Everything comes together.

 

[DoPo]

Legacy of Kain: too many to enumerate. It's about a quarter of the series. I'm not really exaggerating (well, maybe, but not by much).

Other than that

Spoiler: Spec Ops: The Line

Ooh, boy. It's so sweet, I can hardly describe it. The entire plot twist revolves around not actually being about the plot but about you the player. So good.

Also, a game that gets too little mention around here:

Spoiler: Second Sight

This one is really good. I didn't see it coming and it was really engaging. So - start off, the main character - John Vattic, wakes up in a scientific facility with little memory of what happened. And he finds out he has some supernatural powers (ESP, telekinesis, etc, although he gradually gains knowledge and usage of them) and John has to escape as well as find out what happened. As the game goes on, you get to live through some flashbacks that shows that Vattic was a non-military attached as an advisor to a secret marine operation, which apparently failed. The game goes on as Vattic unlocks more and more of his powers, find more information about what happened in the failed mission and the flashbacks reveal even more than that. And suddenly, the twist - the flashbacks are the actual present in which he lives. The time where he wakes up with amnesia and so on, is, in fact, the future - his latent ESP triggered and showed him a horrible vision of what would happen, if he didn't act to prevent the failure of the operation.

.
I loved playing Spec Ops The Line, but HOLY SHIT IS THAT SECOND ONE SOUNDS SO FUCKING AWESOME.
I can't believe I read it and now I can't enjoy the twist. NOOOOOOO.

's OK, just go and get Second Sight, anyway, because it's a truly underappreciated game. I myself found it by complete accident and I've got no idea why I hadn't head of it before or even after. I've seen it mentioned here on the Escapist maybe half a dozen times or so. not counting me mentioning it, that is. The game is on GOG. it used to be on Steam but they pulled it at some point - I had it in my wishlist to buy later but I noticed the store page is gone.

 

[Lugbzurg]

Grand Theft Auto III
For your last mission with Salvatore, he wants you to take a car full of brains in the trunk to the dump and have it crushed to remove the evidence. You've already done at least two missions like this. Still the fact that actual brains are involved sounds really strange. But when you're about halfway there, you get a message telling you that it's a trap. The car is loaded with a bomb that will go off as soon as the motor turns over. You go off with some other people and a whole new island is unlocked, you can drive boats, there are new NPC models, new cars, new weapons, and you can get to a five-star wanted level! Plus, you get to take out Salvatore in one of the most memorable and strategizing missions in the game! Continuity! And actual storyline seems to have just started up in this game of random missions!

Banjo-Kazooie
What's the party for? Grunty got away, so get back up there and finish the job!

Plants vs. Zombies
Doctor Zomboss. 'Nuff said.

 

[namhorFnodroG]

The most recent plot-twist that made me raise my eyebrowse was problaby Borderlands 2
It was quite fun to just hear Handsome Jack's side of the story as he revailed that he pretty much was the puppeteer behind basicly everything in Borderlands 1 for example, and that he actually was Angel's father. Everything tied back to Handsome Jack.

 

[lacktheknack]

Also, a game that gets too little mention around here:

Spoiler: Second Sight

This one is really good. I didn't see it coming and it was really engaging. So - start off, the main character - John Vattic, wakes up in a scientific facility with little memory of what happened. And he finds out he has some supernatural powers (ESP, telekinesis, etc, although he gradually gains knowledge and usage of them) and John has to escape as well as find out what happened. As the game goes on, you get to live through some flashbacks that shows that Vattic was a non-military attached as an advisor to a secret marine operation, which apparently failed. The game goes on as Vattic unlocks more and more of his powers, find more information about what happened in the failed mission and the flashbacks reveal even more than that. And suddenly, the twist - the flashbacks are the actual present in which he lives. The time where he wakes up with amnesia and so on, is, in fact, the future - his latent ESP triggered and showed him a horrible vision of what would happen, if he didn't act to prevent the failure of the operation.

YES! The absolute reigning king of plot twists.

What REALLY gets me about it is how easy the twist is to guess - but somehow, NO ONE DOES!

YOUR ACTIONS HAVE DAMMED VINNIE!!

This was the only game from the old consoles to give me nightmares.

OT: I got pretty furious when the twist from Arkham City hit, and I have no idea how I didn't see it coming, but...

I figured Protocol Ten was some sort of "Kill Batman" ultrameasure.

Nope. It's "Kill Everyone".

 

[The Harkinator]

While it's much debated, and argued about its legitimacy, mine would be in KoTOR2

When it finally clicked that Handmaiden/Brianna was Kreia's Daughter, and Kreia was in fact Arran Kae.

One of Revan's first teachers. I mean god damn. Everything comes together.

What, what, WHAT???? It has been years since I played KOTOR 2 but I played it religiously. Oh sweet lord of the sith I never picked up on that.

I knew the second thing, sort of, but that first thing? Oh dear how could I miss that?

 

[00slash00]

mario.
*spoiler*

the princess is in another castle. whaaaat??? mind is officially blown

 

[maninahat]

What's so great about the BioShock twist? Did I miss something?

It's strength lies in the fact that, as a gamer, you assume you are in complete control of your character. Games typically operate by creating the illusion of control, even whilst pushing the player down a fairly linear path; A voice in your ear tells you where to go, arrows point you to your next objective, and the level is crafted to guide you onwards towards the next plot point. Bioshock is perhaps the first game to exploit our unquestioning acceptance of those conventions, and subvert the player's delusion of control.

Half way through, the game reveals that you were never in control. The whole time, you're character has been doing exactly what he was told and so have you. Thus you get an uncanny sensation that you are in the same predicament as your character. With the exception of The Stanley Parable, no other game has created a story around the concept of a game controlling the player, despite control being the essence of a video game.

 

[chozo_hybrid]

I'm a bit surprised no one mentioned Star Ocean 3's plot twist yet:

Spoiler

Our universe turns out to be an MMO run and played by Fourth-Dimensional Beings.

For some reason, at the time, that made me the maddest I have been at a twist, these days looking back on it now, I realize that it was well done.

Since I haven't seen it mentioned yet, Darkness II.

Spoiler

It turns out the visions Jackie was having about his dead girlfriend wasn't the Darkness messing with his head, but the Angelus who had taken Jenny as its new host.

I saw that twist coming from the beginning of the game, but I still enjoyed it.

I put my reply in the spoiler tag, just in case someone can read too much into it somehow.

Spoiler

When you get to the carnival, that's when it occurred to me, just a shame it had to end on a cliffhanger, but man it was awesome.

I'm going to have to go for Metal Gear Solid (PS1)

Spoiler

When you find out that you actually armed Metal Gears nuke, when you thought you were disarming it, and the whole Master Miller thing, they were pretty mind blowing at the time. A few others in the game, but those come to mind right away.

What's so great about the BioShock twist? Did I miss something?

It's strength lies in the fact that, as a gamer, you assume you are in complete control of your character. Games typically operate by creating the illusion of control, even whilst pushing the player down a fairly linear path; A voice in your ear tells you where to go, arrows point you to your next objective, and the level is crafted to guide you onwards towards the next plot point. Bioshock is perhaps the first game to exploit our unquestioning acceptance of those conventions, and subvert the player's delusion of control.

Half way through, the game reveals that you were never in control. The whole time, you're character has been doing exactly what he was told and so have you. Thus you get an uncanny sensation that you are in the same predicament as your character. With the exception of The Stanley Parable, no other game has created a story around the concept of a game controlling the player, despite control being the essence of a video game.

I was about to respsond to that post saying what you did, but far less intelligently (I'm not the best word smith around.) so thanks for that. Also, just thought I would say, you are usually an interesting read.

 

[Zen Toombs]

Hitman blood money
How do i use a SPOILER tag?? well SPOILER BELOW;

Probably already done, but like this:

[ spoiler=Text you want your spoiler tag to have ]OMG MASSIVE SPOILERS[/ spoiler ]

without the spaces.

 

[RubyT]

What's so great about the BioShock twist? Did I miss something?

It's strength lies in the fact that, as a gamer, you assume you are in complete control of your character. Games typically operate by creating the illusion of control, even whilst pushing the player down a fairly linear path; A voice in your ear tells you where to go, arrows point you to your next objective, and the level is crafted to guide you onwards towards the next plot point. Bioshock is perhaps the first game to exploit our unquestioning acceptance of those conventions, and subvert the player's delusion of control.

Half way through, the game reveals that you were never in control. The whole time, you're character has been doing exactly what he was told and so have you. Thus you get an uncanny sensation that you are in the same predicament as your character. With the exception of The Stanley Parable, no other game has created a story around the concept of a game controlling the player, despite control being the essence of a video game.

No. Just no.

"Player's delusion of control"?

The first thing somebody asks if you put them in front of a game is "what am I supposed to do?"

Bioshock is one of those too common nanny-games that unceremoniously tell you where to go and what to do All The Time.

So the great thing is that the guy played Simon Says? Which doesn't even make sense in a videogame, since my avatar wasn't in control, *I* was. And *I* had not been brainwashed for "would you kindly". The mind-blower is that I do what a game tell's me to do? No shit.

This is like Cube all over again...