When Video Game Stories Surprise Us

[saluraropicrusa]

I was watching a video on youtube about how ads for games have a bad habit of showing more narrative depth than the product they advertise. While I didn't agree with the person's opinion (he boiled down the entire experience, single player and all, of Halo: ODST to "teabagging"), it got me thinking.

I remembered playing through Saints Row 2 for the first time, having tons of fun with the insanely wacky situations and shenanigans in the game. Then, out of nowhere, the story throws an emotional curve-ball when

Spoiler

Carlos dies, as well as when Aisha is killed.

I was completely unprepared for the sudden weight of the narrative, but it managed not to feel out of place. It was, after all, a story of a violent take-over of a city by a gang of street thugs and psychopaths. Despite the silly outfits and the gender options being a slider, I got emotionally invested in the characters I was presented with.

So, escapists, before I go to sleep I'm going to present this question to you: what game have you played that suddenly hit you with an out-of-left-field shift in tone that still felt totally right?

I'll come back to this thread maybe a smidgen of times before I go to bed, as it's quite late now and I should get to sleep (or play some video games).

 

[saluraropicrusa]

I'll go with the obvious one; Ryan's office in Bioshock.

Obvious choice indeed. Though, that wasn't exactly what I was talking about. While Ryan's office is certainly a plot twist, it's also more or less consistent with the theme and tone of the rest of the game. What I was asking about was a twist or plot point that opposes theme or tone--like my Saints Row 2 examples, which are somewhat dissonant to the silly, wacky, murder-happy-fun-time tone of the gameplay and even a lot of the story missions.

 

[Keoul]

Mass effect 2 suicide mission.
On my first play through I didn't get all the upgrades... you could probably guess how that went, lost whatsherface tatoo lady, grunt, thane, and Jacob. Forced myself to redo the whole game from beginning to end just to save them all again. Having 4 die on me really took me by surprise.
The upgrades! They seemed to useless at the time!

 

[saluraropicrusa]

Mass effect 2 suicide mission.
On my first play through I didn't get all the upgrades... you could probably guess how that went, lost whatsherface tatoo lady, grunt, thane, and Jacob. Forced myself to redo the whole game from beginning to end just to save them all again. Having 4 die on me really took me by surprise.
The upgrades! They seemed to useless at the time!

Awww, whatsherface tattoo lady is one of my favorite characters.
But yeah, I can easily see how that can create a sudden shift in tone. You're feeling all pumped up and heroic about this mission, "suicide? HA! They can't kill me, I'm Shepard!" Then suddenly one of your bff squadmates dies and the stakes are much, much higher.
I, too, played through the whole game again just to make sure Mordin lived through the ending.

 

[Extra-Ordinary]

The Apple of Eden in Assassin's Creed.
I'm not talking about the entire Ones Who Came Before story point, just the Apple at the end of the first game.
It would seem out of place, having the game more-or-less grounded in real-life rules then all of a sudden having this mystical artifact come out of nowhere but I don't know, it felt pretty okay.
After all, Al-Mualim was always talking about how great it was and you write it off like "Pffft, yeah right."
Then it turns out it can do everything he said it could do, can't say he didn't warn you.

Same thing with the ending on Uncharted games, they take some hard left turns into
"remember those legends? Well, THEY'RE TOTALLY TRUE!"

Something very Indiana Jones-y about these, you know?

 

[NeutralDrow]

Symphonic Rain certainly surprised me. I was expecting sort of a cute school love story thing, and the beginning parts pretty much gave that, plus some angst about the main character and his girlfriend's long-distance relationship slowly draining as he falls for whoever his music partner is.

Then the shocks begin to roll in. Then, you begin to question everyone's motivations and even sanity.

I'll go with the obvious one; Ryan's office in Bioshock.

Curse the internet for flogging "would you kindly" so much that I pretty much guessed the twist halfway there.

Spoiler

Though I was pretty surprised when that bastard Ryan stole my kill. I wanted to kill him on my terms, not his own...

 

[Guffe]

I think the endin for Xenoblade Chronicles would count into this cathegory.
That game had some awesome cutscenes

 

[Mirroga]

Let's just say from a player who played Portal 1 and then played Portal 2, the story was quite surprising as well as enjoyable. I've never felt satisfaction in being part of a fun and funny story.

 

[Rawne1980]

Witcher 2 got me in a few places with a bit of a surprise but the one that surprised me most was with Philippa Eilhart.

We all love it when someone screws us over and gets their just desserts but I did not expect what happened to her.

 

[Spydercake]

Persona 4, for being a murder mystery, was pretty light hearted up to the point where

Spoiler

Nanako gets kidnapped and shit hits the fan.

 

[Alex Graves]

I am not quite sure if it fits but the one that surprised me and changed the tone of first 4 .hack games which i spent the first 2 enjoying like a kid in the candy store ( i understood the dark tone, but i still played it like it was ratchet and clank....don't judge me >.>) going to spoiler it since it is a bit far in and don't want to ruin a plot point for anyone who hasn't played them yet.

Spoiler

I still haven't finished 4 so i don't know all of it yet (always being broke sucks) but in 3 one of the main characters named Mia (who was my favorite at the time) started acting funny glitching out and chat being broken up. as it turns out she was actually not a normal person controlling an avatar like the other allies you made but was actually one of the bosses who had taken to an avatar form to make friends with elk and help/find the hero(player) when i found out what was really happening to her i knew that she was going to revert to her normal form and i'd have to kill her...i couldn't play for a week just that thought alone changed everything to me in the game (like i said my favorite). Still get a bit sad thinking about it. :/

 

[Silvianoshei]

Tactics Ogre: Let us Cling Together when...

Spoiler

You're ordered to slaughter an entire village under the guise of Galgastan occupying forces just to rally the rest of the Walister rabble to arm themselves and fight. What REALLY disturbed me was the fact that this was supposed to be the LAWFUL story branch.

I ended up doing a neutral playthrough and spent hours getting joker tarots just trying to keep Arycelle. She is such a BA archer.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I remember being at a complete loss as Heartless Sora in the very first Kingdom Hearts. Or as Roxas during the KH2 prologue ("prologue" - 5 hours). I hated the guy, even though I'd played Chain of Memories it was never very clear to me what was going on or who were these people and why should I care for them. I suppose generally speaking I've been surprised whenever the plot in KH thickens into something other than Sora and pals.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Persona 4, for being a murder mystery, was pretty light hearted up to the point where

Spoiler

Nanako gets kidnapped and shit hits the fan.

Well, Persona 4 is the happiest game about murder ever made!

:3

Since P4 has already been done I will have to go for... The Ace Attorney series I guess. They have the literal ghost of your mentor randomly showing up to give you clues in game 1 then that ramps up to the Magatama in 2 and 3 and they even bring up the subject of the murder suspect being possessed during the murder.

It should be bizarre and out of place for a melodramatic logical thinking, lie breaking game set in a courtroom but it actually works. Weird. Capcom is good like that I guess.

 

[putowtin]

I know it's now seen as a cliche' in gaming but the twist near the end of Dragon Age: Origins got me.
I've played through the game (Female Noble) I've hardened Leliana and Alistair, followed the romantic storyline with Alistair and even proposed on the same day I make him king. I'm thinking to myself, "oh yeah all I have to do is kill a big dragon and I'm set for life!" When, BANG! some guy tells me "by the way you're gonna have to die to bring peace to the land you've just spent 30+ hours trying to bring peace to!"

My reaction?

 

[thesilentman]

Well, Persona 4 is the happiest game about murder ever made!

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OT- AC Brotherhood threw me for a loop when

Spoiler

Lucy is killed by Juno possessing Desmond.

Unfortunately, I tend to see twists or at least expect it from miles and miles away, so I have yet to play a game that truly surprised the hell out of me. And don't say Bioshock; I've already played it.

 

[LarenzoAOG]

Ahh, I see, off the top of my head would be the white phosphorous scene from Spec Ops; there were some hints that things weren't alright earlier in the game but that scene set the tone for how dark things were really going to get.

The entire game is a emotional rollercoaster, a rollercoaster of mostly lows and really-fucking-lows.

 

[Erttheking]

Spec Ops the Line...from the halfway point on, it takes your expectations and completely shatters them. It doesn't hurt that the loading screens more or less start flat out calling you an asshole for doing what you did.