10 Awful Plot Twists That Completely Ruined Great Games

WC writes: While ‘The Shocking Twist’ sounds like an EDM remix of a Chubby Checker song, its actual purpose is to deliver something unexpected to film-goers or book readers or game players. When done right, these moments are iconic – be it the end of The Sixth Sense, Reservoir Dogs or the death of Aerith in Final Fantasy VII. They can also be really dumb, and pose countless questions about the plot points that came before – like in The Dark Knight Rises, or in many of the games on this very list you’re about to read about and hopefully enjoy.

You can still enjoy many of these titles and have fond memories, but these supposedly shocking developments tarnish the experience in such a way that it’s somewhat impossible to rave about a game as much as you would like, especially when the final reveal feels like getting socks on Christmas.

[Chuk5]

Far Cry 3's story was crap from the start, don't even know how it's in the same league story wise as Infinite and MGS4.

[Vegamyster]

Far Cry 3 had good characters but you didn't get to see or interact with them enough, Vaas, Sam, Willis ect. Jason and your "friends" didn't feel genuine at all.

[ShinMaster]

Many open world games struggle with that.

[Rodney25]

But MGS4's story was awful too.

[KendrickLamar]

0_0

http://i.imgur.com/Q4bI5.gi...

[PinkEye]

Would u care 2 elaborate?

[Rodney25]

Oh sure basically the whole everything and I mean everything was explained away by nanomachines if you go and play you'll see. Ridiculous plot twist like the Meryl falling in love with johnny just because he was hot and the overindulgence in evidence that Snake's life was going to shit. I knew I'd get disagrees I don't care in no way especially after the masterfully executed mgs3 do I see mgs4 as a good follow up.

[Irishguy95]

Yeah I agree, insanely overrated story, was WAY over the top and cringy, it's always been a 'bit' over the top but MGS4 was extreme overkill. I mean the amount of complaints you'll see about Raidens aesthetics in MGS2 and then the amount of praise for the actual important stuff such as plot and characters in MGS4 was ridiculous. The bosses where a ****ing disgrace, they where there literally just to be bosses and have a little chat after you beat them, it was like a ****ing childs anime, and I WATCH anime ffs and haven't come across one so cringey

[Eamon]

I've always thought MGS2 had the best plot in the series, followed by MGS1 and Peace Walker.

[itBourne]

Many open world games to struggle with an engrossing story, I think RDR is one that did it quite well (maybe because I am a redneck = P) but it is a hard thing to do.

On topic, I am surprised the first Uncharted wasnt mentioned, I do not know how many people and articles I read that were pissed at the super natural twist.

[ravinash]

yes, but as it turns out, all the the uncharted games start out real world and end with a super natural twist.

I enjoyed the original uncharted story, but each their own.

[DasTier]

Completely agree. I was dumbfounded when I saw it listed on someones top stories of the generation.

[SliceOfTruth888]

Bioshock Infinite is on this list? He was confused by the ending? Is Bioshocks involvement in this list a twist within a twist?

[Toon_Link]

While I totally agree that this game shouldn't be included on a bad twist list. I have to admit that right after beating BIoshock Infinite I looked up a timeline to get a 100% grasp of what I had just witnessed so I can see where some might get a bit confused.

[randomass171]

Bioshock Infinite's ending is a lot to take in, but one of the worst twists ever? I thought it was fairly easy to understand when the credits were rolling.

[zeuanimals]

It wasn't ruined by a twist since the twist was expected for a lot of people.

*Spoilers*
Who honestly didn't know Booker was Comstock and Elizabeth's dad? Parallel universes and "another version of you" being your main enemy are both contenders for the #1 spot in sci-fi tropes. I was honestly hoping Booker wasn't Comstock because it was way too expected, but still that wasn't the problem with the game since I don't mind sci-fi tropes as long as the story is still good.

The problem with the game is the pacing of the story (80% of it was told at the end) and the combat was pretty average.

[Am_Ryder]

I didn't know it- because I thought the game was going to be more intelligent than that.

I had the thought that they were the same man and her father really early on, but thought "nah, that's A) too simplistic, and B) too shitty." So I came up with a far more entertaining theory about the whole thing being a created fantasy after some sort of trauma, or something. Shutter Island style, but far more intricate.

Then in the end, nope, turns out it was a fairly lame Butterfly Effect plotline which was really badly narrated and paced. It took me by surprise just cos it was not amazing and meaningless.

***Super spoilers for TLoU:***

I thought TLoU's "Joel is actually a c**t and will kill anyone who gets in the way of his wants/needs" plot twist far more compelling.

[randomass171]

*MILD SPOILERS*

Joel's situation was far more morally ambiguous which makes the story far more intriguing. With Booker, you knew he was the good guy. Joel not so much. His motivation was completely selfish and potentially made everything worse for everyone in the grand scheme. It basically made for better storytelling.

Fun fact: Joel and Booker are mocapped and voiced by the same guy, Troy Baker. I flipped out when I looked it up. :P

[NukaCola]

××× spoiler ×××

Joel was a hard pill to swallow. He is not necessarily a good guy but you feel for him for all he has been through. You overlook the evil and selfish motives. The way TLOU ended was heart wrenching.

[goldwyncq]

Joel being a ruthless person isn't really a twist either. It's stated early on that he even resorted to the same tactics that the other scavengers used which included killing innocent people. It's implied, if not outright stated, that his brother despised him for what he had done.

[amazinglover]

It seems his main complaint was how great Bioshocks twist was compared to Infinite which is a dumb argument to make. Also most of those on the list aren't a twist their poor ending choices to good games. Example of a twist is the the would you kindly or finding out you have been dead the whole game or movie. The best twist catch the most people off guard like the original bioshock, bad ones have you going I kinda suspected that like Infinite.

[X-Alchemist]

It shouldn't be on this list at all, it had a pretty good ending in my books.

[Blacklash93]

WhatCulture! article. Move along, folks.

Can we ban this site? It is literally nothing but contrarian, click-bait lists grubbing for hits.

[grashopper]

Ban everything that makes you click through 10 pages for one story I say!

[Pabbs_Slick]

It's too bad that the writer doesn't have the sophistication to appreciate Bioshock Infinite's ending, though I do agree that it's not quite as shocking nor infallible as the original. If you want a nice, boring, happy hero-saves-the-day ending, you should probably start playing shittier games.

[nerdman67]

Bioshock Infinite's ending was interesting, but ultimately contradicted itself. It made the end feel rushed and not super thought out

[ravinash]

I think it was thought out, but they had painted them seleves into a corner.

Often happens in Sci-fi, you build up a complex story that sometimes you get cought up in knots trying to explain everything....or even forget to explain anything at all.

[Concertoine]

Spoilers:

It isnt a matter of being "sophisticated" enough to understand it, in fact you have to be pretty unsophisticated to think it is a well done ending. It is literally filled with plotholes, inconsistencies, and possibly the worst interpretation of the multiverse theory in a AAA game. I won't bore you with why it is a total failure of an ending that even has the gall to trample on the otherwise consistent lore and saga of Bioshock, people like Matthewmatosis have already done so.

If you ask me Infinite is the shining example of a game that chose ham fisted cinematic emulation over good game design and progression and its near unanimous positive reveption only makes me fear for the industry. Here we have a series that started with unrivaled complexity (System shock 2) and has degraded itself to a linear Halo clone setpiece simulator and we didn't even bat an eye.

[zeuanimals]

"Sophistication"... That game used a couple of sci-fi's most used tropes, parallel universes, "another you" is your enemy, and even a couple other tropes from other genres like "this person you've been traveling with is actually your child", etc. What the game also used was plenty of plotholes...

*Spoilers*
When did Booker become a racist? He and Comstock are the same people but Comstock's as racist as they come yet there's no reason he should be other than "we need him to feel like a really bad guy, racism gets everyone's jimmies rustled".

"Oh, but there's constants and variables, maybe there was something tragic about that version of Booker that made him racist", or maybe that doesn't make any sense because Elizabeth said that Booker's always going to become Comstock, meaning he's always going to become a racist, yet again, there's no reason he should.
*Spoilers end*

There's sophistication and there's trying too hard and Bioshock Infinite definitely tried too hard. It tried to push too many buttons, it tried to open people's minds by simply telling them things and not allowing them to come to those conclusions themselves, and it tried to do most of its storytelling and exposition at the very end of the game, so it's also guilty of being paced horribly.

[Am_Ryder]

Bioshock Infinite's ending was not sophisticated. It was redundant, broadly uninteresting and terribly narrated.

Up until the last half hour I was loving the game. So much missed potential.

[gamernova]

I saw bioshock on the list and click that "wtf" and "no" real quick lol

[djplonker]

I don't really care for the story but when I read the headline and seen the picture I knew straight away it was far cry 3 since I was playing it last night.... and now I know there is a twist.

Oh well OP if you could maybe think about spoilers when you pick a picture for your article next time someone else can aviod getting the story (kinda) spoiled

:)

[ISNeko]

Mass Effect 2.

Every significant soldier character leaving the Normany unguarded. Fucking stupid. Made no sense.

"Hey we're sitting ducks! Let's all of us go instead of choosing now because when we get there we'll still just sit around doing nothing while Shepard goes with whoever was chosen!"

[oIITSBIIo]

Bioshock Infinite story is great and the end was amazing .

[Relientk77]

Have no idea why Bioshock Infinite is on this list, the whole game is amazing, including the ending. Just fantastic beginning to end.

[mgszelda1]

Really, why all the hate for Bioshock infinite in the comments. "but but teh plot holes" or "I knew who so and so was right away"
It was an amazing game who not everyone saw coming plot wise. It's just like the sixth sense. Some ppl saw that ending coming right away and some didn't
As for plot holes, in this day and age there are few air tight stories at all

[Grilla]

Bioshock deserves to be on that list. The ending was a mess. Trying way too hard. I was literally like wtf was that. Ruined the whole game.

[NukaCola]

No it didn't. It's only possible negative was that I'm boggled on where the story can go from here.

[Grilla]

Nowhere, that's where it's going. Steaming pile of crap.

[JD_Shadow]

SPOILER:

If the guy actually LISTENED to what Big Boss was telling you in the ending of MGS4, he would've caught onto whose body was burned in Act 3. They actually pointed out a lot about what happened there.

Good lord!

[indyman7777]

Oh you guys think these are bad try Atelier Ayesha. At the end of the day your playing a RPG which last time I checked your POWERIng up. You know fighting increasing your stats. So the game at the end tells you to keep looking take your time I will be here when your ready. (your grumpy tutor tells you this). Well long story short he comes and finishes the game for you!

And stops the rest of the game from proceeding because you took too long!!! What? You mislead me into taking a long time and then punish me? You told me to collect the most valuable and thought I would hurry up and not keep looking for better and better stuff? Last time I checked every rpg (including all their previous ones) had you powering up which takes time! But this one punks you for not doing a task fast, and instead of warning you it ricks you into thinking your doing the right thing! After that shock, who wants to make sure they went back far enough restoring the game? How far back is enough 5 hours? 7? Who knows, All I know is I'm pissed!

[windblowsagain]

Bioshock 1&2 were better games.

IF they ever make another one, needs to be underwater, and not the cartoon looking shit.

[CuddlyREDRUM]

I found Infinite's twist to be amazing. Not as great as the first, at all, but really mind numbing.

[corvusmd]

Halo 2 doesn't belong on there, Bioshock doesn't belong on there. AC3 was a HORRBILE game in every aspect, but Kenway was awesome. How in the world was Last of US not on here, it was an AMAZING story until the end... then turned to instant crap.