10 Mysteries Video Games SHOULDN'T Have Answered

Worst. Masked villain reveal. Ever.

army of two devils cartel el diablo
EA

Nothing ensures players remain entranced by a game quite like an enticing mystery - a storytelling enigma which has fans desperate to learn the answer later on in the game.

But it's also something which developers shouldn't take lightly, because if players spend potentially dozens or even hundreds of hours following a narrative thread only for it to fall short of the mark, they're going to be pissed. Like, really pissed.

In fact, sometimes the actual resolution to the ongoing mystery is so frustrating and dissatisfying that many fans probably wished they'd never even bothered answering them at all.

And that's absolutely the case with these 10 video games, each of which posed tantalising mysteries at the outset, only to serve up revelations which split the fanbase at best, if not left the vocal majority totally outraged.

From totally bats**t, left-field twists to silly reveals that had fans feeling straight-up insulted, and everything else in-between, these were not in any way, shape, or form the answers that most players were looking for.

While in most instances it didn't sink the game by itself, it nevertheless left a dark cloud hovering over the entire experience...

10. Where Is Spencer's Missing Wife? - Bionic Commando

army of two devils cartel el diablo
Capcom

2009's Bionic Commando follows government operative Major Nathan "Rad" Spencer as, in addition to fighting a terrorist outfit, he searches for his missing wife Emily.

Emily's fate is one of the game's major narrative threads, and in the climax, we finally learn what happened to her.

As it turns out, Emily was murdered and her brain was - get this - uploaded into Nathan's bionic arm, because for a human to sync with their bionic appendage, they need to bond emotionally as well as physically.

Wait, what?

Yep, Nathan's arm is actually his dead wife, a revelation so head-smackingly dumb that it almost circles all the way back around and becomes awesome, but not quite.

This bonkers revelation became such a meme after the game's release that, even for those who've never played Bionic Commando, it's what they most associate with it.

The attempt to do something different is admirable in its own perverse way, but given the utter unintended goofiness of the execution, the developers were just as well leaving Emily's fate up in the air.

Contributor
Contributor

Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.