10 Greatest Unspoken Video Game Plot Points

The Doom Slayer still bears scars from that original box art.

By Jack Pooley /

Video games are such a dynamic visual art form that players can't really be blamed for missing some of the thousands of lines of story dialogue in most AAA releases these days.

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But generally speaking developers will make sure to pump the brakes enough so that players can understand all the most crucial plot points. Unless, of course, they want to get sneaky and try to pass something by players without them noticing.

That's certainly the case with these 10 games, all of which unfurled fascinating story points hidden in plain, unspoken sight.

Whether revealed through easily missed text documents, implied through environmental storytelling, or presented as deviously secret Easter eggs, each plot point nevertheless enhances the story in a genuinely gratifying way.

Are any of these story beats strictly "vital"? Probably not, but they elevate both the characters and the narrative within, adding shade, depth, and perhaps even ambiguity to scenarios you might've thought you fully understood.

And so, these low-key gaming revelations will make you see these titles within a smart, perhaps even funny new context. But if you managed to notice any of them by yourself first, well done...

10. The Joker Is Secretly Concerned For Batman During The Clayface Fight - Batman: Arkham City

The Batman: Arkham games are filled to the brim with sneaky Easter eggs and subtle environmental storytelling, though one of the most brilliantly sly occurs during Arkham City's climactic boss battle against Clayface, which The Joker is watching from the rafters.

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As discovered by Redditor A_Humble_Knight, if you enter Detective Mode during the battle, you might notice that the Joker's condition is listed as "nervous" while Clayface attacks.

Joker's status calms down, however, when Bats manages to freeze Clayface in place with Freeze Blasts.

This might seem to merely indicate Joker's fear that Batman will fail to retrieve the Titan cure from Clayface, but it's also secretly hinting at the truth of Batman and the Joker's relationship.

Throughout the decades, various iterations of Batman media have suggested that Batman and the Clown Prince of Crime need one another.

And so, by the Joker getting genuinely agitated when Clayface attacks Batman, he's expressing fear that, finally, the Dark Knight might have met his match.

He never outright admits it in the Arkham games, but the Joker wants to do this dance with Batman forever, and his physiological response to the Clayface battle can't hide that fact.

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