10 Out Of NOWHERE Video Game Transformations
Well, no one saw that coming.
Games have a great way of settling players into a rhythm. Once the tutorial is done and dusted, gamers are usually expected to pull off the same mechanics ad nauseum to finish a game.
Oh sure, there are moments when the gameplay switches up a bit, like Dead Space's cannon parts, but that's more an aside than a massive deviation.
But sometimes a game will pull something so massively out there, so off the beaten path that it throws us for a loop. Turning the established gameplay tenet on its head, for example, meaning those combat tricks we learnt were for naught.
Or how characters previously established as the good guys appear less than stellar in the eyes of others as time goes on. Perhaps throwing in a section of the game that is the reverse of what we've been taught so far, punishable by controller-throwing rage every time we get it wrong.
It doesn't always have to be a story twist to keep us on our toes. As these examples show, it can range from one little tweak in a mission to a full-blown gameplay change to subvert what we already thought we knew.
It can be gross, it can be perplexing, it can even be right at the very end of the game to catch you out. Whatever the reason, here are just ten examples of transformations that nobody saw coming.
10. Assassin's Creed III - Who's Really Good And Evil?
Right up until the release of Assassin's Creed III, players were led to believe that they'd only play as Connor throughout. So, expectations were slightly subverted when you start as his father, Haytham Kenway.
With a merry band of colleagues, Kenway comes across as a lovely, wonderful Assassin in the game's prologue. That is, until a "Say whaaaat" moment sees him inducted as a Templar instead.
That, in itself, is a pretty massive twist. Well done, Assassin's Creed, for hoodwinking us early on.
But it's what comes next that changes the game. When playing as Haytham, other members of his Order come across as decent, honourable people. Yet when it switches to Connor, so do his (and our) perceptions of them.
Charles Lee, for example, is normal and full of good intention in Kenway's eyes. As Connor, he's as sinister as Captain Hook, complete with disgusting and disheveled appearance. It's not comically obvious, but noticeable over time.
Whilst the Templar twist is renown, it's how we see certain characters from differing perspectives afterwards that is a surprisingly need and subtle transformation here.