10 Times Video Games Totally Broke Your Trust
Fool me once, shame on you.
After years of playing video games, there are certain rules and conventions that are pretty much engraved in everybody's heads. We know the rule of threes when it comes to bosses and challenges, we know platformers have an end goal, and many other concepts that have become the norm over the years.
However, every now and then, some game decides to toy with your understanding of the established rules. After setting up clear boundaries, it suddenly goes over them, completely breaking your trust and making you question everything you knew.
Whether it's done for shock value or to simply troll the player and mess with their sense of security, breaking the rules can have a very strong effect on your perception of a game.
Let's look at some of them and try to remember how crazy it was to find out the game was lying to you from the start.
10. Work Bench Ambush - The Last Of Us 2
Workbenches in video games tend to be seen as safe spaces for the player to unwind and prep their weapons for the next dose of action. Because the crafting menus can take some time to navigate, it only seems fair that the enemies won't bother the player while they are using a workbench. Well, this reasoning is exactly why the developers of The Last of Us 2 decided to break this age-old rule.
Although most of the workbenches in the game offer relative safety when browsing your gear, there is one bench that triggers a scripted event designed to give players heart attacks.
When Ellie interacts with the bench, the game boots up the regular menu screen. You start to navigate through it as usual when, all of a sudden, you hear footsteps and then a man screaming. Before you can even exit the menu, Ellie gets pinned to the table and has to fight for her life.
According to an interview with designer Pete Ellis, the event was added by him to deprive the player of any sense of safety. Considering how many people couldn't look at work benches the same way after this encounter, it's safe to say he succeeded.