7 Video Game Stories That Were Spoiled Before Release
The Last of Us Part II isn't alone.
NOTE: This is a spoiler-free zone for The Last of Us Part II.
There are a few different ways that video games can be spoiled, and some are more damaging than others. For instance, someone could tell you about a certain gameplay feature, or you could read about the existence of an alternate playable character before either are officially unveiled.
If you wanted to go in fully blind, finding out about both of these things - before the game in question hits shelves - would suck, sure, but arguably the worst type of spoiler is when you learn about the actual plot in advance.
Imagine reading about the twist in Spec Ops: The Line, or the Joker's role in Batman: Arkham Knight, months before those games came out. It would sour the entire experience, and because narrative is at the forefront of so many games (especially across the last two console generations) it's getting more and more important that you go in knowing as few details as possible.
Unfortunately though, leaks are a thing, and some of the most anticipated releases of the last two decades have had their stories spoiled ahead of time, whether due to an inside source, an accidental slip-up, or even a full copy of the game sneaking out early.
NOTE: This is a spoiler-free zone for The Last of Us Part II.
7. Fallout 4
For all the ineptitude that Bethesda has displayed recently, their release strategy for Fallout 4 was actually really solid.
Big-budget games are often announced years before they're due to hit shelves, which can lead to months of over-hyping, and in turn, an eventual feeling of disappointment when players finally get to experience the title for themselves.
And so, to counter this, Bethesda kept things simple: they announced Fallout 4 at E3 2015 and released it a mere five months later, in November of that same year.
Technically speaking though, the game had been "announced" much earlier than that, because certain story elements were leaked by Kotaku at the tail-end of 2013.
After being sent a handful of documents relating to a casting call for the game, the site was able to confirm its setting - Boston - while also leaking the script for the introduction sequence, which reads exactly like it does in the finished product. On top of that, Kotaku also shared character descriptions, details about the game's missions, and revealed locations like the Commonwealth.
While this wasn't a case of third-act story spoilers leaking out into the wild (thankfully, the man who reported the leak, Jason Schreier, chose not to share important plot details), it nonetheless gave players an early, unofficial glimpse at what they could expect from the game's narrative.