10 Cruel Tricks Video Games Played On FPS Players

These classic FPS games knew how to push your buttons.

BioShock Andrew Ryan
2K Games

The first-person shooter may no longer be as popular as it once was, but it's still a meat-and-potatoes video game genre focused on the wish fulfilment of utilising insane weaponry against ridiculous foes.

It's a genre that's probably enjoyed less innovation than most, but that doesn't mean there aren't developers working hard to give players a unique or unexpected experience.

And that's certainly true of these 10 games, all of which played cruel, shocking tricks on players who were likely expecting more familiar, down-the-line thrills from these FPS titles.

But instead, the developers exploited our familiarity with the genre and its tropes to do something totally different, be it inverting our idea of what a "reward" is, using the first-person perspective to emphasise the horror of a certain situation, or just straight-up trolling us.

These 10 games, each of them terrific and iconic in their own right, refused to simply deliver a safe, competent time, but instead upended expectations with rug-pulls that just about nobody saw coming.

In some cases it was impossible not to respect the hustle, while in others it was undeniably infuriating...

10. The Sniper Rifle That Mocks You - Borderlands 2

BioShock Andrew Ryan
Gearbox

There's nothing that Borderlands players love more than that sweet, sweet loot - the shiny new thing is always better than the shiny last thing, especially where weapons are concerned.

And by completing Borderlands 2's side mission "Hyperion Contract #873," where you're tasked with exterminating 100 bandits, you'll receive a new weapon by the name of the Morningstar.

The Morningstar is said to be an experimental weapon "custom designed for a murderer like yourself," and as awesome as that sounds, it becomes a lot less neat once you actually start using it.

Y'see, the Morningstar is a talking gun which will wax sarcastic to the user whenever they fire, reload, kill an enemy, swap weapons, or land a critical hit.

The gun's quips range from insulting your poor marksmanship ("if you were a better shot, you wouldn't need to reload") to guilting your murderous ways ("they had a family") and even getting weirdly personal ("you don't talk to your parents as often as you should").

It's a nagging price to pay for a sniper rifle that, infuriatingly, metes out a pretty beefy amount of damage.

In this post: 
Bioshock
 
First Posted On: 
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.