10 Gaming Cliches You Couldn't Live Without
2. You're The Secret Bad Guy
The Cliche: Surprise! You thought you were the hero of this story just because you're playing a game, right? Wrong! It turns out, usually revealed near the end of the game by way of a demented plot twist, that you're actually an a**hole and have been doing it wrong the whole time. Joke's on you!
Perhaps most memorably employed in Shadow of the Colossus, Spec Ops: The Line, Undertale (depending on how violently you play), Silent Hill 2 and somewhat ambiguously in The Last of Us.
Why It's Awesome: Though it's widespread enough these days that players can often see it coming and games generally do a pretty terrible job of hiding it (it was pretty obvious early on in our first two examples), at its best playing as the villain can be so much more rewarding than merely being the squeaky clean hero.
Don't we all want video game stories with more moral ambiguity and thought-provoking themes? Whether or not these characters did the bad thing for the right reason or were flat-out wrong in their actions, you probably felt like s*** when the credits rolled, which is a strangely refreshing riposte to the usually upbeat, congratulatory "you made it!" ending.