10 Horrifying Video Game Character Truths You Missed
The tragic backstory to all that rigorous testing.
Once upon a time, storytelling and character arcs in video gaming were about as simple as you could get. Good guy and bad guy clash over something, good guy prevails, repeat for the sequel.
As gaming has grown to become a bigger, deeper and a medium more able to express complex stories and ideas, we have found ourselves, as gamers, embarking on emotional journeys as well as pixelated ones.
With the increase in scope and cinematic depth, developers and writers within the industry have been able to write characters that we can truly cling onto - realistic, beautiful, flawed individuals that represent the best and worst of humanity, and everything in between. Video game characters have personalities, goals, fallacies and many have secrets.
And, just like real people, video game characters kept their secrets for a reason.
This list will dive into more salacious and more damning best-kept personal mysteries of gaming's endless cast of characters: uncomfortable truths, unfortunate backstories and several secrets that will change how you think about the character in question.
10. Jasper Feeney Has A Dark Secret - Red Dead Redemption 2
Amongst other things, Red Dead Redemption 2 was celebrated for its huge world and wealth of stories of all different sizes that spiralled out into many different directions, depending on the actions of the player.
When reaching Rhodes, the player may want to have a stop at Rhodes Gunsmith - also known as Jasper Feeney & Son - to stock up on supplies. Despite locals whispering about him claiming to see the ghost of his dead son, Mr Feeney otherwise just seems like yet another face on the road through the game’s adventure.
However, if you walk past the side of the building you’ll start a potentially otherwise missable series of events. It seems that the shop owner has a young man chained up in his basement.
If the player chooses to approach the gunsmith about this, they’ll be told the full tale. Jasper’s son was accidentally killed whilst out shooting one day, his body dragged into river rapids, and the distraught salesman took it upon himself to abduct someone that reminded him of his son to replace him.
This story has a number of different endings of course and players can free the abductee or kill or spare either or both of the men. If they leave without resolving the issues in any way however, they’ll return later to find that the young man has found his own way out - permanently.