10 Most Shocking Video Game Plot Twists Of 2018

A quick tangent, but could Black Mirror: Bandersnatch be considered a video game?

The fact that it’s only available via Netflix would likely disqualify it in the minds of many, but it’s a question worth considering. Bandersnatch demands both attention and input from the viewer, and isn’t too drastically different from something like Night Trap or Her Story - both of which are broadly accepted as games.

This may not seem relevant to the topic at hand, but Bandersnatch, much like many of the games on this list, breaks boundaries and subverts audience expectations in a way that is inherently unique to gaming. Much like Bioshock’s unforgettable ‘Would You Kindly’ twist, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch allows viewers to revel in the freedom of choice until they discover that, in reality, they were the ones being played.

Netflix junkies may be new to these fourth-wall-busting plot twists, but they’re nothing new to gamers. Titles like Spec Ops: The Line, Silent Hill 2, and Heavy Rain have been at it since Netflix was in its infancy, and in 2018 that trend was continued as players were met with some of the most mind-twisting plot threads in recent history.

Note: Major spoilers ahead.

A Way Out seemed like an odd game from the very beginning; an ambitious project backed by EA, it seemed the sort of indie darling the publisher usually wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole. That said, it turned out to be a triumphant—if somewhat flawed—success.

With such a heavy emphasis on co-operative gameplay, A Way Out asked two players to team up to escape a prison and eventually orchestrate a plot to reclaim a priceless heirloom from an antagonizing crime boss.

It would have been a compelling ending... were it not for one major twist.

Toward the end of the game it is revealed that Vincent - one of the two protagonists - was working with the police all along, and the game’s grand jewel theft was a P.D.-sanctioned mission from the get-go. In the end, it just goes to show that no one can be trusted.

It felt a bit Shyamalanian to some, but was a fantastic way of unseating players before the game’s conclusion. Though the prison escape sequence, a highlight of many of the game’s trailers, was well over by the time the halfway point rolled around, this unexpected twist was one of 2018’s best.