10 Plot Twists That Change How You See Video Games

1. BioShock - Would You Kindly?

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Dripping with atmosphere and overflowing with immersive storytelling, BioShock is one of the greatest games of all time, so it’s only appropriate that it should also feature an all-time classic plot twist that completely changes how you think about not only this game, but games in general.

Upon arriving at the office of underwater metropolis Rapture’s founder Andrew Ryan, the player learns the shocking truth about their character and the friendly voice in their ear, Atlas, who has been guiding them up until this point.

Turns out that silent protagonist Jack was actually created in Rapture as an experiment, and is being mind controlled by his apparent ally Atlas using the recurring trigger phrase “would you kindly?” Not only that, but Atlas is actually gangster Frank Fontaine, Andrew Ryan’s arch-rival.

With the twists coming thick and fast and the player’s head reeling with shock, the big reveal is quite literally driven home as Jack beats Andrew Ryan to death with a golf club at his command, demonstrating his absence of autonomy. Not only is this a gut-punching plot twist, it also acts as a commentary on the nature of free will in video games: is the player really just a slave to the developer’s intentions?

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Patch is a pop culture enthusiast and purveyor of puns. He writes about media in a vague attempt to justify the alarming amount of time he spends consuming it. Nobody's convinced... but nobody's told him that yet. He spends his spare time working on Portal 2: Desolation, an ambitious fan-made sequel to Valve's beloved puzzle games.