10 Shocking Video Game Bait-And-Switches You'll Never Forget

The 2018 reboot for God of War did so many cool things. It refreshed the series’ setting, gameplay pace and style; reinvented the character of Kratos and, by a miracle of design, all took place as part of a long, single uninterrupted camera shot.

As such, the game’s recent follow-up Ragnarök had lofty expectations to live up to. Masterfully, it toyed with these expectations new and inventive ways, toying with players’ most deep-rooted understandings of game mechanics.

As Kratos faces off with Thor, the flurry of the fight switches between straight-forward gameplay to cutscenes with quick-time events. One of these sees Kratos resisting the God of Thunder’s hammer as it pushes against his hands and, try as the player might, no amount of tapping X can save them from a crushed skull. At first, it seems like any ordinary death as the title immediately goes to the familiar tip screen. However, Thor suddenly bellows: “I say when we’re done”.

Pulling Kratos back to life, and by extension the player back out of the game over screen, is a stroke of 4th wall breaking genius. Players had no reason not to suspect that they hadn’t just failed a QTE and yet here Thor, and the game, showed the player who was boss by toying with them like a puppet on strings.