10 Subtle Video Game Twists Everyone Missed

6. Val Was (Probably) Born A Male - Outlast 2

Val is one of Outlast 2's primary antagonists, a member of the Heretics who seeks to ensure the birth of the Anti-Christ.

In one gnarly sequence, she memorably appears before protagonist Blake in the nude, smothered in mud while her bodily form very clearly resembles that of a woman.

But those who dig into the game's collectible files may stumble across a document in the Compound basement called "Val's secret," where Val is referred to as a "he," accentuating the peculiar fact that Papa Knoth speaks of Val in masculine pronouns during the game.

Though developer Red Barrels has refused to confirm Val's sex one way or another, they did comment "Val is Val," further fuelling the belief among fans that Val may be a male-to-female transsexual and was physically born male, or was perhaps born intersex.

This investigation reached its apex when fans closely examined Val's character model and found that, in addition to her breasts and vagina being anatomically inaccurate - due to being formed with mud - she also has the vestigial remnants of a penis in the pubic area.

Given that Val is also said to be unable to produce children, as is often a complication for people born intersex in particular, it seems that there's more to Val than there initially seems.

It's certainly an unexpected feat of LGBTQ+ representation in a video game, and a welcome one, even if it flew clean over the heads of most players.