10 Times Video Games Were One Step Ahead Of You

Although developers are the ones making the games, the truth is they rarely have a say in how their product is used. Once a title is released, it's firmly in the players’ hands, and whatever shenanigans ensue after are out of their control.

A developer's only line of defence when players look for exploits or try to do things in an unintended way is to make predictions and prepare for every eventuality. This though, is where the insight of some creatives out there truly shines.

You know you’re up against a clever developer when the moment you try to break their game or do things the unorthodox way, they acknowledge your efforts and show that the entire time, they were ready for you to do it.

It’s these types of moments that let you know just how much foresight and hard work were put into the game you're playing.

You might think you’re being clever, but these games are always one step ahead of you. They’re ready for your every move, as evidenced by the following examples of their cleverness.

The Evil Within's DLC, Consequence, puts the player in the role of Juli Kidman, a police officer looking for her missing colleagues trapped inside STEM, a multiple consciousness-linking nightmare machine.

At one point, Kidman finds herself inside the STEM hub room, where the brain of the game's antagonist, Ruvik, is controlling everything. The player is meant to leave this room to continue their chase after the mysterious Leslie, but it doesn't take a PhD in mathematics to figure out that a giant evil brain jar plus a protagonist with a loaded gun equals an almost one hundred percent guarantee that someone will try to shoot the thing.

After all, it seems like the easiest way to destroy the STEM simulation.

Evil Within developers Tango Gameworks were also aware of this fact, which is why if you shoot the brain, the game will immediately cut to fake credits showing you a happy photo of Kidman and her buddies, before ending them abruptly and returning to the situation at hand.

Triggering this secret "ending" awards you the "Stick to the Script" achievement, to remind you that no matter how smart you think you and your ideas are, it's the developers who make the rules.