10 Video Game Endings That Left You Totally Speechless

8. The A-Bomb Scientist - Braid

Braid, from the mind of indie game designer Jonathan Blow, is a deceiving little beast. On the surface, it's a run-of-the-mill platform game with a cliched plot - a young man sets out on a perilous time-based puzzle quest to rescue a Princess in peril. And up until the very end of the game, this is what players are lead to believe is actually happening.

But Braid turned out to be far deeper than most players originally anticipated - the first sign of which occurs when the Princess is rescued by another hero, just moments before the player can actually get to her (a hint that this platformer is a different kettle of fish entirely). The reason? Because she's trying to escape - from you!

Afterwards, the player is confronted by paragraphs of highly vague, confusing text...

The true ending of the game, which essentially left everybody who managed to discover it in a state of absolute shock, reveals that the hero of Braid, Tim, is actually one of the scientists responsible for designing the A-Bomb during the Manhattan Project, and the "Princess" is in fact a manifestation of his obsession with this nuclear task. Seriously.

It turned out that Tim's quest to save the Princess was actually his own quest for forgiveness, having regrets over ever being a part of a project that killed so many. It's not the most straight-forward ending, nor is it the most easily understood, but the clues were there for curious players who wanted to find out why Tim set out on his mission.

And all this in a such a seemingly happy little platformer. Minds were certainly blown.