10 Video Game NPCs You Shouldn't Have Trusted

Non-player characters (NPCs) of course come in all shapes, sizes, and allegiances. Some are extremely helpful support characters, others are annoying foils, and some fall somewhere in the middle.

Then there are those NPCs who you initially trusted, and yet turned out to be duplicitous turncoat bastards, eventually showing their true colours and summarily screwing you over as a result.

All of us took these NPCs at face value, that they were genuinely on the level, whether downtrodden characters in need of our help, or apparent heroes who would set us on the right path.

But sooner or later we saw who they truly were, and it sure wasn't pretty. Whether intentionally or not, they showed us their real intentions, typically to exploit the player's good nature for their own good, as led to a huge conflict in most cases.

We all want to live in a world where we can trust every seemingly well-intended person that comes our way, but these 10 video games all proved the virtue of exercising caution and questioning the intent of every single person you ever interact with. What a way to live...

Throughout the original BioShock, players are guided through the city of Rapture by the support character Atlas, a revolutionary who they speak with via radio for a major chunk of the game.

Later on, however, it's revealed that Atlas is actually the megalomaniacal conman Frank Fontaine, who faked his death and assumed the Atlas alias in order to agitate a Civil War and take control of Rapture for himself.

We also learn that Atlas' oft-repeated phrase, "Would you kindly?," whenever he asks the player to do something, is actually a hypnotic inducement - a trigger phrase which forces progagonist Jack to do anything he asks without pushback.

The lesson here? If a game keeps a support character at arm's length from you, and you never actually meet them in person, there just might be a good reason for it.