10 Video Game Twists We Never Saw Coming
7. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
The original Modern Warfare gets an honourable mention here, for asking us to disarm a nuclear warhead that couldn’t be disarmed.
Having your chopper fall out of the sky while knowing a) you were about to die and b) there was nothing you could do, was a gutsy move on the part of Infinity Ward.
But it’s Modern Warfare 2 that takes the cake when it comes to Call of Duty twists.
After jumping through dozens of hoops and escaping death on countless occasions, the player discovers that General Shepherd, the very man who recruited them into Task Force 141, had knowingly sparked a war between Russia and the United States in order to spike enlistment and increase government spending on the military.
It’s a bonkers twist, but while Call of Duty often earns the ire of critics for its jingoism and apparent political conservatism, Modern Warfare 2’s climactic moments act in stark contrast to this. The real villain was never really Russia or Afghanistan, it was an American egomaniac who wanted to secure the future of the US military, and make his mark as a war hero.
Outside of totally upending the game’s story, the twist also saw the deaths of fan favourite characters like Ghost and Roach, in a moment that packed an emotional punch that no Call of Duty campaign since has managed to equal.