10 Video Game Villains Hiding In Plain Sight

Spider-Man: Miles Morales' Tinkerer is an interesting example because the supervillain's identity was hidden in plain sight through the sheer virtue of obviousness.

In the comics, the Tinkerer is the villainous alter-ego of Phineas Mason, and so when it was revealed that one of this game's supporting characters was Miles' friend Phin Mason, it seemed like players were being set up for a bait-and-switch twist.

Many fans understandably assumed that Phin was inserted into the game as a misdirect, and that the Tinkerer's identity would be swapped out for somebody else, but alas, at the end of the game's first act we learn that Phin is indeed the Tinkerer.

The game is sensible to get the reveal out of the way just a few hours into its story, because if this had been a late-game twist it would've gone down like a lead balloon.

And yet, Phin being the Tinkerer was still somewhat surprising in its own way simply because so many players had convinced themselves it was just too damn obvious to be true. Fans basically played themselves here.