10 Video Games That Killed The Main Character Early

8. Sam Caldwell - Dead Space: Extraction

The only thing more surprising than Wii rail shooter Dead Space: Extraction being pretty damn great is the genuinely shocking bait-and-switch it pulls at the end of its opening mission.

You start the game playing as miner San Caldwell, who in the middle of his mission begins to suffer hallucinations of necromorphs, and consequently attempts to shoot his way out of the mine.

But the level ends with Sam himself being gunned down by Detective Nathan McNeill, believing him to have gone mad and turned on his fellow miners. In a masterful subversion of expectations, you spend the remaining 90% of the game playing as McNeill.

The Dead Space series has always relished toying with players' perception of reality, but never better than it did here.