10 Video Games That Open On MAJOR Plot Twists

3. The Protagonist Is NOT Solid Snake - Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty

Mass Effect 2 Shepard
Konami

There's perhaps no opening plot twist more infamous in gaming than that of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.

The game's marketing made players believe, quite reasonably, that they'd once again be controlling the previous game's protagonist, Solid Snake, but in his all-time mightiest troll, creator Hideo Kojima bait-and-switched fans with a sudden protagonist switcharoo.

Though players do get to control Snake for the game's hour-long tanker-set prologue, the remaining 90% of the game is spent played as an entirely new character, Raiden.

Fans were pissed, and it didn't help that Raiden was, seemingly intentionally, everything Snake wasn't: effeminate, whiney, and disconcertingly acrobatic.

As brilliant as the gameplay still was, for many the twist soured the experience irreparably, no matter that Snake did return later in the game as a non-playable ally under the gossamer-thin alter-ego Iroquois Pliskin.

If nothing else, the fact that this gigantic spoiler wasn't somehow leaked prior to release is nothing short of a miracle on Kojima's part.

In this post: 
Mass Effect 2
 
First Posted On: 
Contributor
Contributor

Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.