10 Video Games That Punish You For Taking Shortcuts

9. Stick To The Script - The Evil Within

the stanley parable
Tango Gameworks

The survival horror game The Evil Within builds its narrative around the STEM system, a brain-powered invention that creates an alternate world for people who are connected to it. The title’s entire story relies on you trying to escape and destroy STEM’s artificial world, which is why when you get the opportunity to do it early in Evil Within’s DLC, the Consequence, the game punishes you for it.

In the DLC, you play detective Juli Kidman as she looks for a way out of STEM’s nightmare. At one stage, Juli enters the STEM chamber in the alternate world, where she sees her friends and herself connected to the machine, as well as the giant brain jar in the middle of the room that powers the entire system.

What the game wants you to do is move onto the next sequence, but any rational player’s first instinct would be to destroy the brain and be done with it all.

However, shooting it will only cause the game to mock you by showing you a fake credits sequence in which you “won” and everyone lived happily ever after.

Maybe everyone would stick to the script, game, if this shortcut didn't make so much more sense.

Just saying.

Contributor

Video games enthusiast with a love for bizarre facts about his favorite titles. Really into old-school strategies and RPGs of all shapes and sizes.