8 Best 'Meet The Real Villain' Moments In Gaming History

2. Haytham Kenway & The Templars - Assassin's Creed III

The twist that arguably broke the entire franchise, going into Assassin's Creed III we'd just been served the awesome "Minerva scene" from AC II - an encounter where Desmond in the present realises there was a message given to one of his ancestors hundreds of years prior, that the goddess Minerva knew he would eventually view through the Animus.

It's a suitably insane reveal, but Assassin's Creed III then misdirected everyone by opening with you as Haytham Kenway, an English nobleman on the high seas of northeast America.

Ubi have the stones to let you stick with Haytham for a good few hours, seeing him move like an assassin, fight like an assassin and look to be mixing around with other members of the Assassin Order.

Cut to a notable meeting with one Charles Lee, and Haytham instead welcomes him to the Templars.

Turns out you'd been playing as a lead Templar this whole time i.e. the main antagonist faction of AC 1, 2, Brotherhood and Revelations. Haytham was actually the father of advertised character Conor, and the achievement that pops is called "How D'ya like them apples?"

Again arguably the homogenisation of good and bad forces here would break the entire Assassin's Creed story for a few years, but in the moment? This was brilliant.