8 Smart Video Games With Incredibly Dumb Twists

7. Metal Gear Solid 2 - Something Something Scissors

If you’ve already guessed that I’m going to write an entry about the reveal that Raiden is the protagonist, then congratulations. You’re wrong, by the way, but I figured you might need that congratulations to soften the blow of how very wrong you are. The Raiden reveal was a stroke of genius, inexorable from Metal Gear Solid 2’s wider themes and deconstruction of the very concept of sequels themselves, and some top quality commercial trolling besides. Lots of pages on the internet say this twist is bad. These pages should all be printed off and burnt to a crisp. Do not let them infect your mind.

The actual dumb twist in MGS2 is when Colonel Roy Campbell starts malfunctioning, hinting that Raiden was communicating with an AI the entire time. This ends up revealing the game’s trump card too early, fraying the edges of reality too violently, and causing the upcoming reveal regarding the Solid Snake Simulation to have much less weight. Kojima is a treasure, but his Matryoshka-like twists within twists can sometimes cause the minor ones to dull the major, and this was one such occasion.