8 Video Game Moments You Didn't Realise Were Tricking You

5. This Isn't Your Life - Before Your Eyes

Before Your Eyes
GoodbyeWorld Games

Before Your Eyes is a hugely inventive game chronicling the life of a dead man named Benny. In the first scene you pick up as Benny currently awaiting judgement in the afterlife, forced to relay his entire life to the otherworldly Ferryman.

The player is then taken on a trip down memory lane, with the gameplay being centred entirely around their blinks. Every time they blink in real life, time progresses, and Benny gets a little bit older.

Across this first hour, you get an insight into his life growing up around his encouraging but demanding mother, his failure to navigate a friendship with a troubled neighbour, as well as an illness that puts Benny out of action for a whole year. He gets better, and later we see him grow up to be a successful painter, before mourning the death of his mother later in life.

Then, however, it's revealed that most of what you've just seen is a lie. This is the life Benny wished he could have had, as it turns out that he actually died when he was just 11 years old and worries that he failed to make the impact he wanted on the world.

Consequently, the player is thrown back into the game to see things as they actually happened, now knowing they'd been tricked by this story previously.

Contributor

Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.