It's quite the bold statement to make, but video games have the potential to handle plot twists better than any other medium. Whereas in film or literature you're resigned to a passive position, watching events unfold without any interaction, when all is not what it seems in a video game it's you that's being deceived, backstabbed or taken for a ride. The best game developers know how to weaponise this feeling into a knockout punch, too, with things like the original Metal Gear Solid's 'Master Miller is Liquid Snake' reveal hitting far harder considering you'd been conversing with him the entire game. Others though... not so much. Choosing to inject a healthy dose of rug-pulling to your title of choice can be the reason it gets recommended so much in the first place, but when that goes wrong for reasons ranging from being unnecessary to just plainly bad thought-out, it forever remains a blotch on an otherwise fantastic game.
9. 400 Year-Old Ancient Spaniards Are Still Alive - Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
When it comes to high-falutin' archaeological exploits, you're either going to love a bit of the old 'and the ancient thing really did have power' sort of twist, or it's going to be a massive leap from an otherwise literally grounded setup. For all three Uncharted games, Naughty Dog have never managed to do this sort of thing justice, with the first and second games in particular having last minute reveals that were just cringeworthy in the grand scheme of things. Let's focus on the first game though, as at least by the time Among Thieves rolled around, you at least knew this sort of twist could happen. To that end, Drake's Fortune sees Nate investigating the history of Sir Francis Drake, only to discover the ancient sect of Descendants (long-dead Spanish villagers) are not only still capable of movement, but they're rampaging zombies with a taste for human flesh. How to fix it: Avoid the zombie fiction aspect entirely, and have the final showdown be between Nate and Navarro, but for the treasure they've been tracking for days at this point. In the end we get that fight regardless, so the Descendant battle is just tonally out of place, with the real conflict we always wanted being between these two characters. The problem as it stands is in the execution. We went from a massive buildup to whatever reveal was on the horizon, to a "Oh crap, ZOMBIES!" reaction, and then a supremely deflating 'fight for your life' series of encounters were you fought them in close-quarters. Alongside the random blue warrior-men from Uncharted 2, this remains one of the weirdest and most pointless parts of an otherwise stellar trilogy.
