9 Unsatisfying Video Game Plot Twists (And How To Fix Them)

8. The Arkham Knight Is... Exactly Who You Thought - Batman: Arkham Knight

You've got to hand it to Rocksteady, they really went with the JJ Abrams/The Prestige-style notion of purposefully telling the fans bald-faced lies, all in service of a twist that should've been one for the ages. Sadly, the problem wasn't that we'd been lied to when it came to the AK very much being an established character and not a new one - it was that the dialogue was terribly written. Anyone with even a passing knowledge of Batman's former-Robin, Jason Todd/Red Hood, knows he's an angsty, shoegazing sort, and so when the very first thing he said was "Time to die, old man", who else was it going to be? Damien Wayne? From then on in, everything he said only furthered this idea, with the game randomly crowbarring-in a scene where Bruce remembers the character out of nowhere, ruining the reveal when the dots were connected in the most obvious way possible. How to fix it: Stick to it being an actual new character, with a final reveal steeped in fake-outs. If you've read Geoff Loeb's Hush, you'll be familiar with how that novel weaved various characters into the villain's true identity, explaining them away but still savouring the impact of each and every one. In an Arkham context we could've had Bruce hallucinate (thanks to Joker's blood still being in his blood from Arkham City) seeing Todd, Hush, Damien... pretty much anyone that would get a heart-stopping "No way!"-style reaction, only to reveal the true culprit in the end. Best of all? Mark Hamill's Joker could've just been a cameo, not the overstayed and overblown appearance he did make, which was just annoying and forced by game's end.
Gaming Editor
Gaming Editor

WhatCulture's Head of Gaming.