In the past 20 years or so, stories in gaming have really taken a big jump up. There have been some wild stories told in that time period, and while some are straightforward journeys, there are others that hide their cards until the very last moment.
This means the stories play out like a mystery, withholding the big “Aha!” moments until the final act of the game, and the result is usually something pretty mind-blowing and memorable that will stick with you long after the game is completed.
We’re going to take a look at some of those games today that confuse the hell out of you until the very last moment, where everything gets revealed, and you finally understand it all when that moment hits.
Spoilers below
The Mission Was a Lie
Spec Ops: The Line is one of the more underappreciated games of the past 20 years, and the main reason is its story. It’s a strange one about a renegade colonel who has taken up residence in Dubai with a battalion of soldiers. Your task is to go in and try to rescue him or take him alive if you can.
Simple, right? Well, things are not always as they seem here. As you and your team go deeper and deeper into the heart of Dubai, things get weird and twisted, and suddenly, you begin to question what this mission really is, and who these soldiers you’ve been mowing down really are.
The shocking twist at the end reveals Colonel Konrad has been dead this whole time, and the person you’ve been communicating with in your headset this whole time was not real. On top of that, your teammates, who were alive at one point, were hallucinations most of the time, as were many of the soldiers you mowed down throughout the game.
The mission was a full-on PTSD breakdown by John Walker, and the reveal at the end makes the rest of the game suddenly make a lot of sense, even if the truth of the matter is a hard one to take in.
7 BioShock
The Phrase That Changed Gaming Narratives
BioShock is one of the best games ever made, but throughout the game, you are pretty much in the dark. You have no idea why you’re there, why you’re important, or what Rapture even is.
You’ll uncover a bit of the mystery as the game goes on, but it isn’t until its final act that it’s revealed why you’re there in the first place. You weren’t just a random survivor of a plane crash. You crashed that plane yourself in a very specific spot in order to get to Rapture. And it’s because you’re not a random guy, you’re Jack Ryan, the son of Andrew Ryan, and you’ve been brainwashed by Frank Fontaine, who, all this time, had been posing as your guide, Atlas.
He was doing it via the phrase “Would you kindly?” before every direction he gave. It was a meta moment in gaming, asking yourself if you’re just a slave to the game you’re playing or if you have freedom. It is one of the most groundbreaking moments in gaming history and put the bow on a one-of-a-kind experience.
6 Prey
Evolution
Prey is all about the mystery of figuring out just what the hell went wrong on a space station that resulted in countless dead and an alien menace known as the Typhon running rampant.
You will slowly unravel more and more information about just what was being done on this space station, but it’s still pretty confusing what certain things mean or imply. The ending reveals why everything feels just a little bit off while you’re playing. You’re supposedly playing as Morgan Yu, however, the reality is you’re not. You’re a Typhon yourself, at least, a Typhon human hybrid, and the threat of the Typhon getting to earth had already been realized.
It was all an experiment to see if Typhon could become more humanized in a last-ditch effort to avoid extinction.
5 Bloodborne
Leaving the Dream
Bloodborne is one of the most confusing games of all time, from the vague guides you have to The Hunter’s Dream, it’s all so very strange, and there are precious few lights to shed on the happenings throughout the game.
Then you get to the end, where it’s revealed that Gehrman is the First Hunter, and his purpose, after a hunter has completed the hunt, is to kill them, saving them from the clutches of The Hunter’s Dream.
Really, he is trying to do the player a favor, as being stuck in the hunt eventually leads to the hunter going mad from the smell of blood, which is shown in full in the Old Hunters DLC. It’s a crazy revelation that reframes everything that came before it, and the graves of the Hunter’s Dream suddenly start to make a lot more sense, as they were hunters who submitted to Gehrman previously.
But you have a choice. You can submit and let him take you out of The Hunter’s Dream once and for all, or you can resist and become something greater than any hunter before. Either way you choose, the truth finally comes to light in the final moments of the game.
4 The Evil Within
Reality Deferred
The Evil Within is a terrifying survival horror game that puts you in the shoes of Sebastian Castellanos investigating a murder. Things, however, go very wrong, very quickly. Soon, this world becomes a veritable nightmare, with horrifying creatures, disturbing visions, and all sorts of supernatural happenings.
It’s confusing as hell what is happening from moment to moment, but you don’t really have any time to process it because of how freaking horrifying it all is. That confusion gets put to rest at the end, with the shocking reveal of the STEM system, which is a sort of alternate reality simulator and even more shocking, that you’ve been hooked up to it in the top of the lighthouse this entire time.
It makes you question your reality throughout the game, as in who was real, who was actually an ally, and was any of the danger something tangible? It’s a fantastic twist, and it really felt like a unique one for the survival horror genre at the time.
3 Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2
The Lies of a King
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 is a much different story from the first one. Where the first game had you largely isolated in your journey, in the sequel, you are flanked by companions for good portions of the journey. The story is one about the giants and how they’re threatening to destroy the land.
While it feels more like a side quest than a full game, it is a very unclear and mysterious journey due to what the first game set up. After a handful of hours facing off against various horrors, you find out that not only was it just you who was overcome by fear into having delusions about giants, but the people as well.
This goes further to explain how you and others fought against the giants throughout the playthrough, expanding on the concept from the first game that it is all in Senua’s head. After your showdown with the king at the end, it’s clear that everyone has been held hostage by his fearmongering about giants to gain power, and with his defeat comes the dispelling of that idea and his power with it.
2 Shadow of the Colossus
The Truth of Your Journey
Shadow of the Colossus is an incredible journey where you seek to heal a loved one by hunting down the Colossi of the land for a mysterious presence named Dormin.
Throughout the game, it’s quite clear that these creatures are not really evil by any means, but it’s still a mystery about just why you need to kill them all. That mystery is revealed in the ending of the game, as the defeat of all of them allows you to be possessed by Dormin, who uses your body to transform into a Colossus, until you’re finally defeated by a sorcerer.
It’s a shocking twist and something that felt earned and proper considering the ambiguous nature of your journey, and it also serves as a clever prequel story to the equally iconic ICO.
1 Braid
The Monster is You
Braid is one of the more unique platformers of all time, using cool time-based mechanisms to solve puzzles, but the story seems pretty straightforward. You’re just chasing a princess that needs rescuing. There are some odd moments for sure, but it doesn’t seem like there will be much to hide when it comes to the story.
That all changes in the ending. The big reveal is that the princess needed rescuing, but the monster was you. The whole game is the player actually trying to capture a princess who is being saved by a knight. You’re the villain. You’re the monster. It’s an amazing twist that recontextualizes every moment of the game prior.
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Author: 360 Technology Group
