A well-executed plot twist can have people talking about a game’s story long after it’s complete. When something ground-shakingly unexpected happens, gamers want to let everyone know what their take is on the subject. However, not every plot twist is pulled off well. Some can be seen a mile away or are just kind of limp in their delivery. Here are the plot twist endings in video games that are really the worst.
Note: even though we don’t like these endings, some video games you want to try could be on this list. Spoiler warning ahead.
Related: The 10 best twist endings in video games, ranked
Ranking the worst twist endings in video games ever
10. Super Mario Bros. 2 – It was all a dream
No Mario game is a masterclass in storytelling, but making the second Super Mario Bros. game all a dream Mario was having is an odd decision. Sure, the game is much different from the first one because it was really a re-skin of Doki Doki Panic, but they could have just left it alone and no one would have cared. Also, since Birdo and Shy Guys made their debut here, did they manifest in the Mushroom Kingdom because of Mario’s dream? The game could have ended right after the final boss and been just fine.
9. Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune – El Dorado holds a sickness that turns people into zombies
In the first Uncharted, we are introduced to the brilliant mind of Nathan Drake as he, Sully, and Elena search for El Dorado, the lost city of gold. However, they discover that El Dorado is not a city but a single treasure. Things happen, and eventually, El Dorado is found to be a sarcophagus that, when opened, unleashes an illness that turns anyone who catches it into a ravenous cannibal.
This was an odd inclusion because the game went from a fun adventure about finding a treasure to a semi-horror game with these creatures. It was a complete tone shift that was out of place in a game trying to establish what the Uncharted series was.
8. Fallout 4 – Shaun is the Director of the Institute
Throughout the entirety of Fallout 4, you are on the search for your abducted son, Shaun. He was taken from your murdered partner while you spent 200 years in cryogenic sleep. As you venture through the Commonwealth, you also hear of the Institute, a group of people creating synthetic life known as synths. After endless searching, you finally come across the Institute, which you hear is who took Shaun as a baby. It turns out that was decades ago, and Shaun is now an old man and the Director of the Institute. He is also dying from terminal cancer, but his wish is for you to take over the Institute. You get a chance to betray your son’s wishes completely if you wish, which we believe most people do.
The problem with this plot twist is how you have spent dozens of hours looking for Shaun, who turns out to be one of the game’s potential main antagonists. Because of how much each faction disagrees with each other, it is impossible to make everyone happy. Shaun ends up being a pretty easy person to let down, being the leader of the group that is generally considered an evil corporation.
7. Resident Evil 5 – Jill Valentine is being mind-controlled by Wesker
When Resident Evil 5 came out with Chris Redfield as the main protagonist, the common response for RE fans was asking where Jill Valentine was. A trailer for the game hinted that she was dead, but when a mysterious masked and fully cloaked person appeared, it was pretty obvious who they were trying to hide. Turns out that during an encounter with Wesker, Jill went tumbling out a window with the former S.T.A.R.S. commander and since then he’s been mind-controlling her with a device on her chest which also was giving her superhuman speed and fighting skills. We think Resident Evil 5 is a good game but trying to hide one of your most recognizable characters under a mask and cloak while making the reason for them doing bad things is they are being controlled is just really dumb.
6. Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood – Desmond is forced to kill Lucy because reasons
The current-day story in Assassin’s Creed has always been our least favorite part of the series, and while Brotherhood was a great game, its ending was not great.
After searching endlessly for the Apple of Eden, Desmond and the crew arrive at the artifact. Our protagonist grabs the ball, and time stops as he is controlled by Minerva and forced to stab Lucy, a love interest for Desmond who is later revealed to be a double-double agent. First, she was an Assassin undercover working for the Templars, but now she was a Templar faking being an Assassin who originally was faking being a Templar. This was all probably a convoluted way to save Ubisoft some money by getting Kristin Bell off the payroll, but it got rid of probably the best side character in the series. Why couldn’t it have been Shaun Hastings instead?
5. Batman: Arkham Knight – The Arkham Knight was Jason Todd (Red Hood)
In the lead-up to the release of Arkham Knight, anyone who knew the background of Batman’s Robin sidekicks knew about the tragedy of Jason Todd. Even though he wasn’t mentioned in previous Arkham games, it was obvious that the Arkham Knight would turn into the Red Hood. In the grand scheme of things, this is an acceptable plot line to include in the game, but before it came out, Rocksteady was adamant that the Arkham Knight was a completely original character. Then the game was released, giving Bruce Wayne hallucinations of Jason Todd and hammering home to you that that would impact the story. It is later revealed that Jason was “shockingly” the Arkham Knight before immediately taking on the Red Hood mantle, never mentioning the Arkham Knight again.
The main thing that makes this twist so bad is Rocksteady trying so hard to make a well-known character try to be mysterious. This was not a mystery to anyone with basic Batman knowledge. They could have very well just had him be the Red Hood the entire time and had the same effect.
4. Call of Duty: Ghosts – Actually, you didn’t kill Rorke
If there was ever an indication that Call of Duty was trying its hardest to force dramatic plot lines in its campaigns, Ghosts was the roaring siren making its presence known. After shooting the main antagonist of the game, Rorke, directly in the heart and leaving him to drown, you and Hesh are on a beach enjoying your victory until Rorke miraculously appears alive and overpowers you. Instead of helping you not be abducted by an insane man and forced into brainwashing, Hesh lays around yelling your name as you are dragged off and thrown into a cell.
In general, Ghosts had a lot of stupid writing and awful dialogue deliveries. Unsurprisingly, we never saw the aftermath of this forced plot twist in a sequel.
3. Bionic Commando – Your arm is your wife
The reboot for Bionic Commando was not a great game by any means, but wow, was this an unneeded moment in a stupid story.
Nathan Spencer’s wife has been missing the entire time, and the protagonist is looking for answers to her whereabouts. It turns out that she had to be sacrificed and put into Spencer’s bionic arm. For the arm to work, it had to sync with Spencer on a physical and emotional level, which is just a completely asinine concept to imagine. It was a forced way to bring in a tragic, heartbreaking plot line, but it’s so insane that no one could take this seriously.
2. 12 Minutes – You are your wife’s brother and killed your father
For as interesting of a time loop that 12 Minutes introduces, things really go off the rails quickly. As you continuously work through the game’s convoluted story, you find a way to travel to the past and have a conversation with your wife’s father, who is different from the cop that invades your home but has the same voice for some reason. You find out that he had an affair with the maid who is your mother. You married your half-sister, and now she is pregnant with your child conceived through incest, oh and by the way, you killed both yours and her father. You later discover that your character didn’t know this because the cop who has been invading your apartment and killing you hypnotized you to forget everything, but he doesn’t recognize you.
The entire closing hours of this game are a complete mess of incoherent nonsense, but the main points are that you and your wife are siblings and killed your father if you’re into that kind of thing.
1. Heavy Rain – Scott Shelby is the Origami Killer
David Cage is known for making heavy narrative games that can sometimes be a little incoherent. In Heavy Rain, you are swapping between the vantage point of four different characters as the Origami Killer is on the loose. The killer’s motive is to drown young boys in rainwater and leave an origami figure nearby. Before the killer drowns them, he tests the boy’s father to prove he loves him. To keep this article short of a whole novel, one of the characters you play is a detective named Scott Shelby. He is the Origami Killer. The problem is that several plot holes along the game’s story call into question how Shelby is even alive, let alone an investigator that can kill many people.
Heavy Rain thinks it is a lot smarter than it actually is. You will have many moments playing through this game that makes you raise an eyebrow. The reveal that the killer is one of the characters you’ve been playing is not handled well and insults your intelligence.
