Video games have the power to evoke a wide range of emotions in their players; but none are quite as effective as surprise. This could come in the form of a dramatic plot twist, but just as easily be garnered through a short, sharp shift in tone. In this way, games that begin as one thing can quickly become another; subverting the player's expectations in ways that they could never have imagined.
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Over the years, there have been plenty of games that have gone down this route, although not all of them have pulled it off quite as successfully as others. Certain games, which start out light and breezy, have been able to masterfully transition into something much darker in tone, while others, which are pretty dark from the offset, have somehow found ways to take their narratives in bleaker and more dire directions.
10 Braid
At first glance, Braid may seem like just another damsel in distress story, with players needing to work their way through seven well-designed worlds while avoiding a series of traps. The end goal is to save a princess from an evil monster, but things take a shocking twist as players approach the climax of this short but sweet indie puzzle-platformer.
It's eventually revealed that Tim, the playable protagonist, has actually been the monster from whom the princess has been running away from all along. The traps that he's been avoiding were actually set by the princess herself, with the game's fantastic time-based mechanics completely altering players' perceptions of the events that just played out before their eyes.
9 Portal
Players are given very little information at the beginning of Portal before being thrown into a series of enjoyable and thought-provoking puzzles and tests. There's nothing too sinister about the game's opening stages either, other than perhaps the thinly veiled insults from the research facility's artificial intelligence system, GLaDOS.
With the promise of a cake upon successfully navigating all of the test chambers, players are given very little reason not to follow GLaDOS' instructions. That is until they start finding messages scrawled on the walls about the cake being a lie and GLaDOS forces players to "euthanize" a companion cube. If that weren't enough to raise players' suspicions, GLaDOS eventually tries to drop players into an incinerator and it then becomes clear that she has killed everybody else in the facility.
8 The Last of Us Part 2
Set in a terrifying world in which a parasitic fungus transforms infected humans into flesh-hungry, zombie-like creatures, The Last of Us Part 2 is already pretty dark as events get underway. Things soon get a whole lot darker, however, when the protagonist from the first game is brutally beaten to death by a grudge-bearing bodybuilder with a golf club.
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Joel's death is perhaps one of the most divisive moments in modern gaming, perhaps even in the medium's entire history. Love it or loathe it though, it's hard to hard to argue that his death doesn't dramatically alter the tone of the game; making an already lonely and unforgiving world seem infinitely more deadly.
7 Bendy And The Ink Machine
Like The Last of Us Part 2, Bendy and the Ink Machine already has some pretty spooky vibes to it right out of the gate. The more that players explore the abandoned factory, however, the more terrifying things become for the protagonist Henry Stein and, in turn, the player who is unfortunate enough to be controlling him.
Many horror games like to ease players into the action, but few do so quite as masterfully as Kindly Beast's episodic title. Given what players learn throughout the events of the original game, it's hard to imagine that its upcoming sequel, Bendy and the Dark Revival, will be able to get away with the same narrative approach. As in the original game though, anything is possible.
6 Final Fantasy VI
Though each story is different in its own way, most Final Fantasy games tend to follow the same narrative structure. The same can't be said of Final Fantasy VI, however, with the villain Kefka managing to kill off half of the planet's population and fulfill his dream of taking over the world. The situation becomes so dire, in fact, that in the Japanese release of the game, the playable protagonist even attempts to take her own life.
The series is certainly no stranger to dark twists and plotlines, but, even during the darkest moments, the party doesn't usually lose all hope. Granted, Celes survives the fall and is ultimately able to reunite with the rest of her comrades and bring Kefka down, but the post-Cataclysm world in which they do so could not be more different from the one in which the game's story begins.
5 Bugsnax
Behind the bright and vivid colors of the PS5 launch title, Bugsnax, hides a terrible secret that isn't shared with players until after it's already too late. Upon eventually finding Lizbert, it's revealed that the titular Bugsnax, which on the surface look so cute and adorable, are actually parasitic creatures hoping to assume control of the Grumpuses and turn them all into more Bugsnax.
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What starts out as a somewhat charming adventure game with many childlike qualities suddenly becomes a lot more like The Last of Us. Worse still, in a secret post-credit cutscene that's unlocked by rescuing every Grumpus on Snaktooth Island, it's revealed that one of the Bugsnax has stowed away aboard the protagonist's ship and is ready to infect the outside world.
4 Drawn To Life: The Next Chapter
Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter is another game with a kid-friendly aesthetic and a terrible secret, although opts to save its plot twist for the very end of the game. It's an incredibly dark one too, which actually led to the title being re-released with large portions of the original ending being changed or removed.
In the original release, it's eventually revealed that the playable protagonist is actually in a coma after being involved in a horrific car crash that killed his parents and permanently disfigured his sister. All of the friends that he's made in Raposa will cease to exist when he wakes up, which leads to one of them trying to kill him. They don't succeed and the child wakes up, but he does so as an orphan.
3 Lemmings
Lemmings was one of the very first games to be developed by British developer DMA Design Limited, which would later go on to become Rockstar North of Grand Theft Auto fame. On the surface, it's a game about guiding cute little critters from the start of a level to the end, using tools and tactics to overcome various obstacles. After a few stages though, things take a turn for the worse.
Players will reach a point in the game where, in order to rescue the required number of Lemmings, they'll need to make some sacrifices. This could be in the form of pinning a Lemming in place to force others to turn around and walk in the opposite direction or sending an army of builders to their demise in order to build a bridge over an uncrossable gap. Granted, their deaths are not in vain, but that doesn't make them any less tragic.
2 Undertale
Undertale starts out just like any other RPG, but, as time passes, it starts to become clear that things aren't quite what they seem. The monsters that players have been killing aren't actually all that bad. In fact, it could be argued that those who stray from the true pacifist route are actually fulfilling the role of the villain every bit as much as Flowie is.
What makes Undertale such a great game is that much of its darkness is determined by the moral alignment of the player, with each approach leading to different outcomes. Given that most RPGs condition players to treat all those encountered in battle as enemies though, there's a good chance that the majority of players will find themselves treading a dark path on their first playthrough of the game.
1 Minecraft
When players first begin playing Minecraft, they'll be dropped into a bright and colorful world full of trees, streams, and cute lego-like animals. As night begins to fall, however, they'll find themselves surrounded by an army of undead creatures, including zombies, skeletons, and deadly, explosive green mobs known as Creepers.
It is possible to spare oneself from these horrors by building a base with a bed and sleeping through the night, although doing so typically requires punching a sheep or two to death in order to acquire some wool. As time passes, players will likely need to kill more and more innocent and friendly animals in order to find food, although it is technically possible to survive on a vegan diet for those willing to put in a bit more work.
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