There’s no better day to celebrate gaming’s greatest twists than April Fools’ day

We all kind of hate April Fools’ Day by now, don’t we? Ever since Electronic Gaming Monthly frustrated ‘90s kids with a fake code to unlock Castlevania's Simon Belmont in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles—followed closely by yearly installments of LamePro and Game Infarcer—it’s been video game editorial’s unspoken solemn duty to acknowledge the stupidest day of the year.

But instead of trying to fool you into believing, say, the existence of a sequel to an unlicensed NES game after 35 years (oh, wait, there really is a Baby Boomer 2?!), let’s take a look at the times games have fooled us—not with silliness, but with clever plot twists.

One quick and very important note, which we’ll make its own paragraph for emphasis:

HUGE SPOILERS AHEAD! MANY OF THEM!

You good with that? Great. Then would you kindly read on, Darth Revan?

 

Wait, who was the Psycho in Until Dawn?

The big twist in Supermassive Games’ recently remastered horror classic Until Dawn happens about 70% into the story. After spending several hours playing as a group of attractive teenagers cooped up in a creepy cabin and avoiding the killer (or not, depending on how you play), we reach the moment of truth. The Psycho murdering everyone was...actually eventual 2019 Academy Award winner Rami Malek’s character Josh all along!

A year after a prank-gone-wrong killed both his sisters, Josh triumphantly removes his Psycho mask and reveals a blood-spilling revenge-prank of his own. One that even involved his own apparent gruesome death. Needless to say, his now-former friends don’t take too kindly to the ruse. Before he has the chance to play Freddie Mercury on the silver screen, one of his missing sisters—now a wendigo out of Algonquian folklore—takes a bite out of his scrumptious head.

…Unless you prevent that! Unlike the PlayStation 4 original, the recent remaster includes a path that allows Josh to avoid biting the dust.

 

Odin Tyr’ed up in God of War Ragnarök

Kratos and Atreus just wanted to avert Ragnarök—the end of all things—and they figured that freeing Tyr from the clutches of Odin was a fine plan to do so. After all, Tyr, the Norse god of war, was determined to put peace in the Nine Realms above anything else. Trouble is, Odin could see their next move in advance, even with only one eye. He disguised himself as the imprisoned Tyr, allowing the heroes to “save” him.

For much of God of War Ragnarök, the giant form of “Tyr” offers seemingly helpful advice and guidance, all while gathering information to help himself once Ragnarök kicks off—and about a mystical mask said to grant its wearer the ability to look into a mysterious rift in Asgard. Once “Tyr” starts asking about the mask, a dwarven ally of Kratos gets overly suspicious and inquisitive, and Odin sheds the disguise with a knife to the gut, revealing his true intentions. Poor Brok.

 

Prey preyed on your misconceptions

One huge fakeout just wasn’t enough for Prey. As you play through the meaty tutorial section, things start to repeat themselves—and it’s revealed that protagonist Morgan Yu has been trapped in a simulation aboard the Talos 1 space station for the last three years. Aliens known as the Typhon have completely overrun the station in the meantime, and you spend the rest of the game surviving in the ruins and trying to escape. Maybe you act heroically to save others, maybe you just fend for yourself. Such decisions play into how things pan out near the end.

But it’s after the end where things get twisted. Post-credits, you learn that everything since the first tutorial was actually a simulation meant to test you, and that the Typhon have fully overtaken Earth as well.

And the real kicker: You’re not Morgan Yu. You're not even human. You’re a Typhon who’s been experimented on in an attempt to create a man/alien hybrid that can hopefully help humanity reclaim Earth. Do you choose to aid that effort? Or kill everyone on the station? You’ve got one last decision to make…

 

Mass Effect shepherded in a surprise about Saren’s ship

Halfway through Mass Effect, one thing is clear: From attacking Eden Prime to assassinating a fellow Spectre, Saren Arterius is the evil mastermind you’re out to stop. Until he’s not. Commander Shepherd soon learns something much bigger is at play here. Saren’s badass ship the Sovereign lives up to its name, revealing itself as a Reaper—synthetic-organic beings that destroy advanced civilizations, and thought only to exist in myth. Whoopsie.

Saren is a mere pawn to the Reapers’ plans, kicking off an entire classic sci-fi trilogy of events.

 

Dead Space left us some serious clues, chapter by chapter

Dead Space protagonist Isaac Clarke is a pretty great boyfriend. Finding out that his girlfriend Nicole is trapped on a massive spaceship overrun by reanimated corpses, he bravely takes on a legion of these so-called Necromorphs to rescue her. When you start to find video logs featuring Nicole—and even directly encounter her from afar at times—it feels good to know you’re making progress.

Too bad you’re not. As you find out near the end of the game, Nicole is really…well, just read the first letter of each of Dead Space’s 12 chapters:

1. New Arrivals
2. Intensive Care
3. Course Correction
4. Obliteration Imminent
5. Lethal Devotion
6. Environmental Hazard
7. Into the Void
8. Search and Rescue
9. Dead on Arrival
10. End of Days
11. Alternate Solutions
12. Dead Space

Sucks having your mind altered by an evil alien artifact, doesn’t it?

 

Darth Revan was really who in KOTOR?!

With Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic on the Epic Games Store for mobile, you might wonder how arguably the biggest plot twist in gaming history can be contained on such a small device.

Here’s the thing about the reveal that Darth Revan—the Sith Lord you’ve been hearing about for a couple dozen hours—is actually you, the player: It’s not only a clever twist, it exemplifies a moment that fully takes advantage of gaming as a medium. Sure, you could land such a revelation in a live-action film with force (heh). But only by inhabiting the character yourself (via an avatar very possibly created to resemble your own scruffy-looking, nerf-herding mug) does it land with such impact.

It really makes you feel your role in one of the greatest role-playing games in the galaxy.

 

BioShock kindly turned things sinister

The power of BioShock’s well-known three-word twist, “Would you kindly?”, remains a fooled-you favorite for many of us because it works very well on two distinct levels. Most obviously, the revelation that you were programmed to do whatever is asked of you when that phrase is uttered flies in the face of everything Andrew Ryan—who founded the underwater civilization of Rapture as a utopia celebrating free will and individualism—stands for. The irony is thick as he chooses to die on his own terms at the hands of a man who cannot control his actions.

Perhaps even more interesting than the narrative level, however, “Would you kindly?” also subverts the very act you’re doing right then and there in real life—playing a video game. BioShock reveals your own lack of free will whenever you play a game, rarely questioning the next objective the developers hand you. We’re basically exerting our own choice (i.e., deciding to play the game) so that we ourselves may be controlled.

Sorry to disappoint you further, Mr. Ryan.