In the beginning, video games did not come into this world for their stories. People did not concern themselves so much with why they were driving a race car or who was on the rocket ship they controlled. Today however, good writing and video games go hand-in-hand.
Gamers typically expect their games to have characters, backstory, and plot. Many even care about the writing more than the graphics and mechanics, as we have seen from the massive popularity of Undertale or little 8bit games with followings like The Witch’s House.
There are two sorts of phenomenon when it comes to games that lean heavily on story: plot twists and plot holes.
Plot holes are born of weak writing. It’s a part of the story where you realize something just does not work. Maybe how a character got from point A to point B is missing or something in the game just never gets explained that boggles the mind. We are going to list sometimes when video games had major plot holes that bothered fans.
Twists are another matter though. That’s when a story goes somewhere unexpected, but can be well explained. You can either love them, or hate them, and fans do not usually land in the middle. As objective as they are, we are also listing some video game twists that we think are awesome.
30 Plot Hole: Fallout 3 And The Unneeded Sacrifice
This plot hole took the cake of the most unneeded self-sacrifice seen in a game. In fact, this end-game plot hole was so big that the company later released DLC that changed the end story. As the main character in this game, you are forced to sacrifice yourself or another character to turn on a water purifier due to intense radiation. The hole was that you had mutants friends who could have turned on the purifier and survived. So why sacrifice yourself if Fawkes or Charon standing next to you can do it without any harm?
29 Plot Hole: There Are Too Many "Last" Metroids
The so called “last” Metroid has been finished off by Samus multiple times. So which Metroid will truly be the last? According to the timeline in fact, the “last” Metroid has been defeated three times. This is worse than the many times we “defeat” Ridley since these Metroids are always known as the “last” as if to try to make defeating it a big deal.
Hardcore fans know the timeline itself is a mess though, with in-game evidence showing tons of discontinuity. Hey, at least it’s not as complex as the Zelda timelines?
28 Awesome Twist: Booker Is Comstock In BioShock Infinite
Other lists may put this under “worst twists,” but the fandom is basically split in half when it comes to this one. What makes this twist so good is the idea that a single action can change who you are in the future.
In BioShock, that example is whether Booker decided to be baptized or not.
This created two timelines, one with him as a villain, and the other with him as a hero. This twist also made a great explanation for why Comstock took his daughter specifically.
27 Plot Hole: Assassin's Creed’s Mind-Control Retcon
The overall story for the Assassin’s Creed series is very convoluted. Basically, we got gods who ruled over man and controlled their will, and assassins were a group of people that could not be controlled.
That is except when they are controlled, as the end of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood taught us.
Desmond, an assassin, gets controlled by a god to attack Lucy and it works. But why? We don’t know! It’s probably because the writers wanted a surprising thing to happen but did not think about their own lore.
26 Plot Hole: Raiden’s Random Lightning Power In Metal Gear Solid 4
The Metal Gear franchise if full of plot holes when it comes to people’s powers. However, that’s a big part of what makes the franchise fun. Hideo Kojima writes ridiculous characters that do insane stunts that range from cheesy to surprising. A man that controls bees in the Cold War? Done. A vampire? More than done.
Raiden became an amazing fighter in Metal Gear Solid 4, but fans choked on their drinks when Raiden could randomly channel lightning. He does it once and never again. That goes to show that Kojima can get away with anything and we’ll thank him for it
25 Awesome Plot Twist: You're Revan In Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic
This whole game is mopping up a mess made by the presumably dead Dark Jedi, Revan. You find out later that Revan didn’t get eliminated. His or her memories were simply erased to see if they could be redeemed. So surprise! Revan is you!
That’s sort of a big deal since their presence is in every corner of the game’s lore.
This was listed as one of the most jaw-dropping moments in video games in Edge magazine. GameDaily has also listed it as a top video game spoiler.
24 Plot Hole: A Baby Raised Itself In BioShock?
BioShock’s successful twist that Jack is a brainwashed experiment is what bred this plot hole. So Jack was made in Rapture, and then given hormones that will make him grow fast, and then was given fake memories before being sent on land.
That covers all bases except one: how did he survive?
Growth hormones or no, he still had to eat, take shelter, and survive on his own. If they implanted knowledge in him to do these things, that was never explained.
23 Plot Hole: Early Resident Evil Game? Don’t Worry About The Virus
A ton of zombie stories can have issues sticking with their rules about the zombie virus. The Resident Evil games are a major contributor to this fact, as all their early protagonists have inexplicably avoided contracting the zombie virus. We are talking about people who get bitten, spat on, and licked by these creatures!
Does this mean if something does not happen in a cutscene, it isn’t story? Some players say that’s the case for this plot hole and we’re just going to have to suspend our disbelief a little more.
22 Awesome Plot Twist: Danse Is A Synth In Fallout 4
Let’s be honest, a lot of players saw the Shawn twist coming. What we did not see coming though was that a synth hating companion who is with the Brotherhood of Steel turns out to be a synth himself. It was a big move by Bethesda, as they usually do not give such twists to companion characters. This twist easily could have felt overdone, but Danse’s reveal and the build-up to what you do with this information felt pretty cool.
21 Plot Hole: Leader Of Locusts Is Human In Gears Of War 3
When we have inhuman creatures seeking to destroy humanity, it’s a descent twists for their leader to be a human. Except when that little twist is never explained, then it is just silly.
Meet Myrrah, leader of the locusts in Gears of War 3.
What is distressing is how this woman became the leader of the locusts sounds like it would make for a fantastic story. However all the questions as to what was up with this woman was just met with cricket sounds in the game. Want answers? Read the books.
20 Plot Hole: Ending Your Own Life Is Pointless In God Of War
At the beginning of God of War, Kratos is standing over a cliff in an attempt to end his own existence. Why? So his pain can end. However, how is that possible when it’s canon that souls go to a miserable afterlife? We see it ourselves multiple times when visiting Hades’ realm. The departed do not get to rest, they get to fall for eternity or get into some other sick God contraption. After what he witnessed and experienced, how did Kratos not realize that his end would not be an ideal escape?
19 Awesome Plot Twist: The Villain Reveal In The Walking Dead: A Telltale Game Series
The zombie apocalypse does not necessarily need a villain, so if you do have a villain, you best be sure that you do it right. There is Negan and the Governor from the TV show and comics, but what if the villain is more of a regular guy instead of some over-the-top leader?
Telltale pulled off a great twist in making their villain be a random guy you stole from in the early chapters. It shows what kind of world the zombies are creating where it’s not over-the-top villains you have to worry about, but regular people.
18 Plot Hole: Not Getting Defeated, Except When You do In Destiny
This is when game mechanics and story are not meant for each other. A Guardian’s Ghost has the ability to revive them from being eliminated. It’s a big deal, as it’s what makes Guardian’s special. Despite this in-game lore though, there are places you cannot respawn. It’s never explained why.
It’s an invisible rule, a mechanic that does not care about story.
Obviously, a game needs challenge, but a more cleverly thought out story or mechanic could have fixed this little plot hole.
17 Plot Hole: Mass Effect 3's Space Magic Ending
The ending to this popular trilogy incited mass rioting among the fans. So many plot holes happened in the ending that Bioware made free DLC to fix their errors. The many plot holes included how your companions got to the Normandy, why would they abandon Shepard, why the Reapers did not move the Citadel despite knowing it could destroy them, how does everyone just become cyborgs in the green ending, and why the Reaper A.I. is taking the form of a child.
Even with the DLC, not all these questions were answered.
16 Awesome Plot Twist: You Are Not Saving The Princess In Braid
Now this twist was left open to interpretation. The game started as a typical “save the princess” plot until you realize that the princess is trying to escape from you. The person we thought the monster was is actually her savior. Yikes.
Then what is going on?
Due to the game's visual nature and use of certain quotations, many fans have theorized that the entire story is symbolic. The princess is actually a manifestation of the atomic bomb and that the protagonist is the manifestation of a scientist’s guilt.
15 Plot Hole: Time Paradox In Ocarina Of Time
A story with time travel is a gold mine for plot holes that they even have their own name: time paradoxes. In the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, a big paradox exists. Of course it had to though, since the whole story is about time manipulation.
Link learns the “Song of Storms” from an NPC.
Link then time travels back in time and teaches that same NPC the song that the character will later teach him. Wait, so how did he learn the song to teach it to us in the first place for us to teach him?
14 Plot Hole: Aeris’ End Could Have Been Avoided
All other threads and lists out there talk about Phoenix Down, but not here! We know that Phoenix Downs only brings out Final Fantasy characters from a knocked out state, not death. So what really could have been used to save Aeris from her fate? The website, What Culture, has written that a revive materia is out there can could restore life itself. Or the planet’s life stream could have revived her. The real deal is that many fans think Aeris was not meant to go.
13 Awesome Plot Twist: Your Psychologist Made You Insane In Alice: Madness Returns
The buildup alone to this plot twist was well-done when the game’s very own loading screen foreshadows the twist. Alice from Alice in Wonderland goes mad and Wonderland becomes a nightmare after her whole family perishes from a fire.
In Madness Returns, your psychologist tries to get you to forget your trauma in order to heal your mind while Wonderland does the opposite.
Then we realize the real reason the psychologist wanted us to forget: he eliminated our family and started the fire.
12 Plot Hole: Max's First Use Of Her Power In Life Is Strange
While this video game is about time travel, this plot hole is actually not a time paradox. Instead, it’s about how Max’s power works differently the first time she uses it and it’s never explained why. She saw Chloe get hit, used her power for the first time and ended up back in her classroom.
The issue is that her power never works that way again. The way the game works from then on is that time moves while Max does not. In other words, she should have still stood that bathroom.
11 Plot Hole: The Emperor Is Not Important In Skyrim
When you get as open world as the Elder Scroll games, a lot in the story can go wrong. When a player can do anything, writing consequences is difficult. This was most noticeable when the players ended the Emperor’s life in Skyrim with no consequences.
That hurt the game was that this was a quest storyline for the Dark Brotherhood.
It feels important at the time you do it, but afterwards, the characters and world act the same. With politics playing a big part in the games’ story, this really felt like a plot hole.