This article contains major spoilers for a range of games so you have been warned.

There’s nothing like becoming emotionally invested in a game then having it slap you round the face with a plot twist. You’re working your way through a story that you love, preparing for the end of a game you’ve spent hours upon hours playing and then BOOM! A main character dies, a hero ends up being a villain or the world explodes…

Video game developers love throwing curve balls at us and so us here at Gamer Laughs have put together a list of moments in video games that took us completely by surprise.

Aiden Botfield & Charlotte Mednick – Life Is Strange Episode 4 (Villain Reveal)

Aiden: “My biggest WTF moment was the end of Life Is Strange episode 4 where after many hours of gathering evidence to finally taken down the Prescotts and reclaim Arcadia for the people to be controlled by the people and not the rich shithead family. Well this is how i thought it would go. After not achieving to find Nathan at the party and he said he was going to destroy the evidence. I thought this was where we would get him. Wrong. Instead our Super Max is drugged and her best friend is shot in the head. At this moment i was like WTF but just to slither that nice bit of whipped cream on top of this strange (pun intended) cake you are greeted the face of Mark Jefferson. You’re fucking teacher. And shit only got worse from then on.”

Charlotte: “Life is Strange is my favourite game in the entire world and since that game was released I’ve been pretty much obsessed. Episode 3 left us with a huge cliff-hanger when it was first released so when Episode 4 came out and left me with more questions than answers and so many intense moments I was through the roof with bafflement… is that a word? I was baffled. Episode 4 is a roller coaster from having Chloe ask us to kill her to finding Rachel Amber’s body but the real clincher, the cherry on the cake, was the ending where not only is Chloe shot right through the head but she’s shot by… Mr Jefferson?! I can say without a doubt that I didn’t see that one coming. He was such a nice guy and the best teacher at Blackwell! I was heartbroken and confused and angry and there were a lot of feelings. Worst of all, with it being an episodic game, I had to wait months just to find out what the hell was wrong with him!”

Charlotte Mednick – Heavy Rain (Origami Killer Reveal)

“I know I’ve already been on the list but I couldn’t forget about this one. Heavy Rain is a fascinating game, and when it was first released it was unlike most games we’d ever seen. A murder mystery where you play as four different protagonists is an interesting concept and it was an amazing experience – but when you find out that you’re actually playing as the Origami Killer, the lunatic who kidnaps young boys and drowns them? Jeez, it was like someone punched me in the heart. You can’t help but become emotionally invested in the four characters (except Madison, I didn’t like her that much), so finding out Scott Shelby’s heartbreaking back story lead him to be the Origami Killer and we spent the whole game collecting and destroying evidence as him without knowing it? I was definitely not expecting that.”

Benny Gurov – Starbound (Tutorial Level)

“You’re greeted warmly by stunning scenery, peaceful orchestral music, and nice NPC’s all around smiling at you. After a nice relaxing walk around the area, you’re about to graduate as a “protector” and you even get to see the ceremony. Just when you’re about to get called onto the stage, fecal matter hits the fan hard and whoever was about to call your name gets grabbed by a giant tentacle that crashed into the room through the floor, and more tentacles crash in and and everyone dies screaming painfully in the invasion, leaving you as the sole survivor who manages to rush through bloodies hallways, filled with corpses and rubble. You get an escape pod, and leave the planet to its eternal demise as your character probably got P.T.S.D. (I know was definitely scarred by this unexpected turn of events).”

Rob Salvatore – Bioshock (‘Would You Kindly’)

“My biggest WTF moment was when I found out I was mind raped by three little words. Bioshock has an amazing story that plays out so well. You run around an under water city that is in tatters. You are befriended by a kind voice who helps you survive. You do everything this voice tells you. You feel empathetic to his plight and you want to help him find his wife. His name is plastered all over the city, a sign of hope! Atlas was the city of Rapture’s hope at a better world. You are all wrapped up in helping the city hero. He spoke ever so eloquent, “would you kindly…”. Such an innocent and polite phrase, which made the blind side that much worse. When the ball drops and you realize that Atlas was the enemy all along playing you. WYK was the phrase to which you were being controlled! You were a product of the city and you were brought back to Rapture to help over through the old regime. Now, would you kindly like and share this article!”

Cameron Corliss – The Order: 1886

“The most shocking gaming moment for me was the end of The Order: 1886. Not that the wrecked city was necessarily mind boggling, I was just shock I wasted $20 and 4 hours of my life on that piece of shit. Cape physics for the win though.”

Travis Cummings – Super Metroid (Ending)

“One of my favorite video game OMG moments also happens to be my earliest; the ending of Super Metroid. In the final battle with Mother Brain she transforms into an anamorphic brain that shoots all kinds of mental beams… well just a few but still! You quickly realize you are not powerful enough to take the Mother Brain out in her final form but Samus is no quitter. You fight valiantly but to no avail. Then a scripted event occurs in which Mother Brain attacks you with her most powerful weapon: the rainbow beam. You’re rapidly pressing all the buttons on the Super Nintendo controller trying to get Samus to stand up as the Mother Brain is charging her rainbow shot to finish you off but Samus is just too weak. As you prepare for your inevitable death, the Metroid you were sent to kill, who also happens to be the one you saved in the previous Metroid game, comes from nowhere and attaches itself to the mother brain causing her to use her ultimate attack on herself. Once she’s down the Metroid attaches to Samus and begins healing her. As your watching the Metroid heal her, the Mother Brain begins to slowly come back to life. Your watching in horror as your life is slowly going up. The Metroid heals you just in time as the Mother Brain begins to charge her rainbow attack. The Metroid flys at her, but it’s too late. She uses her attack on the Metroid finishing it off and killing the last Metroid in the galaxy. Then it happens. The theme music kicks in, Samus stands up ready to finish this once and for all. You shoot what you think is your plasma beam only to find out that the Metroid that saved your life gave you the rainbow beam as well. With Samus’s epic theme playing in the back you quickly destroy Mother Brain with the gift that your Metroid gave you. Its a tearjerker ending that makes you feel both sad and empowered while making you exclaim “Oh my god!”. I got chills just from writing this it’s so good.”

Shaun Richardson – Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (Darth Revan)

“Discovering that you are in fact the mysterious Darth Revan. This completely blew me away because I had absolutely no idea. It also made me feel immensely powerful after the fact that I’d been playing a completely evil bastard up until this point. Power and memory regained I continued my quest for galaxy domination and finally took my rightful place as the Darkest, Darthiest Darth.”

Jordi Steel – Red Dead Redemption (John’s Fate)

“I recently went back to Red Dead Redemption, as it is now comparable with the Xbox One. I completely forgot how fun it was to play in Rockstar’s western setting of New Austin, and quickly fell back in love with it. The characters are ingeniously written and help make the story immersive, and one that players will care for till the very end. The most memorable of those characters, is the main man, The Ex-Outlaw, John Marston. We quickly fall in love with John’s straight-faced yet caring attitude, as well as his outlook on his sometimes ridiculous surroundings. From start to finish we actually care about John’s mission, and want to see him succeed and live a peaceful life, so we play long and hard to reach that goal.
And then Rockstar have the balls to snatch it away from us, all our hard work put into John’s journey from a man with a haunting past to a father who can live with his loving family and die peacefully from old age plunged down the toilet like a calamari gone bad. If you’ve played the game, or don’t realise by now that this article is full of spoilers, then you’ll know of course that I am talking about John’s untimely demise by the hands of the government he was forced to help. When it seems as if John is finally free from the clutches of the people that kidnapped his family and blackmailed him into hunting down his former gang-mates, a final battle occurs when government men attack his homestead, leading to one last Dead Eye Showdown (unfortunately unsuccessful) and John being shot down by multiple men, with no chance of surviving. It is truly shocking and heartbreaking. John Marston is a rare gem among current-gen protagonists, for the one fact that we actually cared about him and his goal. Although, however ballsy it was to kill off our hero, it still made for amazing story-telling and made for a great finale to a great adventure overall.”

Jorge Olivares – Mario Party 1 (Bowser up to his old tricks!)

“From the top of my head, the most shocking moment for me was probably from the first Mario Party. After getting 100 stars I returned to Mushroom Village only to find that it had been raided by Bowser. The peaceful music had been replaced by a Bowser-ish music and there were footprints all over the place. You then find out that Bowser stole all of your stars from the bank and is headed to space to Eternal star. I was like 8 years old and didn’t know much about life so this was a pretty surprising plot twist for me. It felt like a really big and exciting adventure. I also didn’t have a computer or Internet so I had no access to spoilers. Unfortunately today innocent Google searches and Gamefaqs spoil some of my games.”

So there you have it, our favourite WTF moments. What were yours? Let us know below