The Top 7... Games with mega plot twists you never saw coming

1. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

The twist you didn’t see coming: Finding out you’re Darth Revan.

A newly one-handed Luke Skywalker being told his old man was none other than Billy Bucket Head was a momentous twist. So much so, it’s gone on to pretty much define the archetypal movie-ruining plot spoiler in the intervening 29 years since The Empire Strike Back. And you know what? It’s got nothing on KOTOR’s megaton twisterooni.

In BioWare’s epic Star Wars RPG, you control an amnesiac Jedi who awakens on a starship which is being attacked. Over the course of your quest, you join forces with Jedi, mercenaries and the most brilliantly homicidal robot since Johnny Number Five briefly went bad in Short Circuit 2.

As you progress, you gradually piece together former fragments of your memory, while on a quest to protect the galaxy from the evil Sith Darth Malak. Nothing to get your Midi-chlorians in a twist about yet, right? Wrong. You see, Malak once had a master who you’re repeatedly told about throughout the epic 50 hour title, who was even worse than his Dark Side-favouring rear end.

Above: Malak sure knows how to rock a crotch robe

Darth Revan was one of the most feared Sith in all the galaxy and waged a war so bloody against the Republic, he makes The Emperor look like a really sun-deprived Gandhi. See where this is going yet? If not, we’ll put it in the most simple Queen’s English we can muster up with our letter-writing digits…

YOU IS DARTH REVAN. Eh, we mean ‘are’.

Just how shocking is it, then? Looking in the mirror and finding out you’re the most evil man in the world.

What would you do if you woke up one morning and discovered you were Hitler? We’d imagine you’d be somewhat freaked. Now bottle that feeling of freaked out-ness and you’ve pretty much nailed the feeling every KOTOR player got when Malak revealed your true identity after tens of hours of playtime.

Before then, you simply assumed you were an average clean cut Jedi. You took your vitamins, you said your prayers… you occasionally extorted a poor alien sod in a dialogue choice if you were playing as a bastard. So the revelation that you were actually the baddest of all the badasses in Star Wars land was utterly jaw-dropping. It changed your opinion of your character. Made you question everything you’d done up until that point. And most of all, made you feel bad as hell.

Moving past our japes and photo-manipulating shenanigans, KOTOR’s twist remains the plot shocker we hold all other titles up to. Hmmm, the spoilers are strong in this one.

Nov 15, 2010