Betrayal

[Kongamato]

In today's video games, any story that goes beyond the standard "kill everything that moves" always seems to involve your commander or one of your trusted friends double-crossing you, leading to an inevitable showdown. The betrayal has become almost as common in gaming as storage crates. I remember that for me, the first(and last) effective character betrayals came in MGS and Xenogears. After those, I started to expect and even predict them.

When was the last time you were actually shocked by a character's betrayal (or, any other kind of plot twist) in a video game? Do you agree that this certain plot twist is being over-used, and will things get any better in the future? Don't forget your spoiler tags.

You can also check out the net's list of RPG cliches here:http://project-apollo.net/text/rpg.html

[Geoffrey S]

Mafia,

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Sam's betrayal

and an Alpha Centauri game I lost last year; I'd had a solid alliance with the UN peacekeepers playing as Morgan Industries, during which we'd held a common front against the Spartans. Both our lands were small, and the Spartans had better troops and numbers. Then suddenly, the Peacekeepers attacked me and allied with the Spartans, and both thoroughly flattened me and reduced me to a small area at the edge of a continent and some seabases. Despite my best efforts they gradually broke my down, and I lost. Great game.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

In M:TW when the Spanish betrayed me.

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Actually, I can't really think of any that actually shocked me. Except for maybe Lambert in Chaos Theory.

[The Wizard]

Every time the AI got jealous in MTW and mass attacked me.

Besides that, I can't really think of a good one.

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Suffice to say the last one, Kaileena in Warrior Within was neither surprising, nor shocking, nor in any way well-placed enough to awaken any emotions. Nice boobies, though.

Wait... here's a good one:

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Yoshimo in BG2... the bastard betrayed me just when the going was getting tough. I got him good though, ripped his heart out

[econ21]

I must be too trusting - I keep being disappointed in my fellow (albeit digital) man.

In no particular order, KOTOR2:

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Well, maybe Kreia turning out to be the big baddie was not so shocking - although nicely done when her portrait replaced the Darth's on the loading menu. But the whole Jedi Council turning on me...

I really enjoyed the treachery in Max Payne 2:

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Vladimir Lem, having assured me I was the "dearest of all my friends". The fact that he said that to everyone should have alerted me, I guess, but only added to his charm somehow. Winterson was a surprise, but then I was not quite sure who Winterson was anyway, so it did not really register much. Did Mona betray me too? I really was a little clueless as a detective...

I am not sure if I was spoiled about NWNs official campaign:

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But the black and white drawing of a mad manga style Aribeth after the unjust killing of her lover said more than a thousand words. Like Kreia, she was a traitor I really did not want to kill.

I was definitely spoiled about System Shock 2, but the revelation still rocked:

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"The Polito lifeform is dead, insect".

Vampire Bloodlines had a definite climatic betrayal, although I luckily managed to avoid it.

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One would be a definitely annoyed to side with the Que-Jin and discovered your end - tied to the sarcophagus and thrown into the sea.

I actually wonder if the definition of a good RPG is that it has memorable treachery in it. I don't recall any betrayal in all the hack and slash rubbish I've played - either there wasn't any or the characters were so uninvolving, you don't remember it. I suppose BG1, Deus Ex and KOTOR1 did not have betrayal per se, but their twists - centring on your character's nature - were even more juicy, IMO.

[Zalmoxis]

Yeah, Kotor had no betrayal. I don't think Splinter Cell 1 had any betrayal either, did it?

[GoreBag]

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Yoshimo in BG2... the bastard betrayed me just when the going was getting tough. I got him good though, ripped his heart out

Yeah, that was a good one. It sucks, too. I really liked Yoshimo.

[Ironside]

Vampire Bloodlines had a definite climatic betrayal, although I luckily managed to avoid it.

Interestly, I think she's right when she refers to you transcending your fate. That the new fate isn't pleasant for you is another issue though...

[AggonyDuck]

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Yeah, the Yoshimo betrayal did come rather unexpected. A rather sad figure overall, but you just couldn't hate him for betraying you either.

[GoreBag]

Oh, I hated him alright. I was just bummed that he did it.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

I don't think Splinter Cell 1 had any betrayal either, did it?

No, there weren't any major ones

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until Splinter Cell 3

[Don Corleone]

I was surprised, not because of the 'betrayal', i.e. my 'feelings' weren't hurt, but the sheer stupidity of the betrayal in:

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GTA3:Vice City, Lance Vance was just too damned stupid to live.

[Craterus]

GTA:III and GTA:VC are two different games.

You're talking about GTA:VC. That was the betrayal that came to mind for me when I saw this thread.

[AggonyDuck]

Another betrayal that I didn't see coming was [in Jade Empire]

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Master Li betraying you in Jade Empire. I thought I had finished the game and the next second instead my dear master decides to kill me.

Edited to protect innocent eyes. froggy.

[econ21]

Aaargh! AggonyDuck, you are forgetting what spoiler markers are for!

Please bookend your spoiler with [spoil ] and [/spoil ] but without the spaces.

Jade Empire is coming to the PC - I'm looking forward to it; Bioware is the god of RPGs IMO. Their space RPG for the Xbox360 sounds particularly awesome.

[AggonyDuck]

Sorry, I didn't think clearly.