Video games today are a lot more reliant on story now than they’ve ever been, to the point where nearly every game under the sun today has some sort of narrative. The fact of the matter is that story in games sells. And many of the great story-based games have some pretty great surprises in the form of plot twists.

Defying our expectations, blowing our minds, and causing frivolous table flipping, most video game plot twists can get pretty insane--yet most of them are still intriguing highlights of the games they come from. Below are, in no particular order, my seven favorite video game plot twists.

Obviously, due to the nature of this article, there will be spoilers ahead. You’ve been warned.

7. Samus Is A Woman (Metroid)

Thanks to the likes of modern game design and Super Smash Bros., we can clearly tell that the strong-willed, beautiful bounty hunter Samus Aran is in fact a woman. But back when the original NES Metroid was all the rage, players had no idea that the character was female. The blocky, 8-bit graphics of the game made Samus look rather male in design; given that Metroid is a sci-fi side-scrolling shooter game, it’s hard not to think that Samus is male. If you finished the game fast enough, however, boy howdy were you in for a surprise.

Seeing as games still had instruction booklets back in the day, you’d think that Samus’ gender would be revealed there. However, Nintendo cleverly subverted this by only referring to the character as “Samus,” never using gender-specific pronouns. Seeing as how the Metroid franchise by nature is light on narrative, this entry is a little questionable, but hear me out. Metroid was perhaps the earliest example of a video game woman in power--and the fact that you were playing as a woman was a complete surprise, which makes it worthy of being on this list.

6. What’s Happened To Nicole? (Dead Space)

When space engineer Isaac Clarke sets foot on the mining vessel Ishimura, he is motivated by a grim message from his girlfriend, Nicole, who was a crewmember on the sprawling vessel. At the beginning of the game, we are led to believe that Nicole made the message to call for Isaac’s help. By the end of the game, however, it is revealed that the video was not an SOS--it’s actually a suicide note, and she’s been dead since before Isaac boarded the Ishimura. We and Isaac are eventually shown the full video toward the end of the game, wherein Nicole kills herself via lethal injection.

Nicole’s suicide was fairly unexpected; after all, her existence is the reason why Isaac bothers to fight through the space mutant-infested corridors of the Ishimura. To survive Hell in space and then have nothing to show for it made Dead Space’s campaign devastatingly emotional. Worse yet, Isaac becomes haunted by visions of his dead girlfriend in the game’s ending--a plot point which segues into Dead Space 2’s narrative.

5. The Truth Behind The Mansion (Resident Evil)

It seems somewhat odd that a random mansion in a forest just happens to contain zombies, mutant tarantulas, and all manner of eldritch abominations. At the end of Resident Evil, players are given the answer to their question regarding what’s really going on. It turns out that player characters Chris and Jill were actually part of a twisted bioweapons testing experiment; they were intentionally lured to the mansion at the start of the game so that the shadowy Umbrella Corporation could test the potency of its T-Virus, a parasitic bioweapon that creates all of the game’s enemies.

Worse yet, it is revealed that Chris and Jill’s superior, Captain Albert Wesker, was in on the whole thing--and moreover, he’s actually an Umbrella scientist. Wesker would go on to miraculously survive the mansion incident in the first Resident Evil and persist throughout most of the series, manipulating events directly and behind the scenes.

4. The Ending…And What Comes After (Red Dead Redemption)

The tale of John Marston’s redemption (no pun intended) is an emotionally gripping and intense one, not unlike the best Westerns out there. Players get a sense of catharsis helping the former outlaw repent for his past sins, reunite with his family, and live a normal life. But all of that is rendered moot when, in a surprising twist, the lawmen who set John off on his quest come back to take John down. In one last, one-sided gunfight, John Marston is gunned down in cold blood. Just when you think the game is over, though, players take control of a new character: John’s only son, Jack.

Jack seeks revenge for his father’s unfair, cruel murder, and players get to stick it to Edgar Ross, the agent who led the band of lawmen that killed John. After a final duel with Ross, John is avenged, and players get to witness the game’s true ending. Red Dead Redemption is often compared to cinema when it comes to its narrative, and this twist ending--plus everything that comes after--is a testament to that. The end of John and Jack’s revenge solidify the game’s story as simply unforgettable.

3. What REALLY Happened To James’ Wife (Silent Hill 2)

Silent Hill 2’s protagonist, James Sunderland, ventures into the supernatural, terrifying town of Silent Hill in search of his wife, who--despite being recently departed--is somehow alive and well within the town. Short and to the point, this is not the case; not only is she dead, but James realizes that the town is a reflection of his cognition. The nightmarish creatures he encounters, including the horrifying Pyramid Head, are reflections of his guilt. Guilt over what, you may ask? Killing his wife.

James’ entire journey not only confirms that it was James himself that killed his wife, but also helps him to come to terms with what he has done. This twist was pulled off so masterfully that it’s not really clear whether or not James is the killer until the reveal actually hits you. Needless to say, this mind-boggling twist was perhaps the most memorable in the psychologically-charged Silent Hill series.

2. Pretty Much The Entire Game (Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty)

With Sons of Liberty, director Hideo Kojima pulled the rug out from under many gamers in more ways than one. Most notably, the game bait-and-switches players from the start, replacing series protagonist Solid Snake with then-new character Raiden. Later comes the earth-shattering reveal of the Patriots, an Illuminati-like organization who, through memetic control, manipulates the social, political, and economic statuses of every country on the planet. But the insanity doesn’t end there, folks. Bombshell after bombshell gets dropped on gamers, among them the jaw-dropping reveal that Raiden’s mission to liberate the Big Shell oil drilling facility is actually a simulation intended to condition Raiden into a soldier capable of killing Solid Snake, the Patriots’ greatest threat.

Players were not prepared for the level of absolutely mind-blowing madness that Sons of Liberty would entail--and that’s part of what makes it so great. What starts as a relatively normal espionage and political story becomes, through its plot twists, a gripping, philosophical, and psychological tale where it’s hard to figure out what’s real and what’s yet another deception. The Metal Gear Solid series became heavily focused on the Patriots from this point on, effectively setting them up as the main antagonists.

Oh, and the Big Shell is actually a giant death machine disguised as an oil drilling facility. Yep. Totally saw that coming.

1. Darth Revan’s Identity (Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic)

In BioWare’s acclaimed real-time RPG, players create and name their own character and join the Jedi Order on a mission to defeat the evil Sith Empire and their insidious ruler, Darth Malak. Throughout the game, you are informed that there once was a Sith who was even worse than Malak: a terrible Sith Lord named Darth Revan, who trained Malak and almost brought the galaxy to its knees before apparently being killed. This brings us to the game’s final act, where Malak reveals that you are Revan.

It turns out that Revan was not killed by the Jedi, but severely injured. The Sith Lord was taken into custody by the Jedi Order and brainwashed to become an essential part of their plan to prevent the Sith Empire from reactivating an ancient war weapon known as the Star Forge. With the knowledge that you were once the galaxy’s greatest threat, that you have been a pawn in a game, the choice falls to you: do you stand with your light side allies in spite of their deception, knowing their actions were for the greater good and that you could repent for your sins? Or, will you ultimately choose the dark side and embrace your dark past?

Posing these dramatic questions to players made this part of the game’s plot a gripping and earth-shattering one, not unlike a certain reveal from “The Empire Strikes Back” way back when. The reveal of Darth Revan is one that is definitely dramatic enough and impactful enough to stay in your memory forever.