The Big Twist [A Way Out]
In A Way Out, you play as a pair of escaped convicts trying to reconnect with lost family and right wrongs of the past. That includes a lot of running away from cops, sneaking past cops, talking to ex-wives, and occasional Connect Four breaks. But, at the end? Sh*t gets real.
As it turns out, your two player characters have beef. One killed the other’s brother. One actually works for the FBI, and he’s working undercover. Both are good guys (in a way) and bad guys (in another, different-er way) so the whole situation is very complicated. No matter what, your former buddy pulls an epic heel-turn on your butt, and the only way to solve things is with copious amounts of deadly bullets.
Salem Stupidity [Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel]
I’ve been praised all of the heel-turns so far. Generally, I think a good heel-turn is awesome. There’s inherent drama to fighting someone we’re so connected with. I think that’s why developers pull it out as an easy trope to get us hyped for a fight. I think the developers of Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel were hoping to achieve the same effect.
Look, I played all of the Army of Two games. I even kind of liked them! But I don’t care about Salem. For reference, Salem is the skinny guy in the big guy / skinny guy dichotomy that formed the basis of Army of Two.
So why does Salem turn evil? He goes insane for an extremely stupid reason that’s too difficult to explain. He joins the eponymous Devil’s Cartel, and then you fight him as the last boss — playing as a pair of dudes that are somehow even more generic than the original guys. Look, Salem fits the criteria! He belongs on this list. But I have a hard time summoning up enough energy to speak coherently on the intricacies of video game series Army of Two.
Those are all the heeliest heel-turns in gaming. We’re only talking about main, playable characters here — so there’s a lot more evil switches we didn’t talk about in games. Tell us some of your favorites!
