Top 10 Video Game Betrayals

You wake up in the beginning of this game with no memory of the past three years. Thankfully, Daina is here to help you out…or so you think. She claims to have a cure for your dementia, and she leads you through the Sprawl, the space station where the action takes place. Unfortunately, it turns out she’s a religious nutjob who only wants to spread Convergence and turn you into an undead Necromorph. Pretty much insane cult plan 101.

Having to fight with Reapers in the fictional version of Tokyo in which this game takes place is a scary prospect. On the plus side, you’ve got this smart teenage boy to help you out—at least at first, because he sacrifices himself to save you from an explosion created by one of the Reapers. He later reveals that he made the rules to the Game where you fight them, and he subsequently shoots you in the face.

We knew that life was rough in the Wild West, but we didn’t realize it was this bad. When you help the government agent out and turn your back on your former gang leader Dutch, you assume that they’ll let you go back to your family. Ross lets you go home, but he later attacks your ranch with the US Military, an action that is illegal by the way, leading to John going down in a blaze of glory.

This Jedi princess seems like a damsel in distress when she gets kidnapped by Darth Malak, but once you go to save her, you find out that you’ve got things mixed up. It turns out that she’s an apprentice to the Sith Lord, and she rewards your attempt to help her by challenging you to a one-on-one fight to the death.

Life is pretty bad under the Confederacy, the powerful faction that rules at the beginning of this game, so you’re happy to help Arcturus and the Sons of Korhal lead the rebellion. But, you can’t build a Terran Dominion without breaking a few eggs. In this case, the egg in question is Sara Kerrigan, who’s left to the mercy of the zerg swarm and abandoned by Mengsk’s fleet. But hey, he had big plans for taking over the galaxy himself.

Captain Wesker seems like a good commander at first. Whether you play as Chris or Jill, you’re happy to have him as the Alpha Team leader to help you get away from the ferocious dogs and zombies. But he only helps you until he reveals that he’s a double agent working for the evil Umbrella Corporation, and he lured you to the Spencer mansion to use you as a test subject. And you thought your boss was a douche.

Call of Duty fans probably saw this one coming, as this installment was filled with shocking plot twists. Shepherd seemed like a good leader, but when victory seemed sure he turned around and shoots you in the face, pretty much because he watched the Rock and thought that Ed Harris’ character had a good point. His betrayal is short lived, but has a lasting impact since the rest of the world saw Shepard as a hero.

No matter how much you help someone, you can never be sure how they’ll repay you in this series, all the way from Big Smoke in San Andreas to from Dimitri in GTA IV. With Lance, you save his life and avenge the death of his brother, but even that’s not enough to keep him on your side. He gets tired of you not treating him like an equal, and rats you out to your former boss in order to get you rubbed out.

At first, this AI Core seems like a loveable moron. Later on, we know that he’s still an idiot, but not a nice one. Rather, he’s a power-crazed lunatic who’s been programmed with a serious inferiority complex. The second he gets to sit in GlaDOS’s control chair, there’s no going back. Even worse, you just put him in charge of the whole facility you’re trapped in. Before we get to our number one, let’s take a look at some honorable mentions:

#1: Atlas “BioShock” (2007)

Also in:

Starlink: Battle For Atlas - MojoPlays Review

Would you kindly put this betrayal at the top of our list? We didn’t need a criminal mastermind controlling us to make us name this the best act of duplicity in gaming. Atlas helps you overcome the enemy Splicers and Big Daddies in the underwater city of Rapture. But when you finally help him putt an end to Andrew Ryan, he reveals himself to be the evil Frank Fontaine, who’s been controlling you with this simple phrase. Do you agree with our list? Which video game betrayal made you cringe? For more treacherous top 10s published daily, would you kindly subscribe to WatchMojo.com.