Games Where The Tutorial Lies To You

Good video games almost always include tutorials. These lessons help players learn how to play and understand the game’s basic rules, while also introducing them to the game’s world. However, some games use tutorials in a clever way – they might seem to teach you one thing, only to completely change the rules later on in the story, creating a surprising twist.

These games often build compelling stories by subverting player expectations and carefully revealing twists at just the right moment. They also subtly introduce gameplay mechanics and story elements, encouraging players to learn and discover things on their own without direct instruction. This hands-off approach creates a more natural and ultimately more satisfying experience.

Dark Souls

The Absence Of Details Is The Real Lesson

Many core systems are never explained.
The narrative mirrors this mechanical obscurity.

Dark Souls is a prime example of a game that doesn’t hold the player’s hand. Like many similar games, it intentionally keeps a lot of information hidden – from how certain game mechanics work, like the Hollowing system, to the deeper story and the world’s history. This lack of clear instructions makes exploring feel risky and rewarding, because players have to figure things out for themselves without much help or guidance.

This design choice is intentional. The creators want players to discover things for themselves and bravely face challenges, instead of being constantly told what to do. It might take a while to learn how the game works – the initial tutorial doesn’t reveal much about the deeper story or gameplay – but once players understand the core mechanics and the importance of their quest, they’ll feel a powerful sense of purpose that drives them forward in their battle against the game’s darkness.

The Stanley Parable

Manipulation Right From The Start

Direct instructions exist to be defied.
Player agency becomes the main tool for progress.

The game The Stanley Parable begins with a calm narrator who seems to be leading you through the story, suggesting that following his instructions is the only way to progress. It initially feels like a tutorial, implying that obedience will unlock the narrative. However, this is a trick. The game’s real purpose only becomes clear when you choose to disobey and ignore the narrator’s directions.

The game The Stanley Parable cleverly draws players in by subtly manipulating their sense of trust. It feels like a tutorial, but it actually misleads you – the game’s ‘correct’ path isn’t what the narrator tells you to do; success comes from deliberately going against their instructions.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty

Training For The Wrong War

Expectations are intentionally misaligned, right down to who the protagonist is.
This trains players to obey orders.

The beginning of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty functions as a lengthy tutorial, introducing players to the game’s stealth systems, how missions work, and what kind of story to expect—building on what they experienced in the first game. It leads players to think they’re playing a typical hero’s story, but that assumption will soon be challenged.

The game initially leads you to believe certain actions are right, but as the story unfolds, it flips the script. You’re encouraged to follow orders and complete goals without thinking, only to find the game criticizing others for doing the very same thing. While the way you play doesn’t change, your understanding of it does. Eventually, you realize you haven’t been guided towards victory, but cleverly manipulated.

Spec Ops: The Line

Hiding Lies Behind Heroism

Familiar gameplay loops obscure the truth.
Complicity becomes the central theme.

At first, Spec Ops: The Line seems like a typical military shooter, playing into common themes of the genre. The game initially encourages players to act aggressively, rewarding quick and decisive action – even shooting enemies immediately – making it appear to prioritize efficiency over careful consideration.

As the story gets more intense, actions that seemed acceptable at first begin to feel questionable and even disturbing. Spec Ops: The Line doesn’t alter how you play the game, but it dramatically changes your understanding of why your actions have consequences. The game doesn’t tell you you’re doing something wrong; instead, it makes you realize it for yourself, often after it’s too late to fix things.

Prey

Simulating An Entire Reality

Artificial early safety belies a challenging open world.
Later revelations play into the early ideas of simulation.

Okay, so when I started playing Prey, the beginning was really weirdly… normal. It walked me through the basics – how to interact with stuff, move around – but it felt like a really clean, organized place. It totally tricked me into thinking everything was safe and under control. Then, boom! It turns out the people I thought I could trust were actually the ones causing all the problems. It was a seriously unsettling twist!

Throughout the game, key discoveries change how players understand the story and the world around them. At its heart, Prey explores themes of deception and control, and the frustrating reality that players are ultimately powerless to overcome them.

BioShock

Obedience Disguised As Choice

Narrative intentions are revealed only late into the game.
The tutorial becomes recontextualized by the end.

The beginning of BioShock eases players into the world of Rapture, initially appearing like a typical action game with clear directions and objectives. It gives the impression of freedom, encouraging exploration, but cleverly guides players along a predetermined route using carefully designed events and obstacles. The game later reveals that this wasn’t a choice at all – players were being directed the whole time.

The biggest problem with this tutorial isn’t technical—it’s about how it frames the game. It falsely suggests players have real choices. By encouraging them to simply follow directions and stay on a predetermined path, it locks them into a story where they can’t change anything or rebel against what’s happened.

Portal

Teaching Without Revealing The Truth

The neutral tone masks the actual experimentation at play.
Mechanics remain the same, but the tone shifts completely.

The tutorial in Portal is famous for being clever, funny, and easy to remember. It teaches complicated gameplay concepts using simple puzzles and quickly introduces the game’s setting without relying on lengthy explanations or cutscenes. This creates a sense of trust in the player, leading them to believe everything is as peaceful as it seems at first.

The story reveals the tutorial wasn’t meant to help the player solve puzzles, but to watch how they behaved – treating them like a test subject, not a person. When things become dangerous, the helpful tools from the tutorial suddenly become essential for escaping, transforming a simple introduction into a fight for survival.

Braid

Innocence With A Dark Secret

Early sections are intentionally misleading.
The final twist rewrites the entire narrative.

The tutorial in Braid is similar to many others, teaching players how to bend time to solve puzzles. It emphasizes that mistakes aren’t a big deal, as they can be easily fixed. This makes the game feel lighthearted and forgiving, encouraging players to experiment without fear of failure.

As the story progresses, the game’s time-bending mechanics become more unsettling. What initially felt like a way to fix mistakes transforms into a means of control, making players reconsider their choices and the nature of the world itself. By presenting time as something easily manipulated, the game subtly obscures its true meaning until the very end, when a shocking reveal forces you to view everything that happened in a completely new light.

2026-01-28 04:38