Highlights
- Easter eggs are a significant part of video games, ranging from references to other media to hidden secrets that engage and reward players.
It would be entirely uncommon for a video game to lack an easter egg or two. Easter eggs can range from anything; a secret to a reference. Some of the best video game easter eggs of all time feature homages and references to other great games and pieces of media, whereas others just feature secrets that many still discuss to this day. Easter eggs are a huge part of the gaming community, and players love to hunt for easter eggs to see what fun the developers are up to.
With decades of video games to get through, it’s practically impossible to determine the best video game easter eggs of all time. The list of secrets is endless, but it can be determined that an easter egg is one of the best if it remains engaging, rewarding to find, and fun for all.
12 Batman: Arkham Asylum’s Arkham City Plans
Batman: Arkham Asylum was a marvel for DC fans, and even for those new to the Batman mythos. Batman: Arkham Asylum featured the Caped Crusader with his iconic Rogues Gallery, locked in Arkham Asylum as he fights his way out through the very criminals he put away. A sequel was bound to happen, but plans for Batman: Arkham City were actually well underway before it was even announced, and proof of that can be found in the Warden’s Office.
Upon entering Quincy Sharp’s office, players could use all the Explosive Gel gadget on a specific spot on the left wall, detonating them to explode a secret panel and reveal an office inside. Venturing in, players will find blueprints of North Gotham, renamed “Arkham City”, with a seal of approval stamped on the plans. This easter egg remained undiscovered for years and was only revealed when Rocksteady themselves showed the public this easter egg.
11 Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Finds Jar Jar Binks In Carbonite
2008 was a different time for Star Wars fans. The Prequel Trilogy had just concluded with Revenge of the Sith, and the canon of the franchise was a little all over the place with books and video games featuring the different eras of Star Wars. 2008 was a different time for Star Wars fans, and not many liked Jar Jar Binks and his cartoonish antics.
Luckily for those that weren’t a fan of Jar Jar Binks, they could find the goofy Gungan frozen in carbonite in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, a now Star Wars Legends game that featured Starkiller, Darth Vader’s secret Sith apprentice. It’s a shame there’s no way to unfreeze Jar Jar and bring him along for the adventures.
10 Diablo 2’s Cow Army
Rumors circulated surrounding the original Diablo game that there was a “Secret Cow Level”. The outcry for this rumor gained so much traction, that Blizzard themselves couldn’t help but actually add the Secret Cow Level to the sequel of Diablo, Diablo 2. Players needed to combine Wirt’s Leg and a Tome of Town Portal in the Horadric Cube in order to create a red portal that appears in the Act 1 area, bringing players into a hostile dimension.
From here, players will explode a small area filled with Hell Bovines, which, despite their namesake, are just bipedal cows with axes. It’s a hilarious easter egg, and the fact that players have to fight for their lives against cows and a Cow King just shows why people enjoy these RPGs.
9 Borderlands 2’s Creeper, Aw, Man…
Borderlands 2 is well-known for its plethora of pop culture references and easter eggs. Some of the humor in Borderlands 2 still holds up, mainly in part to the incredible villain of Handsome Jack. However, many other moments feel like a portal back into 2012 with somewhat dated references to memes and pop culture that is far older than a decade. However, one immortal attribute that everyone loves is Minecraft.
Borderlands 2 players can venture into the Caustic Caverns to find a hidden cave in the northwest section of the map. Players will find their location thanks to the square Minecraft-style blocks that they need to hit to break. Inside the cave, there will be Creeper enemies! These Creepers are directly taken from Minecraft in a wonderful crossover easter egg.
8 Silent Hill 2’s Dog Ending
Silent Hill 2 isn't exactly a game that one would expect to feature silly jokes, but that’s exactly what fans can find with the Silent Hill 2 dog ending. Obtaining one of the happier endings is fairly difficult, but players can find a different path at the Lakeview Hotel when they receive the dog key and head to the observation room on the third floor, but only after watching the videotape. This will unlock the secret Dog Ending that reveals the shiba inu dog that was behind the events of the game.
Despite this ending being a non-canon joke, the Mira shiba inu dog ending has featured in a few Silent Hill games due to how fun this easter egg is. It’s a nice change of pace from all the horrors, fog, and murders, and it features Mira as the dog that was behind all the events in Silent Hill 2 thanks to a bunch of control levers and buttons.
7 Assassin’s Creed 3 – Assassin’s Beak
Assassin’s Creed is a franchise that has existed for almost two decades at this point, and it certainly shows no signs of slowing down. When Assassin’s Creed 3 came around, players had to say a tearful goodbye to Ezio Auditore, the iconic Assassin’s Creed protagonist who had held his own trilogy. Now with the American Civil War and Connor Kenway, players had a new Assassin to learn the story of, and, a secret friend easter egg.
Players could find any turkey in Assassin’s Creed 3 and feed it a treat. Whilst doing so, players could enter the classic Konami code of Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A in order to give the turkey an Assassin’s hood, creating a rather adorable and funny Assassin Turkey for the Brotherhood.
6 DOOM (2016)’s Original DOOM Levels
DOOM had been hibernating for far too long, and Bethesda and id Software knew that it was time for the Doom Guy to awaken from his slumber in a literal fashion. DOOM (2016) didn’t try and reinvent the character, but instead brought him back as the Doom Slayer, a man who fears no Hell, for he has conquered it. The Doom Slayer rips, tears, and kills demons like a hobby, just like he did way back in 1993’s original DOOM game.
Players could actually find the classic maps and levels in the form of retro secret areas in DOOM (2016)’s main campaign. Finding a retro lever, players could activate a secret door, with original DOOM enemies from 1993. It was great fun, and nostalgic, and allowed players to see how far the Doom Guy has come, as well as the technology.
5 Cyberpunk 2077’s Bridge Baby
Cyberpunk 2077 is another video game that features plenty of easter eggs and homages to other pop culture productions, especially video games. One of the more noticeable ones may be the fact that players can literally find Hideo Kojima in Cyberpunk 2077. However, one that players might have missed, is that the Bridge Baby from Death Stranding can be found.
To find the BB from Death Stranding in Cyberpunk 2077, players need to continue through River Ward’s questline until they have access to “The Hunt” side mission. From here, they can break into a medical clinic as part of the mission. Within one of the rooms, the famed and creepy Bridge Baby lies in the artificial womb, awaiting a connection.
4 Fallout: New Vegas – Indiana Jones And The Nuclear Fridge
Yet another series that isn’t shy to show its love for pop culture, Fallout: New Vegas gets a tad cheeky with one of the best Fallout easter eggs. As many Indiana Jones fans might know, it’s often been seen as controversial and debated to have Indiana Jones survive a nuclear blast by hiding in a fridge. It seems that the developers of Fallout: New Vegas thought so too after seeing Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Players that roam the Mojave Wasteland might stumble upon an opened fridge, with skeletal remains inside. This skeleton holds an outfit similar to Indiana Jones, including a fedora, showing that the famed archaeologist couldn’t try the fridge trick when it came to the Atomic War of Fallout.
3 Grand Theft Auto 4 Discover The Heart Of Liberty City
Rockstar Games usually feature a bundle of unsolved mysteries and creepy easter eggs in their games. From the unknown Stranger in Red Dead Redemption to the beating heart of a city in Grand Theft Auto 4. Venturing to the Statue of Happiness on Happiness Island, players can walk inside the statue to discover a grizzly secret.
The statue is alive. Held together by chains and metals, the heart of the statue beats slowly, and Nico Belic can do nothing but watch this dark secret. It’s certainly creepy to see a heart larger than a car, and even creepier still that it lies within the iconic Liberty City statue. Yet, it’s just one of many unexplained and mysterious easter eggs in Grand Theft Auto 4.
2 Astro’s Playroom – A Beautiful Homage To Sony History
Those that have found themselves with a PlayStation 5 would have received Astro’s Playroom, an adorable platformer game that helps players demo the new controller functions, and learn a few things about the inner workings of the new PlayStation 5 system and hardware whilst engaging them in some fun platformer levels.
However, some fans might not be aware that Astro’s Playroom is a beautiful homage to the history of Sony Entertainment and the characters from its video game library. Players can venture through Astro’s Playroom to not only find relics of Sony’s previous consoles and controllers, but they can find such characters like God of War’s Kratos and Atreus, as well as Final Fantasy 7’s Cloud Strife. It seems that every room in the game has a character easter egg worth exploring and recognizing.
1 Call Of Duty: Black Ops – Blowing Up The Moon
Treyarch started something electrifying and horrifying when they developed the Zombies game mode for Call of Duty: World at War. What was once just a silly and experimental game mode, quickly became a stable of the Call of Duty franchise, and Call of Duty: Black Ops went bigger and bolder by featuring secret easter eggs that would reveal a storyline within the Call of Duty Zombies continuity. Although the games mainly show the story through objectives rather than the secret easter eggs of the Black Ops era, it’s a fun one to come back to.
The final map for Black Ops Zombies was Moon, which featured a rather lengthy easter egg to get all perks, as well as a game-changing easter egg that featured nuclear warheads on the Moon detonating on the Earth. Players could watch in horror or celebration as they literally scorch the Earth with nuclear weapons. Anyone who has completed a Call of Duty Zombies easter egg knows it is no easy task.