As if there's no shortage of fake stuff in the world already, some of the friends the players make in video games also had to be fake. Just as the false friend trope is a common shock tactic and plot twist in literature, it's also quite rampant in video games. False friends in video games don't necessarily reveal themselves in betrayals, but the worst of them do.
Thus, the most heartbreaking fake friend moments in video games are those that often result in unexpected harm both physical and psychological. Turns out those smiles were fake and those handshakes were backhanded. False friends do make for compelling villains; through these following games, they prove that maybe, the real enemies are the friends we make along the way.
8 Big Smoke Turned Out To Be A Big Rat (Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas)
What made Smoke flip out like that in GTA: San Andreas was not CJ failing to follow the damn train, but because he got caught up in the money, the power. And all those moments of joy with him spilling tasty fast food on the backseat of Sweet's station wagon during a Ballas' drive-by chase were nothing but a fake moment of happiness.
CJ just had to find out for himself that Smoke was also the one who killed his mother. More than that, Smoke also conspired with the Ballas and the corrupt San Andreas cops in a bid to take over the neighborhoods all over the city. In the end, he was the ultimate antagonist for a GTA game; it was a good thing that CJ managed to kill him before those two number nines and a number nine large clogged Smoke's arteries.
7 Harry Flynn Proves There's No Honor Among Thieves (Uncharted 2: Among Thieves)
Harry Flynn was a long-time friend and associate of Nathan Drake, and the two of them shared a passion for treasure and treasure hunting. Drake was never a morally upright character, but his sociopathic tendencies pale in comparison to Harry Flynn and his psychopath habits.
Flynn was a master liar and manipulator who befriended Drake for a chance to gain an advantage in chasing treasures in Shangri-La. When Flynn revealed his true intentions, Drake got imprisoned for three months in an unfamiliar place. To add insult to injury, Flynn was rather smug and condescending about his betrayal.
6 Norah Turned Out To Be A Jealous Stepsister (Child Of Light)
Norah was initially the picture of a perfect older sister to Aurora in Child of Light. She was attentive, and she even admired Aurora. Sadly, they're royalty and Norah's mother, who's Aurora's stepmother and the new legal queen, was out to snuff out the proper royal lineage.
So Norah, whose real name was Nox, helped her mother carry out their plan to banish Aurora and have her killed. Aurora was quite furious about this since Norah seemed like she genuinely liked Aurora and was just obeying her mother's commands. But deeds weighed heavier than intentions, and Norah had to be put down.
5 The Boss Was Secretly A Triple Agent (Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater)
The Boss was a parental figure and an important friend of Snake. She was his mentor and someone who raised him to be one of the best soldiers and spies in the Metal Gear franchise. But as it turns out, Snake's not the only snake in Metal Gear Solid 3. The Boss was secretly a double agent for the Soviets, and she even rubbed the salt in Snake's wounds while defecting.
Such an event was the biggest turning point for Snake's career as a soldier and an initiation rite to the dangers of his line of work. However, as The Boss dies by Snake's hand, she reveals in her dying breath that her defection to the Soviets was the United States government's ploy. Poor Snake never knew what to feel from that day on.
4 Kreia Was A Disgraced Sith Lord (Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2)
Speaking of mentors turning heel, Kreia was one of the most shocking revelations in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2. She helped the players rise up to power and become proper Force users. She even presented herself as a morally gray character— someone who could guide the players in whichever path they took.
But near the end of the game, Kreia came rushing back to old habits; she was a Sith Lord named Darth Traya and, with no hesitation, took up her black mantle once more after the players "helped" her against her enemies. Ultimately, Kreia merely needed a tool against the Jedi and the Sith, and the Exile was the perfect template.
3 Pavel Was Secretly A Secondary Antagonist (Metro: Last Light)
Metro: Last Light is a dark game with an equally bleak and hopeless setting. So when players met someone like Pavel on the horrid subway tracks of the Metro, the trust was understandable. Pavel was friendly, helpful, and jolly. He was the quintessential comrade who didn't hesitate to form an alliance with the players when anyone else would have gone for the easy kill.
Too bad he was a secret Red Line official, a totalitarian socialist party in the Metro. And Pavel was scheming all along after finding out that the player character was an enemy. Pavel sold out the players, leaving them for dead. This made the final confrontation with him all the more poetic and bittersweet.
2 Wheatley Was An Opportunist All Along (Portal 2)
Speaking of jolly companions, Wheatley from Portal 2 was also another shining example. He woke up the players and even nursed them back to fighting shape so they could confront and fight GLaDOS, which is the evil robot overlord in the game's testing facility. But all along, Wheatley was an opportunist who merely saw the player as a tool that could help them usurp GLaDOS.
All those jokes and wisecracks, all that bonding between puzzles, was nothing but a farce for funny old Wheatley as soon as all the power got to his head.
1 Ada Wong Doesn't Want To Be Just Friends (Resident Evil 2)
From the moment Leon Kennedy saw that foxy secret agent in a red dress, he really should have steered clear. Even Ada told her to stay away. But like a moth to a flame, Leon kept pursuing Ada with puppy eyes. For a while, it seemed that the two were forming a bond; Ada looked after Leon and vice versa. The two were a glimmer of hope and romance in a zombie apocalypse.
But Ada simply valued her ambitions more and, near the end of the game, chose to betray Leon. Was everything fake to her? The teamwork? The saving? The kiss? Maybe. Maybe not. But it was heartbreaking nonetheless, and Leon stopped being a naive rookie from that point on.