Basic Trope: The nature and function of a Video Game changes unexpectedly.
- Straight: Shadowy Tropes is a Beat 'em Up game featuring Dread, a Vengeful Ghost who must kill all 7 Darklords and get revenge for the death of his daughter and son. The game features an innovative combo system, dynamic music, and awesome quick-time events in fights. In one level, Dread must make a pizza delivery to one of the Darklord's secretaries before actually fighting.
- Exaggerated:
- Every level has a drastic gameplay change, each system so deep it could make its own game, to the point where the game is 50% tutorial.
- The game shifts straight from a Beat 'em Up to a Nintendo Hard Platformer for a while.
- Downplayed:
- The mission starts out normal, but Dread was transformed into a fox and must fight as one.
- The game features a stealth section with the same movement and a crudely pasted "Take-down" mechanic for only one mission as the plot demands.
- There's a QTE section where Dread makes a sandwich.
- Justified: Going in as a pizza man is the best way for Dread to actually access the Darklord in question.
- Inverted: ???
- Subverted: The mission opens up with a cutscene of Dread delivering pizza to the secretary and stutters as if gameplay starts, but it actually doesn't.
- Double Subverted: ... as the cutscene goes on, Dread decides to purchase from a vending machine and gameplay starts there.
- Parodied: ???
- Zig Zagged: The game features normal combat along with a stealth system, and switches between the two as the plot demands. Some missions can be don both stealthily and by fighting your way through.
- Averted: The gameplay does not alternate from the normal formula at all.
- Enforced: The publishers did not want too much budget going toward cut scenes that didn't explain plot or work for a trailer, so told the developers to compromise. They turned it into a playable section.
- Lampshaded: "Why am I serving pizza to my enemy's attendant?"
- Invoked: The developers wanted to change the pace of the game and give players a laugh, so decided to change the pizza delivery joke cutscene into an actual playable part.
- Exploited: One of the Darklords is aware of the Fourth Wall, so decides to attack Dread during this part of the game since he cannot fight back.
- Defied: Dread asks his brother's girlfriend Penne to deliver pizza while he sneaks in to assassinate the Darklord
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
Back to Unexpected Gameplay Change
