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Sometimes, the game acts like the protagonist knew exactly what he was doing all along, despite the player having no real idea where things were heading. Is most commonly found in Platform Games.
Generally due to [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]]. See also [[But Thou Must!]] and [[Solve the Soup Cans]]. Not to be confused with [[No Sidepaths, No Exploration, No Freedom]], which refers specifically to the level layouts themselves, unlike this which applies more to how the plot handles the characters progression and can apply to almost any sort of level layout. Indeed, the 'main questline' in most [[Wide Open Sandbox]] games tends to function like this with much of the openness coming from the vast variety of [[Sidequest|Side Quests]] and other diversions that the player can indulge in if they don't care about finishing the game.
[[Excuse Plot]] can be a justified or variation of this trope.
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== [[Action Game]] ==
* The ''[[Devil May Cry]]'' series and the Xbox ''[[Ninja Gaiden]]'' games are particular examples of this; in most cases you are just following the route, kicking ass and solving the occasional puzzle with no real motivation or target other than the next scrap, yet you always seem to end up right where you need to be for the storyline to progress.
* ''[[God of War (series)|God of War]]'': Both of the [[
** The plotted line becomes even more obvious in the sequels. Kratos is flung all over the place, from the Greek mythological afterlife to mount Olympus. You never know where he'll go next, but the plot somehow keeps up with him.
== [[First-Person Shooter]] ==
* ''[[Doom]] 1'' and ''2'' follow this trope; there's a basic storyline suggesting you have a goal, but most of the time level themes are so abstract you aren't even sure what a level is supposed to ''be''. This also applies to most other early FPS games (being some of the earliest 3-D games).
** Not to mention all other id games, from the [[Quake
** I would say this is more true for Thy Flesh Consumed and a few of the ''Doom II'' levels. For the most part the level names let you know what a level is ''supposed'' to be. It's true that the execution was often a little wonky.
*** Originally, the levels were supposed to be realistic, but it was discovered that they wouldn't be fun at all, so the team went for an abstract style. (Even today, when some [[Game Mod|WAD]] author tries to release a "realistic" ''Doom'' map, the results are almost universally unappealing.)
** Explained in the novels as our universe merging badly with the invading forces.
* ''[[Half-Life]] 2'' attempts to [[Justified Trope|justify]] this, with various storyline hints that other characters are laying the route out for you in the background.
** If anything, the original game was far worse about it. There was almost always just one accessible route through the twisted wreckage of Black Mesa, and it always took you exactly where you needed to go.
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** Interestingly, in early design stages the maps were large and allowed players to take multiple paths to the finale. However, once they found a route they liked, a playtester rarely took a different path. This defeated the point of such a large map and so they decided to make a more varied and interesting, linear map.
* ''[[Deus Ex: Human Revolution|Deus Ex Human Revolution]]'' kinda has this. On two separate occasions your character determines where to go next based on some throwaway lines said by people [[Cutscene Incompetence|who used those lines to distract the player and try to kill him.]] Luckily, both villains were apparently sure enough their traps would kill you that they actually [[Nice Job Fixing It, Villain|truthfully told you what you needed to know.]]
** In the first instance, the bad guy was telling Adam the truth to get him to come close enough to {{spoiler|take him out in a suicide explosion}}. In the second case, Adam doesn't actually get the information directly from the character he's interrogating, but rather confirms an earlier supposition based on a recording he found - that she didn't know existed - with the various things she says while she's trying to distract him.
* Played straight in [[
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*** Something tells me that interpretation is ignoring the fact that those occupants are actively screwing Mario and company over most of the time and are working directly under the very man he's trying to get to...
* ''[[Jumper (video game)|Jumper]] Two'' would always put you down on a bypassing train [[Take Your Time|no matter how long you stayed]] in the jungle, or you could always get shot in the mountains despite the cannon firing in the random direction.
* Shadow the Hedgehog (the GCN game, not the character in general). Not only open-ended, but most stages along the way can be reached in different ways by different paths through the storyline. Since there's no indication that any of these locations are even geographically similar, Shadow himself generally uses Chaos Control, a teleportation ability, to move from one location to the next.
** Sometimes even Shadow is confused as to how he got to where he is after teleporting, implying that he whisked himself away in some random direction and didn't bother to think about it until he landed.
** With the exception of the first stage, there's no obvious connection between the choices made during a given stage and the next destination as a result. The only indicator is completing "Good" objectives will move Shadow diagonally downwards through the stage select screen, "Neutral" missions move straight, and "Evil" missions move diagonally upwards.
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* ''[[Portal (series)|Portal]]'''s lengthy endgame, where Chell runs wild in the bowels of the Enrichment Center, is carefully set up so you can only go in one direction at any given time, and that route ''just so happens'' to lead directly to GLaDOS. It lends credence to the idea that GLaDOS [http://www.game-ism.com/2008/04/13/the-clone-the-cube-and-the-construct-part-1/ wanted to be destroyed].
** Lampshaded early on in ''[[Portal 2]]'':
{{quote|
== [[Role
* The first ''[[Wild
** The sequel is even worse. A king's army gets blown up, so some guy shows up out of nowhere, buys rights to the army's name and makes it a PMC, and then has them just run around the world beating up terrorists before casually telling them he had them do this in order to stop a comet. W. T. F.
*** Though in the case of the sequel, at least it's a [[Big Good]] acting out a [[The Chessmaster|master plan]], rather then contrived coincidence. {{spoiler|A sidequest even reveals that he created and funded said terrorist organization, to give the world a common enemy as part of the plan.}}
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Role Playing Game]]▼
[[Category:Gameplay and Story Segregation]]
[[Category:Just for Pun]]
[[Category:
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