is there a term for the twist that some indie games do where at first they're about their core game mechanics, but then they reveal that actually they're about solving world-spanning puzzles and uncovering a mystery?
at first you think that you're "just" playing a platformer or some other kind of mechanics-focused (usually action or puzzle) game, but the game starts dropping cryptic puzzle clues throughout its world and eventually transforms into an adventure game or a mini ARG, for all intents and purposes.
most people seem to love this kind of twist, so those games tend to gain super passionate fanbases. but as someone who usually isn't into those kinds of puzzles, it means that when people start telling me i have to play a new game and that i'm not allowed to look up anything about it, i get nervous that after a couple of hours it's going to drop all of its core mechanics and turn into myst. sometimes i just want an action game to be an action game.
i think it's perfectly possible to add this kind of unfolding mystery to a game without going down the "surprise, you're playing myst now" route. plenty of games that were already about solving puzzles or exploring a mystrerious world can smoothly transition into this kind of expanding mystery without feeling like they're dropping the appeal of the core mechanics, such as la-mulana, pâquerette down the bunburrows, sylvie lime and lots of rpgs and puzzle games. some action games can give you that sense of a mysteriously expanding world without ever straying from their action focus at all, such as psyvariar.
that said, none of this is even a problem in the first place for people who enjoy solving those kinds of puzzles. i would not be complaining if i was in an alternate world where indie games kept secretly turning into arcade-style beat em ups or shmups instead (yes i know there's a recent game that does something a little bit like that). it's just unfortunate that the whole appeal of this twist is that you don't see it coming, which makes it harder for me to avoid the games that do it. that said, i've never ever seen anyone else say anything negative about this kind of thing at all, so i'm genuinely curious if it bugs anyone else or if it's just me?
