The Six Least Gratifying Game Endings I’ve Ever Experienced
People tend to complain a lot about movies that have bad endings, but if you think about the upwards of forty hours you can put into some games, the let down is far more severe when a game has a sub-standard finale. A perfect example of this for most people has been Mass Effect 3, and I suppose that is understandable. That trilogy was up to one hundred hours long for some people, so to have an ending that people felt didn’t match the time or effort they put into the game is justified. It is not a passive industry, like movies.
The entirety of a movie happens without our input, but a game, we help form that as the story goes. For that reason, the let down can feel that much more genuine. Mass Effect 3 got me thinking about some other game experiences I played through where the endings just did not leave me feeling sated. And here they are, in their complete lack of glory.
Rage
To me, this one stood out more than Mass Effect 3 for the single reason that when it ended, I looked to see if there was another disc I missed. Seriously, that may be a testimony to my own stupidity, and I accept that, but outside of Halo 2, which I will talk about later, this is the one game that literally had me talking out loud to myself how this cannot be the actual ending. How any game developer in their right mind would end a game on such a note is incomprehensible to me. While Id is not known for the most rewarding endings, in this case, it felt like we got no ending at all.
Although visually, I personally feel the game is without par on consoles. And yes, I played Crysis 2.
The game ends so abruptly and so suddenly, it literally feels unfinished. This is not an example of a bad ending. This is an example of a complete lack of an ending.
No hint at all that the last mission you are on is really the last mission you are going to be on. I can understand deadlines suck, and I can understand delays can affect sales, but I also know the true frustration of a company delivering an unfinished product (*coughs* SKYRIM), and this is one example where the ending didn’t set up a sequel liked it hoped for. Atleast not for me. It simply made me not want to play the franchise again.
Well, I already talked about it, so I may as well get it out of the way….
Halo 2
When I tell people I am not a huge Halo fan, some of them slap me in the face. Right in the face. Open palmed. And you know what? I get it. The franchise is pretty remarkable for what it did for enemy A.I alone. But, as much as I loved it, when I reached the end of Halo 2, I dropped my controller in awe and disgust. Setting up a sequel is one thing, but kicking players in the balls with a half assed ending in an attempt to set up that sequel is inexcusable.
” Sir, finishing this fight! In another game. That won’t come out for years. And will cost people another sixty dollars.
If you take into consideration the wait for Halo 2, matched with the true respect the gamers had for the series, the ending does not go into the “bad endings” category. It starts its own new category called “unacceptable endings”.
A cliffhanger is great for a TV show. For the most part, TV shows don’t cost us a ton of money to enjoy. Even for the middle movie in a trilogy, a cliffhanger can be a great way to whet the appetite of the viewer to ensure they return to your franchise. But, much like Rage, if your game ends and people are still holding the controller, waiting for the next level to begin, you messed up somewhere.
Sorry, I know everyone has already bitched this ending to death, but I really had to get that out. It kind of felt like therapy, so thank you.
Ghosts n Goblins
Alright, this was the first time a game taught me, in my youth, that I was its bitch and nothing more. I am sorry to toss that word around so callously, but seriously. Have any of you guys played through the old N.E.S version of this game? It is so hard, it is actually cruel. This game is like a drunken uncle. It beats you mercilessly, yet you inexplicably want to hang around with it anyway. And it sure as hell wasn’t for its looks.
Though they were pretty mind blowing at the time.
The thing that made this ending such a kick to the dick was the fact that you had to play thorough the game TWICE to get to it. Yes, twice. You play through it the first time and the game basically stops and tells you that was a test run, and you need to do it all again to REALLY beat it. NOw, some games have done this before, but the brutal level of difficulty made this more like: We just cut you and now we are going to pour salt in it.
But as a kid, you have conviction. I sure as hell did. So I played through it all again. At times, wanting to weep from how sadistic the game was. Rarely did my Arthur ever wear armor, and only the truest of you will appreciate that statement.
And when I finally did play through it again and beat it, this is what I got:
Actually, now that I watch it again, I find the bad translation kind of awesome.
I understand this is from an era of dodgy translations and no spell checks, but seriously? You made you play through twice for THIS?! And it set the tone for me of a long line of disappointing game endings.
N.E.S had a slew of games that gave you crappy GAME OVER screens or misspelled congratulation screens, but Ghosts n Goblins really stood out for all the work it took me to get there. Oh, and speaking of crappy N.E.S endings…
… what about Mass Effect 3?
For me: Colony Wars and Colony Wars stood out as some of the best endings I had ever seen! seriously go check it out this game is totally underrated.
Tekken 3 had a lot of cool and fun ending especially considering the nature of the game.
That’s why I addressed Mass Effect 3 in the intro. I know the ending was bleak, but I did not hate it, though I can understand why people did.
Jurassic Park for the SNES.
“Alright, this was the first time a game taught me, in my youth, that I was its bitch and nothing more…”
Slow clap.
You forgot Red Dead in the great endings part
@ Remy Carreiro:
Nobody has any problem with the Mass Effect ending being bleak. But it is completely illogical, brings up more questions (hundreds) than it answers (zero) and breaks character for pretty much every single character shown.
Joker leaving Shepard to die? Sure he’s the comic relief guy but he still is goddamn loyal to shepard and would never do that.
The crew that was storming the Citadel Beam with you (which probably has your love interest in) suddenly being on the Normandy getting away to the lost planet with Joker? WHAT THE HELL.
There is no way they were able to get to the Normandy when they were right behind Shepard when Harbinger’s beam hit him/her.
Also, the Spaceboy is either a lying bastard, completely illogical, goddamn retarded, or any of those 3. He outright tells Shepard that there can never be peace between Organics and Synthetics.
“Oh you, I just made peace between the Geth and Quarians who warred for 300 years.”
He also tells Shepard that he will die with all the Synthetics in the destroy option, yet Shepard lives (with >4000 EMS).
The whole ending doesn’t make one bit of a sense. It is pure space magic in a game that was 99.9999% hard science fiction (they even explained why the light shifts to blue when using FTL drives for fucks sake!)
Arkham Asylum had a turd ending. That stands out as one of the worst in recent years.
@ Mecarti…wow, epic name. Good call, JP was a shite ending. Pretty much non-existent if I recall correctly.
@ Hallam, a lesson I have learned many times since, my friend. Hahah, thank you.
@Pedro, Great call. Overall, I would award Red Dead in most of my lists if I could. Best ending. Best lead. Best music. Most fully realized open world. I gush about that game. I still weep for John.
@Aether, No, I do agree with you on those points. And your passion is commendable. I only didn’t touch on Mass Effect 3 more deeply in this article because I know there are atleast four different articles on this site about the ending to the game and I was afraid we may have talked it to death. It was NO way to end a trilogy, and I agree with all your points BUT, to the same degree, regarding Joker, in my version of the game I cockblocked him regarding his weird robot fetish, so when he left ME to die, it made perfect sense to me, contextually. My Shepard loved getting laid, but seemed to not like it when anyone else tried to. I would have killed me, too. All that other stuff, though, I totes agree. And I’m sorry I just said totes.
Nice article. I actually was way more pissed about the ending of Halo 3 than 2. Not the cinematic itself, which was…..okay I guess, but the fact that the game seemed to be nudging you towards a showdown with the Gravemind the whole time and I’d been picturing how epic that fight was going to be and instead I got the weakest “boss” battle of all time and a retread of the Warthog escape from the first game. Such a let down. And let us not forget Rampage on the NES. I played that game aaaaallllllll day blacking out the entire USA city by city and all I got was a picture of the map blacked out with the word “congratulations” over it.
Red Dead I felt had one of the worst endings ever. I grew attached to the John Marston character. One of the few made by Rockstar that didnt fling the f word every 2 seconds. And then to *spoiler here* kill him and then have you play as his son years later for a mere minutes, this was a slap in the face to the entire game.
Remy you hit it on the nail, with Rage. Amazing looking game, solid gameplay (how ever i would argue more than just the ending was left out, i think this game was seriously missing a rpg element). IMO the story as a hole got flakier and flakier as time went by.
I expect better from Bethesda. I would have put on the list Half Life 2, wether you count the end of the game or the end of EP.2. Poop ending, just a haha good job, “all is well”. Scratch that “all is better” err… “all is different….?”
*Exit stage Left*
What about that Prince of Persia reboot? That game had a few flaws but that ending was just terrible. Why did I spend hours playing the game just to undo it all in the last 5 minutes? I get what they were trying to get at, but it was poorly executed to say the least.
I’d usually agree with you on hating the “it was all a dream” cliche but I didn’t mind it for Mario Brothers II.
I didn’t read that ending it as saying nothing was real or mattered because–oh look–it was just a dream! Rather, you were fighting in the “dream” realm (like an alternate dimension), and while Mario no doubt dismissed it as a dream when you awoke at the end, we the players were supposed to know that the fight itself was real and that you saved “Subconscious Land”.
Also, always eat your vegetables.
Alec, that is an amazeballs interpretation of Super Mario Brothers 2.
I was very disappointed with the ending of the Resistance trilogy. It lacked any kind of epic-ness i would expect from the series…
@trashcanman, thanks, brother. That ” nice article” resonated quite a bit this week. Confidence roll on my d20 just gave me plus five, and I needed that. And agree completely on Halo 3. For such a prolific series, those endings are really inexcusable.
@ Eric, I have encountered many people who feel that way about RedDead, and I felt that way for a second, then I realized, in the epic, sweeping spaghetti western, there really is no other waty it could have ended. Truth be told, I felt the L.A Noir ending actually played off the Red Dead ending a bit too much, but for similar reasons. That is how noir would end, too.
@Jesus, Honestly, I did not have the patience to see that game all the way through, so just by making it to the end, you are a better man than I.
@ Alec, I am with SaraC on this one: Wow, man. That theory makes me want to play Mario 2 again. And eat some vegetables.
When you led into the second page with “speaking of crappy N.E.S. endings”, I was totally expecting Karnov to make an appearance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y14ccl5YYpQ
As far as great endings….
Really what comes to mind is Fallout 1 & 2… Just a very comprehensive ending..
Mass Effect 3 may have been addressed in the intro but the article is ‘Least Gratifying’ not most hated.
And ME3 is one of the least gratifying endings ever. 150 hours of gripping space opera and Bioware drops that Red/Blue/Green turd on your Shep’s head.
It’s the Phantom Menace of game endings…years of buildup with the most ridiculous let down.
The ME3 ending was actually a well done stroke, though it felt a little too short for my taste.
That’s the problem with kids these days, they can’t get allusions or figure out the depth of an ACTUAL ending. And yes, predictably you will say that it wasn’t deep it was just poorly done and I’m being a fanboi (despite my HATE for DA2) etc, etc. Go read the foundation series by Asimov. An absolute classic. Same ending, different build up.
Boo hoo you didn’t get closure and a happy ending. That’s not what Mass Effect was about.
And the great Mass Effect 3 debate rages on…..
I think you mean Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. Journey to the West is the Chinese book it’s based on.
I AGREE with halo2 being the worst. Only thing worse was how they forgot to make a story for halo 3 until a week before they shipped it out. The story for halo 3 was over so quick and was so dumb thats the only possible explenation.
God of War 2 had a horrible ending as well. I beat it 2 days after it came out and had to wait FOREVER for gow3 to release
You deserved not to be rewarded for your “sacrifice” at the end of Fable. It was evil what you did to get that sword. I NEVER did that. You monster.
Best ending of all time: I’m in space. SPAAAAAAAAAACE!
Oh, and the ME3 ending makes sense if you believe that the boy you see at the end is actually one last trick by the Reapers to keep you from destroying them. Yes he lies to you, that’s what YOU would do if you were in the Reapers position. Everything you see in that sequence is them messing with your head. Or at least that’s how I took it.
Don’t forget Final Fantasy XIII-2. I spent 60 dollars on a game that had multiple false endings and the worst real ending ever
I agree with most of this list, with the exception of Super Mario 2 (or Doki Doki Panic, or whatever you prefer to call it). While I agree that ‘it was just a dream’ is one of the laziest endings, in this case it was expected. The instruction manual mentioned that Subcon was a dream realm, so it only stands to reason that they were dreaming the whole time. They successfully defeated Wart and his cronies, saved the dream realm, and then woke up … which is exactly how most people would leave a realm of dreams.
It all comes down to context; is the dream realm in question a separate realm, or simple a nocturnal hallucination. If it’s the former, then the ending is fine; Subcon was saved and when Mario ‘woke up’, he simply returned home. Given the context and appearance of enemies from Mario 2 in other Mario games, I have to believe Subcon is in fact a dream realm that exists within the Mario Universe, which makes Mario 2’s ending just fine.
Forgive me if I’m a bit defensive about this; writing about the dream realm for a few years just makes me a bit … opinionated on the nature of dreams, that’s all.
u forgot castle crashers for the great endings 🙂
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood really deserved to be on that list.