'Epic' gaming finales (or lack thereof)

[ReservoirAngel]

Whether it be a final mission having an epic feel to it, or the ending cutscene giving you that particular kind of chills that people tend to get when some epic, grand-ass shit's going down, what are some games that really drive home that sense of, for lack of a better word, epic-ness with their final moments?

OR, if your a cynical criticising type, what are some games that never quite delivered on the 'epic-ness- you were expecting from their finales?

I'll start the cynical turn off: Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2. I don't know why but these games never quite delivered on the grand sense of scale I was expecting.

The 1st game comes closer to it, but still falls kind of flat when it makes you just

Spoiler

fight Saren in, realistically, a pretty easy fight, then you either fight him again, or you talk him into killing himself. The final cutscene does a better job of instilling the epic feel by having the assembled forces of the Citadel races blowing Sovereign to shit, not to mention the possibility of the Council biting it.

But the 2nd game really does fall down at the last hurdle. The game until that point had been absolutely amazing, but the final mission felt like just any other mission. I think part of that might have been that

Spoiler

If you get all the upgrades and even half-know what your doing nobody dies, making the whole "suicide mission" build-up seem a bit overplayed.

The only time I really felt a "holy shit..." moment was right at the end when the Reaper fleet activated and starts moving out of Dark Space towards the Milky Way.

oh, and the music for the final mission section is amazing. in fact I'm listening to the "End Run" and "Suicide Mission" tracks right now.

 

[NeedAUserName]

I liked the whole last 6 hours few hours of cut scenes for MGS4. That and I always felt Uncharted's final fights/cut scenes were pretty epic.

 

[Undead Dragon King]

Well, I remember that even with all upgrades, a loyal crew and careful choosing for the assignments I still lost Thane, Jacob and Tali on my first run of the suicide mission. I wouldn't sell it short in that regard. It was on my third try that nobody died.

Besides, the elephant in the room for horrible finales is Fable 2. You build up to be a mighty hero to fight the epic villain who's tried to make your life a living hell for your entire life and then- bang. Boss dead. That's it. Game over. I literally sat in stunned silence for a minute.

 

[matell]

Legacy of Kain Defiance had a brilliant end cutscene, besides the last boss fight where you actually fight a god!

 

[ReservoirAngel]

Well, I remember that even with all upgrades, a loyal crew and careful choosing for the assignments I still lost Thane, Jacob and Tali on my first run of the suicide mission. I wouldn't sell it short in that regard. It was on my third try that nobody died.

Besides, the elephant in the room for horrible finales is Fable 2. You build up to be a mighty hero and then- bang. That's it. Game over. I literally sat in stunned silence for a minute.

Oh yeah...I refuse to even acknowledge the confrontation with Lucien as the end. Whenever I play it through now, I turn off after the Bloodstone beach battle and tell myself "and they all lived happily ever after." Fuck knows it's better than the soul-crushing dissapointment the game REALLY gives you.

 

[northeast rower]

oh, and the music for the final mission section is amazing. in fact I'm listening to the "End Run" and "Suicide Mission" tracks right now.

lol I listened to Suicide Mission when I was playing QWOP. It was beautiful.

Yeah, the Mass Effect games fell completely flat in terms of climax. Halo 2 also did this, as did Fallout 3. However, most games are able to pull off an epic climax. My favorites are:

Halo: Reach
Red Dead Redemption
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Assassin's Creed 2
Uncharted 2
Splinter Cell: Conviction

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Spoiler tags people. I know we are talking about endings but people can't imediately foretell which game you are talking about. Anyway not mentioning endings but Fable 2, RDR, Bullet Witch and Legendary off the top of my head.

 

[Moonpig123]

Cynical: Oblivion. A supposedly epic 'last stand' battle between the forces of what is essentially Hell, and all the rallied soldiers from across the land, came down to about twelve men versus a couple of standard Dremora and some of those small dinosaur-type things, in a field, which went on for about five minutes. Although to be fair, when the evil dark god Dagon came out and started tearing shit up in Imperial City, things actually kicked into gear.

Genuine: God of War 3. Fighting Zeus at first in the temple, then outside in the thunder and rain, then INSIDE Gaia, was fantastic in terms of the sense of scale. The entire sequence FELT 'big' in every sense of the word.

 

[Undead Dragon King]

Spoiler tags people. I know we are talking about endings but people can't imediately foretell which game you are talking about. Anyway not mentioning endings but Fable 2, RDR, Bullet Witch and Legendary off the top of my head.

I think that people know what they're getting into when they enter this thread. I don't think that we need a sea of spoiler bubbles to satisfy the people who ignored the "game climaxes" in the thread title.

 

[benbenthegamerman]

The ending of Portal is pretty epic, though since a thousand other people will probably have that same answer, ill go with the cynical option:
The end of Half-Life 2: Episode 1. It felt unnessecary to have a cliffhanger ending when it was obvious from the title that there would be another episode, otherwise there would be no point in making it episodic.

 

[ReservoirAngel]

Yeah, the Mass Effect games fell completely flat in terms of climax

There's only one part of the Mass Effect 2 finale that gave me any kind of deep reaction:

Spoiler

"You have failed. We will find another way. Releasing control."

And that was half because of the music, a quarter because of Harbinger's voice and delivery, and a quarter because of sympathy for the Collector General.

 

[Skoldpadda]

The last game I completed was Time Shift, and that had a woeful lack of epicness at the end.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Spoiler tags people. I know we are talking about endings but people can't imediately foretell which game you are talking about. Anyway not mentioning endings but Fable 2, RDR, Bullet Witch and Legendary off the top of my head.

I think that people know what they're getting into when they enter this thread. I don't think that we need a sea of spoiler bubbles to satisfy the people who ignored the "game climaxes" in the thread title.

Well you kinda do it is whole point of having spoilers. Just because they come into this thread does not mean they know what games will be spoiled. I had KotOR ruined for me by this. Instead of at least saying KotOR has X twist. The bit where you find X really blew my mind in KotOR. Spoiler tags are there for a reason. I had no idea KotOR had a big twist as I had not played it yet and got it off a steam sale I came into the thread to disucss a different plot twist. Just because it is obvious there will be spoiler doesn't mean you don't warn about it and the game in some fashion. Even mentioning the game first is the bare mininum.

 

[Phlakes]

Ocarina of Time had a very epic finale, starting with the stairs leading up to Ganondorf. first you fight through a tower full of large enemies, with the organ music getting louder, and you finally get to the top, play some nice energy tennis and beat the shit out him, then the castle starts collapsing and you have to escape while dodging flaming rocks and all that, and then there's the final final boss fight after he transforms. And that battle, even though it's really easy, is one of the best final boss fights I've ever played.

 

[Brazilianpeanutwar]

I've just finished vanquish -sigh-

It's so hard i've had multiple strokes and the ending is.....nothing...you build upto an epic fight with two enemies that should be rock hard.....and it's piss easy...ok i'll let that slide....oh they're both robots......it wasn't REALLY the guy i was expecting to kill -sigh- ok well maybe i'll fight him now....what? the president just blew her brains out.....the bad guy says a few words and flies off......THAT'S IT?!?!?


WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWHAAAAAAAAAA-

 

[zxvcasdfqwerzxcv]

I can't really think of a game with a proper epic ending, just many with epic buildups and then a pretty big anticlimax! Fallout 3, Oblivion, Mass Effect 1 & 2....so many really!

The last battle in Dragon Age: Origins was pretty epic IMO though!

 

[IamSofaKingRaw]

Well, I remember that even with all upgrades, a loyal crew and careful choosing for the assignments I still lost Thane, Jacob and Tali on my first run of the suicide mission. I wouldn't sell it short in that regard. It was on my third try that nobody died.

Besides, the elephant in the room for horrible finales is Fable 2. You build up to be a mighty hero to fight the epic villain who's tried to make your life a living hell for your entire life and then- bang. Boss dead. That's it. Game over. I literally sat in stunned silence for a minute.

LOL I expected him to turn into a dragon or something like Jack of Blades, but no.I assembled heroes and built p my power to pop an old man in the back of the head. Like I said ion my "Biggest Disappointment this decade" Fable 2 is up there.

 

[LawlessSquirrel]

I guess I'm the minority here, but both the Mass Effects felt like excellent finales to me. I'd go so far as to call them the best I've seen in a game. It just felt so cinematic, and in the case of ME2, it was great seeing how your preparations or lack of preparations finally came into play. Then again, I'm speaking about the respective last levels, not just the final fight. The final fights aren't anything special.

As for a bad ending...Fable 3. Worse than Fable 2 in my opinion. Sure the enemy was more interesting and diabolical and there was an actual fight, but after all that build-up for some incoming apocalyptic sort of battle, you fight in one part of one area and kill the big-bad without any trouble. Your choices don't even manifest in any tangible way other than a 'score' at the end.

THAT was what the whole game was building towards?

 

[Shirokurou]

MGS3 Debriefing...
And let the manly tears roll.

 

[Ashcrexl]

the final battle in half life 2: ep 2 is just on such a monstrous scale. difficult, yet manageable, it's just the definition of an epic all-out war.