Favourite Final Level?

[Silverbeard]

I will always have a soft spot for the ending level from Planescape Torment.
Apart from delivering a final whack to the player in a game laden with whacks, the final boss is an absolute treat. Players can take him with axes or what-have-you, they can talk him to death, outthink him or just... do nothing. Every choice sorts him nicely.
As an added bonus, the player gets a few last words with the party and the content of those words changes depending on how the party members were treated throughout the game.
Great stuff!

 

[lacktheknack]

I really liked The Meat Circus from Psychonauts. It made a horrifying amount of sense, and I didn't find it that hard.

The final part of "Scratches" was really quite good, too.

<spoiler=IMMENSE SPOILERS>So the game has you trying to track down the evil that's haunting your house, causing noises at night and giving you nasty nightmares, and it sends you on a sordid journey through the house's history. The day before you're told you have to leave the house, you perform a ritual that banishes the demons from your house, and you expect to leave the house on a quiet and somber note. However, as you go down the stairs to leave, the sounds start up again. You trace them to the fireplace, find a secret passage, go down to an abruptly terrifying dungeon that clearly has something still in it... and then...

<youtube=XTj1xrhmpck&end=90>

GAH GAH GAH GAH GAH GAH GAH GAH GAH GAH GAH GAH GAH GAH ;____;

 

[Hexenwolf]

I'm going to go with an unpopular opinion and say Resident Evil 5. I actually had a whole hell of a lot of fun with Wesker's final multi-stage boss battle, and me and my friend were doing our first run together on co-op and figuring out what to do and fighting him was a lot of fun. The sheer over-the-top ridiculous of some of the things were also a lot of fun.

 

[llew]

My favourites are Mass effect 2 (as many have said), kingdom hearts 2 and devil may cry 3... just the build-up to everything and then having to fight through more layers of shit in ME2 and KH2 is amasing and the knowledge that your brother has fallen into darkness and the only one able to stop him is you and the emotion that goes with those scenes in DMC3 is awesome

 

[Arnoxthe1]

Halo: Reach - You may have been completely stranded and now completely without hope but that doesn't mean you're not going to take as many Covie bastards as you can with you. After all, Spartans never die.

Spec Ops: The Line - Superb ending with a great build up but for anyone who still haven't finished the game, I won't talk specifics. Seriously, just buy it and play it.

Halo: CE - Blasting through a decrepit Pillar of Autumn and finally going out in a blaze of Master Chief glory with a warthog. Incredibly awesome.

Serious Sam: TFE - All weapons? Check. Unlimited ammo? Check. A whole ****ton of enemies to annihilate? Check. Time to finish this party. (Blaring hardcore techno music as well is highly recommended.)

 

[IFS]

Mass Effect 1: Virmire on through to the end is just fantastic both in terms of story and gameplay imo, dodging rockets and fighting krogan and geth by the dozen as I fight my way up the side of the side of a tower with Sovereign looming overhead? Yes please.

Dark Souls: Not terribly challenging compared to the rest of the game, but very atmospheric and filled with amazing visuals. Not my favorite part of the game, but certainly a beautiful area.

Bastion: Just fantastic, all of those feels.

Journey: See Bastion.

 

[his1nightmare]

I'd also like to raise Bastion, the music alone is reason enough to do so.
Also Ys Origin (Yunica path), I'm not exactly talking about the final "level" here, but walking up the stairs after defeating the before-final boss. The music, the atmosphere, the motivation... perfection.

Also the entire last level of Metroid Prime 3, I might consider it worse than its predecessors, but it has its moments (not too few of them), and that planet is definitely worth its place.

 

[redisforever]

I'll say Halo: Combat Evolved. After a fairly decent level where you have to blow up the Pillar of Autumn's engines, you enter a room with Warthogs. Now, it's on. You have to escape in the most epic, exciting and satisfying ending to a game I've played ever. Just a mad rush to the end.

Then, I'll probably have to go with the endings of Serious Sam: First and Second Encounters. They're fantastic endings to a great game. Thousands of monsters, and then one massive boss fight. A cannon in your hand, and some epic music blasting in your ears. So much fun.

Last, I'll go with the ending of Spec Ops: The Line. This one is very different. Also, it's spoilerrific, so:

Spoiler

The last level isn't a boss fight. You don't even have to fire a single bullet. It's just the ending to a tragic story. You finally see what was actually going on, and it was such a mind fuck when I first realized that Konrad was dead the whole time. Great ending to a great story.

 

[Rariow]

Don't know whether it'd be considered a "level" per se, but the last half-hour of The Walking Dead is my favourite part of any game ever.

The Suicide Mission in Mass Effect 2 is also absolutely great. Even though that game had a lot of faults, the Suicide Mission was fantastically pulled off: Tense, just hard enough, and it kept you guessing. Up to the final boss, which I still hold up as the stupidest thing in that series. (Shepard officially dies to Marauder Shields, by the way).

The final level of the 2003 Hobbit game (Which I maintain to be an unknown gem, even if all the reviews I've seen of it say it's "meh" at best) was one of the most satisfying ways to end a game I've seen. Just something about it feels so damn right.

This one isn't as much amongst my favourites as I'm just thinking about it right now by virtue of having finished the game this morning, but the final battle in BioShock Infinite was the only part of that game where I went from "Combat's functional, now let me explore Columbia more" to "This combat is actually pretty dang fun".

 

[DoctorObviously]

Metal Gear Solid 4, the Portal games, Mass Effect 2 and Bastion. So yeah, most have been said plenty of times.

 

[TheMadDoctorsCat]

Yeah, I agree with all the most popular ones:

Portal.

Potal 2.

Bastion.

Tetris.

 

[Jessta]

The final level of final fantasy 8 was a big one for me, possibly because I got to it when I was eight and I finished it when I was 18.
Recently finished Bioshock infinite and the last bit there really solidified that game as one of the greats to me possibly because it almost felt like a mystery movie to me trying to figure out the final twist.

The final level of FF7 Crisis core made me feel like a bad ass killing all those dudes (Although I did wish it was a better harder) and the end cut scene is to this day one of the saddest parts of a game I have ever seen. I haven't even played FF7, Crisis core was just awesome as a stand alone game.

The end of Dark alliance baulders gate left a pretty big impression on me because I played through that entire game with a friend and it was one of the last games I played like that.

I thought the last level of Borderlands 2 was a really tough/fun level and I found myself longing for the days of Dark alliance when me and my friends had time to all play a game from beginning to finish together so that's a good one.

Bastion is obvious.

 

[ShinyCharizard]

Transformers Fall of Cybertron.

The last level of that game was absolutely fucking amazing. Basically it's a giant battle where you keep seamlessly switching between different characters and different sides throughout the mission. It's really fucking fun and really fucking intense.

 

[the_great_cessation]

The Moon from Majora's Mask for a few reasons. First off, it's a huge tonal shift and really takes the player by surprise. Transporting the player from somewhere bleak and depressing to a place as serene and beautiful as the moon was a real shocker - especially when you consider that most video game endings do the opposite and try to transport the player to the most hellish place imaginable. Secondly, it tests all your skills by splitting the dungeon into 4 different regions that test all your Mask-specific skills. Add to that an unsettling and dreamy atmosphere and you have one of the most memorable final levels in a game ever.

In more recent years, The Last of Us, Journey and Bioshock Infinite all had final levels or ending sequences that really resonated with me.

 

[teebeeohh]

Area 51 in deus ex. you just launched a nuke at that place and at this point you have all the guns, mods and tools you want and the game gives you reason to use all of them. it's great. and the last section has the main antagonist in the middle in a giant hamster ball, so you have to run past him several times no matter what ending you choose.

 

[Easton Dark]

I've been thinking back to my favorite games, and realized they all have not great endings. The endings were on par with the rest of the games, not standout.

Then I remembered Winter Assault, with my favorite ending cutscene to any game ever.


(how many times have I linked this on this site alone?)

Fuck Chaos, Waaghs, and death itself, we did it. That's what I want from an ending level.

 

[The_Echo]

Spoiler: The World That Never Was

Everything about this world is just so great. The music [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4eN6y6_bTg] that [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlmC_SC9ORU] plays [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl9kSsLMz4E] there [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Sh1X1qGqaw] are some of my favorite tracks in the entire franchise.

With area names like "Where Nothing Gathers," "Memory's Skyscraper," "Hall of Empty Melodies," and "Proof of Existence," along with the lonely, desolate feel of the Dark City and the sheer emptiness of the Castle That Never Was... this world just screams "this is the end of the game."

Plus, basically half of KHII and 3D's plot happens in this world, so... it's got that going for it, too.

 

[VodkaKnight]

Maybe Twilight Princess, Half Life 2, and Portal.
HL2 was a lot of fun, Portal was a great fight, and Twilight Princess actually gave a sense of beating an enemy.

 

[SanguiniusMagnificum]

Fallout: New Vegas. Yes, I know it's pretty linear, but dammnit, it's just so awesome to kick the Legate's ass while being backed up by grandpa's in power armor, suicide bombing raider Great Khans and an army of robots, and ending all of that by throwing that pesky NCR General (Olliver, I think) of the dam...

Mass Effect 2: Read all the other posts about it, I'm not yer parrot, mate.

Dark Souls: Even though it was one of the least challenging area's of the game (seriously, like, 5 black knights and a boss that can be killed by a few parry's and ripostes) it had some of the best visuals and music. I had a genuine sense of sadness while in the Kiln of The First Flame, especially after digging my way through heaps and heaps of the lore surrounding Gwyn and the Age of Fire.

 

[Terminate421]

Temporal Tower from PMD2, this was so epic:

The Halo 3 ending was fucking perfect:

But not as epic as Halo: Reach...