Least satsifying game endings?

[Eamar]

Mass Effect 3.

Yeah, I know it's unoriginal, but it's the only game I've played where I just straight up couldn't accept the ending. I was so invested in the story, and it just didn't pay off. I won't retread all the reasons why it sucks, but the thing that pissed me off more than anything else was the whole "it's all about the biologicals vs synthetics dichotomy" ass-pull, since I'd just spent three games ensuring that that exact problem was solved. That insufferable god-child was stating all this bullshit as fact, when so many examples of my Shep's actions could have disproved them. But of course there was no option to raise counterarguments (though at first I was convinced my game had bugged out and I was missing a load of dialogue options...) It was maddening.

DA2 was also a complete cop-out where none of your choices mattered, but at least the rushing that caused that was evident throughout the whole game, so it wasn't necessarily such a huge shock.

Don't get me wrong, I still loved both games overall, but they deserved better endings.

 

[putowtin]

Hardly original but ME3.

I've sat through other bad endings, I've thrown my controller down in dismay, but the ending of ME3 is the only time I've truly felt betrayed. I couldn't play a game for weeks afterward and found it difficult to focus on anything.
I am a hardcore Bioware fan, a huge Mass Effect nerd (I even have a mass effect tattoo) so maybe I was partly to blame, maybe I'd build myself up to an ending that could never satisfy my geeky ideas...

But I've seen episodes of Sesame Street with more depth and complexity!

 

[Cheesy Goodness]

Seems like everybody is picking recent titles. Ghostbusters for the NES was one of the worst games ever created, and I unfortunately got it as a Christmas present one year. It should be no surprise that the ending was nothing but a basic text screen. However, the text contained broken English, factually incorrect information - a great game by nobody's standards - and a bizarre, out of place shout-out to the military. The Angry Video Game Nerd did more than one video on this piece of crap, because of how horrendously bad it was.

[http://postimg.org/image/w37t65hql/]

 

[Madmonk12345]

Well there's the usual suspects that have already been mentioned, namely KoTOR II. I haven't played ME3 so I can't comment on that one. I was disappointed with the ending to LoZ: Link's Awakening. I mean shit you take Link on this epic quest across this stupid island and wake the Wind Fish and his only reward for it all is to

Spoiler

be left stranded in the middle of the ocean presumably to die of starvation and/or dehydration.

Spoiler

You already knew that the island was the dream of said Wind Fish. What did you expect to happen?
The whole game was designed as a moral dilemma in this regard; you must murder everyone on the island so you can leave it. You know what the consequences will be before you head towards the ending. However, few of the characters really behave like people do except for some limited occasions. They don't sleep, they don't eat, they don't have schedules. Most are more a fixture of a dream than actual people, characters who will be in the exact same place tomorrow that they were today, with the exception of a few characters who take action within the story. Could it be immoral to kill if the people never lived to begin with via a decision that everyone makes unconsciously every night?

Granted, I can understand feeling miffed about the game's ending, especially if one played it as a kid. I recall being miffed myself about it because it resolves very little, but if it had resolved things more tightly it would no longer pose a moral question and cease to take a neutral opinion on that dilemma. After playing it more recently has greatly improved my opinions of the game, putting it up as an early example of mechanics as metaphor and stories with depth in gaming.

OP:
Hm. least satisfying? By initial reaction, I would have to say the ending of Mother 3, which leaves lots unresolved that left me unfulfilled, though like Link's Awakening it would cease taking a neutral position on to moral dilemma that the game presents and would have led to a very grim and depressing ending. By long term opinion, I would have to say Bioshock Infinite. Regardless of how well the twist is executed and foreshadowed, it makes the game less interesting. The fact of

Spoiler

the existence of infinite universes taken to its logical conclusion

by definition renders all actions actually taken in game to be completely meaningless. The background details of the setting become completely valueless, just background noise. A GOOD ending, a good video game twist, will make you want to play a game again in the future. Bioshock Infinite's ending made me never want to play it again by rendering in game choices completely meaningless within the context of the story. In contrast, both other games, the one I've responded to and Mother 3, succeed fantastically in this regard in both twist and ending by leaving questions that can be answered by playing the game further times to get a better grasp on the setting and come to conclusions about its consequences for the ending.

 

[Patrick Buck]

Red dead redemption. But it's supposed to be, and that makes is amazing.

Also, haven't posted in 2 years pretty much, and bam I'm back making love to Red Dead redemption again on the forums with my first comment.
Oh I've missed you Escapist.

 

[w00tage]

Haven't played many games with endings so far, but Deus Ex: HR stands out. I jumped off the bandwagon in the final room and youtubed it to see what I was "missing" as it was just stupid easy to win everything. On "Give me Deus Ex" difficulty, first runthrough.

Then again, that's how the whole game went due to the combat supplies seeded - littered - everywhere, so I shouldn't have been surprised. Machine pistol rounds on an office cart by the executive secretary's desk? What, is a periodic machine-pistol rampage through the office some kind of CEO perk, and the exec sec hands out the ammo? wow

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

Bioshock: Infinite's ending went along the lines of "You were killed in a multidimensional void and the events of the game never actually happened because you technically died before it all happened."

Bioshock: Infinte Burial at Sea Episode 1 (actually a pretty long title) was just confusing. Not mind-breaking and completely made you rethink the game like the "Would you kindly..." moment in Bioshock 1, just sort of a "well duh" moment followed immediately by (spoiler) your own death.

Bioshock: Infinite Burial at Sea Epsiode 2, however, that ending was fantastic. Maybe my favorite ending in any game.

 

[sumanoskae]

THAT one, you know what I'm talking about.

Mass Effect 3 is one of the only stories I've ever experienced that could be drastically improved by cutting out the last 5 minutes. It's almost amazing how much it managed to fuck up in such a short time; you could teach a cautionary class on story structure with just those last few minutes.

Disclaimer: I am referencing the original cut of the ending; the Extended Cut was by no means the fantastic conclusion the series could have had, but it was serviceable; more than I dared to expect from what I considered to be turd polishing exorcise.

 

[BSebor3]

I got Red Dead Redemption when it came out but only screwed around online whenever I played it.

I recently decided to play it from beginning to end and finished it a few days ago.

The time after you-know-what should have felt in some way different and there really should have been more.

All you-know-who does is go after one old guy when he's fishing. I was expecting him to track down every single person that did you-know-what and I was expecting to see the game world to be significantly different, the trains were new in the area at the beginning of the game, wouldn't there be more development?

I was just really disappointed, I had enjoyed the game a lot up until then. If they had just put that much extra effort into it then I would've loved the whole thing.

 

[gamernerdtg2]

Shadow of The Colossus.
What a moron for a main character who would be tricked into letting a demon/god/whatever free all to save his lover...but she never gets to be with him anyway. Great game, but it was a waste of time because of the ending.

Uhm, he's told that the price he'll pay for Mono's resurrection may be grave. He wasn't tricked at all, he was told straight out about the consequences in the very first cutscene.

And it's never made clear they are lovers. She could be his sister, or he could even be her guilt stricken executioner.

The bottom line is that you're controlling a pawn, and that makes for a lame story. You're saying that that he was warned, but you watch the deterioration on your character's body with every Colossus that you kill. C'mon dude, the main character who you're controlling is a moron, and you don't learn that until the end of the game.

Mind you...if Shadow of the Colossus is a prequel for ICO, that would change my opinion significantly.

 

[scorptatious]

Shadow of The Colossus.
What a moron for a main character who would be tricked into letting a demon/god/whatever free all to save his lover...but she never gets to be with him anyway. Great game, but it was a waste of time because of the ending.

Uhm, he's told that the price he'll pay for Mono's resurrection may be grave. He wasn't tricked at all, he was told straight out about the consequences in the very first cutscene.

And it's never made clear they are lovers. She could be his sister, or he could even be her guilt stricken executioner.

The bottom line is that you're controlling a pawn, and that makes for a lame story. You're saying that that he was warned, but you watch the deterioration on your character's body with every Colossus that you kill. C'mon dude, the main character who you're controlling is a moron, and you don't learn that until the end of the game.

Mind you...if Shadow of the Colossus is a prequel for ICO, that would change my opinion significantly.

Not sure if it's 100% confirmed, but it does seem to be implied that SotC is a prequel to ICO. Considering that

Spoiler

Wander ends up as a baby with horns.

Anyway, the way I like to see things, yeah, what Wander was did was very foolish, but it kinda shows how far he will go to bring back someone he really cares about. Even give up his humanity. In a way, that kinda touches me in a way not many games have.

Anyway, while I don't agree about the story being lame, I respect your opinion and I can see where you're coming from.

 

[Casual Shinji]

The bottom line is that you're controlling a pawn, and that makes for a lame story. You're saying that that he was warned, but you watch the deterioration on your character's body with every Colossus that you kill. C'mon dude, the main character who you're controlling is a moron, and you don't learn that until the end of the game.

That's sort of the point.

You start the game thinking you're the regular hero who goes out to slay the beast and save the princess - It's the standard trope. But as you see Wander deteriorating due to killing the colossi, it's clear that this quest is not very healthy for him. The whole game is an allegory for people who are grief stricken (or just addicted) to the point where they destroy themselves...

Spoiler: ...and the ones around them.

Agro

Mind you...if Shadow of the Colossus is a prequel for ICO, that would change my opinion significantly.

It is.

In Ico children with horns are seen as cursed due to what Wander did in Shadow of the Colossus. He was the first of his kind, and became synonymous with Dormin. And at the end of SotC the elder guy says "If it's even possible to live in this cursed land... Maybe one day you will make amends for what you've done." This is in reference to Ico who saves Yorna.

And when you look at the games you can see that Ico takes place in a more advanced time with it's switches, levers, and pulleys.

 

[Darth Rosenberg]

I'm amazed anyone's mentioned Red Dead Redemption's ending/s. I'd generally expect that to be in a thread marked Greatest Ever Game Endings... How it wasn't satisfying, I have no idea.

But then again I didn't mind Mass Effect 3's ending at all (original or Extended), even if the original execution of it was too patchy. Not only do I think it made sense, but I enjoyed being surprised by an ending. That rarely happens in games.

Actually, I'm struggling to find examples of endings that left me flat.

I'll go with Skyrim: Alduin died faster than a bandit chief or an especially stubborn pack of mudcrabs... Appalling excuse for a 'boss fight', and after it's done what is the player reward with? Bugger all. But, post-Morrowind, I never expected much from Bethesda and a main quest, so I wasn't surprised, ergo I wasn't that disappointed. It still sucked, though.

 

[Chester Rabbit]

Mass Effect 2 ? Destroying that Collector bass is the good ending eh? Bullshit! Now granted I agree it probably would have done more harm than good if we had kept it to try and get a leg up on the Reapers but the reason we destroyed it was the wrong one and frankly it did the people who ?died? for its cause an even greater disservice in blowing it up just because ?grrr it?s an abomination and people died grr?
We should have kept it and if indoctrination was a threat then that should have been the reason for destroying it. Gah that ending just bugs me so much.

 

[MysticSlayer]

Assassin's Creed 2 always comes to mind when I think of a disappointing ending. The final boss fight was just one of the most lackluster final fights I've seen, and then it gets followed up by one of the most hilariously-bad "twists" I can think of, all delivered through a cutscene that had me laughing at how stupid it all looked. If it was parodying something, then I would probably have enjoyed it, but for how serious the game took itself, it was just awful. Awful enough, in fact, that it completely killed what little bit of interest in the AC story I had left.

 

[Blitsie]

For me it's Infamous: Second Son's Evil ending

Spoiler: Infamous:SS Spoilers

You go through the story, the evillest thing you do being that you murder some Activists. You get up to the big bad, and instead of saying she could use you for whatever, she'll get a buttload more dosh for killing you. Then after you do that, you go home, get exiled from your tribe and be all like 'EVERYONE DIES'. Just felt like stupid personality changes out of the ass. Hell, the make the bad guy even MORE unlikable. YOU'RE MEANT TO BE EVIL

Spoiler: I know, right?

At worst Delsin felt like a huge asshole, never felt proper evil, more of a delinquent teen that needs a good smack really. I mean in the previous inFAMOUS you murder your best friend in cold blood, here you just get people to openly loathe you instead of properly fearing you. It also completely killed any impact his brother's death would've had and, considering the kind of character his brother is, hearing him tell Delsin he's proud of him before drowning was more hilariously ironic than sad.

It just felt out of place for me overall, lots of nonsensical things that make it feel more like a lousy "what if" story than a proper one

At the very least you have a rad cover of Heart Shaped Box to listen to when the credits roll, good karma storyline also makes up for it haha.