On Endings

[wonkify]

I heartily agree with this. A proper ending not only adds significantly to the story, but for me actually pulls me along through the entire story behind the game.

I eagerly played Deus Ex and both Mass Effect games because I was so interested in what the ending would turn out to reveal, and all of them were tremendously satisfying.

So much so with Mass Effect that I can not wait for the third installment to wrap up the larger story arc. But each of the first two games had excellent endings of their own as well, not a worthless, "Continued" place marker. Very well done and very satisfying to me.

 

[Falseprophet]

AC2 had a shitty ending that tried to connect the time you spent as Ezio to Desmond and the future. I get that they had to somehow tie everything to Desmond, but how did that shit make any sense and left me pissed off. The game was good but the ending left me staring at the screen for an hour thinking "really, thats how you want to go out?" Seriously though, how is Desmond supposed to solve this problem. How can he and his scientist buddies restore Earths magnetic field or whatever it was? No amount of stabbing Templars in cool ways is going to fix that (unless the universe had a specific stabbing quota that Desmond must meet before it decides not to destroy the planet).

I've played World of Darkness tabletop games for over a decade now, so I guess I'm kind of used to duelling globe-spanning ancient conspiracies that every important historical figure was secretly a member of, even if I still usually find them ridiculous. AC2's duelling conspiracies are no exception, but I was willing to handwave that. It's not a bad framing device for historical stories otherwise separated by centuries. In this case, I'm sure some sort of alien deus ex machina will be involved.

What bothered me more about the ending to AC2 was that I spent 20 hours playing as Ezio, one of my favourite video game characters of the last few years, only for that bait-and-switch ending where Ezio's pushed aside and perennial loser Desmond gets all the attention. I know the game was leading up to that point, but it still annoyed me. Still, clearly Ubisoft understands this, with AC2 getting a direct sequel and all.

 

[Cabamacadaf]

For all this talk about endings, I felt like this article didn't have one. You talk about only one game whose ending you liked and cut it off. What? Can you never write more than 2 pages about anything?

Oh well. I'm just QQ

I think that was the point.

 

[naughtydoggus]

I felt all three of the Jak games for the PS2 had really good endings. Even though it was a trilogy like so many other franchises, each one of them had closure and told it's own story. Naugthydog is pretty good at that.
I'd mention both the Uncharted games too, but I think we're all clear where Yatzee stands with those games.

 

[BloodSquirrel]

When I said "you can't make it big..." I meant there is and will be no great game writers until something in the field changes. As it is, a potential Van Gogh level writer will simply have his "paintings" thrown out instead of being passed from gallery to gallery until they achieve acclaim,
because there is no interest in a writer becoming great. That won't line the pockets of the corporations and trends that currently control the industry.
That's objective reality.

No it isn't. Van Gogh didn't "line the pockets of the corporations" either, yet, somehow, his work got by.

Art having to work within such a system is not new. You know Shakespeare, the OMG greatest write of all time? His plays were considered popular entertainment in his day. They were written for the crowds.

Great writing in video games exists. It has managed to sell. It has even managed to sell well enough to get people to buy suplimental fiction.

 

[RTR]

If I was a writer, I think I would feel the same about writing as Yatzee.
You know what else had a good ending? Killer7. Yes, it was a mindfuck but when it came down to a final moral choice, none of the endings feel like the appropriate one.

 

[Namewithheld]

Bioshock's end BATTLE is stupid. But the ending cinematic - for Good Endings - is one of the most effective endings to an story I've seen in a long long time. It is also one of the three things in video games that makes me cry every single time.

Now, if I had a bunch of money and the rights to Bioshock, I'd redo the ending of the game to make it fall more in line with the awesome movie end. Basically, the entire final conflict is a really interesting one: Free will versus conditioning, good versus evil, father versus son...so after removing your control for one of the most effective subversions of the FPS concept I've ever seen, the final battle should not be against Big Daddies or Splicers or a cartoonish supervillain, but rather against your own mind.

I have no idea how to make a cerebral action game sequence, but I think a trippy 'in your mind' final boss battle as you overcome your mind control would be very very effective. Also, using metaphor in video games is awesome - see SH2 and...well, most of Bioshock.

Now, the EVIL ending would require a LOT of retooling to make effective.

I think the whole moral choice system could have been chucked from Bioshock without negatively impacting the story or gameplay in anyway.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

Hmm... well, your book came in the mail today, so after reading this, I expect it will have an amazing ending... or... well... ehh...

Oh, and as for amazing endings, two words: Crisis Core.

 

[theSovietConnection]

Only got to read the Singularity bit, but while the endings were interesting, I'm not sure I feel they were well done. What dulled their effectiveness for me was that three such wildly different conclusions come about from ONE decision made in the closing minutes of the game. It's not like Fallout or even Marvel Ultimate Alliance, where it's the choices you make throughout the game that determine the ending.

It's just strange to see "moral" endings in a game where there are no moral choices to be made until the very end. You can't really play the game as a nice guy or a jerk. All your missions are the same, and you don't get to deviate to help the old lady cross the street or drive over her. So the endings are cinematic, about some character who isn't "you"; you don't feel like you've really influenced or "deserved" the ending you got, aside from that one big decision at the end.

No doubt this wasn't the first game to do this, and I'm sure I've even played other games where this happened, but Singularity is the most recent, and the only one I can recall right now.

Does that really dull their effectiveness, though? Think about that sequence for a moment, you've got the fate of the world in your hands. Do you go with the good, and seem to save the world? Or do you give in to the evil dictator? Or does the temptation of the TMD pull you in, and do you give in to your own selfish desires?

I have to say though, the overall winner in the good ending surprised me. I did not see it coming the first time, though playing through again, it was much easier to see.

 

[The_ModeRazor]

Hey, Planescape Torment had a really good ending...
Actually it had 4, but I only saw the good one.
And I should know it was good, I just finished the game an hour ago

But you didin't find out the Nameless One's... well, name.
Though I have this crawling sensation in the back of my skull that it was Bob. It must be.

Edit: Hey, is that an experience bubble over my head? And where the fuck did this journal come from?

 

[rockyoumonkeys]

Does that really dull their effectiveness, though? Think about that sequence for a moment, you've got the fate of the world in your hands. Do you go with the good, and seem to save the world? Or do you give in to the evil dictator? Or does the temptation of the TMD pull you in, and do you give in to your own selfish desires?

Well who can really say, right? You're presented with a choice, and then boom, ALL of the consequences of that choice are laid out very quickly for you, even though it's laying out the next several years or so at least.

It's like reading a great book, but instead of having a grand conclusion, the last 100 pages are summed up for you in a paragraph or two.

Not to mention that it's a choice you probably haven't had to really think about, and you make it very quickly. (I don't recall there being a time limit, but not making the choice quickly breaks the narrative anyway). So yeah, on the one hand it's interesting to see how your choice affects the world, but not in any real storytelling sense. It'd be like reading the summary of a book on Wiki. You can appreciate the direction the story goes, find a couple interesting ideas, but as a story, it's just lacking a lot.

 

[Mangue Surfer]

Mafia 2 and other games.
I hate this "DLC with the true end is coming".

 

[RandV80]

Well, the endings in the Oddworld series were pretty good, with bad endings that were a little lacking but darkly funny and realy ones with humour and a lighter note. The Breath of Fire series nomrally had good endings and there are others. I think that many modern games seem to keep thing open ended, in case of a follow-up.

Really? Breath of Fire? The only one I've actually finished start to end was the first, and that goes down in my books as one of the worst endings I've ever experienced. After a long, difficult, epic quest, you're party finally confronts the final boss and defeats him. To paraphrase:

Defeate final boss

Character 1: "...So what do we do now?"
Character 2: "I know, let's rebuild our towns!"

Roll credits

That was seriously it.

On the good side of things, of course one of Yahtzee's other favorites Shadow of the Colussus earns top marks for a very powerful ending. Not for the amount of work put in (though they do get high marks there), but just how perfectly everything wrapped up.

For the developer effort category, top spot has to go to Lunar 2. Overall it's nothing special and more on the cheesy side, there's a regular ending that ends on kind of a sad note as the hero doesn't get the girl through forces beyond their control, etc etc. They could have just left it there, or switched things around to make it a happy ending, but instead you're given a bonafide epilogue 4-5 hours long to set things right! So you get to start out from the begining again by yourself, travel through all the towns again as the world hero, recruit your old allies, searching the world over again for some obscure legend. Like I said the ending itself wasn't the best but this huge amount of extra work really made it stand out.

 

[TheGreenManalishi]

This article reminds me that I need to sell my copy of Other M.

 

[108Stitches]

Brilliant ending to your post Yahtzee...

I would have to add that another game with a great ending is

 

[Yelchor]

The ending should indeed be the most important thing in a story, in videogames however financal interests often outweigh the artistic quality due to it being such an expensive endeavour apart from other mediums. Unlike movies or books however games can be successful simply beacuse of the gameplay.

Already I'm beginning to worry how Bioware's future installments will be since they were purchased by EA for example. I have yet to see an unsatisfying conclusion to the Mass Effect games, Dragon Age is probably the first game that has made me feel hopelessly let down. While the main campaign tied together most loose ends like in their previous games I had hoped for more, to be able to learn the ultimate fate of -me-, the protagonist. Awakenings was a great follow-up, however the way it ended made me rather irritated due to it simply stating that your character disappeared never to be seen again. Since that character is the avatar of myself, I would have expected to be shown an explanation for such actions. You don't have to give me different choices, just give me -closure-.

The last straw for me was Witch Hunt. It promised to give the final ending that would give closure to my character, but it turned out to be a barely three hours long campaign with an "ending" that just took away your character through the curtains going all "Nyah nyah!" on me. No answers were given, and all my anticipation having been built up until the final minutes was let down with an abrupt ending that served no purpose. It all felt like a mere trailer if you ask me.

I just... can't believe Bioware would sink so low. What were they thinking signing off with EA?!

 

[rapchee]

i think actually mafia2 didn't have such a straightforward ending - i was really expecting vito to get out a gun and go save joe. and i think it wasn't just me, he was seriously eyeballing the goon's weapon in the car, and that really wasn't a "whatever" look on he's face.

 

[RowdyRodimus]

I can name one time a "to be continued" type ending worked and that's Transformers War For Cybertron. Ok, that's cheating since it's a prequel story for 25+ years of character history. But still, I think that was a really good ending especially if you know the rest of the story. It was a much better done prequel than Lucas did with Star Wars.