The worst video game ending ever

[thejboy88]

With the release of the game "Inside" by the creators of Limbo, a lot of people have been talking about it. Specifically, they've been talking about the ending and how terrible they think it is, ruining what was, apparently, an otherwise flawless game.

And that got me thinking. I've seen a lot of games that have put people off simply because they didn't manage to hold to their high standards by the end, leaving players disappointed. So, what I'd like to know is this. What, in your view, is the absolute worst ending of any game you have ever played?

 

[DefunctTheory]

Hmm... this is a toughy.

Mechwarrior 3 had kind of a crappy ending. Not story wise - It ended as one would expect, with a clean narrative and nifty cinema ending, but the final mission is just crap. While one would struggle to call the game as a whole 'difficult,' the final mission is just hilariously easy - It's a straight up vs. map, with no terrain, on a flat stage. You just walk forward until you get the enemy unit on your sensors, then engage them at maximum distance (a kilometer) with either massed PPC fire (1-2 shots per mech, since they can do nothing but march at you) or massed LRM fire (1 shot per mech, with automatic tracking). It's trivial beyond belief.

 

[Tanis]

In B4 Mass Effect?

I'd say I was rather irked with the ending of God of War 2 when it came out.
Sequel bait as fuck, but now I hate it less.

The only, truly, terrible ending I can think of right now is the ending to FF7.
The final fight was a joke, the 'afterwards' was just..bleh.
I felt like I got NOTHING out of it.

Then the sequels and spin-offs came and ruined it even further.
:/

 

[Athennesi]

A lot of people will give the same answer here.
But there are actually worse, usually result of rushed deadline. Kotor II was unfinished, latest one for me was Risen III, which was simply lazy, with Alien Isolation it was sort of pointless. Or entire expansion to 'finish" the series( or better kill it for good): Forsaken Gods for Gothic III.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Guys guys guys - We can all agree Shadows of the Colossus has the worst ending, because it should never have ended! We need countless more amazing boss-battles, each unique and challenging. I'd never put it down!

 

[DrownedAmmet]

Guys guys guys - We can all agree Shadows of the Colossus has the worst ending, because it should never have ended! We need countless more amazing boss-battles, each unique and challenging. I'd never put it down!

if we're going by that criteria then the Last of Us would win for me hands down. I think I was in tears just at the thought of there being no more game left to experience

My real answer for me would be Dark Souls 1.

Spoiler

Once you make your choice the game just ends and it starts you off back at the beginning. I just sat there thinking "I went through all that and I don't even get a cut scene or anything!?

 

[Arnoxthe1]

Antichamber. Just... Antichamber. Which sucks because it was such a cool and sometimes even inspiring game too.

 

[Xprimentyl]

As much as I loved ?Enslaved: Odyssey to the West? with its absolutely fantastic characters and acting despite the game being largely a mindless "Devil May Cry"-esque beat-?em-up, the ending, while cohesive enough for story purposes, was god-awfully executed. You spend several hours of gameplay watching animated cut scenes, then they wrap it all with live video of Andy Serkis expositioning in what appears to be a utility closet or something?!? Not only did it not fit well with the rest of the game, it looked like they put all of 12 minutes into its production, like they met Andy in his garage and told him to read his lines into a hand-held camera. My guess is the animation staff went on strike a couple months before launch and that?s the best the producers could come up with.

 

[Saelune]

I don't know what the worst ending is, but an ending that really annoys me is the ending of Oblivion. You spend the whole game doing all the work, then Martin...dies, which causes Akatosh to Deus Ex Mehrunes Dagon and Martin gets all the credit.

In Morrowind and Skyrim you get the credit. Though Morrowind did it better because afterwards everyone goes "OMG You're the Nereverine! OMG OMG!"

 

[Glongpre]

The only, truly, terrible ending I can think of right now is the ending to FF7.
The final fight was a joke, the 'afterwards' was just..bleh.
I felt like I got NOTHING out of it.

I liked that ending. Holy gets launched but doesn't work. You realize that the promised land isn't a physical place, but a return to the lifestream. Aerith is "alive" in the lifestream (as she is now one with the planet), and the lifestream defends against meteor. Totally works for me because I am such a hippie

OP: I will mention Kotor 2, but I can't really count it because the game itself was rushed and unfinished (and I love it!).

Another bad one was Halo 2, what a cliffhanger!

Crap, I had one in mind but now I forget what it was.

 

[G00N3R7883]

The Witness was a complete anticlimax of nothingness, so I'll probably vote for that.

 

[Fox12]

I think we all know the answer to this question. The thread should really be about the second worst ending in video game history.

Guys guys guys - We can all agree Shadows of the Colossus has the worst ending, because it should never have ended! We need countless more amazing boss-battles, each unique and challenging. I'd never put it down!

if we're going by that criteria then the Last of Us would win for me hands down. I think I was in tears just at the thought of there being no more game left to experience

My real answer for me would be Dark Souls 1.

Spoiler

Once you make your choice the game just ends and it starts you off back at the beginning. I just sat there thinking "I went through all that and I don't even get a cut scene or anything!?

I never understood why people dislike the endings to the soul's games. I loved how anti-climactic they are. It really underscores the theme of the story. It only becomes meaningful when you understand the lore, though. You either don't understand what's going on, in which case you were manipulated, or you do understand, and it just doesn't matter. I though the ending was beatiful and poetic. In fact, it's probably my favorite game ending of all time.

 

[Lightspeaker]

Okay, yeah, first of all I'm going to call out the absolute Tyrannosaurus in the room that is Mass Effect 3.


Moving on from that winner of this question (by several miles at least)...second place. Hmmm...

Its actually difficult to think of endings that were truly awful, especially since lately I've been in a bad habit of playing games that HAVE no ending (despite having a huge backlog of games that do). I remember being fairly apathetic to the ending of Skyrim's main quest line; it was okay but it kinda just felt like "oh alright then, we're done". I'd be tempted to say Dragon Age Origins but honestly its not so much the end of the game that I didn't like than the final boss itself.

Maybe Diablo 3:Reaper of Souls? Frankly the story for that game was an absolute slog and the only thing I felt having beaten Malthael was total exhaustion and a sense of "finally that's over and I can play properly now in Adventure mode". And the story didn't really go anywhere anyway, just acting as a 'reset' on everything so they can lazily set up future games.

 

[Myria]

"Beyond Good and Evil", easily one of the worst endings of any game I've played. I wasn't impressed with the game itself, never have understood how it became a "cult classic" (beyond suspecting that many of those who praise it never really played it, but I suspect that happens a lot in gaming), but the ending is just straight up David Cage loony toons BS without even the amusement value of watching the slow motion train wreck that is something like Fahrenheit.

I would also nominate the original Syberia, but the second one finished the story and the ending of the first didn't go straight off into WTFville the way Beyond Good and Evil did, it just ended with only half the story told.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Half Life 2 episode 2. *Drops mic*

Erm...

Oh wait, I'm not done yet, am terribly indecisive. *Picks broken mic back up*

I would like to push the rules a bit here, assuming there are any, and say the last chunk of Far Cry 3 should have been put before the killing of Vaas (spoiler alert). It just felt like a weird trundling DLC expansion than a higher staked last chapter of a game.
Oh and MGSV...but the entirety of the game series kind of conditions you to numbness towards appallingly sporadic writing like that of an overexcited child subjected to only Tom Clancy and bad anime for childhood entertainment.

I don't like a lot of endings. Could be here a while. Like the Witcher 3 gave me the most depressing ending it could muster, maybe researching these things beforehand would help, but that would be cheating. How, what why and what the fuck is "the cold"? I don't know what the game wants from me, it gives me some obscure...thing...threat or weather forecast, I dunno, then a convo moral decision because it noticed I was distracted by a particularly colourful rodent outside my window as it was explaining how no number of woolly jumpers will save me this winter, thanks gran. Then punishes me. Maybe I should've been concentrating more...

 

[DefunctTheory]

I don't like a lot of endings. Could be here a while. Like the Witcher 3 gave me the most depressing ending it could muster, maybe researching these things beforehand would help, but that would be cheating. How, what why and what the fuck is "the cold"? I don't know what the game wants from me, it gives me some obscure...thing...threat or weather forecast, I dunno, then a convo moral decision because it noticed I was distracted by a particularly colourful rodent outside my window as it was explaining how no number of woolly jumpers will save me this winter, thanks gran. Then punishes me. Maybe I should've been concentrating more...

To get the 'good' ending, all you have to do is...

Spoiler

Not be a dick to Ciri, and be a dick to everyone who would, in turn, be a dick to Ciri.

Actually blew my mind when I got the good ending on my 'first try,' I was absolutely certain the game was going to break my heart.

I would like to push the rules a bit here, assuming there are any, and say the last chunk of Far Cry 3 should have been put before the killing of Vaas (spoiler alert). It just felt like a weird trundling DLC expansion than a higher staked last chapter of a game.

Crap, I completely forgot about Far Cry 3. Yah, everything after Vaas was just... empty. And the actual ending was just bizarre.

 

[09philj]

Professor Layton and the Spectre's Call and Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask. They just fell totally flat, which is a crying shame considering how much I loved the first three games. I've not even touched the last one as a result.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Remember how Fable 2 puts you in a small room with the main villain, your three allies and you have him at your mercy? He's talking about his motivation and what he would have done if you hadn't stopped him...then Reaver shoots him mid-sentence and makes a dumb quip? Thanks Reaver but if I reload and attack myself he...just...dies in one hit anyway. Then totally-not-Kreia from Knights of the Old Republic 2 stands in the middle of the room and is all like, "hey, you want a preview of Fable 3? Also have this outfit that's totally going to figure into Fable 3."

 

[tippy2k2]

Half Life 2 episode 2. *Drops mic*

Erm...

Oh wait, I'm not done yet, am terribly indecisive. *Picks broken mic back up*

No! You put that mic back down. That was the correct answer, don't talk yourself out of the correct answer!

Half-Life 2 Episode 2 is what basically stopped me from trusting Episodic games. Why in the hell would I risk money on a game that I might not get to finish when there are so many games I can play that are currently finished? Telltale is the only one that I have bought a series of before they were all released because of their track record (and even then, it took a few times around before I did that); all others I have always waited until the entire series is out before I spend money.

Also, Fable 3. Here is my dramatic telling of the ending...

We have 365 days to prepare for the incoming invasion men! I expect you all to make the sacrifices necessary for us to win!

Day 1: I had my picture taken!
Day 7: Did some jobs to get some money to fight the incoming hoard
Day 15: Put some of that money into some investments, hoping for something good to happen there
Day 30: The investments are paying off. This is perfect! As long as there is not some kind of incredibly stupid bullshit like a giant time jump, I'll have everything I need to save my country
Day 366: Why didn't you prepare!?!?! NOW WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!!!!! Oh, also, your game autosaved because Fuck You, if we're gonna giant time jump your ass, we're gonna make sure there isn't dick you can do about it!

 

[FalloutJack]

No no no... This sort of thing deserves really bad games with incredible build-up to sink us low into crappy town, and harping on Mass Effect again just won't cut it.

Once again, Exhibit A must be none other than FF8.

Bad game with bad characters with bad writing while using a bad system...but it was given such advertising and hyping that you'd think it was going to knock the socks off of the previous and still well-loved game.

But it didn't. It sucks. And the ending is about as frankly poor, with the only high-note of it being that it's THE END.