What are some of the best evil endings in video games? (SPOILERS!!!!!)

[FakeSympathy]

So there are lot of games out there that does not quite have the "....and they all lived happily ever after" ending. These endings are quite dark, grim, and usually make the world within the game turn for the worse. What are some of your favorite evil endings? The ending must be player triggered whether through moral system or end-game decision.

My favorites:

Dishonored: Emily dies and empire begins to fall
So we know the bad ending where if you cause high chaos through out the game Emily becomes a ruthless empress. What some players don't know is that at the last moment when Emily is hanging on to the ledge after Havelock falls, you can kill Emily. Instead of picking her up, you can either let Emily fall to her doom by not helping her or hitting her. This causes empire to fall and plague continues to spread, and the outsider will comment how he had an lovely time.

KOTOR: new sith lord
Okay, everyone has triggered this ending at least once. After finding out that you were the infamous Darth Revan all along, you can either to embrace the truth or denouce it. If you choose to embrace it, after defeating Malak (you can also choose to kill him or take him in as apprentice), you use the star forge to empower the sith empire, ruling the galaxy

Bioshock: take over the surface world
I'll be honest, the first time playing through I thought little sisters weren't humans based on how they looked (well technically i was right). I thought they were nothing but an item to boost my plasmids. And wouldn't you know it? I got the ending that i deserved and became an asshole that used splicers to take over the surface world.

 

[The Madman]

Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Bhall

Congrats, you have become the new GOD OF MURDER. Bwahahahahahaha!!!!

Dark Messiah of Might & Magic has such a fun evil ending. Hell, it doesn't even have just one evil ending, it's got two of them. It's to the point where I've never even been able to beat the game with a 'good' playthrough because I just can't follow through on it when evil's so awesome.

Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer is another game with multiple 'evil' endings. My favourite being the one where the player becomes a monstrosity of such malevolent and evil power that the gods cintervene to defeat you and lock you beneath the earth as they're unable to kill you. That's right, YOU become the ancient all-powerful evil chained beneath the ground, just waiting some party of adventurer's to unknowingly free you in a few decades.

Also not sure it counts since it's not a strictly linear plot, but I love being evil in the Age of Wonders series. There's just something so satisfying about watching your corrupt influence spread. The land dying within your domain as darkness spreads, dead rising from the grave to fight on your behalf as the light puts up a palty, weak fight and is slowly but inevitably and painfully extinguished.

 

[Neverhoodian]

Star Wars: Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight - Kyle chooses the dark side, claims the Valley of the Jedi for his own and takes the mantle of Emperor for a reborn Empire.

Yeah it's corny as hell, but it was leagues better than most FMV cutscenes of the day. To his credit, actor Jason Court made an admirable effort to convey a fallen Kyle Katarn with just a black cloak and an extra bit of growl to his voice.

While not the "official" ending, it did make sense when taken in context of the player's actions. Unlike Jedi Academy, where one could gleefully choke and electrocute fools free of repercussion, gameplay decisions in Jedi Knight would directly influence the game's outcome. Falling to the dark side meant the player had been indulging in questionable actions for quite some time, from favoring dark side powers to murdering scores of civilians.

KOTOR: new sith lord
Okay, everyone has triggered this ending at least once. After finding out that you were the infamous Darth Revan all along, you can either to embrace the truth or denouce it. If you choose to embrace it, after defeating Malak (you can also choose to kill him or take him in as apprentice), you use the star forge to empower the sith empire, ruling the galaxy

Seconded. Bonus "evil bastard" points if you manipulated Zaalbar to kill Mission. Seriously, that was messed up.

Honorable mention: Star Wars: Jedi Academy

I found the game's storyline to be rather weak, especially when compared to previous entries in the series. Still, I couldn't help but cackle with glee the first time I chose the dark side. Seeing Jaden skewer Rosh Fucking Penin (aka "worst Star Wars character ever") was wonderfully cathartic. Whiny prick had it coming the instant he opened his mouth.

 

[Souplex]

Spoiler: Shadowrun: Dragonfall

The villain is planning to use a viral weapon to wipe out the dragons because he's afraid of them supplanting (Meta)humanity.
After listening to the villain's shpiel, you can decide that you think they're right an side with them. The final boss is the party you brought with you.
Afterwards you skip to a year later. Dragons are dead, which causes irreparable harm to the supernatural ecosystem, and without dragons to stop them supernatural monsters descend on the world and push (Meta)humanity to the brink.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Spoiler: The walking dead: Season two

Chose to kill Kenny. Not sure if it counts as evil but it sure made me feel like a proper **** for doing so. He was really getting on my nerves for most episodes and I jumped at the chance to finally have someone else to be annoyed at for once. The small character connection attempts did not make up for the incessant assholery he produced. Sorry, Kenny...you were a gangrene limb and had to go.

FFXIII:
Ok, this is more my own head-canon really, as i stopped playing shortly after some pretty stuff happened. I like to think the group got just as fed up as i did with each other and the pointless world they were living in, so all huddled in a cave until they died of existential despair and let the world go to complete shit. Which is precisely what it deserved! So i guess that is a more torturous evil that i usually enjoy.

 

[Diablo1099_v1legacy]

Command and Conquer 2: Tiberium Sun: You finally get to see what would happen if Kane's plans succeed.


It's kinda haunting in several ways, first in the sense that NOD has finally crippled GDI, even more so then they did in the first acts of C&C3 and now they have free-reign over the planet.

Second in that you see how Kane was just using NOD this whole time and just how little he really cares for them as he basically kills every human on earth in exchange for (Least what I assume to be) a 1-way ticket off earth by the Scrin.
My reasoning for this is it makes sense: The Scrin get their Tiberium payload a century or two earlier and Kane gets off the planet he's been stuck on since possibly the stone age.


Finally, just the image of a "Tiberium Earth" at the end...

Props to Joseph D. Kucan, This was most likely the best performance as Kane and this ending is WAY better then whatever they cobbled together for C&C4

Fallout: New Vegas: While you do need to use your imagination a little, I was always a fan of the Evil-Independent New Vegas path, namely because it allows you to get the highest possibly body count in the game, especially with the nuclear missiles from Lonesome Road.
So I then imagine my character lording over a wasteland of bodies after bringing 3 entire factions to their ruin and taking the entire city for him/herself.
It's like the bonus ending of Dead Money, only more "Fun" >

 

[ColaWarVeteran]

Chrono Trigger: Ending #6 - "The Legendary Hero": At first everything seems to be going fine. With happy music playing it shows Robo being sent back to a futuristic version of Leene Square where he bumps into Atropos in a similar fashion to how Crono met Marle. The next scene shows them sitting on a mountain looking out over the horizon. After this the tone shifts. The scene changes to the Guardia throne room in 600AD with Tata sitting on the throne while his father is talking to the crowd of soldiers including the King and Queen. Tata soon sets off and is shown being confronted by some fiends. He then enters a larger room and calls out "Magus!". The screen shifts up to reveal Crono sitting on a throne with Marle and Lucca beside him. The two girls step forward, weapons ready, while Crono stands and laughs.

tl;dr - Crono takes Magus' place as ruler of the fiends and big bad evil guy of 600AD.

 

[THM]

Bioshock 2 - partly for the imagery, but mostly for the voice-over monologue that goes with it.

Just that last line - "They will never...see me coming." Gives me chills.

 

[Secondhand Revenant]

KOTOR: new sith lord
Okay, everyone has triggered this ending at least once. After finding out that you were the infamous Darth Revan all along, you can either to embrace the truth or denouce it. If you choose to embrace it, after defeating Malak (you can also choose to kill him or take him in as apprentice), you use the star forge to empower the sith empire, ruling the galaxy

Wait are you sure Malak doesn't always just die? Bastilla is by your side at the end for that, but never remembered Malak being a possibility.

Star Wars: Seconded. Bonus "evil bastard" points if you manipulated Zaalbar to kill Mission. Seriously, that was messed up.

If you go through the pain of romancing Carth you can kill him too at the ens. Most satisfying part of going dark side.

Honorable mention: Star Wars: Jedi Academy

I found the game's storyline to be rather weak, especially when compared to previous entries in the series. Still, I couldn't help but cackle with glee the first time I chose the dark side. Seeing Jaden skewer Rosh Fucking Penin (aka "worst Star Wars character ever") was wonderfully cathartic. Whiny prick had it coming the instant he opened his mouth.

It's hard not to want to murder Rosh every single time. The problem is after that it's like his stupidity transfers into Jaden and Jaden starts becoming more unbearable with his 'dark side' voice...

Sadly everyone else took the endings that came to mind for me XD

 

[Silverbeard]

Vandal Hearts 2 on the PS 1 gets my vote.

While not specifically an 'evil' ending (more like a 'bad' ending), this game can end with the main character killing one of his childhood friends, watching another die, slaying his lover (and her ENTIRE FAMILY), most of his party members and overthrowing the game's stand-in for the Nazis only to replace them with an even more oppressive and vicious empire that he rules over as an emotionless dictator until he gets assassinated. This causes his empire to fall apart and leads to several generations of constant war throughout the land that kills millions and devastates entire nations.
That was one especially fucked up ending in an especially fucked up game that makes Games of Thrones seem like a bedtime story.

 

[sonicneedslovetoo]

Metro Last Light:
Red Line is just about to win, they've smashed through the rangers defenses and the little one has abandoned you. In those last moments when D6 is rigged to self destruct you stare up into Korbut's eyes and watch as he realizes what you're actually doing.
When he asked "Where are you going Artyom?" I actually answered back "To hell you son of a *****" out loud.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Undertale:


You think I'm going to talk about killing all those lovable characters and destroying the world, aren't you? No.

See, Chara doesn't want to get real ultimate power and then destroy the world, oh no. Chara wants to be free.

And what does the player typically do after murdering all their friends and destroying the world? Try to assuage their guilt by getting the true Pacifist ending. Where they harness the power of Determination, SAVE all their friends, and bring down the barrier between the surface world and underneath.

And then Chara is free. Good job breaking it, "hero".

 

[immortalfrieza]

Soul Nomad and The World Eater's true Demon ending, no contest. Hell, the entire Demon path is easily the best of the evil paths in ANY game I've ever played, bar none. It's not only an entire path completely distinct from the main path, of most importance is it's an extreme rarity among evil paths due to how totally unrestrained the writers were with how evil the protagonist can get. The vast majority of games with an "evil" path are unwilling or unable to really let the player truly cut loose when they take it, and that's if they don't outright punish the player for taking it and blatantly try to steer the player the other way. In particular in many of those games the difference between the good and evil paths is that the evil path boils down to really just being kind of a jerk rather than straight up evil, and the game has to compensate for the ability to switch over to the good path by not going TOO far. The Demon path does not have these things, you are evil and you REVEL in it for all it's worth.

To sum it up without giving anything away, when the player takes this path the protagonist becomes the main villain of the story, an omnicidal maniac that dominates and drives insane the characters of the main path or destroys them, and eventually becomes so unrepentantly evil and destructive that by the end of the game even the villains of the main path join forces with the good guys in an attempt to bring the protagonist down by the end of the game. Then the protagonist kills everyone and destroys the entire planet and themselves while saying the equivalent of "SO worth it!"

 

[Sniper Team 4]

No mention of InFamous 2's ending?

You go around committing mass murder, slaughtering billions of people on a whim, and you smile while you're doing it. The girl who was supposed to be the other good guy is right there with you, grinning as you reduce cities to smoking craters just to save a handful of people. That ending made me feel downright sick.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Naoya's Ending in Devil Survivor: Overclocked: Chaos isn't always more fun than Law in the SMT games, but in this case I much preferred the Demon Overlord's path to the Messiah. The look on your face, which you will never see on any other path and makes you look a fair bit more like dear brother Naoya, contributes to the feeling that you've just crossed a line you can't uncross. You also get the best soundtrack in the game playing as a reward, which can only be heard elsewhere at the very start of the game. Too bad the Overlord's cloak isn't a permanent addition to your character's sprite in the 8th day.

'Bad' Ending in Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow: Same kind of thing, but not given as much detail. It's not until Dawn of Sorrow that 'Somacula' gets to show us what he can really do besides toss a wine glass aside and teleport. Great crazy evil laugh, reminds me of Light Yagami. I like how he gets a different line depending on what character you face him with- for some reason he expresses the most rage towards 'Arikado'/Alucard.

 

[meiam]

Der langrisser has a pretty awesome evil/independent path. The game has the normal good path were you fight the evil empire and meet all kind of nice people. But early in one of the general of the evil empire tries to convince you that the empire isn't so evil and would actually stop all war by conquering the world. You can actually accept to go with him at which point you have to fight your former comrade. Now you become a general of the evil empire and your eventually task to retrieve the "sword of light" in the game. If you manage to get to the sword first, you can actually decide to keep the sword for yourself, which immediately lead to you fighting the empire (while still fighting the character from the good path). At this point the god of darkness will send a bunch of monster to help you out. He eventually tell you to get the "sword of darkness" where you can, again, tell him to go screw himself and you keep the sword. Which lead to you fighting the god of darkness himself (along with the monster who were helping you not too long ago, although as soon as you kill the god of darkness you can mind control them to go back to your side). Once you kill the god of darkness (something which even hero of old could not do, they were forced to just trap him) the ultimate goddess of light decide that maybe your become too strong so she team up with pretty much everyone whose still alive at this point to try and stop you, the final mission is just you killing all of them, so you end the game happy that you've freed the world from the god themselves.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

Undertale:


You think I'm going to talk about killing all those lovable characters and destroying the world, aren't you? No.

See, Chara doesn't want to get real ultimate power and then destroy the world, oh no. Chara wants to be free.

And what does the player typically do after murdering all their friends and destroying the world? Try to assuage their guilt by getting the true Pacifist ending. Where they harness the power of Determination, SAVE all their friends, and bring down the barrier between the surface world and underneath.

And then Chara is free. Good job breaking it, "hero".

You might like this...

Spoiler: Kind of a large image.

'Bad' Ending in Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow: Same kind of thing, but not given as much detail. It's not until Dawn of Sorrow that 'Somacula' gets to show us what he can really do besides toss a wine glass aside and teleport. Great crazy evil laugh, reminds me of Light Yagami. I like how he gets a different line depending on what character you face him with- for some reason he expresses the most rage towards 'Arikado'/Alucard.

But... But that tossed wine glass said all that needed to be said.

 

[CaitSeith]

Song of Saya (Saya completes her task)

Spoiler

After Fukimori and Saya kill the last of his former friends, Saya transforms, blooming like a magical flower from a fairy tale, spreading into the air sparkling pollen to create a new beautiful world for her and Fukimori. At least, that's what Fukimori sees. As we finally learn the last details about Saya, her "pollen" become growths of flesh and blood, and mutates everybody on the planet into amorphous abominations and tentacle monsters...

...and they lived happily ever after.

Just in case that doesn't count, Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain (cannon ending)

Spoiler

After all the work of killing every Circle member, only one pillar is left to be restored. The only way for Kain to restore it is to sacrifice himself; otherwise the Pillars will colapse and the land of Nosgoth will become an irredeemable wasteland. What did Kain do? Well, why to die, if as a vampire he can live forever?

 

[Ragsnstitches]

Resident Evil Revelations 2's "bad" ending... not necessarily evil, but I'm struggling to think of anything not already mentioned. It's only part of that game where I actually felt something (I still enjoyed it purely for gameplay reasons). As far as I'm concerned, that's the canonical ending.

I guess I would add the "Wishgranter" endings from Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl. They are all variants of the "careful watch you wish for" trope, in that the wish is granted but it's subverted in such a way that it's detrimental towards the protagonist.

My 2 personal favourties are the "Greed" and "Immortality" ending. In the former, you are hallucinating that it's raining gold coins and are laughing to yourself in astonishment, while in reality it's just the roof caving in on you. Last scene is your hand sticking out of the rubble holding a rusted rivet. The Immortality ending has you being turned into a metal statute, making you immortal in a sense, but not how one would prefer.

As a bonus the "good" wishgranter ending is also a kick in the nards. You wish for The Zone to be gone, thereby returning the area around Chernobyl back to normal. Instead Wishgranter makes you blind so you can't see it anymore. Damn them technicalities.

Also, Deus Ex Invisible War's "kill everybody" ending... because fuck that game.