The Worst Game Endings - Or How to Ruin Good Gameplay with Bad Writing (Spoilers, duh)

[Dom Cruise]

It was an amazing let down but from what I heard they had the plug pulled late into development so they just had to make do with what they could. That's why the level map turns into a static ship image in the last part of it instead of being a full dynamic map like in the first part when you call it up. I was still surprised they didn't actually just come up with an ending that was more than a bad joke though, it was just some dialogue that they needed.

It's a real shame because up to that point the story the game tells is good and deserved a much better ending.

 

[JustStopDude]

That tech demo ID released and called a game, "Rage", was the first time I just busted out laughing at a game ending.

There wasn't really any depth to the game or anything so I wasn't expecting much, they couldn't even bother to include a boss fight at the end. It's so bizarre.

It just ends with the equivalent of a text screen that says "insert final level here".

 

[DuranceVile]

I don't think its a game many people have heard about, but I had a very mixed time with Kentucky Route Zero.
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I only got to know it because the Disco Elysium devs mentioned it as one of their bigger inspirations, I have not seen anyone else talk about it, even tho it took the devs 10 years to release the full game. Its just a very unique experience overall, if David Lynch ever made a game Id say in many ways this would be it, it has a lot of magical realism in it.

You start the story as an antique delivery driver named Conway, trying to make his final delivery to 5 Dogwood Drive, but no one really knows where its at. Along the way you meet many side characters, some who become part of your travelling group, and you move along the Kentucky Route Zero, which is this sort of metaphysical radio wave road of ideas and places, very Twilight Zone-esque.
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There are 5 Acts and in them you travel along the Zero, meeting strange people at strange places and trying to find out where the fuck Dogwood Drive is. There are many choices to be made, but there arent multiple campaign paths, your input only really changes the atmosphere of a scene. Between Acts there are little interlude chapters, somewhat related to the main story, with very different gameplay. I have never played something quite like it and its still an experience that lingers on my mind.

My problem with it is that nothing really seems to get done by the end of the narrative. I guess it was my fault for going into it expecting the story to be somewhat straight forward and to reach a satisfying ending. Conway becomes a debt ghost and is taken away halfway through, I was not as invested at the rest of the cast, so that was a big letdown. Their stories dont really go anywhere either, you reach Dogwood Drive and you find a city who just got through a big flood that destroyed most of it. You control a cat through the entire chapter and you just go around listening to people talk. The habitants are leaving to find a new home somewhere else, but before going they decide to have a funeral for a group of horses that died during the accident. 5 Dogwood Drive turns out to be an empty house, with nothing inside of it. Thematically it makes sense, I guess, but its all very anticlimatic and melancholy.

Soundtrack is kino tho

I bought this game back in 2013 and have been following its development ever since. I had a viscerally negative reaction to its ending. I was already a little on the fence about it after a certain point, but it really did kind of fall apart for me.

Conway was the character I was most invested in, so him getting taken away by the debt skeletons, never to be seen again pissed me off. I wanted to see him make his final delivery, see where his story was going after this. Maybe get some resolution on the choices I'd made for him. I think like a Telltale game, a lot of the choices don't do much.

I couldn't help but wonder if Conway's swift exit was the developers deciding to usher him out to focus on their more "diverse" cast. The game released over the course of many years, and as we crossed over into Current Year+X, I can see a terminally online dev team wanting to get rid of the icky old white guy. It killed the game for me. I paid like 5 bucks for it almost a decade ago and I still feel ripped off at the end.

Another game that really burned me was Silent Hill: Homecoming. That was already a barely salvageable excuse for an SH game, made worse by the ending. Alex isn't a soldier, he's just crazy. The game sold itself as "a soldier coming home from war" and throws the whole premise out after barely interacting with it. That's not even getting into the last level taking place in the torture rooms from Hostel. Or cribbing iconography from the movies. Or having Pyramid Head show up, etc. etc.

Trails in the Sky: First Chapter was probably the worst game ending in this respect if you played it on the PSP originally. In-game

Spoiler: Story Spoilers

it ends with the second main character abandoning the first just after they profess their love for each other, while the actual bad guy reveals what was happening all along and how all that you did was just what he was wanting to happen.

In the real world if you played at release on the PSP in 2011 you'd have to deal with that epic lack of closure and heartbreaker of an ending for 4 years while XSEED got its shit together and released the sequel after the sadbrained goons at Crape Fulgur locked themselves in a room attempting suicide because due dates and properly formatting spreadsheets like a functioning adult are hard.

Another goon project success story! I didn't realize Carpe Fulgar did Trails in the Sky. The only game I remember them being attached to before they had their meltdown was Recettear. I guess I self-memory holed it.

 

[Dr. Pasquale]

Conway was the character I was most invested in, so him getting taken away by the debt skeletons, never to be seen again pissed me off. I wanted to see him make his final delivery, see where his story was going after this. Maybe get some resolution on the choices I'd made for him. I think like a Telltale game, a lot of the choices don't do much.

I couldn't help but wonder if Conway's swift exit was the developers deciding to usher him out to focus on their more "diverse" cast. The game released over the course of many years, and as we crossed over into Current Year+X, I can see a terminally online dev team wanting to get rid of the icky old white guy. It killed the game for me. I paid like 5 bucks for it almost a decade ago and I still feel ripped off at the end.

I don't think the diverseness was the reason of that because its not like the remaining cast gets a lot of time on the spotlight after that neither. You follow then around for 1 chapter in the journey to the computer cave and then the final episode isnt about then at all. It's known that the game went through many development shifts in the 10 years it took to get done (Junebug went through a complete character redesign, for example), but I think If anything, Conway's exit in Chapter 3 seemed to be a part of their concious decision to not give any character closure. The closest someone gets to closure in KRZ are the fucking horses that die in the final chapter. You come in after theyre dead, you hear some ppl talk about them and then you participate on their burial, done.

Its been a long while since I finished the game and I still dont know if I like that aspect of it or not. While it does make sense thematically and also creates some very hauntingly beautiful moments, its doesnt make for a very compelling story overall. Chapters 1-3 are leagues above 4-5 at least in my book and thats because they were mostly about an old guy, his dog and a bunch of weirdos travelling through dark but whymsical roads trying to make one last delivery. That stuff is the shit and I wish the story had kept at it in its last chapters, but alas, still a very memorable game.

 

[Tom Nook's Gloryhole]

It's abundantly clear that Kentucky Route Zero was created without an actual ending planned and the developers just hacked together something. It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if they didn't have any plans after Chapter 1 and had to just tape together shitty ideas to try and make something that flows to a decent degree.

This shit happens all the time with novice writers, they'll come up with an absolutely incredible first chapter that blows you away and then you're waiting for chapter 2 and it's just radio silence, and that's about the point where you realise that Chapter 1 was only so good because they kept going over and over and over it because they weren't satisfied with it, but now one chapter is out they have no time at all until Chapter 2 needs written.

 

[Kurtis Trent]

Draugen (Gone Home - style walking simulator narrative adventure from the creators of Dreamfall) never reveals what exactly happened to the town and allows you to decide it for yourself. The protagonist then contemplates about writing a book to give the dead people a more satisfying ending... Yes, really. And apparently the whole thing was just a setup for a live action TV show but no news on that yet.

 

[LightDragonman1]

I'd mention Mass Effect 3, but I think that one has already been covered numerous times, so I don't really have anything to add to it. And no, the Extended Cut doesn't really fix the core issues with it either.

One I'll nominate is the ending to Call Of Duty Ghosts.

Spoiler: Spoiler for absolute insanity.

Seriously, the villain is a part of a train crash, gets hit in the head with a fire extinguisher, shot point blank with a .44 magnum, and is left unconscious and wounded in the carriage that is underwater, and yet he still lives and kidnaps the hero?! I literally yelled "WHAT" as soon as he popped up again.

 

[Jack Burton]

Observation from 2019, where you play and have the perspective of an AI system on board a space station. Something has gone wrong and you need to find out what. I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the game and the simple interactions of the story and UI system of jumping between camera feeds. I can tell it was heavily influenced by both Kubrick's 2001 and Haymes's sequel 2010.

Spoiler: Heavily Influenced by 2010 The Year We Made Contact

The ending was just like 2010. Storms over Saturn. Not like a block chain of Monoliths but another shape of them, hexagon. Forgive me if I forget all the details but the storms and the hexagon monoliths keep bringing the character of Dr. Emma Fisher one of the main crew members into feverish dreams and visions of being on Saturn and also giving the AI system visions as well. A way for the hexagons monoliths to make contact with you or something. I was enjoying the game and it just destroys itself by falling back to something we have seen and was shown better. After having a nice rich detailed environment of the space station, you are just dropped into this source mod ending where there is a fog and some trees, the AI and Emma Fisher have been fused together and now are spreading black goop in the woods or something, with the text from the monolith saying bring them all or whatever, so kind of like when 2010 ended and you have the Monolith in the swamp back on Earth. Except in the game there are too many unanswered questions. I wish they kept it more simple and not this complex ending all of a sudden. Just felt so weak that I cant recommend the game to anybody at this point cause it just ruins the rest of the 98 percent of the game.

It saddens me that I was intrigued about the whole hexagon thing until it plays it beat for beat like 2010. I was so interested in all the astronauts aboard the space station and I wanted a very interesting drama where I wish more of them were active. The twist of where you are boarding the same ship as yours and find some of your crew members still alive but they are of a different dimension, the whole set piece of that is too short and should have been juiced out way longer. But no, fuck you buddy, it was the black hexagon monoliths all along, bring yo humans to the Saturn please. Could have an ending of Emma finger blasting herself with the AI infused in her and discovering pleasure, just anything but that black goop source mod ending.

 

[Boris Blank's glass eye]

Tyranny. One of those Obsidian RPGs with a new-ish mechanics and a mildly interesting plot with an ending that was clearly intended as a sequel hook.

Spoiler: TL;DR

Benevolent-ish dictator (most details are kept vague) conquers whole known world. The game starts with the conquest of the very last independent region, you get to decide what generally happens. Your choices will influence actual gameplay etc. Couple years later this province rebels and the two competing armies - one large, consisting of poorly equipped undisciplined and generally untrained conscripts and one small, consisting of well-equipped, well-disciplined, well-trained career soldiers - are engaging each other in a grand dick measuring contest instead of ending the rebellion. You're sent in to read a magical edict that's going to kill every single person in that province by a specific holiday in the calendar if the situation isn't solved by then.

This holiday is in a week in-game, but the whole "we're all going to die in a week" thing can be avoided by spending that week dicking around and choosing to announce the edict a day after that holiday. It's kind of unnecessary though.

You're to choose either side, help them stomp out the rebellion, then murder the fuck out of the other army, then subjugate your own "side", get established as a major power in the process, challenge the same Benevolent dictator that sent you in, and CREDITS ROLL. Obviously written with a sequel in mind that never came.

Anyway, it's Obsidian baby! They're developing Outer Worlds 2 and an FPRPG tie-on to Pillars of Eternity.

One I'll nominate is the ending to Call Of Duty Ghosts.

Must have been one goddamn Rasputin motherfucker.

 

[Raging Capybara]

I'm convinced that Fromsoftware doesn't know how to make games and Elden Ring was the biggest fluke of all time.

I already talked about how much I despise Dark Souls here, so I'm not going to waste much time on this travesty anymore. I decided to install a PS3 emulator and give a chance to Demon's Souls as well. Good surprise, the game is not shit! This only makes my disdain for Dark Souls even bigger. How the fuck those japs make a decent game and then botch it entirely on the spiritual sequel? Probably a cheap cash grab, what I'll never understand was the praise this game got when something so much better was released a mere two years ago.

With that being said, Demon's Souls still got its fair share of jank and problems, but the most egregious mistake was definitely the endings of the 4 last worlds, and the final boss as well. This game has the most anti-climatic endings I've ever seen, it's so bad that I'll probably never try to replay it even though the game is decently fun.

The last four worlds all have terrible and unfun gimmick bosses at the end. They are not even challenging, which makes the checkpoint right before them insulting, as the developers were mocking you. Well, at least it's not as bad as Dark Souls where the devs are mocking you start to finish without any brakes, so not that bad. But I was still mad that the supposed triumph of my adventure would always finish with a wet fart. Where is the glory of all this? Kill a defenseless lady, seriously?

But them the last boss, the dude you need to kill to become a hero, is pathetic, is literally just a sandbag. Obviously, the defenders will throw the lore card, but I don't give a fuck, buddy. It's a game, give me something exciting.

The ending is bad, so fucking bad. I just don't understand who the fuck enjoys these things. Compare it to Elden Ring, a two-phase fight. Radagon is fast, brutal, extremely difficult and unforgiving, The soundtrack is majestic, the scenery is solemn and everything fits together for an unforgettable experience. It's the kind of shit that makes you satisfied to have put on hundreds of hours to finally finish your journey, to become a legendary warrior.

Demon's Souls has nothing of that, it's almost insulting. And Dark Souls I'm not even try to discuss because I Alt+F4 that game the moment I landed the last blow to the final dude. Jesus fucking Christ I hate that game so much.

 

[UncleTusky]

The whole Into the Void epilogue in Starcraft II. The whole Xel'Naga storyline started way back in the original Zerg campaign then was all but confirmed to be the plot of SC2 in the secret mission of "Brood War". When it came time to actually do the Xel'Naga plot after nearly 20 years, what did we get? All but one of them were killed ages ago by Amon/Duran and the last survivor plays such a small role that he felt tacked on. The writing and level design are a step down from the Protoss campaign too which makes it look even worse by comparison.

 

[Soycast Guy]

Dead Space 3 Awakened had a pretty fucking awful ending. Everything you did in the entire trilogy is pointless. You’re fucked, humanity will go extinct, the end. Obviously this wasn’t meant to be the end of the franchise, but because Dead Space 4 got cancelled, this essentially became the actual end to the games. It’s the most pessimistic ending in all of vidya. This is why you don’t do cliffhangers guys.

 

[HodgePodgeRogerDodger]

Yakuza 4 : RUBBER BULLETS

Would of been worth it if the Police Chief ate a rubber bullet and the end of the game is him looking like fucking clown in some secret prison.

 

[IDanceonTrannyGraves]

The PS2 The Thing game had good ideas but I think it lacked the tech and vision to properly pull it off. Nowadays would be perfect to replicate the atmosphere and body horror of the movie. I recall Until Dawn had this hallucination sequence with body horror and it felt perfect for The Thing. Again, its a perfect idea thats ripe for the taking.

Nowadays it would be one of those onlne only games like Friday the 13th where one of you plays as the Thing. I don't want a MP only, online only game. I want a game with a story.

 

[The handsome tard]

Just Cause 1 (wont bother with spoilers because I legit dont think anyone should play this game and should skip to 2)

The game is actually really bad, especially compared to its sequels but I will just focus on the ending.

Rico straps the president with C4 while they are both free falling after jumping from a plane and after he does so, he, and I shit you not when I say this, lets out the one line "Do you see what happens when you make me mad?" before falling away from the exploding president.

Nvm the fact that it is a very weak one liner but it is one that Rico kept saying the entire game with nearly every enemy he kills. It felt like a place holder line that they forgot to change (they couldnt have used something like "Impeachment straight from Uncle Sam" or "Dont worry, mr President, you will be all over on this land for years to come" or even "Some fireworks in your honour, mr president, on the house!")

Then Rico just parachutes towards the island and the credits roll right there.

What an awful ending for a mediocre late PS2 era game.

Dead Space 3 Awakened had a pretty fucking awful ending. Everything you did in the entire trilogy is pointless. You’re fucked, humanity will go extinct, the end. Obviously this wasn’t meant to be the end of the franchise, but because Dead Space 4 got cancelled, this essentially became the actual end to the games. It’s the most pessimistic ending in all of vidya. This is why you don’t do cliffhangers guys.

Ironically the vanilla ending is better. Isaac stops the Moons, the necromorph threat is over and there is a glimpse that he might have survived.
Still somewhat bittersweet but it did confirm that, yes, even if he died, Clarke did get the job done.

He fucking won

 

[God of Nothing]

Age of Decadence.

It really doesn't matter what faction you go or how much rep you've got: they're all extremely fucking underwhelming. You got a vaguely good thing. You got better than most, which is good, right? Wowee, you're fucked, my dude. Just ignore how you're basically the deadliest man alive if you went the combat route....And technically a fucking godslayer, so being sent right into the shit is the perfect place for you to go even further beyond.

It at least had one good ending, which was secret and required a fuck ton of esoteric things as well as a certain stat spread.

Spoiler

 

[Milwaukee Macho Man]

Why didn't Jax just help Sonya at the start? He was obviously right there? Why was Jarek surprised that Jax was alive? He clearly heard him on the radio? Why were Sonya and Jax communicating through the radio if he was RIGHT THERE?

This ending isn't arright at all. It's the worst.

 

[God of Nothing]

several years late but it's still funny

 

[Milwaukee Macho Man]

several years late but it's still funny

It always bears repeating, just like the Mansion Basement song from RE Directors Cut.

 

[Zaryiu2]

Dead Space 3 Awakened had a pretty fucking awful ending. Everything you did in the entire trilogy is pointless. You’re fucked, humanity will go extinct, the end. Obviously this wasn’t meant to be the end of the franchise, but because Dead Space 4 got cancelled, this essentially became the actual end to the games. It’s the most pessimistic ending in all of vidya. This is why you don’t do cliffhangers guys.

If you ignore the hints at a sequel Dead Space 2 was better ending to the series than what we got

This was mentioned already in thread but here's videoog it

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uWP8beRD0QU&list=PLJw500QNRAdA9vGkMicRzWHp7cwybJNaR&index=17

Starts at 8:18