It's rare that a videogame has a good ending; even the great ones are tainted a little when there's no more game left to play. But some games have far, far more anti-climactic and all-round garbage conclusions, and with the aid of our trusty notepads we've managed to put a red star next to a few of them.
So in no particular order, these are the games that left us frowning with our joypads, mice and keyboards... (spoilers ahead!)
Fable You can call many areas of Lionhead's much-hyped Xbox RPG anti-climactic, but the ending really is the most rushed and foul-smelling part of all. After one of the easiest final bosses in gaming history, you're awarded the most intimidating and powerful sword in the game. Once you've finished everything. Brilliant.
Perfect Dark Delving a bit further into the past, Rare's first N64 Perfect Dark provided the perfect (chuckle) example for why you shouldn't stick hording alien badguys into a realistic FPS. The latter missions reeked more of Quake than Goldeneye, with random-blasting plasma guns, cookie-cutter corridors and enemies that provided wholey-uninteresting gun fights - and the last boss was no way near as good as Sean Bean.
Medal of Honor: Allied Assault Arguably the best Medal of Honor game to date, a hectic last level building up to what we expected to be an explosive climax with flags, a parade and the lot - and all we get is some bloke shouting on a train and the credits. There are no words.
Shenmue 2 We could give plenty of reasons why Shenmue 2's conclusion left a bitter taste in our mouths - not least because it's been five years and we're still waiting for the next game to turn up - but what bothers us the most is that Sega spent tens of millions creating one of the most realistic and interactive game worlds ever, and then the second game ends with a magic bloody floating sword.
Metal Gear Solid 2 So Raiden got naked and then it was all downhill from there; a plot that requires four science degrees and a Clockwork Orange-style eye device to figure out, Doctor Octopus' Kojima cousin and a cheesy "love the world" message. At least there were no penguins in this one.
Halo 2 This one's so obvious it probably shouldn't even be here. After the fantastic Warthog escape finale of the first game, it's a crime that for the sequel we have to make do with a monkey with a hammer and one the most teasing and anti-climatic cut-scenes ever made - made even worse by the teasing E3 gameplay footage of epic Earth covenant battles.
Knights of the Old Republic II Rather than a plain bad finish, Knights of the Old Republic II's ending is missing entirely. It's a jumbled mess of rushed end-tying and evil mentor-rucking with no relation to the previous game whatsoever.
Super Mario Bros. We know we'll have crowds of Nintendo fanboys hurling stones at our offices (which AREN'T in Baker Street) for this but, after jumping our way through eight worlds of hardcore, turtle-stomping madness and FINALLY saving the Princess' royal arse from Bowser, we didn't much appreciate her simply telling us to do it ALL OVER AGAIN. "Thank you Mario! Your quest is over. We present you a new quest. Push button B to select a world." Cow.
Agree/disagree with any of our selections? Let us know in the comments section below.
Half life 2 IMO had a diabolicle ending, the last mission was boring and then there was no ending at all, just a voice saying somthing about another game (episode 1). After trauling through the game and finding it seriously repetetive and boring (apart from pinning enemies to walls with the bolt gun)i at least expeted to have it end with style. I personally think that it was one of the most anti-climatic endings ever, a real peice of garbage.
Heart of darkness dared to use the "oh it was just a dream" ending and ruined an arguably good game.
WWE sackdown vs raw 2007: After thoroughly enjoying this game and going through the career mode i was really dissapointed with its finish. Apart from being moved from smackdown to raw and then back again 3 times after 3 matches in a row i gave up and turned it off.
I think mgs2 had the worst ending because like they said it was extremely confusing and mine kepy on coming up showing the screen when you die and it said fission mailed!? (I then figured out it was mission failed spelt with the m and f swapped)
Anachronox: I mean come on, you go through 20+ hours of solid enjoyable gameplay, with a brilliantly conceived story only to beat the final boss and be left with a "To be continued..." 6 Years on and it's looking like the story will never be continued.
Silent Hill 2: Granted this is only my experience of the game, since I understand that there are multiple endings, but for me to survive every monster encounter, including 3 Pyramid Heads at one time. Only to have my character kill himself at the end...great.
Gunman Chronicles: This game had it all. A sci-fi western with customisable weapons, dinosaurs, robots and aliens. The story involved a wacked out general on a revenge trip. Yet on my first run through, on the hardest difficulty, I beat the game in 6 hours...even if the ending involved me ascending to a godlike state, destroying the entire cosmos, and then reforming it in my own way. After 6 hours, i'd still want my money back.
Shenmue 2: I realise that this has already been mentioned, but i'm putting it up again for my own reason. You see when you actually get to the final stage of the game, when you get to that island involving the magic sword etc. As far as i'm aware there are no save points...none! Normally this wouldn't be a problem but when it's 3 O'clock in the morning, on a school night, the last thing you want is to be forced to play on for a good hour or so just so you can find out that nothing really happens and you might has well have gone to bed. For shame.
Azurik - Rise of Perathia: In my opinion this is the worst game ever made in the history of man, dinosaur, and whatever came before. Seriously if you don't believe me, play it and see. I got this game for free and I still feel ripped off. I never actually managed to complete it however so the ending is still a mystery to me. Yet, if the actual game is anything to go by then I can't imagine that it was anything special. "A Young Guardian, The Ultimate Weapon, An Epic Journey"...Hahahaha!!!
Advent Rising: For the few of you that actually played it this game was amazing and the ending was actually very good. Granted it ended on a cliff hanger, with the main guy being stranded in some frozen wasteland. That's ok since I felt satisfied and excited to play the next game (since it was originally going to be a trilogy). However I now hear that due to poor sales they're not going to continue the story. So, after attaining the powers of god, fighting off an entire alien race and then defeating an actually quite challenging final boss. I find that i've been banished to a frozen wasteland with all my powers striped from me. Then to pour salt in to the proverbial wound i'm approached by a goat man thing which says "Come with me human, there is much to be done". Finishing the trilogy springs to mind.
Well, that went on a little longer then I thought, sorry about that guys and girls. Anyways I look forward to reading about everyone elses bad endings.
Anyone played Shogo:MAD, brilliant game, interesting story but then the ending just disappears, except for seeing the main character run around his base and shoot random people while the credits roll
My vote for worst ending had to go to Jurrasic Park on the SNES, the intro to the game showed the island and it panned around and zoomed in, the ending sequence zoomed out and panned around in the opposite direction, same damn thing ran in reverse and not what I wanted to see after slogging through that whole game (was a pretty big game with no passwords or save feature), certainly the laziest ending I've ever seen.
Shinobi on the Master system just a black screen with Game over written in white letters.
& the lame congratulation message after completing Enduro racer also on the Master system they have to be the two worst endings I have seen after completing a game
Half life 2 IMO had a diabolicle ending, the last mission was boring and then there was no ending at all, just a voice saying somthing about another game (episode 1). After trauling through the game and finding it seriously repetetive and boring (apart from pinning enemies to walls with the bolt gun)i at least expeted to have it end with style. I personally think that it was one of the most anti-climatic endings ever, a real peice of garbage.
I disagree, i really thought while the ending what frustrating it made you want more, in a good way. They did, i think, what halo sorta tried to do, but they did it better
Half life 2 IMO had a diabolicle ending, the last mission was boring and then there was no ending at all, just a voice saying somthing about another game (episode 1). After trauling through the game and finding it seriously repetetive and boring (apart from pinning enemies to walls with the bolt gun)i at least expeted to have it end with style. I personally think that it was one of the most anti-climatic endings ever, a real peice of garbage.
I disagree, i really thought while the ending what frustrating it made you want more, in a good way. They did, i think, what halo sorta tried to do, but they did it better
Completely agree with the fable ending. Ick.
I also liked the Half Life 2 ending. It was mysterious and left me wanting more and more.
Oh. Hang about. That's right, the developers couldn't be bottomd to finish making the game so they just decided to put a bit in it that was impossible to get past and release the final product like that. Scamming bastards
I think Saints Row should take one of the places up there- terrible ending, you just blow up. Also, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. You get f**king vacation time, and that's it?
hhahah. I specifically read this article just to see if Jurassic Park on SNES would be mentioned! This was one of the biggest let downs of any games I finished on the SNES, especially after having to play it all in 1 sitting because there are no save games. It's been awhile since I played it, but I seemed to remember that all that happens is it faded to black and said something like "You have now escaped the island" and the reverse-rotating title screen. hhahahahahha
My vote for worst ending had to go to Jurrasic Park on the SNES, the intro to the game showed the island and it panned around and zoomed in, the ending sequence zoomed out and panned around in the opposite direction, same damn thing ran in reverse and not what I wanted to see after slogging through that whole game (was a pretty big game with no passwords or save feature), certainly the laziest ending I've ever seen.
Hmm, perhaps some of you will remember the game Overblood on the PSX. Very entertaining throughout, except for the ending/boss (a clone of your character or something) which was so difficult that you (well, I) needed to have saved literally every single clip of ammo obtained in the game, and a load of health sprays to beat him, and even then you needed to hit him a load of times after running out of ammo. After that, you see my personal favourite "worst ending ever" as you fly off in a jet, answering "I don't know, but I'm the real me" to one of the characters questions about who you are.
the thing about KOTOR II is it had alot more content on the disc that wasn't in the game. Apparently hackers are reworking it to include the HK droid factory, the option to kill your characters, more people trying to stop your quest and mulitple endings. wonder if that ever happened??
I can't remember Resident Evil 4 having a good ending.
"How about some overtime?" "No."
THE END
The actual ending wasn't too bad. It has to end sometime and what better way than to give it a cheesy, buddy-cop one liner? The finale to the game was edge of your seat good though. Well, In short - The game is just plain brilliant in EVERY department.
EYE OF THE BEHOLDER - After completing this game you're rewarded with few rows of text.
LONGEST JOURNEY 2: DREAMFALL - The most annoying ending of them all. It's all about cliffhangers and completely open ended! All your questions will be answered in the sequel, if there's going to be one!
You guys missed the absolute worst game ending in the history of all games.
Myst.
You play through all these worlds, solve every puzzle, and finally reach the end. You wind up in a room with Atrus, the father of the two villains.
He basically says 'thanks for coming, be right back'. You wait, -real time- for a couple of minutes. He returns, tells you that he's dealt with his sons, and that he has nothing to offer you but his linking book. He then returns back to work. All the linking book allows you is the ability to return to the same worlds you've been trudging around, but without any of the puzzles, since you just solved them.
No credits, no 'congratulations', the thing doesn't even have the good grace to kick you out to Windows! A good comparison would be this: it's the end of Return of the Jedi. Luke confronts the emperor and Vader. Suddenly, Obi-Wan enters, takes the lightsaber from Luke, and says 'be right back'. Five minutes later he returns says 'yeah, those guys are dead, thanks for the help' then just stands there until you leave the theater.
In my opinion, the worst game ending ever was the ending of 7 Days a Skeptic. The game is the sequel to 5 Days a Stranger which was in the best adventure horror game I had ever experienced. The game was perfect from beginning to end and when the sequel was out and was so different from the first game (its 500 years after the events of the first game). The environment is completely different and the horror style and game mecanics have also changed. Everything was perfect up until the ending where the author probably wanted to make something "unexpected" well... "unexpected" was WTF-inducing and not in the good way it could potentially have.
Meh, considering its an independant adventure game made from the ground up from a lone guy, its still good. And its free so its hard to complain.
the thing about KOTOR II is it had alot more content on the disc that wasn't in the game. Apparently hackers are reworking it to include the HK droid factory, the option to kill your characters, more people trying to stop your quest and mulitple endings. wonder if that ever happened??
I never got the ending as my game froze everytime i went to Dantooine, after collecting all the Jedi Masters.
I can't be bottomd to go through a game that buggy again.
I can't remember Resident Evil 4 having a good ending.
"How about some overtime?" "No."
THE END
At least RE 4 gave you plenty to do after the game had ended.
But how about Oddworld Strangers Wrath for a brilliant ending, it wasn't the actual ending but the fact that when it got to the point were most games give you the most boring levels this game gave you a twist, all new wepons, all new character and a completley different change of scenery for a surprize last few levels which seemed so good it was like they had made a sequal then decided to add it onto the end.
I defy anyone to find a worse ending than any of the SPlinter Cell games. SOmetimes the rest of the game leaves a little to be desired (like the random mixed view of the guards on Pandora Tomorrow making all but impossible to sneak the last level) but generally they're great games.
You've battled terrorists, foiled coupd and attemps to take over the world (mwahahaha...ahem) and all you get in the end is Sam being told job's done or when I finished DA on the GCN wandering off without any apparent ending whatsoever. No tying up of loose ends just to the credits and continue from where you were before in the vain hope you didn't just watch the lame ending drivel you just saw.
Not far behind is Red Steel, it's like they forgot all the stuff you've just done and let's kill everyone to stop us having to think of a good FMV. Perhaps it's just every Ubisoft game but those're the only two Ubi games I've ever played.
With over 100 hours of mind numbing, grinding, tedious play. Hours spent killing packs of monsters to make money to raise stats. Seemingly ineffectual spells, pointlessly talking to townsfolk, useless items and the WORST "boss fight" ever (you had to lay 4 cards in the right order after being told the order just before the battle) you are rewarded with a single screen of text that basically says "thanks for playing".
Call me a nutter, but I reckon the worst "ending" of sorts I've played is Oblivion. Not only is the final quest of the story one of those annoying "escort and protect" quests but you're then locked to the floor while Martin fights the last boss for you. After that, short of a few craters in the floor, you've got NOTHING out of the experience and all you can do is mop up the leftover quests (if you can really be bothered by this point).
Hmm, perhaps some of you will remember the game Overblood on the PSX. Very entertaining throughout, except for the ending/boss (a clone of your character or something) which was so difficult that you (well, I) needed to have saved literally every single clip of ammo obtained in the game, and a load of health sprays to beat him, and even then you needed to hit him a load of times after running out of ammo. After that, you see my personal favourite "worst ending ever" as you fly off in a jet, answering "I don't know, but I'm the real me" to one of the characters questions about who you are.
Ahaha. Never known anybody else to have played through Overblood. That's a memory and a half. Ending was awful, yes.
Any and all SNES games that simply say 'The End' and make you have to get up and press reset to do anything. Why couldn't the press start screen come up again?
final fantasy ten has the worst ending i've ever seen. you kill the last boss the princess character (the most boring one) stands in front of a crowd waving. no option to play on or anything. oddworld stranger was indeed fantastic as was final fantasy 8 which is the best ending i've ever seen all these years later.
XIII really annoyed me on the boat you get this big reveal and then a "To Be continued..."
RE 4 annoyed me because it was the the explosions at the end wasn't as big as I'd wanted in fact the Explosion you get when you lose to Kraus was better than the one at the End... Resi ends with a big bang it's a Resi Rule!
Splinter Cell it felt so much like MGS until the end... no over the top battle just a simple assination and escape just didn't feel right to me.
Duke Nukem 64 If any1 has played Duke Nukem 3D they know how cool the endings are but replace them with 2 maybe 3 stills that well... aren't the greatest and you have what DN64 has.
The final third of Fahrenheit was a let down and the ending itself was just s**t (well, the one I experienced).
Agreed! It was great to play through the murder mystery with occult overtones in the first half. Even some of the supernatural stuff was fairly cool but when they reveal the enemy to be the biggest sci-fi cliche of all time, everything collapses into a pile of garbage.
The final third of Fahrenheit was a let down and the ending itself was just s**t (well, the one I experienced).
agreed...I thought the whole mystical/alien thing in the game was a real let down...does every game have to have some "otherworldly" influence...this for me spoiled what was a very atmospheric gaming experience for the first 75% of it.
I think Saints Row should take one of the places up there- terrible ending, you just blow up.
This is definitely my worst game ending of all time.
To start with, it makes no sense unless you try to make up your own ending to make sense of it.
Secondly, to be punished for doing what you're supposed to be doing in a game should NEVER happen, and smacks of cowardice in the face of a GTA-style attack by the moral minority.
Lastly, and most damningly, the whole point of sandbox games is that once you've completed the main storyline, and in doing so accrued plenty of toys to play with, you have a whole world with which to do as you please. So to be killed and booted back to the main menu makes this not only the worst ending ever, but also one of the worst sandbox games.
Here's my reaction when I saw the credits starting to roll: "Er..What?" " That's it?" "Is this what I've waited three years to see?" and of course "Is this why I bought a PS2?"
Needless to say, I sold the PS2 within two weeks (after playing some PES matches, and logged off from gaming for good...And then Vice City and Snake Eater came along.. And to this day, Snake Eater's ending remains the most beautiful one I have ever seen in a video game.
Rather than working, I've spent the past few weeks working through Chaos Strikes Back with a single character. Not one of my best ideas.
Still, I did it thanks to my mad Ful Bro Ku skills and below you can see the fruits of my labours. If any of you are game designers looking to reward a player for completing a hard game, then the following is a perfect example:
http://hometown.aol.co.uk/C5daveuk/csb_ending.gif
If that's not reward enough, I don't know what is! Ful Bro Ku FTW!!!1!1!
The Legend of Zelda OFT I felt had the shortest and most boring anticlimatic ending, for a game that took me nearly one year to complete all the toiling and screaming (Water Temple) for a final farewell between Link and Zelda I was gutted, but it still is one of the best games I have ever played and I understood the space limitations of the N64 carts. nearly finished twilight Princess and I cant wait to bring Zant to his knees Mu ha ha ha!
Here's my reaction when I saw the credits starting to roll: "Er..What?" " That's it?" "Is this what I've waited three years to see?" and of course "Is this why I bought a PS2?"
Needless to say, I sold the PS2 within two weeks (after playing some PES matches, and logged off from gaming for good...And then Vice City and Snake Eater came along.. And to this day, Snake Eater's ending remains the most beautiful one I have ever seen in a video game.
Well, imo selling your PS2 just because you didn't understand what Hideo Kojima wanted to show you with MGS2 is a bit of an overreaction, especially since there are plenty of other great games for PS2... (*ahem* MGS3? )
True, the MGS2 ending is boring, and it is filosifical: something that lot's of (american?) gamers probably don't care much about... But it certainly is a lot better than most other games on that list.
A game that really should be on the list is Final Fantasy IX. That game definitly has one of the wackiest, most confusing and boring endings ever. The story is great all the way till you suddenly have to battle some end-boss that doesn't seem to have any relation with the story at all. :-S
Other nominees: Space Ace, Zone of the Enders, Fear Effect.
The ending of Beyond Good and Evil was pretty bad, because it was all so sudden, then it was just finished. With plot twist hinting at a continuation that may not be.
wow... no one mentioned The Matrix: Path of Neo... I thought 'giant mega-super-smith' is possibly the worst ending EVER. Hell I'd rather it have told me to go watch the damned movie than let me play that bit of stupidity. Path of Neo was decent other than the for the ending.
Also, What about Wing Commander Prophecy? The ending was lame there too... and EA is probally never gonna ever do anything with wing commander ever again
I've got to stand up for Perfect Dark. The very last level was clearly meant as a simple extra level, hence the credits being after Mission 9 Skedar Ruins - Battle Shrine, which has a far more difficult Skedar boss.
It seems to me that there is no such thing as a good end to a game - if the game was good you won't want it to end, ever.
HL2 had the s**test ending ever....er,what happened next. This isn't a question of sport, it's just a crap way of saying 'oops we haven't finished yet, by the way, ever heard of episodic gaming?'
f**k off Valve, you might fool the media, but you ain't fooling me...
I can usually wait a week to see what happens in the next episode of a TV series, hell, or even 18 months for the next book in a trilogy (but they usually have a reasonably conclusive ending to a story thread in each book). Computer games though? Give me a decent ending that ties up the plot or p**s off. Leave a few open ends for a sequel by all means. However, the end sequence of HL2 can be easily be recreated in any other game by just pressing the pause button then exiting the game. Try it,it's great
oh, and after just finishing Gears of War for the first time, any ending which has a 'Boss' fight where he's only vulnerable at certain times. They're as boring as they are frustrating. The fight on the train was much more fun. If the train fight had carried on for another few carraiges with no ammo to pick up (apart from dropped enemy weapons) until I was pistol whipping the bad guys, and then finished, I would have felt brilliant at the end.
The reality though was just relief at having killed RAAM and not having to restart that scene for the n'th time. I'd thoroughly enjoyed the game,but the last scene (boss fight) just left me feeling somewhat deflated.
Can't wait to play the game on harder difficulties, but I'll be quitting at the last boss fight because it's irritating and tedius. I mean, if he's vulnerable when he lets his bat things fly off, why does he let them fly off in the first place. Is he stupid? If he wants to die, why not just chuck himself under the train. If on the other hand he doesn't want to die, why doesn't he just wander over with his invulerable shield and kick my bottom?
I've always hated boss fights anyway, they're either easy or frustrating, no middle ground. No matter, they always leave me with a sense of dissapointment. The only way you can make a boss fight more irritating and s**t is to have a timer to beat and then maybe just pause the game and say 'continued when we've finished doing the next episode'.
I can't believe that after all these years, boss fights are still generally the climax to the game...
I would completely agree with KotOR 2 and Fable having terrible endings.
In K2, it was literally as if they ran out of time. You have no idea what's happened with most of your party members, and there are some blatently contradictory cutscenes. There are sound files and dialog files buried within the game directory that support a much different, more robust ending.
The final Fable boss is a total pushover (just like ALL of the combat in Fable). They tried to nail this epic "good v. evil" struggle, and in the end you are left with this "extremely important" and "climatic" choice, which really turns out to be rather inconsequential. Even if you have the PC version and play The Lost Chapters after you do the main quest, THAT ending is terrible as well.
LONGEST JOURNEY 2: DREAMFALL - The most annoying ending of them all. It's all about cliffhangers and completely open ended! All your questions will be answered in the sequel, if there's going to be one!
I would COMPLETELY agree. The first Longest Journey game had a really good ending. It could have lead into a seguel, or it could have been left as-is just fine. The ending completed everything that NEEDED to be completed. The sequel, however, had a terrible ending. Dreamfall spends the entire game getting the player wrapped up in all sorts of conspiracies and questions, only to leave them at the end with NO answers. You don't know whether the characters that you play are alive or dead, the worlds are pretty much falling apart at their seams, and you are left with a series of about 5-7 cutscenes. The last cutscene you see is of a flashback of a minor character with another character that died in the first game. The whole thing makes no sense.
The final third of Fahrenheit was a let down and the ending itself was just s**t (well, the one I experienced).
Agreed! It was great to play through the murder mystery with occult overtones in the first half. Even some of the supernatural stuff was fairly cool but when they reveal the enemy to be the biggest sci-fi cliche of all time, everything collapses into a pile of garbage.
It would have been better for them to stick to the "occult" track and STAY FAR AWAY from the whole "Area 51" bad sci-fi. The game was certainly supernatural, but the last quarter or so felt like 50's B-Movie. Other than the end though, I LOVED the game, and would probably buy a sequel, if one came out.
Another game that's ending is rather bad is Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. There are actually 5 different endings, but all of them suck. You either end up blowing yourself up, getting sunk to the bottom of the ocean, or never knowing what the "mysterious" main plot item does. You have to be very careful with your choices, or you end up dead/very frustrated.
I guess it's self-inflicted, but... I played the Sims 2 over the last few days in story mode, and... well, although there's no real story (since it's a sims game), the way it ended was just torturous.
* I finished all the goals in the game. It told me I had to max out all my stats because I'd created a "knowledge type" sim.
* I give my dumb sim a book and make her read it for the next 3 weeks. Make her run on a treadmill for another 2 weeks. This is *the dullest thing ever* and since you have loads of money and all the creature comforts you'd ever need, this is nothing more than an utter waste of time.
* Trying to build a treadmill means I have to delete half the objects in the house and stuff keeps bursting into flames because there's some kind of space-leak bug in the game (I swear, it was only 80% full when I moved in, and I didn't build anything).
* When you're done *waiting* for several hours, you get the end sequence. It's just the opening sequence, but with the makers having made fake "bloopers" for it. None of them are funny and the game has already put me in a bad mood.
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Another bad ending was Final Fantasy X because of that stupid no-lose we're-all-killed! / we're-all-resurrected! / we're-all-killed! / we're-all-resurrected! last boss battle that just made me wait for 20 minutes for the game to play with itself (I don't want to watch it playing with itself. That's obscene).
I wouldn't say that the Fable ending was as bad as all that... It's only because the game wasn't really as finished as they'd have liked that they did that. I think that it's worse in the Lost Chapters though, mainly because the evil side didn't offer any temptation, because the mask was crap.
I personally consider the 'end' of a game to be the final 'conflict' rather than the storyline, because ... y'know ... it's a game, which I play for the gameplay. Therefore I hold MOH:AA up as one of the best game endings I've ever played. That final level was brilliant, regardless of the final cut scene.
I also think the HL2 ending was atrocious. I honestly couldn't have cared less what was going on with the storyline at that point because I was so flabbergasted by the lack of imagination in the final levels. That really let the entire game down for me.
However, in my opinion the worst ending EVER was Kingpin. You're basically shooting a guy who looks pretty much the same as all of your previous enemies, only he has a few thousand more hit points. Pin Stripe suits are nice and all, but I don't think they can deflect bullets.
Also Soldier Of Fortune had a terrible ending. Everything was going pretty well, until you are fighting some weirdo with a (IIRC) flame thrower and a submarine and a few hundred drones running around
medal of honors ending was complete crap. You destroy half the german army, seeminly win world war 2 singlehandedly and then get some guy saying well done and the credits! half life 2 was no better and i love half life.
EYE OF THE BEHOLDER - After completing this game you're rewarded with few rows of text.
Sounds alot like hmm.. DEAD RISING. After slogging through frustrating boss battles, a bad save system and loads of death and reloads, and starting the whole game over again.. the overtime 'true' ending is approx 30 seconds long.. just frank screaming into the air surrounded by zombies, then.. ooh.. some text.
Zero Wing of All Your Base fame: you fly your space ship through a million ridiculously difficult levels only to pummel up a HUGE boss and save the galaxy only to be congratulated by three dancing raisins!?
Super Mario Bros. We know we'll have crowds of Nintendo fanboys hurling stones at our offices (which AREN'T in Baker Street) for this but, after jumping our way through eight worlds of hardcore, turtle-stomping madness and FINALLY saving the Princess' royal bottom from Bowser, we didn't much appreciate her simply telling us to do it ALL OVER AGAIN. "Thank you Mario! Your quest is over. We present you a new quest. Push button B to select a world." Cow.
However, the end sequence of HL2 can be easily be recreated in any other game by just pressing the pause button then exiting the game. Try it,it's great
Surely the point is to remind you that, despite all the attachments and 'baggage' you've accumulated on your journey, all you were really there for was to do a job for the G-Man - ie, take down Breen and the Citadel.
That's the sole purpose of him dropping you into the city in the first place. Alyx and everyone else is utterly irrelevant to his machinations, and the ending really hammered that home, as well as neatly reminding you just how little power you have over him.
Of course, the also neatly set up the conflict between you and the G-Man and also set up some good 'to be continued' threads but, even if it hadn't been continued, I still found it to be a powerful and thought-provoking finale.
Mind you, if you're not interested in story, the ending is obviously going to leave you rather disappointed - especially given the lack of a big End Game Boss/big challenge. Personally I hate the concept of 'bosses' in games, so I liked that too.
how dare you say that shenmue 2 and halo 2 have the worst endings. You cannot be serious!! When a game is gearing you up for the next sequel (even though we've been waiting forever) it leaves you wanting more and anticipating the release of the sequel. The ending of Halo 2 was phenomenal, I don't care what anybody else thinks I'm the worlds biggest Halo fan!!!!
God i want that flood game, it would be worth playing it just the watch the truck hit you. i didnt like episode ones ending either but thier making episode 2 so it doesnt matter. But they could of done better than blue light and alyx saying gordon.
Yeah, the KOTOR II ending sucks, but hopefully the people at http://www.team-gizka.org/ (who are restoring a bunch of the cut content) will change that.
wow... no one mentioned The Matrix: Path of Neo... I thought 'giant mega-super-smith' is possibly the worst ending EVER. Hell I'd rather it have told me to go watch the damned movie than let me play that bit of stupidity. Path of Neo was decent other than the for the ending.
I have to agree. although the pink and green weirdos said somthing to the meaning of your meant to win a game not sacrifice yourself i would have prefered that Neo sacrificed himself
I'm surprised Bioshock wasn't in this list. The ending was anti-climactic it was shameful. I chose to save the little girls, so it was pretty cool to see them stabbing the final (very easy) boss to death, but it wasn't cool that I didn't get to escape Rapture with it's walls and tunnels falling down and breaking around me as I sprinted to the BioSphere, pulling the lever just in time to see the corridoor exploding behind me. Nevermind, it's not the only game with a crud ending, but i is the most immersive gam I've ever played with a crud ending. Stranglehold's ending was as poor, but its not much of a story-driven game so I kind of expected it. Another thing I feel compelled to mention is winning a league on FIFA 07. I know it's not a game ending, but at te end of the season nothing at all happens if you win the league. I won it with Everton and all that happened was I recieved a message from the Board telling me to do more of the same next season. Poor show.
while end cut scenes and final credits can be quite depressing...you are missing the point!
To quote Stephen King from the Dark Tower series
"Its not about the destination, but the journey of getting there"
And if any of you have read the Dark Tower series, you will know that the ending to a 7 book series is...frustrating, disappointing but rewarding all the same.
Id like to add super ghosts & Ghouls for the snes. After a lot of swearing and near tears of frustration i got to the end, beat the last boss and to my annoyance was told by the princess ala super mario that she had dropped her bracelet and had to go and retrive it. which ment trawling through the game again and having to beat the final boss again with the bracelet as a weapon which ment if you died you lose the bracelet which means trawling thru the game again..... thank you capcom for the trauma
How about Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 1/2. Both were relatively fun with cool customization etc but had the two worst endings I can recall.
Basically at the end of 1 you're told that some guy you have been fighting with has used you to defeat the final boss to take the power himself then, you appear in a forest surrounded by enemies. End.
But then the second game is exactly the same!
Another stupid cliff hanger with a character who's never even been mention! Geez where's the return for all of the hours I've spent playing!?
Also I was soooo disappointed with Half Life's ending. One of the greatest game's ever made ends with a conversation with "G-Man" that reveals absolutely nothing about him. Then there's that stupid choice you get where you can either work with him and it ends or you decline and are put in a room with millions of enemies and die....
I loved MGS2's ending, it was intelligent and complex and pushed gaming's boundaries.
Resident Evil 4's whole plot was garbage, not just the ending.
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Anyways I look forward to reading about everyone elses bad endings.
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