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[Pacifien]

I'm talking about the end of games. How something ends would be the ultimate spoiler, I think. So anyone reading or participating in this thread should probably anticipate spoilers for any game. It's a little difficult to have this discussion otherwise.

Spoilers Possible. You have been warned.

I was just watching Yahtzee's review of Deus Ex: Human Revolution (which wasn't easy as apparently it broke the Escapist's website), and he's not the biggest fan of how the game ends. Unsatisfying would be the term, I think.

That made me wonder if I've ever played a game where I was actually satisfied with how the end turned out. I think they tend to be unsatisfying because, when you spend several hours getting there, the ending will always feel comparitively too brief. Not to mention that you're at the end, which means no more fun. Move on to something else. Game is finished, bye-bye.

Dragon Age: Origins probably has what I'd consider a satisfying ending, not including the epilogue. The epilogue is really a bit of a perk to describe how various aspects of the world turned out, which should have been a warning sign that these were elements of the game that the writers of the game were not going to develop further otherwise why tell us? But before that, there's either a funeral, which is appropriate if you're dead, or a feast. And after saying your goodbyes before a battle, it's nice to get a second chance at it.

In contrast, there's Awakenings that kept to the epilogue on a static background. You never even get to see Vigil's Keep again after putting faith into the fact it can hold its own at the end.

So I'm curious, what games have you played where the ending left you completely cold? Alternatively, which endings made you feel all warm and fuzzy at a job well done?

[chunkyman]

GTA games usually have satisfying endings.

[Cutlass Jack]

Mass Effect 2 certainly. Not for the 'baby reaper' but for that feeling of going into a suidide mission and bringing everyone home alive. Doing that on the first playthrough with no spoilers was an incredible feeling. Especially after I did investigate spoilers afterwords and realized with horror I could have lost everyone.

Valkyria Chronicles would be another. That was a game I loved so much I was afraid to get to endgame because I feared the end would be tragic, or worse, unsatisfying. I put it off for months before I finally saw the end. I was completely wrong and it made me a little weepy for all the right reasons.

I'm sure I'll come up with more but those are the first two that jumped to mind.

[sp0ck 06]

Baldur's Gate 2: ToB had a pretty satisfying ending in terms of closure

I loved the Dark Side ending of KoTOR

[Seagloom]

My requirements for a good ending are low. What I need to find closure varies from game to game. I am probably most fond of the epilogue text ending style. I found the ending to the original NWN2 and MotB decent enough. Fallout was good as well. I especially liked the evil ending in Jade Empire where my character throws the broken body of Sun-Li down stairs and smiles wickedly. That was almost satisfying enough without the slides. Dungeon Siege III's ending was also surprisingly satisfying and variable with the final videos and narration.

The reason I like the slide ending is because it tells me something about what happened to my character, the places she visited, and(or) her friends. Throne of Bhaal's epic final battle topped by a video showing a defeated Amelyssan croak, a tearful farewell, then another video describing in generalities what your character went on to do was simply awesome--in the literal sense. I was moved by it. Then I got the companion slides and almost cried reading some of them.

It is not about whizz bang flashy graphics and a driving musical score. I just like to have an idea of what happens next. Text, with or without voice over, is enough for that. I am also a sucker for happy endings. Final Fantasy IV was very satisfying, and all it did was cut to different areas of the game showing characters moving on with their lives. Several become kinds or queens. Others continue their journeys. And yet others still live as they always did.

In any case, satisfaction is rarely tied into warm fuzzies. It is about knowing what happens, or at least feeling that the story I went through is complete. Persona 2 had a melancholy ending I felt worked perfectly for it. I was sad watching it, but felt it ended properly.

I also have a fondness for nostalgic credits. Think Super Mario World or Super Castlevania IV. By nostalgic I do not mean reminiscing over games of old. Rather, recalling past adventures. Seeing screens of areas I swept through, and enemies I defeated, followed by a farewell message or "the end". Corny, I will admit, but satisfying to me.

I hate nothing more than an open ending. Scratch that. I am fine with an ending that suggests new adventures in the future. What I loathe are cliffhangers. Cliffhangers are crap in gaming. When a company has no guarantee its product will succeed and banks on a sequel, and that sequel never comes, I get aggravated.

Also not fond of abbreviated endings. I need more than a congratulations or brief cinematic. Rayman had a terrible cut scene after the effort it took to reach it. I wanted to strangle someone after that.

[Quixal]

The NWN2 OC had an epic and satisfying ending. Rocks fall, everybody dies. What's not to love?

Seriously though, nothing is springing to mind. Even games I really loved have tended to have less than satisfying endings.

Portal maybe?

[Rockworm503]

Most recent is Deus Ex Human Revolution. I agonized over that choice trying to fit with my Adam. I like the ending choices because each one can fit with a playstyle. I was mostly stealthy and non lethal my first time around so siding with Taggart seemed natural.

But the big ones that really get me are.
Red Dead Redemption.
DAO - the sacrafice ending
Fallout: New Vegas - Siding with Yes Man is the only one i've seen so far and i found it very satisfying.
GTA IV - Revenge ending. Niko works so hard to help and protect Roman only to lose him in the end. Makes the other ending with Kate dying seem so blah.

Going old school Megaman X 1-3 the way it shows him looking over the explosion as the credits roll. It feels good no matter how many times I play these games.
Conker's Bad Fur Day. What can I say the only N64 game that had the balls to have gross humor and swearing. Great ending to a great game.

[blothulfur]

Soul Reaver 2, a dizzying cavalcade of revelations and answers slotting into place capped by a realisation of what Raziel is and always has been. Tremendously satisfying.

Torment obviously.

Throne of Bhaal, still wondering if Sarevok ever went to Boarskeyr bridge.

Fallout, bastard overseer.

Oh and Arcanum, coming back to rule as a benevolent god.

I too am coming to loathe the more and more often used cliffhanger ending that promises in the next game you'll have all the answers, which states to me that I bought this game for no reason whatsoever.

Modifié par blothulfur, 07 septembre 2011 - 06:08 .

[HoonDing]

The ending of Alpha Protocol where you shoot Leland and your boss in the face, followed by sailing away with the girl.

[Ulous]

Sinking a sword into the archdemons head and going HWAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRGHH!

[Costin_Razvan]

Alpha Protocol - Magnificent Bastard ending ( basically siding with Leland then killing him and taking over the world secretively ).
Witcher Games.
Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne - Our "hero" winning after fighting major wars in two games!
KOTOR 1 - Dark Side ending.
World in Conflict.

[Sister Helen]

Final Fantasy Viii, where Squall gets separated from the others and gets found by Rinoa.

ME1 - The psyche-out where you think Shep died, and he comes limping up through the wreckage.

Bard's Tale (both the original and the tongue-in-cheek remake). Though the remake edges out the original in that the Bard can choose to 1) save the world, which ends with him back in the starting bar and everything normal; 2) ditch the world, where he gets carried off by the extremely hot demon queen to be her love slave; or 3) do nothing, in which case the bar he starts in is populated by the undead, who don't tip well.

[Nerevar-as]

DA:O, DR ending romancing Morrigan. really bittersweet.

My favorite is probably STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl good ending. An awesome bonus stage and a really beautiful final cinematic.

[SarEnyaDor]

Anarch ending on VtM:Bloodlines was fairly satisfying all around, I think my girl actually said "Screw you guys, I'm going home!" LOL

Other than that my very first run of DAO where my Cousland killed the archdemon and didn't let Morrigan near Alistair was very emotional, though not sure if satisfying can be applied to bawling your eyes out....

Going back in time to my C64 days, the ending to Space Trader after days of calculating fuel and weapon costs vs profit to be rewarded with a screen that simply stated "You won! Play again? y/n" was particularly soul-crushing so pretty much everything is better than that

Modifié par SarEnyaDor, 07 septembre 2011 - 08:36 .

[TobiTobsen]

sp0ck 06 wrote...

Baldur's Gate 2: ToB had a pretty satisfying ending in terms of closure

I support that. We were told what everybody did, what the fate of every companion was and the ending was quite epic.

[ylaenna]

Of the games I've played, definitely this:

Sister Helen wrote...

ME1 - The psyche-out where you think Shep died, and he comes limping up through the wreckage.

From the Wreckage - background music for dramatic effect

[SOLID_EVEREST]

VtM: B has one of the worst endings ever. Out of all of the endings, I only liked the solo ending where you flip off one of the big vampires.

Anyways, my favorite ending was probably Planescape: Torment's ending. It almost makes you feel like crying if you played a Nameless One that tries to redeem himself. No other video game's ending has come even close to that beauty. Even though I love C&C, I still think a surprise ending is the best possible, and Planescape took my breath away with the awesome background music and cinematic.

[Nerdage]

Hmm... Honestly the list of game endings that tick me off in some way is much longer, but here's what I've got off the top of my head.

inFamous 2 - hero ending. By the end of the game I'd become pretty attached to my character, I was playing the good guy and all was well, but when the end of the game comes and I'm given the choice between sacrificing my character and thousands of innocents (including two of my companions) or killing everyone else alive (including my other companion) I was pretty taken aback. Add to that the companion who'd traditionally been 'good' argued for the evil choice and vice versa, I thought it was pretty impactful (I like difficult decisions, not ambiguous ones).

Also, while I specify the good ending, where the player fights the big baddie then sacrifices himself, the evil ending replaces the last boss fight with having to manually (and painfully slowly, I might add) kill your best friend. Proof if it were needed that alternate paths don't need to be balanced simply for balance's sake (DA2!).


Hitman Contracts. Not sure why exactly, but I love it, both the last level and the cutscene afterwards. No massive climactic fire-fight like the previous game (unless you choose to), just sneak away from the police, a bit of espionage talk on the plane, perfect. And for some reason the lines "Do you have this kind of money?" "It's under your seat" made me grin like an idiot.


BG:TOB. Tempted not to list this one, because after the marathon run that was my first BG playthrough the minute-long video and companion slides were a massive anticlimax. After a few finishes though I really like it. It seemed to avoid the trap DAO fell into of making every other slide feel like a gratuitous hook for possible future content, whether that's just because it's more narrowly focused on companions (and the fact they likely knew they wouldn't be revisiting the world) I don't know. Also, the post Amelisan dialogue was really good.


That's all I've got at the moment. I'd like to add Fallout 3 (I guess I like being forced to kill myself in order to do the right thing..), but the whole Fawkes debacle really puts me off.

[Brockololly]

Throne of Bhaal. Its just so damn satisfying and the last cinematic plus the epilogues gives a very nice sense of closure to the Bhaalspawn. The music really adds a lot too.

Although killing off Viconia in the epilogue (or killing off anybody in an epilogue) is all sorts of lame.

Origins had a nice ending too, in that it feels mostly complete and actually has some dénouement, especially compared to most games which just end as soon as you beat some last boss. But it still left too many Warden-centric loose ends, especially if you didn't do the Ultimate Sacrifice.

And I really liked New Vegas' ending too. In that, its so very much driven by your choices even down to being able to talk your way out of the last boss fight. And I really loved how the epilogue slides were voiced over by their respective voice actors. I thought that was a nice touch compared to how BioWare seems to leave epilogue slides as just text.

[Kaiser Shepard]

Dragon Age: Origins, vanilla - I specifically listed the vanille game because that was the only contnuitiy in which the US ending made sense, as it seems to have been retconned in later games and content

Alpha Protocol - The Magnificent Bastard ending another user spoke of

Halo 2 - Many will probably disagree, but boy did I like that cliffhanger. ODST also has a rather good ending.

[slimgrin]

ME1, DA:O, and the Witcher games.

[Tommyspa]

Heavy Rain when you get to live all happily ever after with Madison and Shawn, or if your evil Ethan getting shot up when he opens the door. Also Prince of Persia from 2008 had a glorious ending.

[Dominus]

Satisfying Endings:

Metal Gear Solid 4
It was an ending that was surprising, emotionally potent, and certainly not brief by any means. I accidently saw most of the ending on youtube before buying it, and decided to pick up a PS3 and the game. The rest is history.

Mass Effect 1
I'll also agree with the other members on here: The end after realizing shepard is a pleasant surprise, and the council/udina scene makes you hunger for more. And yet, it still leaves you with a warm-and-fuzzy-yet-badass mindset.

Heavy Rain
Although this also applies to the "feeling cold" section as well, it ultimately depends on which ending you get. The one with madison and ethan starting a new life with shaun is very uplifting - conversely, the one where ethan commits suicide right as madison walks away from the grave is absolutely brutal.

Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne
Now...we are one. Even if you never played the game, everyone should at least see the ending cinematic. It's satisfying in a very sinister way, which has a very great appeal to me.

Full Throttle
You think it's over... then the man who you'd been fighting against comes up the road to take you out, permanently. It only gets bigger than that, ending in a blaze of glory, with a damned touching funeral for the man you'd been framed for killing. It's beautiful and badass. I love it.

Cold n' Dissapointed Endings:

Duke Nukem Forever
Duke kills what's essentially the same boss as in the beginning, only to die, have it revealed you're alive, and run for president.....who wrote this?

Fallout 3
You die. Whoops.

The Darkness
One of my favorite games also has a ho-hum ending. After taking out the mob boss, the darkness finally takes over, and you seem to go in some kind of brief dreamscape with your now-dead girlfriend. Maybe it was the appropriate ending, but it wasn't satisfying.

God of War 3
I really loved the game, but didn't have much love for the ending. There's something about blue glowing orbs of hope flying around that feels less like God of War, and more like final fantasy. His choice made sense in regards to the narrative, but I think the main issue comes from the cheesy hope-direction they went with it.

Alice: Madness Returns
Seriously... after all that, with all the mind-screwy events, it only takes throwing him on train tracks to stop him? He doesn't even bother defending himself - it's just "Oh no...no...!"

Halo 2
The ending was artificially rushed according to wikipedia, and it's one of the most infamous cliffhangers in gaming history. Enough said, as it's a well-known unsatisfying ending.

Mother 3
Another of my favorite games with a questionable ending. With the "final boss" taken care of, the world begins to be torn asunder. And then...you see "The End". After moving the directional pad, you can talk to random NPCs about the state of the world after said events, which goes along the "everybody's fine" direction. It was clever, but it wasn't exactly satisfying.