The 50 Worst Video Game Endings
By Michael Rougeau | Feb 21, 2012 | 2:04 pm | Permalink
Only in the last decade or so have video games really begun to approach the storytelling prowess of other entertainment mediums. It's true! And it may seem like roses that games are growing up, but it's a double-edged sword; after all, the more they're capable of, the more should be expected of them.
Nowhere is that more apparent than in a game's finale. Cliffhangers, multiple endings and major copouts have plagued us for years. Only now, when many games have plots that rival at least B-grade movies, those minor complaints can easily become glaring flaws that ruin entire experiences.
What follows are 50 subjective examples of what we consider to be bad endings. Some are worse than others, but all, for one reason or another, fall on the wrong side of the narrative tracks. But if you disagree with us—and we have no doubt at all that you will—make sure to let us know in the comments or on Twitter. Read on!
Stirling February 21st, 2012 at 02:26 PM
May I present as a runner up: Neverwinter Nights 2 Rocks-fall-everybody-dies as read by Bob the janitor who can't pronounce "mere," which is in the final narration about a dozen times.
Mike Rougeau February 22nd, 2012 at 02:54 AM
Definitely accepted.
Milko Aritonoski February 22nd, 2012 at 07:15 AM
You screwed the pooch by including Half Life 2: Episode 2 on this list... Christ and ranked at No.2? No boss battle? Are you freaking kidding me? What were you doing when playing that last 30 minutes of the game... collecting flowers or staring at Alyx's ass? Seriously, this is one of the genre defying endings, a REAL cliffhanger... a scene worth a freaking Oscar... the music, the dialogue, the acting... it is freaking AMAZING. Not to mention how much more painful it is to still wait for that sequel... THAT SCENE had made it even more excruciating.
Mike Rougeau February 22nd, 2012 at 01:38 PM
It's cheap! That's my opinion. And game's don't exist in a vacuum! You have to consider whether there's ever a sense of closure! It's been five years. As of right now the Half-Life series ends with zero closure and a random death. What a cop-out.
Frank February 22nd, 2012 at 04:10 PM
Well, Monkey Island 3 sort of pretended the ending to 2 didn't happen. It implied that the whole 'kid brothers' ending was a hallucination LeChuck was using to ensnare Guybrush in his Carnival of the Damned. It was a ret-con but they did try to at least keep the narrative intact. Also, I don’t see what was so bad about the ending to Arkham Asylum. Batman had been infected with the Titan formula and only had enough antidote for one person, so by injecting himself, the Joker was forcing Batman to make a really difficult moral choice: give the antidote to the Joker and risk losing control and probably end up killing the Joker and maybe some others, or give it to himself and be forced to take down a super-strong mad man after having already been put through the ringer all night. If you ask me, that kind of thing is perfectly in character for the Joker. And I don’t know why dignity for the Joker is such a concern. Sure, he’s a major villain and should be treated with an amount of gravitas, but at the end of the day he’s a homicidal maniac with a clown theme who’s gonna be beaten up and arrested by a man dressed as a bat. Also also, you complained that XIII ended with the reveal that your ally was the bad guy all along, and that you should have been able to go after him and have him be the final boss. Yet you complain that Bioshock didn’t end when they revealed that your ally was the bad guy all along and that they let you go after him and had him be the final boss. Uhhh, what?
Myx February 23rd, 2012 at 02:39 AM
50? really? i said it already: i find it hard to take articles seriously that got titled "the XX worst/best/coolest YY of all time" when XX > 5 ... i mean.. 50 games.. that's almost every good major release.. so why did you not name the article "all endings are bad.. here is why". with all those high XX-numbers in such articles it feels like no one really had to come up with a real effort: "let's just name every game there is and omit one or two and we're good". but i agree with most of your complaints about these 50 endings. saw most of them and storytelling is not the strength of game-developpers.
Jonathan Stoffregen February 23rd, 2012 at 04:09 AM
the dark souls ending kinda sucked no talking or any you just *spoiler* burned up then the credits rolled kinda anticlimatic if you ask me still its one hell of a game!
greeg February 23rd, 2012 at 09:43 AM
worse and must inaccurate list ever Literally. This is so wrong it's not funny. First, White Knight Chronicles 1 (I'm a fan on it) Literally had the worse ending of all time, It ends like yeah I beat it, but that was plain, oh wait the game is still going! oh what thats it, gay! Also inclusion of FFXIII on that list? really, If you don't understand the game, it shouldn't even be on the list cause when you understand it, the ending is how it should be, but actually better cause the twist
Melissa February 23rd, 2012 at 09:58 AM
I agree Devil May Cry 4's ending is crappy (but then again no one gives a damn about Nero) but Devil May Cry 2 takes the cake as a crappy ending as well.
Sam Green February 23rd, 2012 at 11:24 AM
MGS4? Are you kidding?
Only2morrow February 23rd, 2012 at 12:29 PM
Great list! Only one thing to add, Knights of the Old Republic 2 wasn't made by Bioware, it's an Obsidian game :)
Mike Rougeau February 23rd, 2012 at 06:18 PM
Ah! Thanks for pointing that out, I'll fix it ASAP.
Jeremy February 23rd, 2012 at 01:56 PM
A 50 click slide show? Seriously? You couldn't list them and break it up to two or three pages?