[Sarafan]

What do you all think are the best and worst game endings out there? Just say the name of the game and why its the best/worst and if you really want to explain it further dont forget to use the spoiler tag.

Worst:

Assassin's Creed

Spoiler:

The ending is insulting in that its not even a ending proper, they leave it clear there'll be a sequel but its also not even a proper cliffhanger, its like instead of a ending they just stoped the game much like if you stop watching a movie in the middle of it right before you start getting some answers.

KOTOR

Spoiler:

The game is awesome but the light side ending is quite dull, oh, you get a medal while that annyoing SW music plays and thats it; the bad side ending isnt much better either

Best: Legacy of Kain Defiance, Soul Reaver 1&2, Baldur's Gate 1&2, MGS4 (not that great but very good), Starcraft & Broodwar, C&C: Red Alert, FFX and these are the one I remember so far.

[StarSlayer]

Worst:
Far Cry 2  after driving around killing respawning checkpoint mooks and completing the samey missions across Africa for a god awful amount of time...

Spoiler:

My options are: Blow myself up setting off some dynamite to block the military from attacking refugees or...  take a brief case full of diamonds to pay off the border guards so the same refugees can escape, then inexplicably shoot myself in the head....  WTF?!  I was tempted to hack the game and create option C Where I decided to take the brief case for myself, screw the refugees and go to a planet with naked sebacean girls and margarita shooters

By far this was the most stupid ending I have yet encountered.

[mxlm]

a planet with naked sebacean girls and margarita shooters

Great reference.

Worst: KOTOR2, because it's unfinished. Maybe Team Gizka will eventually remedy that

Best: 

Planescape: Torment

Spoiler:

You go fight in the Blood War. Which is fantastic. Or, like, you can kill yourself. Which is also fantastic

Vampire: Bloodlines

Spoiler:

Actually only ever got one ending, in which I was chained up in a sarcophagus  and dropped to the bottom of the ocean. Sweet

I liked the endings of Half-Life 1&2 as well.

[Mr. Vega]

I consider Planescape: Torment's ending to be the greatest choke job I have ever personally seen in the history of storytelling, for reasons that I have already elaborated upon considerably in several threads.

Along with that, I would lump in Diablo, Thief II (which wasn't their fault, LGS was in trouble and they had to release it ASAP if they hoped to stay alive), Chrono Trigger (actually a pretty boring game for long stretches), and Silent Threat (Duh).

Best? Dreamfall (I will defend this to the death and take you with me), Thief I, Super Metroid (now THAT'S a final boss battle), Freespace 2 (the last five missions are just mentally exhausting), and above all, Final Fantasy VI - it is impossible to finish that game and not feel that you got your money's worth.

a planet with naked sebacean girls and margarita shooters

But crackers don't matter!

[Mongoose]

Mine would be one of a few adventure games I've played from Dreamcatcher Games, particularly The Crystal Key.  Essentially, the vaguely-defined plot against some nebulous super-enemy who's threatening Earth ends with...a screen of text informing you that you've beaten him.  And this is a commercially-released game that was made during this decade.  Hell, Bad Dudes had a more compelling resolution.

[mxlm]

I consider Planescape: Torment's ending to be the greatest choke job I have ever personally seen in the history of storytelling, for reasons that I have already elaborated upon considerably in several threads.

Very interesting points you make, too.

[Ace]

Vampire: Bloodlines

Spoiler:

Actually only ever got one ending, in which I was chained up in a sarcophagus  and dropped to the bottom of the ocean. Sweet

So you betrayed your fellow vampies for this?


Who is actually

Spoiler:

a giant slug

?

a planet with naked sebacean girls and margarita shooters

Nobody has pizza with margaritas!

[NGTM-1R]

Limbo of the Lost has the worst ending ever, narrowly beating out King's Quest VI.

Go watch it on youtube if you doubt me.

[Mr. Vega]

I consider Planescape: Torment's ending to be the greatest choke job I have ever personally seen in the history of storytelling, for reasons that I have already elaborated upon considerably in several threads.

Very interesting points you make, too.

You like Torment so I'm going to assume you're being sarcastic unless told otherwise.

[mxlm]

Uh. No. Wasn't being sarcastic.

So you betrayed your fellow vampies for this?

Spoiler:

Fellow vampires my entire ass. Those ****ers compete with the Jedi for the title of Biggest Douches Known to Man. At that point in the game I wanted them all to die, and was totally willing to pick what, it was oh so subtly made clear, was the bad ending to achieve that goal (seriously, the cab driver practically says, "If you do this, it will suck. No, really. I mean it. Is that your final final final answer?").

Also, those folks were slugs? Was that info in the game or did you get it from some White Wolf publication?

[Ace]

Uh. No. Wasn't being sarcastic.

So you betrayed your fellow vampies for this?

Spoiler:

Fellow vampires my entire ass. Those ****ers compete with the Jedi for the title of Biggest Douches Known to Man. At that point in the game I wanted them all to die, and was totally willing to pick what, it was oh so subtly made clear, was the bad ending to achieve that goal (seriously, the cab driver practically says, "If you do this, it will suck. No, really. I mean it. Is that your final final final answer?").

Also, those folks were slugs? Was that info in the game or did you get it from some White Wolf publication?

Of course they're dicks, they were warned about Stephanie Meyer books years ahead of time. (why did you think there was all of that talk about the end times coming?) Well if you hate them all, there's always the option to:

Spoiler:

Go solo, you'll leave LaCroix there to die, flip him off, walk out, flip off all of your Anarch '"friends" and watch the building explode behind you.

As for queen scumbag

Spoiler:

When you fight her, she turns into her true form, a giant ugly slug critter.

[Ghostavo]

I nominate Ecco: The Tides of Time for best ending.

You are told to destroy the Atlantean time machine to stop the Vortex Queen from going back in time.

Spoiler:

You fail and use the time machine on yourself, destination unknown, and are never heard of again. The Vortex Queen while succeeding in using the time machine, is stopped by the very life forms she wanted to rule over in the Earth's ancient past. In the end, life goes on.

If visual novels are acceptable, then Saya no Uta's true ending is very nice.

The protagonist manages to kill the last person who had a chance to kill his beloved and ruin what remained of his life.

Spoiler:

Except that his beloved is an eldritch abomination which dooms the world afterwards by unleashing spores which will gradually change the whole world's population into eldritch abominations like herself. In the end, life (but not life as we know it) goes on.

Yes, I like slightly downer endings.

As for worst endings, Fable. I don't even want to go further with that.

[CP5670]

Assassin's Creed

Spoiler:

Yes, this game was pretty bad at the end. Not just the very end, but I thought the entire last level and its surreal boss fight kind of ruined the gritty, realistic medieval setting they had built up until that point.

Crysis and Warhead comes to mind as well. I liked Crysis a lot, but the ending was more of an unfinished game than just a cliffhanger. I didn't even realize the game had ended until the credits showed up.

Spoiler:

Then in Warhead, you wrestle a 60 year old Korean general and have trouble beating him, right after you just blew up a huge spider mech with your plasma cannon.

The best ones I can think of are the various endings of C&C (what other game lets you choose a world landmark to blow up? ) and both Deus Ex games. Monkey Island 2 also gets an honorable mention for being so unique.

[Sarafan]

Assassin's Creed

Spoiler:

Yes, this game was pretty bad at the end. Not just the very end, but I thought the entire last level and its surreal boss fight kind of ruined the gritty, realistic medieval setting they had built up until that point.

Spoiler:

I actually liked the explanation for what that thing was, it made people see whatever you wanted them to see but I agree that the fight, the whole last part actually, could/should have been done much better.

[NGTM-1R]

Of course they're dicks, they were warned about Stephanie Meyer books years ahead of time. (why did you think there was all of that talk about the end times coming?)

Best. Answer. Ever.

[Vidmaster]

WHY DO ALL PEOPLE HERE HATE CLIFFHANGERS SO MUCH?

For example, I thought the Assassins Creed ending was brilliant. It closed the whole Altair story arc in a logical way and the twist before the final sequence was great. And back in reality, I thought it was just as awesome.
the AC ending didn't leave be unsatisfied but hungry for more, that's a good cliffhanger.
Or Half-Life 2. Another open BUT satisfying ending. I really loved it, just like the first's ending. Best cliffhanger so far goes to God of War 2 which has a awesome narrative and gobsmacking ending  

Bad cliffhangers? Halo 2 pulls a real bad one for example. On the other hand, the whole story of that game is presented in a terrible way. Let's shift to:

Great game narratives with bad cliffhanger endings:
- Rachet and Clank: Tools of Destruction
- Crysis (the only flaw in that near perfect game).
- SystemShock 2. Let's face it, these last 20 seconds were unnecessary. Again, the only flaw of a perfect game.

Everybody can agree with those I think. But those are still okay, now for the big one:

Great game narratives with horrible endings (of whatever style):
- Bioshock. The "good" ending works but the rest is broken. Broken because the "morality system" is broken.

Spoiler:

The game displays you as a mercyless conquerer

- Kane & Lynch. There are actually two. Both are ****.

Spoiler:

I have absolutely no problem with the game ending bad. I would have been disappointed if it wouldn't, it was only logical. The problem is that both endings are executed so goddamn horrible, it's a pain. We just see a terrible 10 second in-engine cutscene and CREDITS. Crap. Especially since the game has brilliant in-engine cutscenes in all earlier levels.

- XIII  

Spoiler:

One of the worst and silliest cliffhangers ever!!! After stopping the conspiracy to overthrow the US gov from inside, you finally come face to face with your nemesis and it just ends there.

I can't decide who wins the price. XIII or Kane&Lynch...



EDIT: Since when do we have censoring here in the forum? **** **** ****...    ...yeah, censored 

[TrashMan]

Of course they're dicks, they were warned about Stephanie Meyer books years ahead of time. (why did you think there was all of that talk about the end times coming?)

Best. Answer. Ever.

http://www.vgcats.com/comics/

[BloodEagle]

Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of The Earth had a pretty good ending, if I recall correctly. Despite its tediously buggy gameplay and annoying "puzzle" elements. You can probably find all of the cutscenes on YouTube, though they probably won't explain everything in the plot.

Spoiler:

Be forwarned (if you're reading these despite never playing the game, you sick bastard) that the protagonist commits suicide in a mental asylum. Or does he fail? I can't remember....  :/

Side note: Cthulhu should be added to the spellchecker.

[Retsof]

Lets see, bad ending: Star Wars Force Unleashed

Spoiler:

Yeah, you die, although I guess it's sort of a heroic sacrifice.  Should have just killed the Emperor and been done with it.

Good bad ending: LoZ Twilight Princess.  It hurt, but atleast it elicited an emotional response.

[Galemp]

Neverwinter Nights 2. No joke:

Spoiler:

Rocks fall. Everyone dies.