sfsdfd

I've read a lot of complaints about Halo 2's ending, which apparently leaves a lot to be desired in terms of endgame storyline. It got me thinking that this is hardly the first time an otherwise good game has vastly disappointed those dedicated enough to finish.

Two games I played as a teenager come to mind:

• Time Soldiers was a really neat Ikari Warriors-style game, where you take a bunch of high-tech weaponry into past time periods (Dinosaurs, Ancient Rome, World War II, etc.), and you can upgrade weapons as in Heavy Barrel.
  
• TNK-3 was a great tank game, where you fought your way through many villages, water levels, etc. Your tank had a machine gun that pointed in the direction of travel, and a separately rotatable turret for firing cannonballs. You fought against foot soldiers, increasingly harder tanks, submarines, etc.

What do these games have in common? They're both tons of fun, with (for the time) high production values and novel concepts. They also both ended with a "The End" message. You reached a certain end point, and the game just stopped.

(Of course, this isn't counting the hundreds of games I've played with no actual ending - either they reach a maximum difficulty and stay there, like Pac-Man, or they roll over and you start playing the first levels again, like Time Pilot.)

What comes to mind for you?

- David Stein

Gideon68

Alien 3 for the Sega Genesis: "It is Done"

Mopower

Any football game. "Congrats you have won the Super Bowl!"

GoldenJCJ

There was a game for the NES called Rampage (I think). It was kinda like Godzilla and King Kong just destroying cities. Me and my brother spent hours (all in one day) playing through literally hundreds of levels and after destroying the final city a small scoll of words saying "The End" comes up. I almost cried.

TheMadMonk

Well, seeing as I just finished Halo 2 about 3 minutes ago, I gotta list that one.

Drakan: Order of the Flame (pc) was a great game, with a really lame ending.

fumanstan

Doom 3's ending was pretty bad.

It might be easier to list good/memorable endings.

nickdawgy

I never finished Doom 3, but you guys are making me glad I didn't. Not anywhere close to finishing Halo 2, I don't think.

xVladx

I think it's pretty much a given that most arcade-style games (like the two the original poster mentioned) aren't going to have a whole lot in terms of an actual ending. Sure, an abrupt "the end" or "congratulations" isn't a whole lot, but arcade style shooters/beat-em-ups/etc typically only have a short little scene or two as an ending, so it's really not that much of a disappointment, IMO.

Personally, what I find to be more irritating is games that are good up to the end, then have either a lousy final area, last boss, or both. For example:

Eternal Darkness:

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time:

The Legend of Zelda, The Wind Waker:

The more I've thought of it lately, the more I've realized how much a good last boss fight weighs in on my final opinion of a game. I've found that if the final encounter either is sufficiently difficult, or just looks and feels like a real climactic showdown (or both, preferably), then it'll really boost my opinion of the game. A few games that really have a good endgame sequence:

Serious Sam, the First Encounter:

ICO:

Brain Stew

I don't think any video game has ever had a satisfying ending.

MasterofDVD

I was able to prepare myself for the crappy Halo 2 ending. I honestly didn't enjoy the story at all and just treated the single player game as if it were a number of training levels used to prepare me for multiplayer.

Psi-Ops was a pretty good game but the ending was crap. I want a sequel but I hope it has a better ending.

BizRodian

System Shock 2.

The last part of the game was very obviously rushed to completion. The final boss battle is pathetic. A shame, since the game rules in so many other ways.

spainlinx0

I liked Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.

Lastblade

Metal Gear Solid 2 suffers the exact opposite. Completely unnecessarily long and drawn out ridiculously stupid ending that makes no sense whatsoever. Yah, that game gives you some philosophical BS after making you play with an idiotic whiner through the whole game. Thanks Kojima.

kgrogers1979

Fable has the worst ending ever in my opinion. The final boss was a complete joke, and the ending was like 3 seconds long.

jaeufraser

I never liked the ending for the old Atari game Pitfall.

ChrisKnudsen

Friday the 13th

kgrogers1979

Pitfall never ended. Once you got to the last screen with the gold bar, it would cycle back to the first screen and start over. Just about all the old Atari games did that. That kept recycling over and over until you lost all your lives.

thegame370

It almost makes no sense to list old school games cuz they almost all ended with "The End" or "Thank you for Playing" screens so ill leave those out. But recent wack endings ive seen are:

Onimusha 3: Demon Siege- What a way to end a trilogy, even the extra CG scene at the end of the credits was dull.

Silent Hill 3: While the game wasn't all that itself i kinda enjoyed it and was dissapointed with the ending. I dont like when games give just a quick scene at the end just like any other scene through out the whole entire game.

Fable: I loved this game and enjoyed every single second of it except for the actual ending. Now granted you can have i think like 4 possible endings, but there all pretty much the same. I think like the game itself, they should of went all out as well, end it big, totally epic! Sometimes i think they spend too much time with the main story on games and are tired by the ending, so they give you half-ass ones.

Castlevania: LOI- Man, same as the NES endings, only in CG, BOO!!

Manhunt: Awesome game but didnt go out with a bang.

And almost all of the Resident Evil games piss me off with the endings as well. Always some mansion or some kind of facility being blown up, hope RE4 is different.

jaeufraser

Ha maybe I should have put one of these after that.

glassdragon

I've got to add HalfLife 2 ... Wasn't as good as i thought it should be.. Kinda crappy anyways

oh and i liked the close to 45 minute ending to Final Fantasy 8

Giantrobo

Anyone who's played the Legacy of Kain/Soul Reaver series knows about the notorious "non-ending-endings".
Even the last one "DEFIANCE", which supposedly is the end of the series, was left with a "what's next/where do we go from here?" type ending.

I rarely finish video games but this series is one of the few I actually stuck with to the end.

sfsdfd

Hmm - did you play the first one (Blood Omen?) That had quite a good ending - two, actually. I mean, it was short, but conclusive.

- David Stein

jrbrangi

Shenmue....................1&2 god damn to be continued

Giantrobo

Really? Cool.

ClownFace666

Most games have very dull endings.

It's extremely annoying to me to spend so much time beating a game. When you get to the end, it's really lame. You think, huh? I spent this time for this?