Ever enjoyed an ending so much only to have it fall apart when a sequel comes out? How about hating how a great game ended, but breathing a sigh of relief by seeing thatthe canon endingis different?
This list is a minefield of spoilers, as most ending-related material goes, so keep that in mind while you slow down.
These are great games whereall endings were created equal until the director said otherwise.
Most fanbases listed here enjoyed a few years wondering what really happened, then got their hands on sequels that clarified that “yep, everything went really, really wrong”.
Join us through this trip down memory lane as wereminisce over your favorite game’s most hurtful endings. Bring tissues, and a stuffed toy to hug later.
8The Last Of Us
A Mandatory Slaughter
The Last of Us
Some people sayThe Last Of Usis the videogame equivalent of Oscar bait, but that argument is moot considering how well Naughty Dog executed that concept.
Unfortunately, there are some qualms about the ending of the first game.
In the final level ofThe Last Of Us, Joel decides to save Ellie and doom humanity in the process. The player gets the choice to sneak in or go guns-blazing.
Originally, Naughty Dog had planned for two endings: the standard one that made it to the final game, and an alternate one where Joel went on a murderous rampage in the hospital.
While the developer eventually scrapped the footage for the alternate ending, whenThe Last OfUs Part II came out,most dialogue sequences over the hospital incident refer to Joel slaughtering those inside it.
In a very roundabout way, the bad ending ofThe Last Of Usis canon despite not actually being in the game originally.
7Ghost Recon Wildlands
Serving Justice Through Gunshots
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands
The neverending conflict between DC bureaucrats and field operatives struck hard inGhost Recon Wildlands.
It is a divide so great that even special forces and a CIA agent could find common ground against it. Unfortunately, it is not enough.
After meticulously dismantling the Santa Blanca Cartel and cornering El Sueño in his megalomaniac mausoleum, Bowman and the Ghosts get a call from Washington telling them to stand down.
El Sueño cut a deal with the DOJ: he gets full immunity, in exchange for snitching on other cartel leaders.
It’s a win-win, clearing out his competition and paving the road for Sueño to exert full control over Bolivia.
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Feeling that the American judiciary failed her,Karen Bowman executes the kingpin with three shots to the head, to the disbelief of Nomad and his crew.
Bowman gets sentenced to life for murder, but she does not seem to mind.
If you replay the last mission after completing 100% of the cartel destabilization missions, you get a secret “good” ending where Sueño gets house arrest in the US, but that is not nearly as exciting as the canon one.
6Shadow Hearts
Nothing A Little Time Travel Can’t Fix
Shadow Hearts
If you were gaming during the turn of the century, odds are you were either playingFinal Fantasy VIIIon the PlayStation orShadow Heartson the PlayStation 2.
Those were simpler days marked byself-sacrifice, dressing like the lead guitarist of a J-Rock band, and fighting battles that could be replicated on Microsoft Excel.
The Shadow Hearts franchise loves a convoluted approach to endings. The main title follows the bad ending ofKoudelka, andits canon ending has Alice dying to save Yuri.
If your heart breaks when playing that, you’ll be happy to know thatShadow Hearts: Covenanthas a way to undo this.
The sequel’s good ending sends you back in time to the start ofShadow Hearts, but this time Yuri knows how to save Alice. Makes you wish life was that easy.
5XCOM: Enemy Unknown
You Thought You Won, Commander?
XCOM: Enemy Unknown
The 2012 reboot of theXCOMseries brought a lot of nostalgia and pleasure and introduced younger players to one of the best tactical games ever.
Who does not like saving humanityfrom wave after wave of aliens to save the Earth, without having to get into the “what did the author mean by this” discourse that comes with Starship Troopers or Helldivers?
The brutal difficulty ofXCOMmakes victory over the aliens one of the most exciting moments a gamer can have, but those who moved on toXCOM 2in 2016 were left in disbelief.
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That’s right, commander:despite you and your unit’s heroic acts against overwhelming odds,XCOM 2reveals that the aliens won the war.
If it makes you feel any better, the developers came out to say that whileXCOM 2tells the story of what happens if you lose, what happens in your save is real in that microcosm.
If you won inEnemy Unknown, you won. Is it a coping mechanism? Yes. Will I take it? Most definitely.
4Far Cry 5
Living The Dream With Armageddon Cultists
Life teaches you not to trust crazy cultists, butas much as it hurts to admit it, Joseph Seed was right.
AsFar Cry: New Dawnreveals to us, his belief that the world would end soon came to pass, as shown in the Resist ending ofFar Cry 5.
After you defeat The Father, three nuclear bombs go off and turn the county into glass. The truck carrying Seed to Dutch’s bunker crashes, but he and the Deputy survive and make it there on foot.
Seed kills Dutch and cuffs the Deputy, before absolving them. Talk about good company for a nuclear holocaust, eh?
New Dawnfast-forwards to 17 years afterthe eventsofFar Cry 5and lets you"enjoy" life in post-apocalyptic Montana while good old Joseph Seed runs yet another cult.
3Blood Omen: Legacy Of Kain
Dooming The World All By Yourself
Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain
Legacy of Kaincame out in 1996, with strong top-down gameplay and a dark story that did not pull any punches.
During the last chapter of the game, the player defeats the Dark Entity and restores eight of the Pillars of Nosgoth.
You become aware thatyou are the last pillar guardian, the Pillar of Balance, and the fate of Nosgoth rests in your hands.
You sacrifice yourself for the good of the land or doom the world to decadence at the hands of your tyranny. In 1999, the sequel (Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver) revealed that the latter was canon.
After killing the other pillar guardians and refusing to sacrifice himself,Kain’s choice set in motion a chain that brought the wheel of fate to a halt, turning Nosgoth into a wasteland.
2Spec Ops: The Line
Pick Your Horrible Fate, Captain
Spec Ops: The Line
The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and in no place does that resonate more than in Dubai.
Few games set in our world can be as gruesome asSpec Ops: The Line, and all of the endings tie up perfectly into the story.
If you are the pedantic type, you will contest this entry: how can any ending inSpec Ops: The Linebe special ifthey are all beyond awful?
After finding Konrad’s body, Walker and the colonel’s projection draw guns on each other. If you don’t shoot Konrad, he fires at you, which leads Walker to shoot himself. Jolly, right?
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If you do “kill” the projection of Konrad, Walker looks around to see that the colonel’s body and the 33rd soldier that came to him for orders areboth gone.
After radioing in an evacuation, you meet a convoy of Humvees outside while you wear Konrad’s dress suit.
You can hold your fire and leave Dubai with them, or attempt to fight. If you die, Walker bleeds out thinking of how men like him can never go home.
If you win against overwhelming odds, Walker retreats into the ruins, parting with a chilling “welcome to Dubai”. With the city’s water supplies exhausted, there is little chance Walker will make it past a few days.
Tragically,most storefronts delistedSpec Ops: The Lineearly in 2024 due to expired music licenses.
1Metro 2033
No Karma Means No Mercy
Metro 2033 Redux
TheMetroseries is one of the grittiest shooters out there, and although 4A Games took a lot of liberties with the source material (with Metro: Exodus fully diverging from Metro 2035), the Ukrainian developers stayed loyal to Glukhovsky’s ending forMetro 2033.
After reaching the top of Ostankino Tower, Artyom has the face of an entire species in the palm of his hand.
If you went through painstaking lengths to getpositive karmaduring your playthrough in one of gaming’s harshest karma systems), you have access to the Enlightened ending where Artyom saves the Dark Ones.
That stuff about enlightenment turns out to be all fluff, asMetro: Last LightandExodusconfirm thatArtyom called in the missile strike on the nest, leading the Dark Ones to near-extinction.
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