There are a lot of great games out there that intrigue players with epic journeys, formidable foes, puzzle solving, and navigating various landscapes. When executed masterfully, these adventures can immerse gamers in rich narratives that keep them glued to their screen and dying to discover what happens next. However, as any seasoned gamer can attest, the quality of any game’s story isoften gauged by its ending.
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While many games boast of well-crafted conclusions that tie up loose ends and leave players feeling satisfied, there are some games where the climax takes players on a journey into the unexpected, the bizarre, and sometimes the downright absurd. Here are some great games with an ending that hardly makes sense.
10Alan Wake
Alan Wakeis an action-adventure game with an incredible story that followsa successful thriller novelistwho tries to uncover the truth behind his wife’s vanishing during a seemingly tranquil vacation in a small fictional town called Bright Falls, Washington. The pages of his latest novel, which he strangely cannot recall penning, begin to materialize in reality.
The story, which consists of six episodes, immerses the gamers in several plot twists and cliffhangers akin to a television series. However, it was ruined by a weird ending where he enters a lake to save his wife, only to find himself back at their cabin.
9Spore
Creating an ending for a game that involves growing a species from a microscopic organism to an intergalactic one would always be a complex task.Spore’s implementation of role-playing games, real-time strategy, and open-ended gameplay earned it critical appraisal, with the players able to create custom organisms, vehicles, and buildings and the use of Sporepedia to allow players to download the creations of others.
However, after battlingan enormous planet empireto clear the game, players are met with a cutscene where an alien named Steve gives them an item and asks them to buy a timeshare.
8Bioshock Infinite
BioShock Infiniteis a first-person shooter game in 1912 where the playable character, Booker DeWitt,is sent to a steampunk cityin the skies to rescue a captive woman named Elizabeth. The player scavenges for supplies and fights enemies, and Elizabeth supports him while trying to establish a relationship between them.
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After Elizabeth and Booker discover the true identity of Comstock, she and her alternate versions drown and kill Booker during his baptism, right before waking up in the comfort of his office, causing a lot of discourse between the players, wondering if the event in the game’s story even happened at all.
7Halo 2
Halo 2is the sequel to the critically acclaimedHalo: Combat Evolved,which tells the story of the war between the United Nations Space Command, the Covenant, and the Flood. The players expect to take control of the prequel’s human lead character, Master Chief but spend more than half the campaign playing as the Arbiter alien.
The ending further compounded it by forcing players to use the Arbiter to complete the final mission, where the players can see their playable character choice, Master Chief, join a battle for the Earth as a massive cliffhanger.
6Fallout 3
Bethesda decided to bring out the big guns withFallout 3,ending the 2D graphics synonymouswith theFalloutfranchiseand employing 3D graphics with real-time combat. The smash-hit game was filled with RPG elements, including hard decisions that would influence the ending, which, according to Bethesda, were up to five hundred.
Really, in the end, it didn’t matter because the game always ended with the lead character dying, no matter the player’s choices. Players are also not allowed to return to the world they created and are instead forced to start the game all over again.
5Super Mario Bros. 2
Nintendo’s crown jewel,Super Mario Bros.,commanded a sequel four years after its release due to its commercial success. It featured the same 2D side-scrolling platform gameplay, but it felt strangely odd, with enemies sporting wacky designs and the background and setting being a little weirder. The game was also significantly harder to beat.
However, players got to realize the cause of the funky theme when the game ended, and a cutscene came up. The entire adventure took place in Mario’s head while he was asleep.
4Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhoodwas released in 2010 as the second part of the Ezio trilogy masterpiece and turned out to be a great game, only let down by an ending that feels out of place.
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Following the climax of the historical storyline, Desmond Miles, the character who relives the memories of Ezio through the Animus machine, is transported to an ancient temple, where he sees what appear to be deities or aliens contemplating what to do with humanity. One of those beings possesses him after he grabs the Apple of Eden, compelling him to kill his friend Lucy and fall unconscious.
3Bloodborne
Bloodborne is anaction RPG PlayStation exclusive gameby FromSoftware that tells the story of a Victorian-era hunter journeying through a Gothic city plagued by a disease that transformed the residents into Eldritch-like monsters. The player aims to discover the cause of the disease while fighting the many monsters that roam the streets and districts.
FromSoftware is well known for incorporating multiple endings with vague interpretations, but the “Yharnam Sunrise” ending is even more confusing, with the hunter dying by Gehrman’s blade and waking up to the city deserted, making it hard for players to discern anything at all.
2Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty
Metal Gear Solid 2is well known for its espionage and stealthy action gameplay, where the playable character sneaks through most of the arena, as the game is primarily played without being spotted by the enemies who are holding the US to ransom by threatening to destroy a facility and unleash an environmental disaster.
The character uncovers a massive conspiracy by a big organization called the Patriots and a very unusual plotline that changes throughout the story, but the straw that breaks the camel’s back is discovering that the members of the so-called Patriots had been dead for years before the story’s start.
1Borderlands
2K and Gearbox Software combined to create a Western-themed action RPG first-person shooter game that follows Vault Hunters on their journey to planet Pandora looking for the Vault, which akin to the One Piece inOne Piece.Rumored to contain advanced alien weapons technology and invaluable riches, the Vault issought after by other corporationswho intend to claim it.
Upon reaching the Vault in the end, the players will be annoyed to find out that it doesn’t contain any of the things mentioned earlier but is instead a housing for the final boss, which does not even provide much of a challenge.
