Top 5 Game Endings that end on a downer

Ever finished a game and felt criminally depressed? Here’s the top 5 that’ll make you feel like moping for at least an hour…

5) Far Cry 2

This cracking ending leaves players facing a choice that defies conventional videogame design. Knowing that your character will die regardless of what you do, players are given a choice of two different suicides. Either way, there’s no direct conflict resolution available – players never truly get to kill the game’s big bad guy, at least not in a way we consider conventionally satisfying. The ending to Far Cry 2 is bleak, essentially stating that there is no peaceful resolution to its portrayed human conflict.

4) Shadow Of The Colossus

Shadow Of The Colossus is a game about greed, really – the player kills 16 giant, sometimes peaceful creatures in the name of bringing a lost love back to life.
Well, the ending of the PS2 classic sees players paying the ultimate price for their selfishness, being possessed by a demonic spirit and falling under the same problems. After, the player character essentially perishes and begins a bloodline of cursed, horn-headed children that would be persecuted in the spiritual predecessor Ico.

3) Grand Theft Auto IV

There’s a clear point being made with both of GTA IV’s endings: no matter what Niko Bellic does, he is doomed. The binary conclusions here hinge on who dies in the story: Roman Bellic or Kate McReary. If Roman dies, Niko kills Dimitri Rascalov and is left wondering if the American Dream really means anything. If Kate dies, Niko kills Jimmy Pegorino and does much the same thing. Both are well-executed and sad, but it’s Roman’s death that registers more impact – Kate always criticised our dress sense. Sorry, love. No time to change when you’re carjacking.

2) Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII

The emotional ending to this PSP spin-off sees the player’s character, Zack, hunted by soldiers as he and his companion are on the run. What Crisis Core never received credit for was the way in which it married gameplay to the inevitable fate of the main character, which was revealed a decade earlier in Final Fantasy VII. The player fights a battle that they cannot win as the protagonist is gunned down by unending waves of soldiers. When your health reaches zero three times, however long it takes, the game ends and the hero dies.

1) Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

MGS3 has a sucker punch ending that appears to have had an impact on many players that have experienced it, based on the many conversations we’ve had about it. After having to put a bullet in mentor the Boss, Snake is betrayed by his main love interest, Eva, and it’s revealed that the US government was using the Boss as a scapegoat all along. His superiors having used him and his patriotism, Snake is left to salute the anonymous grave of the Boss alone, a tear running down his cheek.

Want to read more about game endings? Check out X360 Magazine, out on 16 June, for a special discussion feature about them with members of BioWare, Bethesda, Rocksteady, Starbreeze and Valve.