Best Ending to a Game (Spoilers)

There are numerous games I could include for best ending, in my opinion. The InFamous games, BioShocks, Assassin's Creed: Revelations (very underrated, but satisfying ending), God of War III, Arkham City....the list goes on. However, I vote Red Dead Redemption. It was so perfect, to me. At first I was like "FUCK, why?! WHY?!" but then, upon thinking about it, it was absolutely perfect. My complete opinions and reason for choosing Red Dead Redemption is in the spoiler tag. But anyway, what is your favorite ending to a game and why?

Portal 2, Arkham City, Persona 3, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, and out of all the crazy Professor Layton twist endings, Unwound Future is the best.

Digital Devil Saga 2

sooooo crazy

love that game

Conduit 2 

I personally thought Braid's ending was absolutely incredible.

Conduit 2 

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

 Because seriously

  Look at this shit.

Portal 2, Arkham City, Persona 3, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, and out of all the crazy Professor Layton twist endings, Unwound Future is the best.

I personally thought Braid's ending was absolutely incredible.

i thought the bayonetta ending was pretty crazy

I thought the end of Enslaved was pretty good. Don't know if i am the minority on that tho. sure the game play was a bit wonky but Its one of the best story driven games I have played in a long long time.

I also liked the RDR ending, but for a completely different reason than the OP. 

I loved Red Dead Repremtions too, it seems... so poetic and Shakespearean. Like it was the only way to end the era.

About RDR... 

I also liked the RDR ending, but for a completely different reason than the OP. 

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

The final shootout between Jack and Edgar Ross had an absolutely sublime catharsis to it, especially considering that I buttonmashed my way through the quick draw and ended up plugging the guy with about 200 bullets. Also, the ending title card is utterly incredible.

I thought the end of Enslaved was pretty good. Don't know if i am the minority on that tho. sure the game play was a bit wonky but Its one of the best story driven games I have played in a long long time.

Before I had watched that many mafioso movies, Mafia was a genius game with an amazing ending.

The game was full of mobster cliches and typical things you'd find in a mobster film, but I played it well before I had seen any of that (I was also pretty young). So the ending was really impactful for me.

Your best friend getting killed by your own mob family and having to kill your other best friend at the end was a mindfuck for me.

Then Mafia 2 came out and you find out who killed your character in Mafia 1. It was cool at first, but also annoying that the awesome Tommy Angelo was killed by two immature kids trying to be big bad mobster men.

It's so cliched, but I still loved that game. On a side-note, I think I'm the only person who loved The Warriors being both a prequel and a re-telling of the film. It was amazing. And on an even further to the side note, I feel I'm in the minority of people who thoroughly enjoyed the Godfather game.

Nier. Motherfucker deletes your save, it's just that much of an ending.

The final ending that is of course.

Nier. Motherfucker deletes your save, it's just that much of an ending.

The final ending that is of course.

Silent Hill 2: In The Water ending is heartbreakingly sad.

I thought the Halo: Reach ending was perfect for that game, and Bungies note to the fans at the end was a great touch.

@SpencerTucksen said:

My opinions on the game exactly. The combat was VERY weird, and sub-par, for me. But the platforming was plenty good and the story was stellar. Andy Serkis' acting work was stellar, as per usual. I still recommend it to friends saying this "The combat is a bit odd, for the most part. However, you'll keep going because the story pulls you in, which makes it worth a look." and they wound up enjoying it. Too bad more people didn't end up buying it.

It was a pretty amazing thing, the facial movement and the character gesticulations were spot on... Trip reminded me of jade from beyond good and evil which also had a pretty good but short ending. Two games that I think will never have a sequel that sees the light of day.

@SpencerTucksen: honestly, it's not an easy game to reccommend.

Takes forever to get going and if you want all of the endings you have to play through the second half 4 times.

The story and characters are fantastic however and the voice acting and music is probably my favourite of this gen.

Combat is very average in quality.

I thought the Halo: Reach ending was perfect for that game, and Bungies note to the fans at the end was a great touch.

Silent Hill 2: In The Water ending is heartbreakingly sad.

Recently: Bastion and Portal 2.

All time: I'm quite partial to the 2008 Prince of Persia. It was an incredibly bold choice on the part of the developer. The ending itself is beautifully bittersweet.

Well, Beyond Good and Evil 2 is being made, so...there's that! However, Enslaved failed, and will most assuredly not get a sequel. Really a shame because if they would have made the controls a bit less wonky, it could have been great.

how have we got this far and no one has mentioned mgs: snake eater

@Canteu said:

@SpencerTucksen: honestly, it's not an easy game to reccommend.

Takes forever to get going and if you want all of the endings you have to play through the second half 4 times.

The story and characters are fantastic however and the voice acting and music is probably my favourite of this gen.

Combat is very average in quality.

It's not so bad, you do start partway through for subsequent playthroughs and can get to the end in an hour or so once you know what you're doing. It is quite hard to recommend though, yeah, without knowing who you are talking to. I would say go for it though - it managed to touch my heart a little, Kainé is possibly one of my favourite characters ever, the story is great once it's all in place and some of the boss battles are incredible. Just don't bother doing most of the sidequests because there's no reason for them to even be there and the grind slog they ask of you might sour you to everything else.

In world of cliffhangers and sequel teasers, Portal 2 had the best ending I've ever seen in a long while.

@SpencerTucksen: honestly, it's not an easy game to reccommend.

Takes forever to get going and if you want all of the endings you have to play through the second half 4 times.

The story and characters are fantastic however and the voice acting and music is probably my favourite of this gen.

Combat is very average in quality.

Recently: Bastion and Portal 2.

All time: I'm quite partial to the 2008 Prince of Persia. It was an incredibly bold choice on the part of the developer. The ending itself is beautifully bittersweet.

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

The Prince (and player) is forced to free the dark force he's spent the entire game struggling to seal away in order to revive the woman he loves. The game ends with the Prince somberly walking away, carrying a limp Elika, as darkness pours out of the temple behind him.

In world of cliffhangers and sequel teasers, Portal 2 had the best ending I've ever seen in a long while.

@Canteu said:

@SpencerTucksen: honestly, it's not an easy game to reccommend.

Takes forever to get going and if you want all of the endings you have to play through the second half 4 times.

The story and characters are fantastic however and the voice acting and music is probably my favourite of this gen.

Combat is very average in quality.

It's not so bad, you do start partway through for subsequent playthroughs and can get to the end in an hour or so once you know what you're doing. It is quite hard to recommend though, yeah, without knowing who you are talking to. I would say go for it though - it managed to touch my heart a little, Kainé is possibly one of my favourite characters ever, the story is great once it's all in place and some of the boss battles are incredible. Just don't bother doing most of the sidequests because there's no reason for them to even be there and the grind slog they ask of you might sour you to everything else.

@SpencerTucksen said:

@zombie2011 said:

I thought the Halo: Reach ending was perfect for that game, and Bungies note to the fans at the end was a great touch.

I don't own an Xbox,only a PS3. I would have loved to play everything after Halo 2 (had the original Xbox), but sadly, I haven't.

@Jeust said:

Silent Hill 2: In The Water ending is heartbreakingly sad.

Actually played that game, and I must say....it was depressing as fuck. Depressing, but fantastic.

That ending is such that it is just perfect for way the plot evolves, and for the twists it presents.

Deadly Premonition is the only game that got to me in the same level as SH2's ending did. Such a sad and surprising ending at the same time.

I'm going to be crazy and say MGS4.

There hasn't been any good endings in games that I can think of in recent years. That ones that strike me to be the best are (in no particular order):

• Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
• King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow
• Hitman 2: Silent Assassin
• Max Payne
• Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of The Earth

I'm going to be crazy and say MGS4.

Portal 2, RDR, and Halo: Reach are some of my favorites. As for Halo, I think they made it really cool how your character dies. They could have just shown the planet getting completely glassed and it being the end, but having you play through your death was a good way to do it. The only bad thing was that it is kinda weird how that damage stuff never happens to you throughout the game, but because its the end, your suit suddenly starts to actually receive and show damage. Didn't stop the ending from making a strong impact though.

Portal.

You get rewarded with that amazing song.

A less obvious one would be Hitman: Blood Money.

Red Dead Redemption.

Shadow of the Colossus, times infinity.

New as it is, Bastion deserves a mention. I think that will continue to be true after the zeitgeist surrounding it has passed.

Nothing else really jumps out at me. I think that game storytelling has developed so quickly that there aren't very many "classic" endings to speak of.

@Jeust said:

Silent Hill 2: In The Water ending is heartbreakingly sad.

That song is awesome too.

@MSG said:

Recently: Bastion and Portal 2.

All time: I'm quite partial to the 2008 Prince of Persia. It was an incredibly bold choice on the part of the developer. The ending itself is beautifully bittersweet.

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

The Prince (and player) is forced to free the dark force he's spent the entire game struggling to seal away in order to revive the woman he loves. The game ends with the Prince somberly walking away, carrying a limp Elika, as darkness pours out of the temple behind him.

Totally agree with you on PoP 2k8. But then you do something dumb and decide to buy and play the epilogue which just completely ruins it with a really shitty cliff hanger. Damn, what a waste of money that was.

I really wasn't that amazed by Bastion's ending specifically, but a certain section right before it struck me as being quite incredible.

My favorite ending to a game ever, though, would have to be Final Fantasy 9. It's just . . . so goddamn happy.

@BaneFireLord said:

I also liked the RDR ending, but for a completely different reason than the OP.

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

The final shootout between Jack and Edgar Ross had an absolutely sublime catharsis to it, especially considering that I buttonmashed my way through the quick draw and ended up plugging the guy with about 200 bullets. Also, the ending title card is utterly incredible.

What's crazy to me about that ending is I bet a large percentage of the people who 'beat' the game never even saw it. You get no quest marker or any real indication that there is more to the story.

@TehFlan said:

Conduit 2

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

Because seriously

Look at this shit.

This wins every time

Gemini Rue.

I recently finished it and the twist at the climax was amazing. It really puts the player on the spot and it was the one thing about it I did not expect at all. The ending definitely succeeds in bringing it home, too. The dialogue was so succinct and deep with regards to the central conflict of the game that it left a profound impression on me. Not to mention the music was amazing. They succeeded in giving it a very theatrical, fittingly neo-noir conclusion even with their use of sprites, something I would've thought was previously impossible.

Portal 2.
 
That just happened.

@UltimAXE: I'm just going to forget that the epilogue even exists.

This topic reminded me just how bummed I am that the Bombsquad totally forgot about the Best Ending 2011 category. So many GREAT endings last year with stuff like Arkham City and Portal 2.

Metal Gear Solid 3 was in my opinion one of the best endings regardless of medium. The twist at the end was not only shocking but emotional and touching and powerful and unlike other MGS games it earns it

@siddarth0605 said:

Metal Gear Solid 3 was in my opinion one of the best endings regardless of medium. The twist at the end was not only shocking but emotional and touching and powerful and unlike other MGS games it earns it

This.

@BaneFireLord said:

I also liked the RDR ending, but for a completely different reason than the OP.

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

The final shootout between Jack and Edgar Ross had an absolutely sublime catharsis to it, especially considering that I buttonmashed my way through the quick draw and ended up plugging the guy with about 200 bullets. Also, the ending title card is utterly incredible.

What's crazy to me about that ending is I bet a large percentage of the people who 'beat' the game never even saw it. You get no quest marker or any real indication that there is more to the story.