Mediocre games with great endings? (NO spoilers)

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons wasn't doing much for me - that is, until I got to the ending. If it wasn't for that part, I'd think everyone that loved that game was a crazy person.

So, what games have you played that have redeemed themselves by having a disproportionately great ending?

If you really must post some spoilers, wrap it up in a spoiler tag.

Conduit 2 ending, how unexpected was that am I right? I mean for one thing I never played Conduit 2 but I knew of it cause of that ending and the semi-relation to an old school giant bomb created character from back in the day.

Is a complete non sequitur like that really a "great" ending, though? Surprising? Sure. Fall into the theme of an old Giant Bomb meme/joke? It sure does. But as endings go, it's a major twist that ends on a cliffhanger that will likely never be resolved at this point.

A thread about endings where you can't talk about endings is kind of pointless.

Binary Domain. Maybe not the ending itself but the final chapter is pretty great on a narrative level.

@hunkulese said:

Completely.

Well, it might be good for anyone wanting to check those games out w/o getting them spoiled.

Deadly Premonition is a good one

it makes sense as a way to encourage people to stick with certain games to experience the ending. I'll probably install Binary Domain now, and I'd absolutely agree that sticking with Brothers for its two hours is absolutely worth the ending.

FEAR 2 has one of the better endings I can think of.

Pretty much everything related to Drakengard. Except they're great in the story department in general, it's just the gameplay that's really mediocre. I know some people will argue that Nier isn't mediocre gameplay wise but come on.

Persona 2 Innocent Sin is another one. I'm tempted to say Bioshock Infinite as well just because there's waaaay too many dull shootouts for its own good. Can't really think of many more. I can name you a ton of really good games with god awful endings, though!

Nier's "ending" is pretty memorable to me. And it isn't a mediocre game, but the first Darksiders had a great ending.

The part of Breakdown (original Xbox game) I remember finding mind-blowing doesn't quite happen at the end, but it made playing through that tedious game totally worth it.

Spec Ops: The Line has a few different endings and they're all pretty good, but especially "Welcome to Dubai". The entirety of act 3 is the strongest by far. I recommend playing the game on easy, since it's definitely mediocre.

Alan Wake for me was a largely mediocre experience, but the ending was superb and exactly the kind of ending that I want from anything horror related. I just wish I hadn't played the DLC which completely ruined said ending.

I was going to talk about DP too. Interesting game, albeit mediocre, with one of the greatest endings I've seen.

The choice of ending song was great and suitably fitting.

I enjoyed Spec Ops: The Line as a whole, but it's definitely the game's ending that takes the cake. Really well done.

Inversion. There's a twist that's just... well, something had to make up for the bland Gears of War gameplay.

Did I just read people listing Spec Ops: The Line, Alan Wake and FEAR 2? Pretty sure the thread asked for mediocre games, not some of the better experiences of last gen.

First person that says Metal Gear Solid 3 is going to get stitches. STITCHES YA HEAR ME!

Hey! That game was definitely above mediocre.

Tell me F3EAR has a great ending and that would be valid.

I think you're taking his response waaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyy too seriously.

Mass Effect. OK, look, Mass Effect does not play well. You can argue that it's got better RPG elements, and that's fine, but it's trying to be a third person shooter and it's not very good at it. I recently stopped a playthrough of ME1 and just jumped right into its much-improved sequel because I didn't want to wade through all of the really clunky mechanics for a story that I already know fairly well. But the ending of ME1 is pretty good. It's outshined by its successor, but it's still a pretty awesome end sequence.

EDIT: The first Mass Effect. 2 and 3 are pretty good third person shooters.

The Last of Us :p

OK, to be fair, its not a mediocre game. I just didn't enjoy playing 90% of it. The ending was fantastic though.

Legacy of Kain: Defiance. I slogged my way through a mediocre game just to have some resolution to Raziel and Kain's story.

The 2013 version of Shadow Warrior, though you might argue if the game is "mediocre"

Mass Effect 3 and Bioshock Infinite are two that spring to mind.

What? We're all thinking it.

I agree with you that the game is mediocre, but not for difficulty reasons.

@sweep: I think that Mass Effect 3 is the inverse of this thread

I'm gonna give Nier it's own post. That ending is fantastic. Then of course there's the true ending which is awesome and hilarious(in a good way). But god damn is that gameplay the definition of medicore. Every time a thread related to story pops up I'm reminded that I should try and finish the first Drakengard, but that game is taking it's sweet time starting.

But if you play it on easy, it goes faster!

I've not actually played it myself, but Dragon's Dogma's ending is pretty crazy.

I'm really on the fence, for a number of reasons, about whether or not Asura's Wrath fits into this category.

MGS2 personally, didn't care for most of the game until it just went fucking insane!

I guess the action stuff is pretty mediocre, but I thought the Quick Time event sections were actually handled really really well. Sure, you don't have any real impact and it's basically an interactive anime, but it was still satisfying hitting some of those prompts, and they used them in pretty clever ways sometimes. Aside from that, I thought the story as a whole was pretty fun and ramped up really well. I'll grant you that the final couple chapters of the true ending DLC are incredible though, especially that final boss fight. But considering every major boss has the "shut [boss name] up" button and half way through the game a boss breaks the moon and stabs you and the entire earth while New World Symphony is playing, I'm gonna vote that it doesn't fit.

I agree with ME1 and Spec Ops. I'm having trouble thinking of any new ones to contribute, though.

@subwayd: Inversion was definitely mediocre, but the two big twists made me like the game less. The first one was just bad because of the plot and writing, but the second at the end felt like a purposeful middle finger to the player.

I wouldn't call it mediocre, but my initial playthrough of it was only alright, with a few good moments (now I consider it part of one of my favorite trilogies on last-gen), which is Assassin's Creed 2. Another game, which I don't think is mediocre, but great, though also pretty disappointing, with an amazing ending (at least to me) was Bioshock Infinite.

Asura's Wrath is glorious and has no place in a mediocre game thread.

Actually, I'm gonna half-rescind my judgment of Spec Ops' ending as great. It's good if you consider it tying its various themes together, but not if you consider what those themes are.

OK, so I only thought I made that judgment, but whatever. I guess it's implied now.

I agree, but also, now we're all expecting the ending to be something worth seeing, and expectations are the fucking worst re: how we react to things.

That said, I think this is pretty much the gold standard as far as middling games that somehow stick the landing.

@markwahlberg: I actually loved that game. I always thought it was much better than any other open world game out at the time. It just did it for me I guess.

Binary Domain is not mediocre, goddamnit.

I'll agree on Persona 2 Innocent Sin though.

I'm going to back the people who have said Bioshock Infinite, Deadly Premonition (which I have only watched the VJ Endurance Run for), and The Last of Us

Upon further consideration, I also have to add the second Ace Attorney game (Justice for All) to the list.

Dude, no. No, you shouldn't try and finish the first Drakengard, even if you're a fan of Nier. Drakengard's story is not the best, and the fact that the ending that directly ties into Nier is one of the hardest things to complete (this is not hyperbole) in the action game genre isn't worth the slog of playing every other ending beforehand to get to it. I will defend Nier until the cows come home (and boy have I), but Drakengard isn't worth the investment. Unless you're really curious about how deeply fucked up it gets. Because it does. But even then...there's always Youtube.

As for my answer, I'm gonna toss in Killer7. I love Killer7, but even I'll admit that it's a mediocre game when you're actually playing it. But the way that game ends, once you put all the pieces together as to what the narrative was actually revolving around, it's a solid ending.

@sterling: I mean, it definitely does a lot of cool stuff, and the concept was a really good idea. Just seemed a bit awkward in some of the execution. I dunno. Most of my time with it was watching a friend play through, I'd jump in every now and again, so perhaps I should not claim to be the best judge.

@grantheaslip:

I was more pissed (or, rather, became more pissed over time) about the moralizing nature of the game and how it felt more like a movie than it did a game.

MGS3 made me cry a little at the end.

The hell? This is literally to opposite of what the OP is asking for. Mass Effect 3 is a truly astoundingly good game that shits the bed so unbelievably hard in the last 30 minutes that they went in and changed it, while Infinite is just ok throughout.

Yo, Binary Domain is not a mediocre game.

Also I had the reverse reaction to Brothers. The mundane gameplay actually biased me against the ending. It felt like they put me through 2 hours of mediocrity just so they could show me how clever they thought they were.

Haze.

Goddamnit, the memories come flooding back - there's so much potential in that game, but some parts of it are downright terrible, and I encountered so many game breaking bugs.

7th Legion also comes to mind.