Finished Franchises

I just recently finished playing through all of the Saints Row games and it was nice to play a whole series of games like that where there was a complete story. What are some other series have complete stories that come to a close after three or more games?

The only other one I can think of that I've played is Mass Effect. Do the Oddworld or Penny Arcade games have a satisfactory finish? How about F.E.A.R.?

Halo 3 ended things. Until the secret 5 second legendary ending.

Infamous 2 finished a two-game story... til Second Son messed things up.

Umm... maybe Resistance 3, one of the best shooters of last-gen. Or Zone of the Enders 2, that seemed pretty final.

Final Fantasy XIII's trilogy tells a complete story. One can argue that it didn't need to be a series, and that the first game ends things well enough on its own, but they did a good job of extending the canon and then giving things a proper resolution, all things considered.

Gears of War 1-3 is a complete story, not that story is really what makes those games great, but it's still fun for what it is.

I think FEAR is pretty much done, so is Max Payne, I would guess. I'm pretty sure No One Lives Forever is done too.

Yeah, Resistance 3 was a pretty great shooter.

FEAR 3 pretty much wrapped that plot up, though it was never a good plot. Mass Effect 3 also wrapped up the Mass Effect story, though it didn't satisfy some. Gears of War 3 wrapped up Gears quite definitively but, again, it's not really a spectacular story.

I can't think of a serialized game series that tells one full, complete story arc and doesn't have games that try to continue the story or tell side stories. Xenosaga might.

I never really tuned into how many series don't end...ever. Kind of a bummer.

The legitimate chance/expectation for some type of ending has been one of the great changes with regard to American TV over the last 10 years or so - (especially basic and premium cable) - it isn't just a near given that a show will be run into the ground and then abruptly canceled (definitely their have been exceptions: MASH, etc). Shows like The Sopranos, The Wire, Rome (British show I believe, and only 2 seasons, but it got a real ending), Rescue Me, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, True Blood, 6 Feet Under, Dexter (although they milked it for all its worth), The Shield, Lost, Battlestar Galactica. All at least fairly well regarded shows - all with a planned finale. Even long form works are best with a beginning, a middle and an end. Perhaps its a shift to seeing television programming as at least partially art, not just a product with maximized profitability being the only goal. Maybe audiences are just more sophisticated and more demanding.

I would love to see the same phenomena happen with well regarded game series. Its why I quit WOW finally - I realized that there will never be an ending, at least not one that I would ever see. Metal Gear is awesome - but I would love to see real closure, the series deserves it, and it would free up Kojima to go full attention nuts on another project.

Deponia and Telltale's Sam and Max.

Fable, Halo, and Mass Effect are the ones that come to mind.

I really like long term, always evolving, franchises. I've always enjoyed epic scale books (Dark Tower, LOTR, and GoT as examples) and games always caught my eye as a kid when they seemingly expanded huge story lines. Being able to spill hours upon hours into many games, all around a central plot, with tons of content is incredibly satisfying. I always feel rewarded as the player not just because I finished the story and everything tied together but that I was privy too this amazing experience.

@eccentrix: Penny Arcade does wrap it all up, they transitioned developers partway through but never gave up on the story they were telling and gave it a proper finish.
Well, as proper as a Penny Arcade wrap up can be which is to say it was most definitely an ending.

I know the Silent Hill games as a series isn't wrapped up, but if you take the story that 1 introduced, then technically 3 finishes that story.

It is something interesting to think about though.
I think that people compare or relate the feeling of games far closer to movies then a T.V. show, by which I mean. When a movie has many many sequels then that usually means it entered into trashy slasher realm where it isn't taken seriously anymore, your Chuckys and Halloweens and what not so when a game gets to its 6th iteration or so it is usually met with the disdain of "It is just milking the franchise now." and thus many game series may be looked at in a better light if they had done the movie thing of basically just do a trilogy. Which I do understand.
However sometimes I like to view games as more of a t.v. series, 6 games? More comparable to 6 seasons of something, like Resident Evil. It is plainly obvious that they have no ending in sight, no story arc they are really truly following, they are just going form one game to the next, like a t.v. show that doesn't really have a plan to end goes from one season to the next. Which I'm kind of fine with, so long as *all* games don't do that, I'm kind of fine that we have some franchise that just wont end until people get bored of them.

The Mother (Earthbound if that helps some people know what I'm talking about) series is done, as far as the creator says I believe.
Arkham Knight is planned as the finale to the Arkham trillogy, we'll have to see if WB let's it end (probably not).
Professor Layton just ended I think, though they do have the one crossover story with him and Phoenix Wright coming out soonish.

What do you mean by "complete"?

There are countless series of games that tell a continued story. There are none-or-almost-none that tell a complete story from start to end and then finish. You can't do that, because you always have to be open to making another buck by keeping that dead horse around for one more beating.

Jak and Daxter. I hope that the rumours of Jak and Daxter coming back aren't true. It was a series that told a story, and that story is now done.

@branthog said:

By 'complete', I mean it has an ending. The main thread is resolved and everyone can go home. One complete story. The none-to-almost-nones of the world.

@beachthunder I'm glad to hear about Deponia, those always looked good and I think I probably own all of them on Steam. I was really excited to see The Journey Down: Chapter Two release recently; I was starting to doubt its existence. I hope that'll end up one we can add to the list.

@eccentrix: The Blackwell series is another one that just wrapped its' arc, if you like adventure games.

I haven't played part 5 but I've heard very good things.

The Deponia games are another, but I found those games hard to stomach given how awful Rufus is as a character.

Then I think the most recent Tex Murphy does this as well for that series.

And perhaps my favorite of this type the Quest for Glory games, which wrapped up everything in QfG V.

I think it's fairly common for adventure games to do this. Definitely something you don't often see in AAA games.

Infamous ended pretty well the arc for Cole Mcgrath.

Uncharted had done it pretty well, by the end of Uncharted 3, until Sony and Naughty Dog decided to make Uncharted 4.

Resident Evil is pretty much over and done with its main plot line. After Darkside Chronicles on there is no more zombies, no more Umbrella, and no more Racoon City. Just the BSAA with Leon, Chris and Jill, and Ada, fighting off random conspiracies that deal with "bio organic weapons".

Assassin's Creed finished also Desmond Miles's storyline by Assassin's Creed 3.

Castlevania also ended by Portrait of Ruin. After that came the reenvision Castlevania: Lords of Shadow.

Devil May Cry also ended by DMC IV, with the original Dante.

Dead Space pretty much ended the story of the Ishimura after Dead Space: Extraction.

@finaldasa: Did Fable really end? There is no conclusion for the story or is there?

NOLF done? Say it isn't so Monolith. I want Kate Archer back.

People have already mentioned most of the obvious choices in this thread but I'll this one out there:

The Modern Warfare series. Say what you like about it, it has finality to it.