Great game endings? (Spoilers abundant)

In one of the Bombcast deliberation podcasts, they mention how rare it is for a game ending to me done well. This led me to think of a few games that get it right.

• FEAR - the city blowing up, getting out of there on a helicopter, and Alma climbing in right before it cuts to black.
• Dead Space 2 - An ending that requires you to finish two games to full appreciate. The "typical horror ending" fake out is so good.
• Red Dead Redemption - a good ending tempered by the fact that I still didn't know how to fucking duel.
• Grim Fandango - An ending where the hero gets what he's been wanting for all his un-life, but still bittersweet and beautiful. Bye, Glottis!
• Portal 2 - Portaling THE MOON. Riding the elevator out to the fields, a turret serenade, you're in space.

I had a longer list at one point, but I've forgotten a lot of it now.

I feel like this list needs more older games, but maybe that's what you guys are for?

The Walking Dead is easy to say right now, time will tell if it holds up. Off the top of my head though... 

Metal Gear Solid 3 
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (Toss up whether this one or the third one is better)
Professor Layton and the Unwound Future 

I was thinking of The Walking Dead but didn't include it because it is so new. It is also just so goddamn bleak, which I admire, but also makes me sad. Fuck that game. Fuck it for being so good.

ForClementine.

Persona 3 FES has one of the best endings I've experienced in a video game along with one of the best boss battles.

The Walking Dead. I cried.

Dead Space 2, RDR & Portal 2 for the same reasons you said. But also:

• Batman: Akrham City - All them twists!
• Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
• inFAMOUS 1 & 2
• Max Payne 3
• Mass Effect 2
• Resistance 3
• Uncharted 2 & 3

@Claude said:

The Witcher still remains the best ending I've ever had the opportunity to play in a video game. It was like a dream leading to a climax that left me feeling fortunate to have been a Witcher called Geralt of Rivia the White Wolf.

Hah damn, I petered out on The Witcher somewhere in the last act. Just lost interest after 50+ hours of gameplay. Now I wish I had pushed through it!

@Claude said:

The Witcher still remains the best ending I've ever had the opportunity to play in a video game. It was like a dream leading to a climax that left me feeling fortunate to have been a Witcher called Geralt of Rivia the White Wolf.

Hah damn, I petered out on The Witcher somewhere in the last act. Just lost interest after 50+ hours of gameplay. Now I wish I had pushed through it!

@Claude said:

@bkbroiler said:

@Claude said:

The Witcher still remains the best ending I've ever had the opportunity to play in a video game. It was like a dream leading to a climax that left me feeling fortunate to have been a Witcher called Geralt of Rivia the White Wolf.

Hah damn, I petered out on The Witcher somewhere in the last act. Just lost interest after 50+ hours of gameplay. Now I wish I had pushed through it!

I played the shit out of that game. When I finished, I had clocked in around 85 hours.

I'm not even sure of my final time, it could have been more than 50 hours. I did every sidequest that I found, I think. I do that with a lot of long games, though. Get caught up in the side stuff and then lose interest in the main game.

Simple, it's Vice City.

@Claude said:

@bkbroiler said:

@Claude said:

The Witcher still remains the best ending I've ever had the opportunity to play in a video game. It was like a dream leading to a climax that left me feeling fortunate to have been a Witcher called Geralt of Rivia the White Wolf.

Hah damn, I petered out on The Witcher somewhere in the last act. Just lost interest after 50+ hours of gameplay. Now I wish I had pushed through it!

I played the shit out of that game. When I finished, I had clocked in around 85 hours.

I'm not even sure of my final time, it could have been more than 50 hours. I did every sidequest that I found, I think. I do that with a lot of long games, though. Get caught up in the side stuff and then lose interest in the main game.

@bkbroiler said:

@Claude said:

@bkbroiler said:

@Claude said:

The Witcher still remains the best ending I've ever had the opportunity to play in a video game. It was like a dream leading to a climax that left me feeling fortunate to have been a Witcher called Geralt of Rivia the White Wolf.

Hah damn, I petered out on The Witcher somewhere in the last act. Just lost interest after 50+ hours of gameplay. Now I wish I had pushed through it!

I played the shit out of that game. When I finished, I had clocked in around 85 hours.

I'm not even sure of my final time, it could have been more than 50 hours. I did every sidequest that I found, I think. I do that with a lot of long games, though. Get caught up in the side stuff and then lose interest in the main game.

How can you keep playing that game .... act 2 just wore me out that I havent contineud playing it (a rare thing for me as I usually play a game till I finish it)

Out of those Portal 2 and Red Dead Redemption are the ones who trully I felt satisfied with the endings ... I will confess I hate god damned friggin stupid clifhangers more than anything else ... just arrrggggg NO its not cool to leave things hanging if you are goin to finish a story FINISH IT IN ONE GO AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH >:(

@bkbroiler said:

@Claude said:

@bkbroiler said:

@Claude said:

The Witcher still remains the best ending I've ever had the opportunity to play in a video game. It was like a dream leading to a climax that left me feeling fortunate to have been a Witcher called Geralt of Rivia the White Wolf.

Hah damn, I petered out on The Witcher somewhere in the last act. Just lost interest after 50+ hours of gameplay. Now I wish I had pushed through it!

I played the shit out of that game. When I finished, I had clocked in around 85 hours.

I'm not even sure of my final time, it could have been more than 50 hours. I did every sidequest that I found, I think. I do that with a lot of long games, though. Get caught up in the side stuff and then lose interest in the main game.

How can you keep playing that game .... act 2 just wore me out that I havent contineud playing it (a rare thing for me as I usually play a game till I finish it)

Out of those Portal 2 and Red Dead Redemption are the ones who trully I felt satisfied with the endings ... I will confess I hate god damned friggin stupid clifhangers more than anything else ... just arrrggggg NO its not cool to leave things hanging if you are goin to finish a story FINISH IT IN ONE GO AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH >:(

@Claude: really? I thought it was pretty cool but not anything super special.

my list, off the top of my head;

Mother 3

Nier

Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne (TDE only)

Final Fantasy 13-2

all the ones I can think of that haven't been said already.

@Claude: now that I think about it, that ending in the witcher 1 WAS pretty cool, I was just so bored playing the game that I forgot how fuckin crazy it was.

Reminds me of the ending to Metro 2033 actually, both of them sort of weird sort of dream sequences (which I forgot to mention but was also pretty awesome)

AC3 , JK .

@Claude said:

The Witcher still remains the best ending I've ever had the opportunity to play in a video game. It was like a dream leading to a climax that left me feeling fortunate to have been a Witcher called Geralt of Rivia the White Wolf.

Agreed. The Witcher 1 began unbearably slow, but once it got to your senses, the game was fucking magic. The Witcher has to be one the best damned narratives in gaming.

MGS 3 and Red Dead Redemption. I still think about RDR 2 years after I beat it.

I loved the ending of Halo Reach, I also loved Dead Space 2's ending as well.

Metal Gear Solid 3

That Dead Space 2 was one of the most disappointing endings I've ever played.

If my favorite ending didn't come out in a game this year, it was probably Deadly Premonition, a Metal Gear Solid game, Paper Mario, or GTA: Vice City. Really loved the ending to Super Mario 64 and Braid, too.

Totally get arguments for Persona 3, Persona 4, Earthbound, and Final Fantasy X, too.

@Little_Socrates said:

That Dead Space 2 was one of the most disappointing endings I've ever played.

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

If Isaac had died, Dead Space 2 would've had one of the most profoundly affecting stories of the year. Instead, I hate franchises again.

If my favorite ending didn't come out in a game this year, it was probably Deadly Premonition, a Metal Gear Solid game, Paper Mario, or GTA: Vice City. Really loved the ending to Super Mario 64 and Braid, too.

Totally get arguments for Persona 3, Persona 4, Earthbound, and Final Fantasy X, too.

What about games this year?

Half-Life 2: Episode 2 Earthbound Red Dead Redemption Metal Gear Solid 3

I finished Persona 3 FES last week (The Journey, haven't played The Answer yet.) And I thought the ending was superbly done.

@FluxWaveZ said:

Persona 3 FES has one of the best endings I've experienced in a video game along with one of the best boss battles.

You mean the Journey right? Because that ending was really great, music, boss fight and later implications in P4A, it's awesome. Didn't finish the Answer but from what I read it seems like a bunch of contrived nonsense.

@deano546: I'm not sure you should bother with the answer. The story bits are only in the first 2 hours and near the end with a bunch of flashbacks you already knew about(they're implied in the journey) sprinkled in the 20-30 hour middle part. So the answer is mostly hours and hours of combat agains ennemies without weakness when you don't have S links to fuse leveled up personas. A real shore if you ask me.

Persona 3 FES has one of the best endings I've experienced in a video game along with one of the best boss battles.

999. It completely subverts everything you know about the story of the game.

Binary Domain, The World Ends With You, Final Fantasy X, Max Paynes, Sleeping Dogs, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, Crisis Core, P3/4, L.A Noire (although contrived), KOTORs, GTA Chinatown Wars, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Prince of Persia (2008), Manhunt, Mafia 2, Portal 2 and Kingdom of Paradise(just kidding that game's ending sucked ass).

MGS3, Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Portal 2, Uncharted 2, Dead Space 2, Batman Arkham City, Halo: Reach, COD: Black Ops (ironically liking this one, so ridiculous), Super Metroid, Mass Effect 2 (I saved my whole crew...the feeling I had after telling the Illusive Man to eff off...), Mass Effect 1, Assassins Creed 2, Assassins Creed 2: Brotherhood, Shadow of the Colossus, Halo: CE, MGS4, God of War, Ocarina of Time, Red Dead Redemption, Final Fantasy VI, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, and some I am probably forgetting.

No good memories are coming from most of the mentions here... my favorite ending is probably final fantasy 9, it was kind of cliche but so well done... dagger, now the queen seeing zidane after thinking he was dead and running towards him like an emotional schoolgirl. here it is:

Mass Effect 3.

Yeah That's right.

I haven't read any of the comments, I just came to say this is a pretty hard thread to want to participate in unless you've played 'all the games' then you're bound to come across a spoiler or two, why would any one risk that? We have spoiler tags for a reason so maybe mention the game first then talk about the ending in the spoiler tag? Then if someone hasn't played/finished that game they can skip over that game whilst still participating and talking about other games.

Most of the games mentioned have some narrative component but a dark horse pick for one of the most memorable endings I recently had was Eye of the Duck in Dyad. As a pure sensory experience I will remember it for a long time.

I played through the entire game in one sitting wearing a pair of headphones and sitting three feet from the television, when I got the the final stage my senses were fried. The sound and color just wash over and you enter some insane inter-dimensional portal. I can't think of another gaming experience like it. The closest description would be the end of 2001 or the drug scenes in Enter the Void.

If you're the type that doesn't mind spoilers, definitely check it out on You Tube.

Portal 2 was amazing and same for the end of RRD (sans the boring ranch missions that precede it) but the end of Dyad had a euphoric quality that I don't often experience in games.

Final Fantasy VIII - Loved the ending. Still by far my favorite game ending of all time.

Metal Gear Solid 3 - A very close 2nd

@RazielCuts said:

I haven't read any of the comments, I just came to say this is a pretty hard thread to want to participate in unless you've played 'all the games' then you're bound to come across a spoiler or two, why would any one risk that? We have spoiler tags for a reason so maybe mention the game first then talk about the ending in the spoiler tag? Then if someone hasn't played/finished that game they can skip over that game whilst still participating and talking about other games.

Hmmm. That's a good point I guess. Most of the stuff I named is old enough that I feel like people have already beaten it or don't care any more (I don't at least). But reading through topics that have spoiler tags every other paragraph really annoy me.