Thx for spoiling me Unreal 2 and The Last of Us. T__T

Fallout 3 managed it

I like mixed resolution and unhappy endings in story based games. In terms of emotion, they tend to go out with a bang instead of a whimper.

I like bad endings if they function well within the story. If they just end bad because the writers wanted it to end bad, then it's not so good.

The protagonist dying isnt "bad ending" in my opinion. Its simply the matter of how it is done. Fallout 3's ending felt just plain cheap. Walk to room fiddle with machine and *pöff*. Wheres the drama and atomic explosions? Proper choices for super skilled characters? and so on.

Unfortunately quite often game endings are the sort of "lets go eat hamburger" and then credits. its sad.

This is one of the reasons games like Morrowind/Oblivion are so appealing, IMHO. The "Main Quest" is just a set of quests. There isn't a typical growth in the size of mobs as you progress, forcing the devs to make each fight more ridiculous than the last. You just play as you like. Then, when you are done... you are done. You can end however you choose. (walk away after the quest ends... or go live up life as a retired adventurer enjoying all of your fame and riches).

One of the issues is that people work so hard to get things resolved, they never get to play out the spoils of their efforts. We just go from crisis to crisis (game to game). Open ended games solve this.

I've also mentioned Thief. When the game is more plot driven, they executed a finish that was very satisfying by letting you play out the final moments the same way you played throughout the whole game. Even though the "boss" was tougher than normal mobs... you approached him the same way you would expect.

the other issue I see is that some folks don't understand "unique". They see the praise from games that end on very diverse and unexpected ways and say, "we can do that too!!!!"... but the end result is riding on a subway in space :(

Can they get away with it? Sure. Is it good game design? no. Others do much better when they put forth good thought and execute a creative team with heart in the game. Fans remember the good endings ;)

Bad ending where people die is an easy way out makes it so you dont have to think to hard on the ending your dead the end is easier than making up a happy ending. Look at MAss Effect 3 endings as proof they could not make up a good ending for it.

ABSLOUTELY! For two reasons.

First, I always found it interesting that bad story (bad endings of course being a part of that) could possibly stand as a breaking point for some games. To me a good story and a great ending are just bonuses. If the game is fun who gives a shit who lives or dies or falls in love or whatever. It's not real life!

Second, endings can be so ambiguous; what is shit for one is gold for another. I'll never forger when I caught the opening midnight showing of "Revenge of the Sith" (yeah a I'm a dork) and some guy walking out complained about the ending bitching and moaning about how predictable it was.

WHAT!? Okay that has nothing to do with gaming but I think it goes to show we are dealing with a very subjective topic at best.

Holy shit, I got deprepped while typing that. This is my first post today! XD It's gone beyond stupid at this point.

No I didn't. I clearly said "no spoilers here" telling people NOT to discuss the ending.

Arguably, "This game has a bad ending" is a spoiler.

But I'm not blaming you; you click on a topic about the ending of games, you can expect to see some information about the ending of games.

Warning: Following the nature of this thread, there will be spoilers in my post.





Depends. If the bad ending is comprehensible and is well told, it may create more drama than a standard good ending. But if it is a 'screw the player and railroad him to a forced bad end', then it is just annoying or even infuriating.

For example: I have no problem with sacrificing my character for the greater good. That's not really a 'bad' ending. It's a dramatic, heroic ending. I also have no problems with a bad ending that originates from my decisions. If I made a wrong decision somewhere and have to bear the consequences - all the better. It increases the replay value to see where the other decisions lead.
But if all my (pseudo-)decisions lead to the same, totally undeserved bad end, it just feels as if the developers hate their players. And if the game additionally enforces the 'bad decision' that leads to the bad ending, it just gets worse. So with Divinity II. The character is guided by someone who he has no reason at all to trust. But the player doesn't get the choice not to trust that someone. That already is bad game design, to force the player to do something against better judgement. If you then punish the player for following that unavoidable, thin plot, you basically punish the player for playing your game at all. You don't even get a final, climactic confrontation with the big bad. He never shows up. The game just tells you "OK, you have won every battle. So obviously you lose. Screw you for playing our game." So for me Divinity II is an example of the worst game ending ever. The ending really made me regret having played the game at all (and especially regret having given money to the developers who dropped that crappy ending on their players).

Another example with almost as bad and ending is Prince of Persia (2008). You dedicate a lot of time to save the world and then, when you have defeated the big bad, the game forces you to destroy everything again and release him again if you want to see the ending. You don't have any choice, the game is linear and forces you in a direction hardly any player would voluntarily take. So the best possible ending for that game is NOT to play to the end, but to quit just after the final battle, before the character apparently completely looses his mind.

I like to play games where I care about the characters, makes it feel like it's more than 'just' entertainment.

I agree with this.

I prefer a bittersweat ending with a twist so afterwards you're still a bit annoyed of how it ended, yet happy for some parts and at the same time there are parts you can speculate what the consequences will be.

Knee-jerk answer : No. Player has put a lot of efforts in making his character win, so narratively stealing away his victory and sense of accomplishment would be very frustrating and unfair.

But in practice, it happens surprisingly often, with surprisingly awesome results. I will try to avoid spoilers. But a few games where you play a "bad guy" do end up with your demise, in a very satisfyingly moral way, a bit like the old hollywoodian noir movies that made you sympathise with gangsters and robbers, but end up teaching you that "crime doesn't pay, mkay" ? It's, in a way, part of the genre ("destiny catches up", etc), and part of the ending-with-a-bang. Especially if the game is gritty and all.

Some games play it for fun, which is cool if the plot hardly matters anyway. I remember a nice platformer with my character being squished by something irrelevant in the outro scene. This was in tone with the game, and amusingly brutal and short.

Some bad endings are still epic endings with a huge sense of accomplishment. It's bitter endings that satisfyingly close a cycle. I've seen this in RPGs, with well developped story and characters. Sometimes unavoidable, sometimes due to my very choices (and I wouldn't have chosen anything different). It helps if you are a bit ambivalent towards your character, and judge that he kinda deserves some punishment (because karma, see).

And then, of course, there are the cases where you hadn't realise you were the bad guy. But that's quite rare, isn't it.

So, yeah, I guess it depends on what kind of "bad ending" we are talking about. Totally immoral endings are very rare when the player plays a pure white knight, but when he doesn't, what does constitute a "bad ending" actually. Is the main character's point of view the only one that matters, and does the player dissociate his ?

All in all, I think that "bad endings" in games don't work very differently from movies. If they make a point, or strengthen the universe, they're okay. If they're random and capricious, they may feel like a scripted AI bitch move. Like the computer pouring its own coffee on McReady's legs when losing at chess...

OH TOTALLY! Don't get me wrong. I'm just puzzled by people who refuse to play a game only because the characters or the story or the ending is crap. No one loves a good story more than me, hell I write them, I just don't see how it should be or can be a games death nail.