Games you can't win (Spoilers within)

[Chessrook44]

So, have any of you found a game where no matter what you do, you lose?

No no, I'm not talking about games which are incredibly hard and you can never reach the end, nor something like Dwarf Fortress where "Losing is Fun" or such.... I mean games where even when you beat it, even when you "win" completing the game, you ultimately lose. You fail. Your main goal is defeated, you die at the end, and all your efforts are for naught.

Obvious spoilers, of course, but there's one or two games I've thought of.

Spoiler: Example

The main game that comes to mind is Nethergate: Resurrection, an indie game from Spiderweb Software that came out some time ago. You can play on either side of a war in a vale: The Celts (Who are trying to defeat the Romans and secure a powerful weapon for themselves to survive persecution.) or the Romans (Who are trying to stop the plans of the Celts, and subjugate them as they have every other barbaric tribe.). In the end, who succeeds in their plans? The Fae faction, who were somewhat allied with the Celts and against the Romans. In the end, they escape from the world, curse the Romans to never expand further, and leave the Celts with a weapon.... that the Roman party had destroyed. Thus, history proceeds as it is... The Celts may succeed slightly in that the Romans are eventually stopped, but the Romans are fully defeated. No matter what happens, there isn't really a happy ending.

Spoiler: Second example

Another game that comes to mind is one I haven't played, but seen LPs of: Outlast. It being a horror game, your goal is simple: Live, and escape. And what happens in the end? You're posessed by the monster, and gunned down in the facility by the military. In the end, you fail, you lose.

Anyone else know of any games that seem to end with this challenging idea?

 

[stormtrooper9091]

Call of Duty and Dragon Age I think. No matter what happens, you lose by simply playing that

other than that, Fallout 3 I suppose?

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I haven't played it but Slender seems like a lose-lose scenario.

EDIT: Oooh I have a good one! Ju-On: The Grudge, AKA "Haunted House Simulator" for the Wii.

Spoiler

Every chapter ends with the character you're controlling getting killed.

 

[Dalisclock]

Off the top of my head...

Spec Ops the Line arguably has no "Good ending".

Final Fantasy XIII-2

Spoiler

No matter what you do, Caius wins. Let him destablize the universe, time crashes. Kill him, time crashes. Try not to kill him, he kills himself and time crashes. Everything you did was for nothing

Also the fact you wasted hours of your life to get to that point, though if you beat XIII you're used to spending hours of your life

Spoiler

being railroaded into the Apocalypse

.

 

[Maximum Bert]

I have never played it but I think some of the Drakengard games have just you lose endings but in different ways. One I really liked was Shadow Hearts 2

Spoiler: very brief summary of story

You are hit with a weapon at the start that is slowly killing you and you are told there is no way to stop it but you go on a quest to find a way. In the end you find that your death is inevitable just like you were told and die

Love that game.

 

[FPLOON]

*thinks* I want to say Coruption of Champions... but...

Spoiler: It's possible...

It's possible to get one of the other "good" endings that has nothing to do with becoming a "Champion" of sorts...

Other than that, Sonic 06... *rimshot*

 

[StatusNil]

I'm going to be that guy again and say Mass Effect 3.

Unless you mod it, of course. Which you should.

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

The Long Dark. What do you mean win? You can only stave off your death by a few weeks at the most by ferociously fighting against nature.

 

[Mister K]

There may be other ones, but these are the ones I remember now:

1. Final Fantasy VI. Yes, by the end of the game you DO kill Keffka. But you know what? The world is still in the shits: people and animals are dying, the whole continents are burned to cinder and much, much more. The only thing is that there is still hope of rebuilding what was destroyed.

2. Dark Souls. You either create the world devoid of fire and warmth, or you simply delay the inevitable.

3. Soul Sacrifice. For those who don't know, the core idea of the game is you either saving creatures/people that were corrupted, or you absorb them. With the big bad, if you are a good guy you keep ressurecting him, hoping that he'll change his ways, but he doesn't and he kills you in the end, or you absorb him and soon he takes full control of your mind and body.

 

[Neverhoodian]

Halo: Reach. The best you can do is slow the Covenant long enough for key personnel to evacuate. You really feel the weight of the Covenant onslaught, as every minor victory is almost immediately followed by a catastrophic defeat. It ultimately culminates with the level "Lone Wolf:"

Spoiler

I had a sinking suspicion when the only objective was "survive," but a part of me held out hope. It was only when my shields dropped and the first cracks in the helmet appeared that I realized it was a "supposed to lose" scenario. Didn't stop me from taking as many of them with me as possible, though. The ground was littered with Elite corpses by the time I finally perished.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

Sorta-kinda 'Planescape: Torment":

Spoiler

No matter what you do, your character is still dead at the end. Except that dying is the point of the game, because your character is immortal, so that's good, because now you're re-united with Deionarra...unless you now love Annah, in which case it's bad. You also go to hell, which is good because your character must pay for his many sins, but bad because, well, you're in hell. Whatever, go play "Planescape Torment".

I guess now that the plot of 'X-Com 2' has been revealed, you could argue that you don't really 'win' in X-Com, since the canon plotline is that X-Com lost.

"Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm". As far as I'm concerned, you lose at the end because...

Spoiler

Sarah Kerrigan is still alive and in charge of the swarm, and Abathur isn't. I chalk that up as a giant loss.

The "Shadow Warrior" reboot:

Spoiler

Hoji dies at the end, and it's actually shockingly sad (especially considering he's just your wisecracking companion for most of the game). Also, the plot details for Shadow Warrior 2 seem to have established that Lo Wang killing the Demon Lords actually caused the earth realm and shadow realm to merge, thus causing even more destruction and making things worse.

 

[distortedreality]

Papers Please?

Don't think I've ever gotten an ending that I would consider as a "win".

 

[DefunctTheory]

Spoiler: Binding of Isaac

I'm fairly certain the 'final ending' is Isaac killing himself

Spoiler: Five Nights at Freddy's

If I remember correctly, you either die or get fired.

 

[Something Amyss]

I have never played it but I think some of the Drakengard games have just you lose endings but in different ways.

I've only played the first. I'm told 3 actually has one good ending.

The first sort of depends on perspective. There are actually a couple where arguably you win. Ending A is the best (interesting that, with the possible exception of E, they all get progressively "worse"), while ending C gives Caim something he wanted to begin with. It's a "lose" state for the world and for the player, but arguably a win for Caim, who actually has a smile on his face....

I mostly commented on this because it was sort of my first thought when I saw the thread. Wasn't sure what "can't win" entailed at that point, though.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

I'd say at least one Metal Gear Solid game.

Spoiler

Metal Gear Solid 3. Not only do you kill Boss but it turns out that her death was meaningless. One meaningless loss among many others in the game. Definitely the most depressing ending in the series.

Spec Ops The Line, which is obvious once you've finished it.

Metro 2033.

Spoiler

The ending most people came across, the one that is canon, where you nuke the Dark Beings. Doing so essentially delays rehabitation of the surface by generations, and it was all avoidable in the first place. There is a good ending but this is the most well-known and canonical ending, and its even regarded as being pretty bittersweet within 2033 itself.

Agree on all of the above and Dark Souls. Except maybe not for Metro 2033 since I honestly feel that the writing took a left turn on wacky avenue towards the end of the book and the game. Both were better when things were thick with ambiguity and it wasn't clear wether Artyom was crazy or not(the book moreso than the game).

Spec Ops The Line is still one of those games that haunts me to this day.

"You wanted to be something you're not, a hero"

 

[DoPo]

"Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm". As far as I'm concerned, you lose at the end because...

Spoiler

Sarah Kerrigan is still alive and in charge of the swarm, and Abathur isn't. I chalk that up as a giant loss.

Wait, what?

Spoiler

Seriously, when did that happen? I certainly can't remember this happening. And I first played through the SC2 campaign last week.