Name games with sad endings - Possibly spoilers

[Arbi Trax]

To the Moon was sad all the way through, with a sad/uplifting ending. It's a good experiece, and you should all play it, because I don't know anyone else who actually gave it a go.


It's one of the games that I point at when having the "Games as art" discussion with non-gamers.

Also, DAT SOUNDTRACK.

 

[V TheSystem V]

Red Dead Redemption is the obvious winner for this. Never in a computer game have I nearly cried at an ending.

An ending that does come kinda close is Dead Space. I mean, Isaac has been trying to find his girlfriend, finds her about halfway through the game, and then it turns out that it's all an illusion and she's been dead the entire time. Talk about depressing!

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

Assassin's Creed Revelations.
While the ending wasn't that sad, the way both Altair and Ezio, you know...

Spoiler

die...

I'll admit, manly tears were shed for both of them.

Ezio doesn't actually

Spoiler

die

in Revelations. But yeah, with Altair it was quite sad. Subject 16's 'deletion' actually really got to me. It was weird, ever since AC2 he'd spend half the time trying to help you, the other half he seemed to be completely twisted and just trying to screw with your head, so it was never quite clear what he would do. But then his final act before his consciousness is wiped is to save your life, and the last you see of him he is greeting his 'death' with open arms. He's played his part and now he just wants his miserable ordeal to be over.

God I wish he'd been the protagonist instead of Desmond. 1000x the personality and complexity.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

Halo: Reach.

I hold this up as an example of how to do a sad ending right because, unlike ME3, despite the sadness you still have a sense of accomplishment. You succeed in the mission. You get Cortana to the Pillar of Autumn and allow the ship to escape Reach. Thus preserving the only chance humanity has for survival against the Covenant. You're arguably just as crucial to the events that you (as the player) know will follow as The Master Chief is. You're a hero, no question.

Then when it hits you, despite how hard you tried and how good you were, that you've just been left behind, alone on a burning world with you're entire squad dead. There's no plan, no options and no help. There's nothing left to do except just see how many more of the genocidal bastards you can take with you before the end; and unlike a lot of other games would have done, or even previous Halo games, you actually get to play it, rather than just watch an extended cinematic as if the game thinks you'll cramp its style and not be quite heroic enough.

Also Red Dead Redemption. Because *see above post* basically.

I thought Red Dead Redemption was more depressing than Reach. I knew everyone died before I even played Reach.I didn't see it coming in RDR, or at least I wasn't expecting the "twist".

Red Dead Redemption was certainly more of a shock, and it was done very well indeed. However, I think the inevitability of Reach's ending also adds another layer of tragedy. You know what will happen, but it's how it happens, seeing how what you did shaped everything that followed, and seeing how close you got to being rescued (if only that one Phantom hadn't shown up at the last minute you would have been on the Autumn. God Dammit!). Also (again) what made it particularly poignant for me is that although your death was inevitable, it wasn't pointless. If you hadn't been there, the war would have been lost at Reach.

 

[TWEWYFan]

Dragon Age Origins All the endings are bittersweet,

Spoiler

but I thought the ending where your character sacrifices themselves was particularly sad, especially your funeral and the subsequent epilogue

I suppose Dragon Age 2 was also a bit sad, but that game had bigger problems.

 

[JamesStone]

ME3 indocrination theory ending that some guy created. When Shepard chooses the control ending, he is indocrinated, and tries to resist Harbinger. When he is near the console, to reprogram the crucible to send a shockwave to all organic forces, Shepard manages to find the strengh to resist. At his final moments, we are forced to put the gun in his head and pull the trigger, making Harbinger stunned, with the fleets taking the chance to destroy him. At his final moments,before killing himself, Shepard manages to send the activation code to the Normandy. Long story short, Reapers defeated.

We then see Shepard's funeral, as every surviving squad member of every game makes their speech, finishing in the love interest, that drops a tear as she/he says "May he always be remembered. Shepard, hero, fighter, savior". If the player doesn't have enough war funds, the geth are hard reset too (in this guys' story, the crucible uses the Catalyst, that is, the Citadel connection to the mass Relays, to send a virus that forces the hard reset of all AI's, deleting every program code and hard reseting them. With enough war funds, the scientists discover a hint of Reaper code that allows them to make the Reapers overload, but to keep the AI's intact), and so is EDI. There is a cutscene when Joker screams at EDI, begging for her to wake up, but she doesn't respond. Joker hugs her "dead" body and cries.

For everyone asking, this is not a video, just a text wall of someone sending suggestions to Bioware for the ending DLC.
Ironically, he made a better job than Bioware did with the ME3 endings.

 

[WhiteandNeardy99]

I'd have to say Silent Hill 2 effected me the most out of the games I can think of, as others have mentioned Red Dead Redemption isn't the most pleasant of endings.

 

[Lt._nefarious]

SH2 has a pretty grim ending but I thought Halo 3 had the sadder ending when (SPOILER ALERT) you see the numbers "117" scratched into a memorial.

 

[Ambient]

The good ending in Infamous 2.
The 'patron saint' thing and the music in the end just broke me.

 

[Chairman Miaow]

Bastion is the only game that actually made me cry.

Spoiler

No matter which ending you pick, you can't win. You either basically reset the world, and everybody suffers and dies again. or you destroy the only chance to fix the calamity and live in the apocolypse. And Zulf's death? :'(

 

[ThePenguinKnight]

Persona 4

Spoiler

When you get on the train, and know all of your friends will soon be dead.

Rule Of Rose
Every Silent Hill
The Darkness

 

[Ranthus]

Metal Gear Solid 3.
Metal Gear Solid 4 (though, ah...that one lifted itself up a little).
Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker.
(In order from saddest to...less sad)

These are all that stand out to me

 

[TheGreatAndPowerfulZOG]

I think people have mentioned all the games that came to my mind immediately. Red Dead Redemption, Darkness, Metal Gear Solid 3... The Darkness was the most brutal of all, though. Christ. That ending put me in a very weird place for a day or two.

 

[Dawns Gate]

Medal of Honour (2010) After all that happened teamed up with that quote, that gets me every time.

 

[ultramarine486]

While I kinda feel like as a gamer I'm rather jaded towards sad endings but one sticks out in my mind for making me feel something.

Fallout New Vegas: Dead Money

You spend the entire game wandering around a city that can be politely described as a death-trap. Working with three people who by all rights are likely to stab you in the back as soon as save you from the previous inhabitants. All while wearing an explosive collar that is temperamental at best. When you finally get though you help them cope with their issues, fight though a small army, work together to bust into a vault, becoming fire forged friends in the process. In the end however you all go your separate ways, never to see each other again.

Leaving the death-trap city I couldn't help but feel sad about that despite how difficult and frustrating the entire affair was.

 

[ThePenguinKnight]

Persona 4

Spoiler

When you get on the train, and know all of your friends will soon be dead.

You, uh... DO realize there's a TRUE ending, right?

I do, that's why I'm specifying that particular ending by explaining it. Otherwise I would have just said, "The ending to Persona 4".