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It didn't have to end like this.

Flippy_DFlippy_D Digital ConquistadorLondonRegistered User regular
edited January 2012 in Games and Technology
Hello.

Despite now being a multibillion galactic credits industry, many games still struggle to actually produce a narrative worth a damn. This still tends to fall mainly within the purview of indie titles such as LIMBO (which you should have bought for £1.76 in the Steam sale, okay?). The trend seems to be slowly inching toward a more thoughtful denoument, but I've personally found that endings are still often lacklustre, frequently mistaking 'cinematic' for 'good' - and, more crucially, missing brilliant ways in which to satisfyingly address larger themes in the game.

This is what this thread is about. Let's examine some game endings, figure out what could have made them better and why, and discuss how the extant offerings disappoint. There are two recent games in particular that I think could have done their endings so much better than they did: Deus Ex HR, and CODMW3. I want to look at the second of these.

How it ended:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNku_cbJJkw

How it should have ended:
Broadly the same, but with one significant difference. The Modern Warfare series has become progressively sillier through its sequels, yet - unlike Treyarch's embarrassingly inept efforts - the main characters have retained enough resonance to mean they still matter to us. Making Soap an 'external' character rather than keeping us in his shoes allowed us to observe his relationship with Price as an extrusion of the one that many gamers had already formulated playing as Soap in the first game, whilst freeing up the scriptwriters to add some direction.

Thus, when Soap dies two-thirds of the way through MW3, we lose one of the main emotional pillars of the game. A decent proportion of that emotion is rechannelled into revenge, but some of it is lost where it should have transferred to Price. Hence why the castle level feels so lightweight. That's in the execution. Either way, Soap joins the not insignificant ranks of the MW dead, and indeed forms the bulk of its emotional weight. The deaths of the US marines, and the last-minute death of Yuri act as the capstone for this death toll. Just Price and Nicolai are left, and it is only Price who really commands the player's attention.

In short, you have a situation where there is only one character left alive who the player really cares about, and a litany of dead that is more dispiriting than anything else. Everyone else has died. That's why, when Price lights his cigar as Makarov swings silently in the hall, the victory feels more pyhrric than meaningful.

So this would be my change to that scene: when it comes to lighting the cigar, the player resumes control. They press X to use the lighter. Price flicks his thumb. It sparks, but doesn't light. They press X again. Still no light. So they try again, and then again. The player keeps trying, in vain, to use the lighter as the screen fades to black.

Bleak? Perhaps. But the last scene is not one of victory. There's no triumph to be had, just some relief that Makarov is finished, and reflection on the weight of the dead. Price's cigar-lighting is too Hollywood for me. Too action-hero. I believe that allowing the player to take control, and actively denying them satisfaction, would have reflected the underlying themes of the game with far more accuracy.


So, that's my ending. What about yours?

p8fnsZD.png
Flippy_D on
«1345

Posts

  • EshEsh Tending bar. FFXIV. Motorcycles. Portland, ORRegistered User regular
    You might want to spoiler the spoilers even though it's in the title since there are going to be multiple games discussed. It's easy to accidentally glance at something.

  • DraygoDraygo Registered User regular
    So, whats the point of pressing x? Can you not get the same effect of the main character attempting to light without annoying the consumer?

    I hate it when a game gives me something to do, but that something is meaningless and has no real choice to it. If there is no choice, skip the user input. With your inserting of pressing X, what if the user does not press X? Is there any meaning to that? Will that show the user something different? Will the game simply wait for the user to press X?

    One thing you can do is something like valve did in its cutscenes. Let the player look around freely but not move, and do not prompt the user to do anything, but let the user press x to attempt to light the cigar if they want (with no prompt, the user will discover that x makes me attempt to light, cool). That way the user does not have to input anything, or do anything as you play out your cutscene, but if the user wishes to they may change their perspective or experience.

  • Flippy_DFlippy_D Digital Conquistador LondonRegistered User regular
    edited January 2012
    Esh wrote:
    You might want to spoiler the spoilers even though it's in the title since there are going to be multiple games discussed. It's easy to accidentally glance at something.

    Fair enough.

    @Draygo, the point of making the player do it is that it does serve a purpose. The player would be expecting the action to work. Having it not work makes them question the act, and what it might signify. I'm actually not a big fan of QTE, but they can definitely be used in a way that enhances narrative play.

    Flippy_D on
    p8fnsZD.png
  • AkilaeAkilae Registered User regular
    edited January 2012
    I'll have to admit, the moment I saw the QTE idea, this is what came to mind:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WY9NO4GQJRk

    Akilae on
  • ShutdownShutdown Registered User regular
    Metroid Fusion is one I've had a thought about for years:
    I would have liked it to be that you were playing the slowly-evolving clone and the uber-Samus wandering around the station is the real Samus. All along it would be found out you're just a tool for whatever group you're taking orders from and the end is trying to get out of the area and exist on your own.

    Saints Row 3:
    You can kinda do it as it is, but I would have like if the final mission was structured in a way that you make the decision to save your friends, and the game ends on such a candy-sweet moment before it all fades away and the Boss is back at that decision saying "That's too convenient, it didn't happen like that" and you go after Killbane. That ending has such a downer in it, it made sense to me.

    Dragon Age 2:
    Nothing specific, anything to make the final sprints of that game be easier to take. One character just ups and drops a genocide, rebel leader arguing that all mages aren't hellspawn just changes into a hellspawn. Great threads in that game, just couldn't pull them together in the end (for me at least).

  • Local H JayLocal H Jay Registered User regular
    BF3 ending: same, but with GUNS and VEHICLES, and NO QTEs
    i'm pretty sick of every game throwing them in to make it seem intense

  • Hexmage-PAHexmage-PA Registered User regular
    edited January 2012
    Shutdown wrote:
    Saints Row 3:
    You can kinda do it as it is, but I would have like if the final mission was structured in a way that you make the decision to save your friends, and the game ends on such a candy-sweet moment before it all fades away and the Boss is back at that decision saying "That's too convenient, it didn't happen like that" and you go after Killbane. That ending has such a downer in it, it made sense to me.

    Someone on Something Awful suggested an ending where you choose one of the choices, but later the Boss decides he/she doesn't have to make a choice and does both of them.

    Alternatively, you get some of your homies to do the choice you didn't choose because YOU'RE THE BOSS OF A GODDAMN GANG.

    Once that's done, the ending is of the Boss executing every Saint whose phone was busy when you called on them.

    Hexmage-PA on
  • mere_immortalmere_immortal So tasty!Registered User regular
    RAGE.

    By which I mean it could have had an ending rather than just cutting to credits.

    Steam: mere_immortal - PSN: mere_immortal - XBL: lego pencil - Wii U: mimmortal - 3DS: 1521-7234-1642 - Bordgamegeek: mere_immortal
  • Hexmage-PAHexmage-PA Registered User regular
    edited January 2012
    Space Station: Silicon Valley

    EVO (and the player) get pissed of that this awesome game doesn't have any kind of ending and decides to make one by shooting the Space Station back into space, disappearing for another 1000 years, and comes back with an army of hyper-evolved animal robots to take over the Earth.

    Hexmage-PA on
  • KarlKarl Registered User regular
    RAGE.

    By which I mean it could have had an ending rather than just cutting to credits.

    This. A MILLION TIMES THIS.

    Also the ending section
    Was so fucking easy. Oh noes, mutant cyborgs. Bitch I have a fully modded shotgun and 100 pop rocket shells. Lets see who comes out on top.

  • Two Headed BoyTwo Headed Boy Registered User regular
    edited January 2012
    Bioshock.

    What happened:
    An absurd boss battle in which you defeat Fontaine and save the day. He doesn't die when you complete the battle, but rather is attacked by Little Sisters who drain all of the Adam out of him. The worst part occurs after the fight, where you either...
    A. Return to the surface with the little sisters, and live out the rest of your days surrounded by them, ultimately looking up at them all from your death bed.
    B. Send all of the splicers to the surface in bathyspheres (???) so they take over the world or something.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3nBbo-uyZo

    What should have happened:
    Your grotesque transformation into a Big Daddy should have mattered. Knowing you could never be human again, the last level should have involved buying time for Tenenbaum and the Little Sisters to escape to the surface. The final battle should not have required beating Fontaine directly, but should have rather involved you demolishing the structural foundation of Rapture, bringing the city down around you and Fontaine in a final sacrifice (or redemption, should you have harvested the Little Sisters throughout). This ending would have had a more singular conclusion to the game and the story of Rapture, and also would have prevented Bioshock 2 from ever occurring. Win-win.

    Ryan built Rapture, and Jack (his genetic son) destroyed it. It's poetic, really.

    Two Headed Boy on
    4hNKbHH.png
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  • ShutdownShutdown Registered User regular
    Bioshock.

    What happened:
    An absurd boss battle in which you defeat Fontaine and save the day. He doesn't die when you complete the battle, but rather is attacked by Little Sisters who drain all of the Adam out of him. The worst part occurs after the fight, where you either...
    A. Return to the surface with the little sisters, and live out the rest of your days surrounded by them, ultimately looking up at them all from your death bed.
    B. Send all of the splicers to the surface in bathyspheres (???) so they take over the world or something.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3nBbo-uyZo

    What should have happened:
    Your grotesque transformation into a Big Daddy should have mattered. Knowing you could never be human again, the last level should have involved buying time for Tenenbaum and the Little Sisters to escape to the surface. The final battle should not have required beating Fontaine directly, but should have rather involved you demolishing the structural foundation of Rapture, bringing the city down around you and Fontaine in a final sacrifice (or redemption, should you have harvested the Little Sisters throughout). This ending would have had a more singular conclusion to the game and the story of Rapture, and also would have prevented Bioshock 2 from ever occurring. Win-win.

    Ryan built Rapture, and Jack (his genetic son) destroyed it. It's poetic, really.

    That's great. Even though I was happy enough with Bio1's ending, I'd definitely agree that it would have been fitting for Bio 2.

  • LarsLars Registered User regular
    I actually liked Bioshock 2's ending more than Bioshock 1's.
    Mainly because Bioshock 1 had a rather solid divide of you either being a well-loved Saint or Maniacal Psychopath bent on World Domination with no real middle ground. Also the aforementioned bit about your transformation into a Big Daddy not mattering at all.

    Bioshock 2, however, the good and bad endings are not what your character does, but what another character who looked to you as a father chooses to do with her life based on what she took from watching you.

    In the first game my reaction to the bad ending was "Geez, you harvest one Little Sister and suddenly you're Ocean Hitler."
    For the second game it was "Shit, I should have been a better Dad and set a better example for her."

    Unfortunately the rest of Bioshock 2's story isn't as good as there are lots of missed opportunities, and the father/daughter connection really isn't played up as much as it should have been.

  • MalReynoldsMalReynolds The Hunter S Thompson of incredibly mild medicines Registered User regular
    edited January 2012
    Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

    What we got:
    In a bizarre 11th hour turn, Gabriel fights Satan of all people, wins, and is left to wander the Earth while his love ascends to heaven. We're then treated to a flash forward where Gabriel is revealed in the second least shocking twist of the game - the first being that the character voiced by Patrick Stewart, named Zobek (I guess it's a little more subtle than Moustachio LeTwirler, but not by much) - turns out to be Dracula. And instead of using that as a jump off point for an interquel, there's two crappy DLCs that show Gabriel going to some kind of dark world, defeating the MOST EVIL SPIRIT EVER by absorbing the power of darkness, and having that transform him into Dracula.

    What should have happened:
    It's revealed at several points throughout the game that the Lords of Shadow are really the dark essences of the Brotherhood of Light left behind when the BoL ascended to heaven. I'd still have the final fight as Satan, because shit, why not? But instead of Gabriel having to mope around Earth for the rest of ever, he's given the opportunity to ascend to heaven, just as the members of the Brotherhood of Light did before him, and he's faced with a choice - either go upstairs and leave a dark shell Gabriel behind, which would naturally become Dracula, or stay on Earth. After contemplating everything, and seeing his beloved - whose soul has been trapped in Purgatory the entire game - get to head to the second floor, he decides to join her. Bittersweet ending, but a nice payoff.

    MalReynolds on
    "A new take on the epic fantasy genre... Darkly comic, relatable characters... twisted storyline."
    "Readers who prefer tension and romance, Maledictions: The Offering, delivers... As serious YA fiction, I’ll give it five stars out of five. As a novel? Four and a half." - Liz Ellor
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  • MalReynoldsMalReynolds The Hunter S Thompson of incredibly mild medicines Registered User regular
    edited January 2012
    OH, ANOTHER!

    The Bionic Commando PS3/Xbox Retail Game Thing

    What we got:
    In the worst twist in gaming history, Nathan Spencer's missing wife is somehow his bionic arm, giving the line, 'Nathan, I'll always be by your side,' a whole new meaning, but not in a 'Fight Club' way. In a, 'I was drunk and I woke up and that girl next to me has a glass eye, no wait, shit, she has two glass eyes, what the fuck, what the fuck, this is so stupid, how did this even happen, I mean, okay, well, I know what I look like so I guess it makes some sense, but how did I not notice those glass eyes, man, this invalidates the entire evening,' way. The rest of the plot doesn't matter. Nathan Spencer's wife is his arm.

    What should have happened:
    Any-fucking-thing but that.

    MalReynolds on
    "A new take on the epic fantasy genre... Darkly comic, relatable characters... twisted storyline."
    "Readers who prefer tension and romance, Maledictions: The Offering, delivers... As serious YA fiction, I’ll give it five stars out of five. As a novel? Four and a half." - Liz Ellor
    My new novel: Maledictions: The Offering. Now in Paperback!
  • zerg rushzerg rush Registered User regular
    Akilae wrote:
    I'll have to admit, the moment I saw the QTE idea, this is what came to mind:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gWz46t50rU&annotation_id=annotation_620801&feature=iv

    Oh god, that failed version had me rolling on the floor.

  • Eat it You Nasty Pig.Eat it You Nasty Pig. tell homeland security 'we are the bomb'Registered User regular
    that is amazing

    NREqxl5.jpg
    it was the smallest on the list but
    Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
  • Raiden333Raiden333 Registered User regular
    Final Fantasy 8
    would have been a lot deeper if Rinoa = Ultimicia was actually canon

    There was a steam sig here. It's gone now.
  • Eat it You Nasty Pig.Eat it You Nasty Pig. tell homeland security 'we are the bomb'Registered User regular
    I was thinking about posting a big writeup of FF8. Then it was like, fuck, where would I even start?

    I agree with you though, that is my favorite theory about what the shit the plot means.

    NREqxl5.jpg
    it was the smallest on the list but
    Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
  • MechMantisMechMantis Registered User regular
    I was thinking about posting a big writeup of FF8. Then it was like, fuck, where would I even start?

    I agree with you though, that is my favorite theory about what the shit the plot means.

    By hiring writers. To actually write something not terrible.

    I'd suggest the same thing for Other M, for instance.

    As for endings that could have been improved via QTEs, Skyward Sword
    You removed the Goddess Sword by your own hand. You should have replaced the Master Sword by your own hand, damnit.

  • LBD_NytetraynLBD_Nytetrayn TorontoRegistered User regular
    The ending to Mega Man 7 in Mega Man Anniversary Collection should have been like the ending to the original Mega Man 7.

    qjWUWdm.gif1edr1cF.gifJZuC7sH.png
    Like Mega Man Legends? Then check out my story, Legends of the Halcyon Era - An Adventure in the World of Mega Man Legends on TMMN and AO3!
  • DrunkMcDrunkMc Registered User regular
    @MalReynolds and @Two Headed Boy

    I like your endings for Castlevania and Bioshock respectively infinitely better then what was in the game. Nice!

  • gjaustingjaustin Registered User regular
    Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

    What we got:
    In a bizarre 11th hour turn, Gabriel fights Satan of all people, wins, and is left to wander the Earth while his love ascends to heaven. We're then treated to a flash forward where Gabriel is revealed in the second least shocking twist of the game - the first being that the character voiced by Patrick Stewart, named Zobek (I guess it's a little more subtle than Moustachio LeTwirler, but not by much) - turns out to be Dracula. And instead of using that as a jump off point for an interquel, there's two crappy DLCs that show Gabriel going to some kind of dark world, defeating the MOST EVIL SPIRIT EVER by absorbing the power of darkness, and having that transform him into Dracula.

    What should have happened:
    It's revealed at several points throughout the game that the Lords of Shadow are really the dark essences of the Brotherhood of Light left behind when the BoL ascended to heaven. I'd still have the final fight as Satan, because shit, why not? But instead of Gabriel having to mope around Earth for the rest of ever, he's given the opportunity to ascend to heaven, just as the members of the Brotherhood of Light did before him, and he's faced with a choice - either go upstairs and leave a dark shell Gabriel behind, which would naturally become Dracula, or stay on Earth. After contemplating everything, and seeing his beloved - whose soul has been trapped in Purgatory the entire game - get to head to the second floor, he decides to join her. Bittersweet ending, but a nice payoff.

    YES!

    This is what I was expecting the entire game.

  • rRootagearRootagea MadisonRegistered User regular
    In short stories, one way to get a good ending is to set up two possible endings, then resolve the story through a third way that should make sense in retrospect.
    Example is pacifist holds bad guy at gunpoint, decides to pull the trigger, but the safety's on and the bad guy runs away.

  • Flippy_DFlippy_D Digital Conquistador LondonRegistered User regular
    One of the best suggested endings for Bioshock that I heard was right here on PA:
    Before finishing Fontaine, you use DNA from his blood to program him into the nearby vita-chamber. Then you bring down the hall, if not Rapture in its entirity. Fontaine is then left there, doomed to eternally respawn, drown, and die, over and over again, forever, a twisted mirror image of the immortality he sought.

    p8fnsZD.png
  • gjaustingjaustin Registered User regular
    Flippy_D wrote:
    One of the best suggested endings for Bioshock that I heard was right here on PA:
    Before finishing Fontaine, you use DNA from his blood to program him into the nearby vita-chamber. Then you bring down the hall, if not Rapture in its entirity. Fontaine is then left there, doomed to eternally respawn, drown, and die, over and over again, forever, a twisted mirror image of the immortality he sought.

    That's the evil ending, right?

    I happen to be a fan of the existing good ending, but agree that the evil ending was a bit much.

  • Flippy_DFlippy_D Digital Conquistador LondonRegistered User regular
    edited January 2012
    That's the made-up ending.

    Flippy_D on
    p8fnsZD.png
  • Two Headed BoyTwo Headed Boy Registered User regular
    Flippy_D wrote:
    One of the best suggested endings for Bioshock that I heard was right here on PA:
    Before finishing Fontaine, you use DNA from his blood to program him into the nearby vita-chamber. Then you bring down the hall, if not Rapture in its entirity. Fontaine is then left there, doomed to eternally respawn, drown, and die, over and over again, forever, a twisted mirror image of the immortality he sought.

    I was proud of my stupid little ending, but this is pretty fuckin' good.

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  • gjaustingjaustin Registered User regular
    Flippy_D wrote:
    That's the made-up ending.

    Well, yeah. I meant that was proposed as the evil ending, right?

    Not a general ending, because I can't get behind that as a "good" ending.

  • Flippy_DFlippy_D Digital Conquistador LondonRegistered User regular
    Ohhhhh right yes.

    p8fnsZD.png
  • drunkenpandarendrunkenpandaren Slapping all the goblin ham In the top laneRegistered User regular
    gjaustin wrote:
    Flippy_D wrote:
    That's the made-up ending.

    Well, yeah. I meant that was proposed as the evil ending, right?

    Not a general ending, because I can't get behind that as a "good" ending.

    It sounds more like that, "I'm going to be the biggest dick in the universe" ending, then just evil. Mostly because there's probably good guys out there who would totally do that.

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  • Flippy_DFlippy_D Digital Conquistador LondonRegistered User regular
    Thread now has much better title.

    p8fnsZD.png
  • Professor SnugglesworthProfessor Snugglesworth Registered User regular
    Final Fantasy VII:

    Just add this in: http://thelifestream.net/ffvii-advent-children-complete/3820/on-the-way-to-a-smile-case-of-tifa-revised-translation/

    If they had ended the original game like this, I wouldn't have demanded anything else from the Compilation.

    That short story pretty much has everything I wanted the original game to end on.

  • KadokenKadoken Giving Ends to my Friends and it Feels Stupendous Registered User regular
    Why did anyone give a shit when Ghost died? He was pretty bland besides "I've got a skeleton mask man I'm awesome"?

  • Flippy_DFlippy_D Digital Conquistador LondonRegistered User regular
    Because he was very obviously channelling
    Gaz from the first game, right down to having the same voice actor.

    p8fnsZD.png
  • BullioBullio Registered User regular
    edited January 2012
    Red Dead Redemption
    Should have ended with John's final shootout at the barn. From a gameplay perspective I understand why it ended with Jack getting revenge; you can't free roam with a dead character. But that would have been a fantastic ending to the game, and one of the best endings to a western ever. Unforgiven's ending struck me because it took everything about the "good guy defeats the bad guy in a shootout" ending, which Eastwood played no small part in cementing into pop culture, and twisted it all around. RDR could have taken that a bit further, but opted for a more traditional ending.

    Bullio on
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  • maximumzeromaximumzero I...wait, what? New Orleans, LARegistered User regular
    Man, I really need to play Bioshock one of these days.

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  • TychoCelchuuuTychoCelchuuu PIGEON Registered User regular
    Flippy_D wrote:
    One of the best suggested endings for Bioshock that I heard was right here on PA:
    Before finishing Fontaine, you use DNA from his blood to program him into the nearby vita-chamber. Then you bring down the hall, if not Rapture in its entirity. Fontaine is then left there, doomed to eternally respawn, drown, and die, over and over again, forever, a twisted mirror image of the immortality he sought.
    It's not a PA original though.

    I had lots of issues with Bioshock's ending, such that anything else would've been better.
    The whole theme of the game is about free choice and free will, culminating in the "a man chooses, a slave obeys" scene, which is one of the best in videogame history. So right after delivering an amazing critique of videogame storytelling that railroads the player and treats them as a muppet whose life is only to follow the objectives, the game is going to open up and let me make choices, right? It will let me break free and exercise my newly gained humanity, having broken free of the conditioning thanks to Tenenbaum, and map out my own future, yes? NO JUST KIDDING IT TURNS OUT YOU ARE IMMEDIATELY GOING TO FOLLOW ORDERS AGAIN AND IN FACT YOU WILL TURN YOURSELF INTO A BIG DADDY. But that doesn't matter because turning yourself into a Big Daddy apparently only messes up your voicebox and nothing else. Whatever.

    Anything that didn't fly in the face of that amazing climax with Andrew Ryan would be better. I don't even care about the specifics, because Bioshock up until that point was amazing and the ending could be sort of lackluster and it would still be great. I just want something that didn't make the game regress.

    An easy one that Flippy mentioned in the OP is Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
    How it ended:
    Adam Jensen fights through the aug-zombies that have infested the Global Warming Reversal Hole, shuts down the filters for some reason by shooting the poor people who have been slaved to it, shoots Asian lady because fuck her, and chooses from a tastefully arranged platter of buttons that decide the fate of the world except they don't because it's a prequel.
    How it should have ended:
    More chances to use my awesome guns would have been nice. Shooting zombies isn't fun and I didn't even shoot them because they were innocent. Aside from that, though, the big problem is of course the silly three buttons. This is one area that they could have just lifted from the original Deus Ex. Run all over the facility and accomplish specific objectives if you want an ending! It makes it feel more climactic if you have to work for it.

    Another one that's been on my mind for a while is Dark Messiah of Might and Magic.
    How it ended:
    Christ, I don't know. Ridiculous ghost dragon boss, then depending on whether you were good or bad, sort of, you either use the dragon skull to make Sauron disappear for a while but he vows revenge, or you use the skull to set him free and he says some stuff about being in charge.
    How it should have ended:
    The entire game story up until the ending cycles between uninteresting and incoherent, so really they have a blank slate at this point in the game. The only thing anyone is likely to care about is which lady has survived up until now: good lady or evil demon lady. You're technically Sauron's son, good lady hates Sauron, and it's a little unclear as to whether evil lady cares more about you or Sauron. So what they could've done is give you some choices you care about and make it clear what those choices are before you do the voodoo with the skull and see the ending cutscene. It's also unclear as to whether locking Sauron away is actually going to kill everyone in the city. This gives us the future of the world, the future of everyone in the city, the future of Sauron, the future of the main character, and the future of whatever lady is still alive, all of which can come into conflict, be changed by your actions, etc. The game does nothing with most of these, but all it takes is for the writers to decide to bring the variables into play and suddenly you've got actual choices that you could care about. Like, maybe good lady doesn't want to destroy the city to lock Sauron away, but the only other way to do it is to sacrifice yourself, or something. Really this game could've used any sort of ending that engaged the player. As it stands I could hardly understand what I was doing or why aside from "kill evil man."

    Oh, and a pipe dream of mine, Republic Commando.
    How it ended:
    After a hard fought final mission, you lose contact with Sev, one of your squadmates, and reluctantly pull out to keep fighting the war or whatever.
    How it should've ended:
    You get a transmission from Sev, the squad decides to go in and save him, and that's the first mission of the sequel. I WANT A SEQUEL.

    Okay one more, Planescape: Torment.
    How it ended:
    I'm just kidding, this game is perfect.
    How it should've ended:
    I'm serious, so good.

    Okay wait one more. Alpha Protocl.
    How it ended:
    There are like 12 endings.
    How it should've ended:
    Whatever ending you got I guarantee you should play it through and get a different one.

    No hold on, one more. Fallout 3.
    How it ended:
    You go into the radiation chamber and kill yourself, even though you brought Fawkes along. Fawkes, who is IMMUNE TO RADIATION. Fawkes will not go in because Bethesda couldn't write their way out of a wet paper bag. Or you can send that Brotherhood of Steel lady in to eat the cancer rays, but the game still ends because apparently SHE is the main character.
    How it should've ended:
    Broken Steel DLC. Imagine if you bought a DVD for a movie and it ended before the final scene, then you had to download the actual ending for extra money! Video games are awesome.

    This is the last one I promise. DEFCON.
    How it ended:
    Everybody dies.
    How it should've ended:
    What a strange game. The only winning move is not to play.

  • chiasaur11chiasaur11 Never doubt a raccoon. Do you think it's trademarked?Registered User regular
    edited January 2012
    The Bioshock stuff, if I remember right, is by Tom Francis originally.

    Edit: Ah, beaten to the punch/

    chiasaur11 on
  • KadokenKadoken Giving Ends to my Friends and it Feels Stupendous Registered User regular
    Bioshock is an overrated piece of shit anyway. (My opinion)

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