I've been wondering lately, how gamers would recieve a game in which, ultimately, you lose. No matter what you do, the big bad will win (you wouldn't know until the end of course).
Halo: Reach?
Halo Reach spoils the ending sooner than in Moulin Rouge. Then again, there were three games mentioning it so... Yeah.
*Thoughtful face* I'm sure there are plenty of multi-ending games where you can 'lose', especially horrors. Eternal Darkness?
The Dead Rising games do a pretty good job of giving you lots of different endings to get, including losing endings. The fact that you save your character progress across playthroughs makes it easier to reach the better endings the longer you play, as well as avoiding the feeling you are losing anything by playing through again. I really like this structure, and it has lead me to play through the DR games many more times than any other game ever. Those games are also so ridiculous and campy that even terrible endings are enjoyable.
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Dark Raven XLaugh hard, run fast,be kindRegistered Userregular
edited January 2012
Modern Warfare 3
What happened;
The sole surviving protagonist tracks down Makarov, the asshole responsible for World War 3, the guy responsible for nuking the middle east and massacring civilians in a Russian airport, the worst man on the planet. Our hero crashes his helicopter and strangles him to death, hanging him from a chain and striking up a cigar as he swings.
This all plays out as a quick time event.
What should have happened;
Don't make the end of this heinous prick a quick time event of all things. -_-
I'd have much preferred it if it came down to holding him at gunpoint and having the choice; execute him yourself or arrest him. Putting it in the hands of the player would have made it all worth it. As it is, his death feels so far removed from whatever else you achieved in game - as it plays in a totally different style from the rest of it.
EDIT; bwahah, didn't notice the OP was the very same game.
Marston the lead guy dies and the game fast forwards many years to when hid son is old enough to kill mans. He then exacts revenge on his fathers killers.
Ooh, someone mentioned this a while back and I think it's worth repeating. We've been over Fallout 3 before, but in hindsight the finale could've been considerably improved by the following, logic be damned:
During the assault on the purifier, Liberty Prime breaches the final Enclave barrier and stops dead. After a few seconds of silence it rears back up, turns around to face you, and readies its weapons. Before anybody can do anything you hear it broadcast directly to you.
"I don't recall authorizing the use of experimental hardware," says a subroutine that sounds suspiciously like President Eden, who's especially miffed if you turned the modified FEV over to the Brotherhood.
Logic. Be. Damned. I want this.
Brilliant. Though I would have been screwed since I chose guns.
Hell, I'll buy it. It hardly seems like the most ridiculous techno-plot hole in the series, much less FO3. And it would finally justify why we have a giant, buggy, corny-sounding robot that people seem to love because of just how hilariously corny and buggy, when it turns out to do nothing a few extra dudes in power armor with some charges or just a big enough gun couldn't.
Doesn't seem terribly less logical than the initial scenario.
*Thoughtful face* I'm sure there are plenty of multi-ending games where you can 'lose', especially horrors. Eternal Darkness?
The first time I played through it, I thought the ending to Dead Space 1 was a "lose" ending. It actually felt really fitting with the game too I thought.
Marston the lead guy dies and the game fast forwards many years to when hid son is old enough to kill mans. He then exacts revenge on his fathers killers.
getting abducted seems like losing to me...and also terrifying
This reminds me that I'd like to see a game where multiple evils are actively competing against each other in their attempts to do... whatever it is they do. Like, take whatever weird juju is powering Silent Hill, throw in some Resident Evil-style biotech company and their zombie hijinks, add aliens to the mix, a serial killer at least on par with Hannibal Lecter, something Cthulhu-ish that's separate from the Silent Hill stuff, a robot uprising by an insane AI, and so on. Put them all in a single setting and let them fight it out.
And then our protagonist walks in with a gun that shoots shurikens and lightning.
David_TA fashion yes-man is no good to me.Copenhagen, DenmarkRegistered Userregular
edited January 2012
Bulletstorm
What happened:
Want a real ending? Buy our next game!
... oh.
What should have happened:
End your fucking games, people! If you can't make people want to buy your next game without cliffhangering any and all emotional investment you might have built up in your first game, then fuck you, you fail at making games!
I've been wondering lately, how gamers would recieve a game in which, ultimately, you lose. No matter what you do, the big bad will win (you wouldn't know until the end of course).
Two of the recent Kingdom Hearts spinoffs (358/2 Days and Birth by Sleep) both have major bad ends where not only does the big bad win, the heroes involved are completely and utterly fucked beyond belief. And even when said big bad is vanquished in the numbered sequels, the status of those characters still remain grim.
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.
I would agree, but...not enough of the Turks. And, to a lesser degree, Rufus. But mostly Turks.
I guess I can spill the beans on this since it's pretty much dead in the water, but when I was commissioned to work as a scriptwriter for an unlicensed FFVII comic adaption (of which the artist actually had worked on licensed comics, not just some run-of-the-mill DA user trying to get known), I had planned to include a change during the final battle where
The Turks (and most of the remaining Shinra forces) show up at the Northern Crater to assist Cloud and the group, fending off against the (unseen in the game) horde of monsters emerging from the crater while opening a path for the heroes to go and fight Sephiroth.
It basically would have played out like the last battle in Return of the King (which was also meant to act as a distraction for Frodo and Sam to slip through) in that it basically goes back and forth between the Turks and Cloud's group fighting their respective battles, including a battle with either the final Jenova manifestation or one of the three Weapons where the Turks unleash all the firepower at their disposal; rocket launchers, machine guns, the works. Tseng would even be involved, heavily bandaged but still carrying a massive anti-tank-inspired canon slung over his good arm. The two battles would have paralleled one another, Cloud's group focusing on magic and techniques, the Turks sticking to military might and firepower.
Of all the small continuity changes I had planned for the comic, this was the one I was most proud of, as I could see it coming to life and gaining praise from fans.
Games need proper fucking endings. None of this cliffhangering crap. I like how Batman Begins finishes (oxymoron ho!) with the joker calling card. It's enough of a tease that people want to watch the next one but ties the story of the first game of brilliantly.
The Arkham Asylum game sort of does that with an Easter egg. But having something on the side mentioned is often enough. Bulletstorm as an example;
they could easily have had the General be part of a group that you don't know about till midway. Then, when the first game ends, you still have the rest of the group to contend with so there's scope for sequels.
So I just played through Alice: Madness Returns and thought the ending was pretty awful. Never ever end a game that mixes real sequences with dream sequences in something that may or may not have been a dream.
Did Alice push the doctor in the way of the train? Who the fuck knows! Even if she did that was far too gentle a punishment for him.
The way I see it there are two better ways to end the game.
1: Alice confronts the doctor in his study. When he taunts her by saying that no one will believe her she takes up a letter knife from his desk. He laughs and says that there is no way she could harm him with a blunt blade like that. She begins to slash at him and he is unable to defend himself because of the near supernatural combat skills she has learned in wonderland. The camera cuts away as he desperately crawls towards the door whimpering while we continue to hear the slashing of the knife. The next shot is Alice in a carriage leaving London, reading about the murdered doctor in the newspaper. The camera zooms into her eyes and we see a restored wonderland with the Cheshire cat doing a voiceover about how stuff is at least a bit better there.
(If that seems too gruesome to those who have not played the game, the guy was a pedophile who raped and then murdered Alice's sister and then burned their house down, killing the rest of her family as well)
2: Alice has one last session with the doctor where she starts to confront him about what he has done. The doctor laughs and says that no one will believe her which only causes Alice to smile. He suddenly realises that he has somehow been drawn into Wonderland as the walls begin to be corrupt and bleed and tentacles burst out of the floor the floor, pinning him into his chair. The red queen appears and Alice tells her to bury him in the deepest and darkest parts of Wonderland and do with him as she pleases. As the doctor is dragged off screaming incoherently we zoom into Alice's eye and then out again showing us Alice standing in the Asylum in the real world. For a moment the player begins to think that what just happened was only a dream until they see that she is standing outside of a cell looking in at the doctor who is babbling and twitching in a corner. A warden walks past talking about how the doctor suddenly turned near catatonic and now only mutters incoherently about monsters and pain and is seemingly entirely unaware of his surroundings. Alice walks out of the asylum with the hint of a smile on her lips.
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Halo Reach spoils the ending sooner than in Moulin Rouge. Then again, there were three games mentioning it so... Yeah.
Clock Tower (Flashbacks to the scissors. Hears the clicking sounds on iPad) *AAAAAH*
The Dead Rising games do a pretty good job of giving you lots of different endings to get, including losing endings. The fact that you save your character progress across playthroughs makes it easier to reach the better endings the longer you play, as well as avoiding the feeling you are losing anything by playing through again. I really like this structure, and it has lead me to play through the DR games many more times than any other game ever. Those games are also so ridiculous and campy that even terrible endings are enjoyable.
What happened;
This all plays out as a quick time event.
What should have happened;
I'd have much preferred it if it came down to holding him at gunpoint and having the choice; execute him yourself or arrest him. Putting it in the hands of the player would have made it all worth it. As it is, his death feels so far removed from whatever else you achieved in game - as it plays in a totally different style from the rest of it.
EDIT; bwahah, didn't notice the OP was the very same game.
What should've happened:
I would agree, but...not enough of the Turks. And, to a lesser degree, Rufus. But mostly Turks.
Hell, I'll buy it. It hardly seems like the most ridiculous techno-plot hole in the series, much less FO3. And it would finally justify why we have a giant, buggy, corny-sounding robot that people seem to love because of just how hilariously corny and buggy, when it turns out to do nothing a few extra dudes in power armor with some charges or just a big enough gun couldn't.
Doesn't seem terribly less logical than the initial scenario.
The first time I played through it, I thought the ending to Dead Space 1 was a "lose" ending. It actually felt really fitting with the game too I thought.
This reminds me that I'd like to see a game where multiple evils are actively competing against each other in their attempts to do... whatever it is they do. Like, take whatever weird juju is powering Silent Hill, throw in some Resident Evil-style biotech company and their zombie hijinks, add aliens to the mix, a serial killer at least on par with Hannibal Lecter, something Cthulhu-ish that's separate from the Silent Hill stuff, a robot uprising by an insane AI, and so on. Put them all in a single setting and let them fight it out.
And then our protagonist walks in with a gun that shoots shurikens and lightning.
Now playing: Teardown and Baldur's Gate 3 (co-op)
Sunday Spotlight: Horror Tales: The Wine
What happened:
... oh.
What should have happened:
I was disappoint.
You're thinking about Zone of the Enders too, huh?
Two of the recent Kingdom Hearts spinoffs (358/2 Days and Birth by Sleep) both have major bad ends where not only does the big bad win, the heroes involved are completely and utterly fucked beyond belief. And even when said big bad is vanquished in the numbered sequels, the status of those characters still remain grim.
Blog||Tumblr|Steam|Twitter|FFXIV|Twitch|YouTube|Podcast|PSN|XBL|DarkZero
I guess I can spill the beans on this since it's pretty much dead in the water, but when I was commissioned to work as a scriptwriter for an unlicensed FFVII comic adaption (of which the artist actually had worked on licensed comics, not just some run-of-the-mill DA user trying to get known), I had planned to include a change during the final battle where
It basically would have played out like the last battle in Return of the King (which was also meant to act as a distraction for Frodo and Sam to slip through) in that it basically goes back and forth between the Turks and Cloud's group fighting their respective battles, including a battle with either the final Jenova manifestation or one of the three Weapons where the Turks unleash all the firepower at their disposal; rocket launchers, machine guns, the works. Tseng would even be involved, heavily bandaged but still carrying a massive anti-tank-inspired canon slung over his good arm. The two battles would have paralleled one another, Cloud's group focusing on magic and techniques, the Turks sticking to military might and firepower.
Of all the small continuity changes I had planned for the comic, this was the one I was most proud of, as I could see it coming to life and gaining praise from fans.
Blog||Tumblr|Steam|Twitter|FFXIV|Twitch|YouTube|Podcast|PSN|XBL|DarkZero
The Arkham Asylum game sort of does that with an Easter egg. But having something on the side mentioned is often enough. Bulletstorm as an example;
The way I see it there are two better ways to end the game.
1: Alice confronts the doctor in his study. When he taunts her by saying that no one will believe her she takes up a letter knife from his desk. He laughs and says that there is no way she could harm him with a blunt blade like that. She begins to slash at him and he is unable to defend himself because of the near supernatural combat skills she has learned in wonderland. The camera cuts away as he desperately crawls towards the door whimpering while we continue to hear the slashing of the knife. The next shot is Alice in a carriage leaving London, reading about the murdered doctor in the newspaper. The camera zooms into her eyes and we see a restored wonderland with the Cheshire cat doing a voiceover about how stuff is at least a bit better there.
(If that seems too gruesome to those who have not played the game, the guy was a pedophile who raped and then murdered Alice's sister and then burned their house down, killing the rest of her family as well)
2: Alice has one last session with the doctor where she starts to confront him about what he has done. The doctor laughs and says that no one will believe her which only causes Alice to smile. He suddenly realises that he has somehow been drawn into Wonderland as the walls begin to be corrupt and bleed and tentacles burst out of the floor the floor, pinning him into his chair. The red queen appears and Alice tells her to bury him in the deepest and darkest parts of Wonderland and do with him as she pleases. As the doctor is dragged off screaming incoherently we zoom into Alice's eye and then out again showing us Alice standing in the Asylum in the real world. For a moment the player begins to think that what just happened was only a dream until they see that she is standing outside of a cell looking in at the doctor who is babbling and twitching in a corner. A warden walks past talking about how the doctor suddenly turned near catatonic and now only mutters incoherently about monsters and pain and is seemingly entirely unaware of his surroundings. Alice walks out of the asylum with the hint of a smile on her lips.
Oh I got one, Shenmue. I'm not spoiling anything by saying that nothing fucking happens in that game.
It takes a special kind of insane hubris to stretch your game over not just a trilogy, but a 9 game series.
It's annoying to me to this day because Shenmue had so many interesting ideas, but they were buried under mediocre ones and filler narrative.