Games that Have Worse Endings Than Mass Effect 3

Right now, the internet is ablaze with backlash against the ending of Mass Effect 3. This situation is sadly reminding us of how important an ending can be. The best endings can make an otherwise mediocre game feel worthwhile, or bring a new perspective to a seemingly simple story. The worst endings, on the other hand, can taint an entire experience, rendering dozens of hours null because of a few minutes at the end. In honor of Mass Effect 3's controversial ending, I'm going to talk about some of the latter in video games. Please note, that while there are no spoilers for Mass Effect 3, there will be spoilers for the following three games. You have been warned.

[Philoctetes]

The last boss fight in Bioshock is lame, but the ending to that game is about a million times better than Mass Effect 3's ending.

[LegitimateJournalist]

Equip Telekinesis and you can easily beat that final boss by catching his projectile blasts and throwing them back at him.

[humbleopinion]

Nah, it's pretty much the same: You get some endings which is supposedly based on your "decisions" in the game, but only takes them into two really bad extremes.
Even Ken Levine apologized for the multiple endings and said that it was forced on the team by executive meddling.
The only difference is that people had less emotional investment in Bioshock so perhaps they didn't care as much, because thier expectations from the ending didn't build up over an entire trilogy (and that Andrew Ryan confrontation was the emotional peak of the game anyway, so it didn't really matter as much what happened later). But the ending(s) was(were) as poor as it gets, especially after promising that your decisions will have some kind of an impact.

Indigo Prophecy mentioned in the article is also an excellent prime example of an amazing thriller going to hell with poor man's X-files like aliens and "THE INTERNETZ" and a horrible last act. It seems Cage just doesn't know how to properly finish a good story without resorting to this kind of supernatural stuff and leaving a plot full of holes.

I don't think Borderlands qualifies as such a "bad ending" game - but it just shows that people mostly didn't expect a good story from this game in the first place. To be disappointing from the ending something must have raised your expectations prior to the ending.

[Philoctetes]

Nope, sorry. I agree that the two possible endings to Bioshock are both a little hokey and pedestrian. But so are the endings to most video games. Bioshock is about par for the course in this regard.

By way of contrast, the ending to ME3 is wretched and abysmal in every way imaginable. It is an atrocity. You can make a good argument that when you factor in the lead-up over three games and the promises made the the developers, the ending to ME3 is the worst video game ending of all time. The arcade version of Donkey Kong had a more satisfying ending.

[Wolfbiker]

Cage ended heavy rain pretty damn good.

[grahf]

Yeah, the ME3 ending is somehow worse than the Dragon Age 2 ending.