The End!

[stealth]

Best non-RPG ending that I can quickly think is in Max Payne 2, it's so bittersweet. And again, the song also was great. Poets of the Fall - Late Goodbye

+1 Max Payne 2 was one of the first games that came to mind when seeing this topic.

For RPGs I found The Witcher, BG series, PS:T to be complete games.

NWN 2: I actually enjoyed it greatly but I had to drag me through the end. So perhaps not a terrible ending but not too memorable either.

(BTW: nice to see a fellow Dane on the forums )

 

[DeepO]

How about Risen ?

Nah .
Risen´s ending was atrocious and its last two chapters bad, but I´ve spent majority of playtime in chapter 1&2 and those presented a fine mix of story and exploration.
Overall, Risen is a good, not great, title in my book.

 

[vault_dweller]

The original Fallout had the best ending IMHO.

You had fought the supermutants, defeated the Master, saved the post nuclear world, saved your fellow vault dwellers from becoming supermutants just to be exiled by the vault Overseer who was afraid that your experience with the world outside the vault could affect the vault inhabitants and make them want to leave.

Simply amazing!!!!

 

[wolfing]

Long ago, but ok game with worst ending: Buck Rogers (Matrix cubed I think it was the name). After you beat the final fight, the screen say something like 'you win, press any key to continue', you press a key, back to DOS (C:\>)

Good game bad ending... hmm... don't know, I'm not too picky about endings. To me the best ending is just knowing I beat the game.

In fact, I can't say I remember any endings to any games I've finished really.

 

[Ubereil]

I've never finished Ps:T (I will one day!) but I remember my brother telling me about what he thought of the ending. He'd been saving up on level 9 spells for that encounter, spells he'd never used before. He was really looking forward to an epic build up followed by an epic battle where he got to crush the last boss with these level 9 spells, which he'd never used prior to the battle. So, he walks up to the final boss and says "give up!". The boss said "ok" and then the game was over.

My brother thinks Ps:T is overrated.

Übereil

 

[stealth]

Yeah, you're right. The end boss (which btw is part of what makes PS:T great) could be defeated by choosing the right dialogue. If you learned your true name you gained an insanely amount of xp. I think it was enough to advance 9-10 levels.

 

[fragonard]

While I thought the endgame battle and dialogue of Morrowind was poor, I enjoyed the subtlety of emerging from the dungeon to a starry nighttime sky, the blight gone. No cheering crowds, just nature itself acknowledging my victory.

Yeah, but is that really the ending? Morrowind may be in its own category. The several times I finished it, I spent at least as much time playing after the MQ as before it.

 

[ToddMcF2002]

The very *very* end of FO3 was lame but the sequences up to that were fantastic. Risen gets my vote for all time worst ending. If I were a magic user I would have been climbing the walls!

 

[Corwin]

One example of a great game with terrible ending was BaK. Like EoB, after the final epic battle you get a page of text!!

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

Well, this discussion reminds me of how few games I have "ended" actually … What a shame …

I usually make it to the end of Adventures much more often than RPGs.

The worst ending I've had so far was Drakan 1. (Sequel only on console.)

One of the rather interesting ones was in Summoner 1. (Sequel only on console.)

The ending of Blade Of Destiny wasn't much spectacular, but it had a nice music in it.

Bad endings!! There are just so many. Torn between Div2 and F3 right now.

Remember the title if the Div2 Add-On ?

Info in German only, but has a few insights :
http://www.larian.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=407881

English, by Lar himself: http://www.larian.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=407857#Post407857

 

[bkrueger]

When talking about artistic quality I second Max Payne (by the way not only the ending, but the cartoonish "cut scenes" in general).

When talking about the type of ending I prefer the type of ending, which allows to play on afterwards. I loved that in Might and Magic VI etc. as well as in Morrowind and was very pleased to see it again in Drakensang River of Time.

The reason is obvious: the better the game, the more you want to play. This goes so far, that I play "slower" near the end of a game since I don't want it to end. So being able to play on after the end of the main quest is making me love a game even more.
And (slightly paradoxically) it enhances the replay value very much.

 

[Dajjer]

Risen is the poster boy for great game bad ending. And any game I finish now a day with my precious limited time is great.

My two best games with great endings were Bioshock (the good ending actually had me tear up).

And Arcanium, with the best final "RPG" game summary adventure to date.

and BTW, I too like games that let you continue on after the main quest is finished. In particular when the NPCs acknowledge your achievements.

 

[JDR13]

All these mentions of Max Payne 1&2 have me wanting to replay them. I've finished them both, but it was so long ago that I can't really remember the details about the endings.

 

[Zaleukos]

One example of a great game with terrible ending was BaK. Like EoB, after the final epic battle you get a page of text!!

The Amiga version of EoB has decent cinematics at the end. Finishing the PC version a few years later was certainly a letdown..

 

[DArtagnan]

I remember liking the Black Crypt ending a lot

 

[WorstUsernameEver]

Since non-RPGs are mentioned too, I have to mention Portal (Still Alive), and Deus Ex's multiple endings, which had to be achieve very differently and felt very satisfying even if they were quite short (they really just amounted to a brief cutscene and a quotation of some important literary work without showing you the CONSEQUENCES of your choice.. which to be honest I think it was part of the charm, since it left very vague what the real best choice was).
As for RPGs, for all its flaws I'd say Mass Effect's ending was pretty memorable, it really felt climatic and the ending gave a little bit of resolution but also made pretty clear there was going to be a sequel. Too bad that the only choice I felt was acknowledged was the one I made during the end sequence, but it was good that I had at least the possibility of making another choice/conversation during the ending cinematic.. making it playable was an awesome idea on Bioware's part.

 

[DPB]

I didn't like in Deus Ex that all the possible endings were left open until right near the end - you could keep a saved game at that point and quite easily see every ending without too much effort. I'd have preferred it if the plot had diverged earlier on, it would have given more incentive to replay the game.

 

[BanalityDUFF]

I didn't like in Deus Ex that all the possible endings were left open until right near the end - you could keep a saved game at that point and quite easily see every ending without too much effort. I'd have preferred it if the plot had diverged earlier on, it would have given more incentive to replay the game.

DE2 was even worse for it than DE1. I give DE1 a pass because it may have also being a technology issue where DE2 it just screamed of laziness.


One of my top endings is Wizardy 8 because the end-game came so naturally and quickly and then the epic twist at the end made my jaw drop. I think, also, is that I liked the gameplay so much that I wasn't wanting an ending yet - I was still busy exploring the world with my party.

I also really enjoyed the multiple endings of Vampire Bloodlines. The endgame wasn't that great but I liked the conclusions.

 

[azraelck]

Worst ending I can recall, I don't quite remember the name of the game (it was some PS1 fighting game), but the entire ending consisted of "Thank you for playing!" on a otherwise blank screen.

 

[Phonix]

Fallout 1 & 2 and Baldurs Gate 1 & 2 is some of my top favourite games, but their endings was no more a collection of telling about those choices you made through the game, as far as I remember, through I can be wrong as it’s a long time since I played them. Good endings but not specular.

I have all forgot about Ps:T, yes that was indeed a great ending, ME 1 & 2 is also two of my favourite endings, they are very cinematic and really give a feeling of epic.