Three endings you should hate more than Mass Effect 3's

Paul Stachniak defends Mass Effect 3's ending by offering three endings from other popular video games that missed the narrative mark.

[Lupus64]

Personally, I didn't have a problem with ME3's ending. Sure, I can understand how people got upset from not having every bullet point addressed at the ending, but I feel like every decision was addressed by the immediate result at the time of the decision.

At the end of Mass Effect 3, all I could think about was whether or not I was willing to sacrifice the synthetics that I'd saved, and how my Shepard would never get to see his crew again because of my decision. I kept thinking about it intermittently days later, and I think that's a hell of a compliment for any piece of narrative.

[grailly]

complaining about ME 3's ending being bad is like saying the rest of ME's story is good, which it really isn't. Sure the mission-contained stories were good and well written but the overarching story was garbage. Giant squids from space, really? who thought THAT was good?
I like the gameplay and characters, I wasn't awaiting much from the ending, so it was fine by me.

EDIT. it's the same here, nobody complained about the borderlands ending before because nobody cared about the story.

[TekoIie]

"Giant squids from space, really? who thought THAT was good?"

If i could guess it would be the 3mil people who have bought each game...

[Anon1974]

I agree with Borderland's ending. It wasn't the story that drove me in that game, it was the loot! The Borderlands ending was just a bullet point, another mission completed but in no way did I feel it took away from the 100 hours I put into that game, nor did it stop me from jumping all over the DLC when it came out. In fact, Borderlands is in my top 10 games of this gen. This happens all the time in TV, movies, games, books. It's hard as hell to wrap things up in a satisfying way but just because they don't always stick the landing doesn't mean the ride wasn't worthwhile.

If you sunk numerous hours into the Mass Effect series and had a blast playing, and the ending of the third one ruined it for you, you really need to ask yourself why you play games in the first place. I'll never understand the rage over this. "Bu-bu-bu Bioware said the ending would be all things to all people! They said!" Give your head a shake.

[ShinMaster]

Those other games didn't have you making choices throughout 3 games.
They didn't build false hope on the fans.

[Megaton]

MGS4? Really? Some people...

I would, however, say that MGS2 belongs at the top of any list of bad endings. It was so bad that it put me off to MGS3 until long after Subsistence had released.

[MacDonagh]

I actually really liked the MGS 2 ending, but I didn't care for the convoluted plot of MGS 4, especially in the end. I would've liked it if Hideo decided then and there if Solid Snake ended it there and then, and you didn't need to show it happening which could've led to him coming back in a future title. I would've preferred that instead of what we got. Just my opinion.

[Megaton]

Didn't bother me much that he didn't kill himself. I thought it ran on a little long, but they obviously wanted to wrap up as much as possible. It was clear that Kojima was trying to make a clean break from the series. Didn't work out too well, though.

[MacDonagh]

@Megaton I dunno man. I really would've liked it if he ended it but I think that Konami would've greatly preferred it if Solid didn't die. However, the MGS5 sequel will no doubt use the Fox Engine that they've been working on for years. I hope that this time that he ends Solid's chapter and allow a new protagonist to take up the slack. I wouldn't mind Akiba doing it.

[STONEY4]

Kojima said recently that Snake was supposed to die, but he decided to change it near the end of development because most of the team really wanted him to live.

[STONEY4]

I feel like the only person in the world who thought the last hour of MGS2 made sense, and liked the ending.

As for MGS4, I think they played the LOLNANOMACHINES card too much. But it's still a great game. Story-wise though, it's my least favorite in the series.

[Bimkoblerutso]

Yeah, I'm with you. Still loved the game. Still loved the characters, but the plot was just...crazy to the point that it almost seemed like parody.

[WeskerChildReborned]

Yea MGS4 IMO was one of the best games i've played and had the best ending IMO. omg the boss battle was just so emotional aha

[EmperorDalek]

At least you knew it didn't end at Halo 2... And MGS4's ending was great.

And Borderlands 2 isn't even out yet.

[mep69]

And Kojima has confirmed MGS 5

[MrMister]

Which is a prequel featuring Big Boss and a YOUNG Solid Snake. So what's your point, son?

[WeskerChildReborned]

@Mista, is it confirmed it will be a prequel?

[Summons75]

How am I suppose to not like the ending to Borderlands 2 if it hasn't even come out yet?

As for Halo and MGS4, those for one made sense. MGS was emotional and bitter sweet, Halo 2 was purely ment to go straight into Halo 3. ME3's endings took no what what you have done into account throughout the franchise, it also didn't even matter what you did in the 3rd game. It came down to what choice do you want to do A Bor C. Even the extended endings did nothing but add a slide show like it was suppose to help, which it didn't. Also adding another ending which surprisingly made the most sense out of all of them.

It's not the ending that is bad that people are mad about, it's the fact that Bioware sold the game on the statement that your choices effected everything and that ended up not happening. It was like the ending to Deus Ex, where you pushed a button and that was the ending.

Please realize this before making stupid articles trying to bash highly respected games

[STONEY4]

The worst part was Bioware flat out saying the endings wouldn't be A, B, and C.

“We have the ability to build the endings in a way that we don’t have to worry about eventually tying them back together,” he said. “This story arc is coming to an end with this game, and that means the endings can be a lot more different. At this point we’re taking into account so many decisions that you’ve made as a player and reflecting a lot of that stuff. It’s more like there are some really obvious things that are different and then lots and lots of smaller things, lots of things about who lives and who dies, civilizations that rose and fell, all the way down to individual characters.

“It’s not even in any way like the traditional game endings, where you can say how many endings there are or whether you got ending A, B, or C.”

[TopDudeMan]

See, I don't think a developer should change the ending to a piece of media just because people don't like it. Some things have really bad wtf endings and I think that's okay.

I mean, JK Rowling changed the ending to harry potter and the deathly hallows because she gave a few people copies of it and they didn't like the ending where harry died. So she tacked on some half-baked conclusion where he doesn't actually die and threw it in just to keep the fans happy, but I think the original ending would have made perfect sense, despite it being unpopular.

[FCOLitsjustagame]

If you want to make money you better make endings that are popular.

If you don't care about making money then make whatever ending you want.

People these days seem to think its wrong for people or companies to want to make money. Of course if they don't then they will not have the big budgets to make the game in the first place. No hiring of staff, no buying updated equipment....

[TopDudeMan]

Still, it takes balls to make the ending you want. I'd rather have a really shocking ending like, say Batman Arkham City, than a "safe" ending like, well, most games.

[kariyanine]

That's a silly statement. Stephen King is notorious for writing "bad" endings and I don't think he has any trouble making money.

Games in general have pretty awful storytelling so bad endings are just part and parcel with the medium.

[Hicken]

I think that if your franchise has been heavily relying on "choice" as one of the main draw points, and your ending gives many the feeling that the choices they made were irrelevant, you SHOULD change the ending.

[WeskerChildReborned]

Yea, i don't really mind endings like that. The only problem i have is that with an ending that kills the main protagonist, it make's you think their won't be anymore sequels or not even a chance to see the protagonist again.

[Tundra]

I can't speak for Halo 2 (Never played campaign) but MGS4 really shouldn't be on there. The guy who wrote this sounds like he read a bias summary against the 4th game and never played the previous entries.

There isn't any form of time travel in MGS (Aside from prequels?). Paradoxes in MGS3 happen if you proceed with an action that doesn't make sense in comparison with the script of the previous games. Kill Ocelot in MGS3, you get a paradox. It's not supposed to happen as he is alive in MGS1, 2, and 4.

Finally, it's obvious the writer hasn't played the other MGS games but takes it upon himself to criticize it. Meanwhile, if you didn't play ME1 and 2 and jumped straight into 3, you'll obviously be left clueless as well.

[FCOLitsjustagame]

MGS4 I haven't played but I wouldn't expect a great story based on trailers I have seen for MG games (seems like they would end like most Japanese RPGs...off the rails). But like I said I haven't played them.

Borderlands 2? Is that game out. Borderlands 1 ending was a disappointment but it wasn't horribly out of line with the rest of the game.

Halo2 ending was fine...if you had Halo3 sitting on a shelf ready to play. The article kind of disses the fact that it was the middle level of a trilogy, but it was and they recovered nicely in Halo 3.

Mass Effect ending was far more disappointing then all of these because great expectations were setup. The game was stellar just before and then BOOM its off the rails with an ending that was absolutely devoid of emotion, makes no sense, and violates the internal logic of the rules they setup in their own universe. Its just bad, bad, bad writing.

[Son_Lee]

Borderlands barely even had an ending. It's up there with Rage as far as non-existent endings go.

[FCOLitsjustagame]

Barely had a story...so like I said, not out of line with the reset of the game. :)

[mep69]

my friend made me play Boarderlands, wasn't that great a game tbh.

[Venoxn4g]

I'm still mad about Batman: arkham city's ending.. Mgs4 ending wasn't bad

[miamicanesruleall]

My balls hurt.

[DeadIIIRed]

How about Command and Conquer 4? What a terrible way to send of a franchise that has been around for two decades. To my knowledge the fans of that series never received an ending fix from the developer.

[Lord_Sloth]

I'm sorry but where the hell are you getting time travel with MGS? The plot makes perfect sense if you're willing to actually pay attention!

[Th3 Chr0nic]

I cant believe this caused such a fuss, while the HORRIBLE endings on Deus Ex were not given a second thought. Come on people for such a great game the endings of Deus Ex were such BS, lets have this awesome game and then at the end have some guy narrate a moral story over the same backdrop 3 different times. F THAT

[taijutsu363]

RAGE anyone?? There were alot of things that needed to be done in Rage and i was expecting a grand ending but all i got was.....blah.