How Do You Properly End A Game?

I have noticed that towards the end of this incredibly long generation of gaming (which is, in my opinion, a good thing), gamers are more and more focused on the one aspect that haunts every game out there (well, at least the ones with a story): the ending. So how should developers handle it?

[iamnsuperman]

Personally I didn't throw my controller out of the window for RDR or LA Noire but was glad it was over. Those two games failed fundamentally at one thing that is important to an ending. Prior to an ending the game needs to be paced correctly. LA Noire was a slow placed game (also repetitive) from the get go and so I was glad it was over so I can review it. RDR was a good game except for the beginning and the ending where the pacing dropped. On paper doing family things is great to try and get an emotion response to what happens next but in practice it is incredibly dull (which isn't helped by your son being so unlikable). I was glad that there were no more family stuff to do. I didn't feel sad because I was so enraged by the monotonous task before it

This " What I’m trying to say, is that players should be rewarded for investing hours upon hours of their lives with, at least, a fitting end to their own tales. " only works for games with choices which doesn't work for every type of game. Some games need a ridged structure to tell a story.

An ending needs to have prior build up before the ending is executed. You need to feel like you are building up to the end and the tempo needs to increase. I think endings can be cinematic as long as the bit before it is done well (pacing wise because that is fundamentally important for a game/movie)

I agree the ending is vital and some poor endings have ruined the overall experience for me.

[knowyourstuff]

That's a lot of rhetoric, but how about boiling it down to: If you promise a story and an ending publicly, stick to your promise and don't crap all over the people who paid 60 bucks for your game and break your promise.

In general, vague endings that leave more questions than answers are universally hated. Not having closure is universally hated. Cliffhanger endings are universally hated. They're cop outs and they never get awarded when it comes to movies, you don't see that crap at the Oscars, so we shouldn't be seeing it in games.

[ForgottenProphecy]

Mass Effect 3's ending was a complete failure, both in gameplay and story wise. Even though it was a fight with every species in the galaxy vs the Reapers, it never felt like it. It just felt like another battle. Story wise, it was complete garbage.
With the indoctrination theory, it actually makes sense, but besides that, nothing about the three endings (that area all pretty much the same) even have much to do with the whole trilogy. I chose to pretend the indoctrination theory was Bioware's idea and that's how I can still manage to play through the games.

[grifter024]

Agree. It just felt like another battle. The entire series you were basically crapping your pants getting ready for the Reapers...they get there finally, destroying worlds like nothing and the ending you just feel like they are whatever.

You don't end a game by taking a crap on everything hte player did up to that point.

"Hey why not get these war assets the whole game they will help you....oh but I doubt anyway wants to see them in the final battle...hey allt he choices you made during the entire series matter...oh but who cares actually seeing what happens or any closure. Yep that's a good ending"

[JAMurida]

This

I won't go into detail about what you said, since I'll end up writing an essay on how I felt Mass Effect could of been so much more, but I agree with you non the less. It's pretty sad when your own customers can make out a better ending than the creators themselves could.

Well said.

[MYSTERIO360]

I think in turns of pacing and story i think the Lord of the rings the return of the kings is a good example of how ending should be in games. I know its a movie but if game developers can transfer that level of pacing and story into an epic game there won't be any trouble.

Theres' only a few game & game franchises that i felt had a fitting ending and these were Max payne 2 (before the 3rd), RDR i feel had a good ending (son got revenge end of) and Bioshock 1. So fitting endings is possible

[Hydralysk]

RotKs epilogue was a bit long, but you can never argue that it didn't bring closure. We knew how everyone ended up after their adventures (years afterwards in some cases) and you left the movie/book feeling satisfied that this story is over.

[MYSTERIO360]

Yeah, exactly my point

[aLucidMind]

Red Dead Redemption: The ending was superb and fit the game's theme perfectly. There is no reason why anyone would be disappointed unless they didn't pay any attention to the game and only treated it like a run&gun/shoot-em-up while ignoring/skipping cutscenes.

LA Noire: Another very fitting ending to the game as it fit the noire genre and Cole Phelps' character. The only reason one would be disappointed is, like I said previously, they paid no attention to Cole Phelps' background or how he perceives himself as a result of that background, which makes it clear he will get himself killed if it meant redeeming himself.

Borderlands 1: You don't find out what was in that vault? That monster in the end was the only thing in that vault! The vault was essentially a prison to keep this thing inside and all the vault hunters were essentially being sent to destroy it, despite being lied to about what they're actually fighting towards. This is more a case of a lack of storytelling than a bad ending.

There are many games that deserve to be pointed out as having a bad ending, but RDR and LA Noire are certainly not anywhere on that list. Borderlands 1, maybe but that is a case of a lack of storytelling/foreshadowing throughout the entire game.

[Hydralysk]

For Borderlands 1, a lack of foreshadowing/proper storytelling can be a cause and the poor ending was the symptom. If you don't properly portray what you're doing in the story, pulling a twist at the end will just confuse people instead of wowing them.

I never played LA Noire, so I won't comment on that, but I found RDR lacking. Maybe it was because the story was stretched out too long before it reached it's destination. It was powerful, I'll give it that, but there was always the annoyance of "I spent all this time playing so he can reunite with his family, and then the government shows up and kills him just because". It wouldn't of been so bad if there was a concrete reason for doing it, but it seemed like the bad guys were just tying up loose ends. It just didn't do it for me.

[iamnsuperman]

I disagree with you on the RDR and LA Noire reasoning for people not liking the ending. like i mentioned above both games suffered from a lack of pacing. I invested myself in the game and I love single player games but the prior part to RDR's ending really was boring and dragged on. Without this the ending would have had a bigger impact for me because it had everything right execpt the bits that lead up to it

[Summons75]

Bye answering all questions you opened up in he start of the story and throughout the adventure. Making sure all character development is complete. If there are muiple games and you promise from the first game the choices of that game will effect the ending of the third be sure to KEEP that promise. Don't cheap out on the ending, a powerful ending is very important to have satisfying results. It's also more than okay to follow up on the characters to see how they were effected and what they did after the main plot. Doing the same to cities planets and governments is also a good idea especially in a game like mass effect because of all the choices.

When creating an ending not only does the creator need to be happy with it but the fans.

[Thatlalala]

Like this. http://youtu.be/RbqVyN4iueE

[vork77]

reboot it just look at DmC lol

[biRdy]

You just add a bit of space magic.

[dirthurts]

I just finished Mass Effect 3, and I absolutely loved the ending.
It wrapped up the entire trilogy, what more could you ask?
Maybe people didn't understand it or something, but I really don't understand why people hate it so much.
To anyone who hasn't played this game, I really recommend it.