The Pain of Disappointing Game Endings

Well look what I found under this pile of dust, the Strange Moments in Gaming blog!  It has been far too long since the last update, so it's time to fire up the gaming consoles once again and deliver another article.

I'll admit, I haven't finished Mass Effect 3 yet.  I'm thoroughly enjoying Commander Shepard's last attempt to save the galaxy, and I find that I'm trying to do as many side missions as possible, while avoiding the main missions.  One of the main reasons I'm taking my time heading to the conclusion of the series is the fact that so many "gamers" are whining about the disappointing ending.  The fact that people have gone so far as to host a fundraising petition to get Bioware's attention is not very encouraging.  On a side note, if you're going to petition something, how about petitioning to stop developers from ruining franchises by milking the cash cows to death (do we really need a new Assassin's Creed game every single year??).

Petitions make Shepard cry.

All the hating on Bioware has got me thinking about other disappointing endings to games I have played.  So here we go!  It's time to re-live the pain.

The Cliffhangers of Halo 2 and Halo 3

Now that we've all played through Halo 3 and know how the series concludes, we can somewhat forgive Bungie for the Halo 2 ending.  But the uproar of angry gamers has been ringing in my ears since 2004.  At the time the ending felt like a slap to the face, almost as if Bungie ran out of time and had to cut the game short.  Things were just getting good in the story; the Elites had joined forces with the humans, the Covenant were about to invade Earth, not knowing the Master Chief was a stowaway on their ship, and we were ready to kick some ass.  But sadly, what we got was a short cut-scene of the Master Chief saying he was ready to finish the fight, followed by the ending credits (goodbye Halo 2, hello years of waiting for Halo 3 to be developed!).  Now that I think of it, maybe I haven't forgiven Bungie as much as I thought.

The ending of Halo 3 was almost as bad, because at the time this was supposed to be the last game in the main series.  Once again Bungie hit us with another cliffhanger.  The Master Chief is stranded out on the edge of the galaxy, and as if that wasn't bad enough, a gigantic Death Star-like object approaches the Chief's location, leaving us with  more questions than ever.

Could this be the beginnings of a Star Wars/Halo crossover?

Deus Ex: Invisible War

Sadly this game is a letdown in many ways.  The original Deus Ex had incredibly deep customization of character skills which allowed for each play-through to be mostly unique.  In the sequel, Invisible War, most of this had been cut out, making the entire game feel dumbed down in order to appeal to as wide an audience as possible.  I only experienced a couple of the possible endings in Invisible War, but each one had me shaking my head in disappointment, muttering "that's it??"  For such a story-driven series, the endings of Invisible War are incredibly brief and barely showcase the consequences of your choices/actions throughout the game.  You are left wondering what has become of this world you have immersed yourself in, and it's not like you get any answers in Deus Ex: Human Revolution, which is a prequel to the first Deus Ex.

Honorary Mention: Grand Theft Auto IV

Ok, I know that the GTA games are mainly about enjoying the large sandbox world that Rockstar always gives us, but damn was this ending depressing.  You are given two options towards the end of the game, and each option results in someone close to Niko getting murdered.  There's no feel-good GTA San Andreas ending here, just a short cut-scene of Niko reflecting on the murder, making us wonder why Rockstar didn't cut the poor guy a break after his struggles throughout the game.


And that wraps up this entry about disappointing game endings.  Which games have set you up for disappointment in the past?

The Many Odd Choices for Protagonists

When playing video games, we all like to play as interesting characters, from the mighty Link to the Jedi and Sith of the Knights of the Old Republic games.  Seeing as how we'll be stuck playing as these characters for the 10-30+ hours it usually takes to complete a game, we'd like the characters to be somewhat likeable.

Fortunately a majority of the games I have played have included protagonists that I found thoroughly enjoyable.  However, as with everything in life, there have been some serious mistakes made by game developers when choosing a main protagonist for their games.  What follows are a few protagonists that I think should never have been allowed to make it past the drawing board.

Lester, from Lester the Unlikely

I actually didn't even know this game existed until watching the Angry Video Game Nerd's review.  Lester is indeed an unlikely hero, basically just a geeky, cowardly teenager with no heroic qualities whatsoever.  Whenever he encounters an enemy, Lester will spin around and run for his life.  What crowd was this game supposed to be marketed to?  Nobody plays video games so they may be placed into the shoes of a sniveling coward with an embarrassing walk cycle (really, you have to see it to believe it).  That would be like making a Bully game where you play as the kids who get their asses kicked by Jimmy on a daily basis.

Shaq, from Shaq Fu

Don't get me wrong, I love playing as Shaq in NBA games, but I completely disliked a Kung Fu-fighting Shaq.  Maybe I'm just bitter because this game was utter garbage, with bad collision detection and impossible-to-execute combos.  But a really bad design choice is that you barely notice you are playing as Shaq, it just feels like some cookie-cutter angry 7' tall guy.  If the developers had even tried to incorporate some of Shaq's unique personality, Shaq Fu could have been a very funny experience and I might have been able to put up with the severe game play flaws.

The Rookie, from Halo 3: ODST

I'm probably digging myself into a deep hole by including The Rookie on this list, but hear me out first!  It seems like Bungie was trying too hard to make a "Master Chief Jr." when designing this character.  This game could have been Bungie's chance to introduce a completely new character with an entirely different personality and style than the no-nonsense Chief (which they sort of succeeded in with the inclusion of other playable troopers).  Instead we get a completely silent character with no personality at all, who adds nothing to the Halo universe.  I call him Master Chief Jr. because he looks and controls just like the Chief, but since he isn't a Spartan, we don't get any of the signature daring stunts (as well as the signature in-game respect from your fellow Marines) that make the Master Chief so awesome.

Honorable Mention:  Tidus from Final Fantasy X

I ranted about this annoying brat earlier, so as a result he receives an honorable mention.

Strange Gaming Moment: Gravemind the Talking Plant

Remember back when you had your first play through of Halo 1?  The suspense as you made your way through the dark and creepy swamp level?  The anticipation of what kind of terrifying enemy would make the Covenant run for their lives?  I admit I was a bit let down upon finding out that the main reason for the suspense was just the zombie-like Flood, but it was still a nice change of pace to have a new enemy to battle.  The Flood were a pain in the ass to fight, mainly because of how resilient they were to most weapons except the shotgun and the rocket launcher.  Even the sheer numbers of the parasitic forms could be a nightmare if your shields were down.

Go ahead, unload that entire assault rifle clip into him, he can take it.

I was content to think of the Flood as a bunch of zombies who were controlled by the parasitic forms, each with individual mindless goals (attack anything that isn't a Flood).  However, with the release of Halo 2, Bungie decided to make the Flood a hive-minded species, controlled by one supreme Flood creature.  The problem is that they chose one of the most laughable ways of doing this.  Meet Gravemind:

It's a little hard to tell from screenshots, but Gravemind is essentially a gigantic talking Venus flytrap.  Kind of difficult taking the story seriously when something so comical is introduced isn't it?  Gravemind's main goal is for the Flood to consume all sentient life in the galaxy, apparently while they all die of laughter from seeing a talking plant pretending to be a badass.

Despite all the negative feedback from Halo fans, Bungie again included Gravemind in Halo 3 as one of the main antagonists.  Thankfully the Master Chief and the Arbiter destroy him once and for all, but it remains to be seen if another Gravemind-like creature will make an appearance in Halo 4.