Having recently completed #BioshockInfinte, I thought I'd write a post about the best game endings I've encountered. It goes without saying that there are major #spoilers here, so please look away now if you don't want to know the ends of various titles.
Title: Bioshock Infinite
I am in awe of how many disparate themes and subjects Bioshock Infinite managed to dove-tail together and still remain coherent in its own universe.
While fighting your way to the end of this game, you will encounter the following themes; megalomania, quantum physics and the theory of multi-dimensions/time-lines, religious extremism and ultra-nationalism, thoughts and musings on justifiable violence and the affects that War and P.T.S.D can have on a person, musings on period racism and eventual revolution and uprising, and also (eventually) the theme of family and protection. Its the big reveal that at the end, where you find out that you are both the protagonist and the antagonist thanks to hopping dimensions and encountering many alternate time-lines and versions events, along with the idea of a single, seemingly small event can cause a huge change, causing the butterfly effect that was truly mind-blowing.
The brief sojourn into the undersea City of Rapture along with the many doors/lighthouse level is well-placed, serving to push home the infinite possibilities present and also anchoring the idea of all the alternate universes; "There's always a Man. There's always a lighthouse, there's always a City" (I also enjoyed the quip by Booker Dewitt about how "stupid a city under the sea" is...
But the thing that affected me the most (once the plot had fully unraveled in my brain) is the theme of family, protection and the mistakes that can be made. Having to press <X> to hand over your daughter Anna Dewitt/Elizabeth was hard to do, along with the reveal as to how she lost her little finger when you attempted to reign on the deal. Not to mention the guilt in the fact that its 2 different versions of yourself ruining her life in various different ways (neglect, torture, abuse), basically meaning that you're the cause of all her suffering across many dimensions and time-lines which hit me pretty hard. Depending on how you analyse the ambiguities in the story your character either willingly sacrifices himself or is drowned in an act of vengeance by a group of his multi-dimensional-daughters gives a real punch to the gut also. Theres also the additional questions raised after the credits finish rolling, where Dewitt hears the baby crying in her crib, but we never get to see if shes actually there or not.
Lets just say its one of the few times I've sat, mouth agape at the ending...
Lets just say its one of the few times I've sat, mouth agape at the ending...
Title: Mafia
The original Mafia game, ended up getting somewhat lost due to the release of #GTA3. However, it could be argued that this game had better graphics, shooting, physics and plot. The story revolves around Thomas Angelo, and his rise through the ranks of a Mafia Family, and his eventual double crossing of said family. The game's story and missions include various nods to the Godfather, Goodfellas and any number of other popular mafioso films you'd care to name. T
The plot unfolds in as part of a flashback, whereby Tommy is recounting his story to a police officer as part of a deal to get him and his family relocated and protected by selling out his former Mafia boss; Don Salieri.
What hit home about this story is that your two cohorts who you've fought with, bled with, rescued, partied with and carried out countless bloody missions ended up turning on you. Paulie decided to try and get out with his mafia money to escape and open a restaurant - and ends up getting whacked (because you can never leave the Mafia). And Sam ends up siding with the family for personal gain, and tried to Tommy out in an epic shootout inside a fine art filled museum.
The final twist in the plot comes after being accepted into the Witness Protection Program in return for information you have after being tied to the Mafia family for years, Tommy is tracked down as an old man, and given both barrels of a sawn-off shotgun to the head in an act of Omerta. Even though Don Salieri has rotted and died in prison long ago, the Mafia has remembered your past betrayal and waited until you've lived your full life to take you out for your transgression so that you have more to lose and feel the blow to an even greater extent...
What hit home about this story is that your two cohorts who you've fought with, bled with, rescued, partied with and carried out countless bloody missions ended up turning on you. Paulie decided to try and get out with his mafia money to escape and open a restaurant - and ends up getting whacked (because you can never leave the Mafia). And Sam ends up siding with the family for personal gain, and tried to Tommy out in an epic shootout inside a fine art filled museum.
The final twist in the plot comes after being accepted into the Witness Protection Program in return for information you have after being tied to the Mafia family for years, Tommy is tracked down as an old man, and given both barrels of a sawn-off shotgun to the head in an act of Omerta. Even though Don Salieri has rotted and died in prison long ago, the Mafia has remembered your past betrayal and waited until you've lived your full life to take you out for your transgression so that you have more to lose and feel the blow to an even greater extent...
Title: UFO: Enemy Unknown/X-COM
This is mentioning the very original X-Com game from the 90's and not the recent reboot (although I assume that the recent reboot treads a similar path).
Most of the story in #XCom is attributed to what happens during your play through of the game. It's created in the moments on the randomly generated battlefields - the losses of your best soldiers, the researching of new alien technology to start turning the tide of the war to save the Earth. It's only in the last 10% of the game, through research and capturing certain aliens and tech that the story closes itself (in classic B-Movie style) to reveal that the aliens are in fact invading from Cydonia on Mars! The last mission is only as great as you make it, although some pressure is added when it's pointed out to you that this is probably a one-way ticket for the soldiers you send to Mars, but the feeling of finally besting your foes on their own soil on the very last mission is a palpable thrill!
Title: Halo: Combat Evolved
Halo changed modern FPSes for ever introducing many mechanics that are considered mandatory today. The plot of Halo was a good (but never great) story of a Covenant of Aliens that need vanquishing. What made the ending of the original Halo so great, is that is it didn't follow the usual escallation of many shooters, presenting you with a massive 40ft bullet-sponge to take down at the end of the game. The end, sees you racing to the Pillar Of Autumn to set the ship to self-destruct to destroy Halo before the platform fires and eradicates all life as we know it in the known Universe.
Not only does returning to the Pillar of Autumn take the Master Chief full circle, returning him to the ship in which your adventure begins, it also sets up one of the more surprising and thrilling endings in video games. After the self-destruct sequence, instead of watching (the expected) cutscene of you saving the Universe, players are placed back into the #Warthog and tasked with racing to the safety of an escape pod while all hell breaks loose. This is special for a couple of reasons; one is threw away convention by not giving you a huge villain to kill and save everything we know and hold dear. And two, it put control of the final sequence of the game squarely in the players hands - completing the final death-defying jump in the Warthog, to board the escape pod and escape the ring-world by the skin of your teeth is made all the more sweeter by the fact that you did it yourself!
