What Ever Happened To Good Video Game Endings?

I have just defeated Rage on PS3. Where I should be feeling triumph and self satisfaction all I can feel is a white hot, uh, rage. The reason for this is that Rage has one of the most appalling endings to be found in a video game. I’m not even talking about the ending cinematic, which in itself is uninspired, but the pinnacle of actual game play left much to be desired. As the credits rolled after my 20 second or so ending movie I was left cursing, posing such questions as “Are you fucking kidding me?” and “That was the best Id could do?” To try and distract myself from this outrage I thought back to all the great endings to games I had witnessed recently. Uncharted 3 – I found it disappointing, Assassin’s Creed 2 – Meh, Duke Nukem Forever – Oh God No!! Batman: Arkham City is the only game in recent memory where I quite liked the ending (although the final battle with Clayface kind of ruins it). This got me thinking, are good video game endings a thing of the past? Do game developers now put so much emphasis on getting you gripped by the story and game play that these are paramount over a decent conclusion? In short what ever happened to good video game endings?

Before I get into this question I feel I should justify my disgust at the ending of Rage. For those of you that are not familiar Rage is the latest first person shooter to be made by Id, the minds behind Doom and Quake. As an FPS fan I couldn’t wait to dive into the game and for what it is worth I quite enjoyed the game proper. It looks magnificent and although the game play can get slightly repetitive the controls and weapons available are quite impressive. This however is made null and void when you reach the climax of the game and yes I am going to reveal the ending so if you wish to avoid spoilers I suggest going and finishing the game so you can experience my point first hand. Ok, to give you a brief rundown on the plot you are an Ark survivor who joins a resistance to uproot a tyrannical post-apocalyptic regime. I know, Id get zero points for originality but I digress on that point. Anyway the climax of the game has you invading the headquarters of the evil regime (sorry I have already forgotten what they were called) to hack into their main frame to find the locations of other Arks in the world. As I wandered through the same silver halls fighting the same three soldier types over and over again I held in the back of my head that I would eventually reach my goal and a giant battle droid would be blocking my path, or some kind of enhanced cyber ninja akin to Raiden out of Metal Gear Solid 4. I ascend to the top of the tower I have been climbing to reach the mainframe. I flick the switch to boot up the mainframe and I am informed this will take time. All of a sudden my years of video game experience kick in. This is it, the final boss and I am fucking ready!! I am then attacked, one at a time, but what could only be described as Timesplitters. This procession of needless massacring occurs for about three-four minutes and then I am ready to flick the next switch to continue the boot up process. Once again I am attacked by Timesplitters. This process repeats two more times and then that is it. I have defeated the game. For a game that actually has end level bosses in other levels for this to be the ultimate battle is underwhelming. What made this worse was that I had been given an “Authority Minigun” for use in this assault. Thinking I would need this for the final boss I managed to get through the entire level with my regular weapons so as soon as a Timesplitter appeared I pink misted it’s ass with the most powerful weapon in the game! I will admit that I was playing on Normal but I seriously think even on Nightmare this wouldn’t be a massive challenge. With that I strapped myself in for the ending cinematic because I thought with that piss poor boss fight they must have put more thought into the actual conclusion of the game. What I got was the boot up sequence of the mainframe, a map of the Earth showing all of the Ark locations and then a transition to one of the Arks coming out of the ground and opening. Fin.

Decent Game. Shit Ending!!

For mine the ending of a video game consists of the two very aspects I mentioned above; the final boss fight and the ending cinematic. As I hope I made it abundantly clear above Rage failed dramatically on both counts. What seems to be the convention for this current generation of games is that they are so focused on cramming as much as humanly possibly into the game itself that the ending suffers. The best example I can give you of this is Bethesda Game Studios. Now before people start going ape shit I love Bethesda. I own almost every RPG they have released and have loved playing each one. However when it comes to the endings of those RPGs I think saying they’re shit is an understatement. I loved Fallout 3 and New Vegas so much I went out of my way to get the platinum trophy for both because the depth of game play was unbelievable. The problem I had was that the game moved you to play these additional bits because they were always far more interesting than the main story line. When you focus on additional bits to a story it is quite easy to lose focus on the main storyline. I am currently playing Skyrim and the having the same problem. The Dark Brotherhood storyline I thought was far more compelling than the main plot. I haven’t even finished Skyrim yet because I am afraid that the ending will not live up to the rest of the game.

The issue of having too many optional extras in a video game was not as prominent back in the 8 and 16 bit eras. This was mostly because the whole game was the main story line. There was no messing about with side quests or menial collection objectives to pad out the game. You simply busted your ass to get to the end of each section of the game laid in front of you. I already know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that endings of games in the 8 and 16 bit eras were hardly spectacular. With the exception of Bionic Commando were Hitler’s head explodes at the end you were normally greeted with a weak bit of text and some even weaker animation. I will concede that this is how most games ended in this era of gaming. However you were so chuffed that you defeated these games that you really didn’t give two shits about the ending. Ask anyone who has beaten Battletoads if they remember the ending. Guaranteed they won’t remember the ending but they will definitely remembering beating that game! It was this sense of pride that made it worth it, something which is also sadly lacking in the current generation of consoles. With the obvious exception of the Demon Souls series the difficulty seems to be somewhat removed from newer games. Sure you can ramp up the difficulty which will make it more challenging but it feels artificial. In the 8 and 16 bit eras you didn’t really have a choice of difficulty. You were simply saddled with how nut achingly difficult the game was and it was up to you to power through it. Now if you set the difficulty up on a game and reach the end, you will have some satisfaction at seeing the end but in the back of your mind you know some noob has seen the same ending playing on pissweak difficulty. Takes some of the gloss off doesn’t it?

Epic!!

Ok, so having identified that current generation video games have issues with too much content and a lessened sense of accomplishment detracting from the conclusion how do we go about fixing this. While this may sound over simplified this is the best I can come up with. Have more of an emphasis on narrative. Now while I’m not saying you have to go to the extremes that games like Heavy Rain do, being interactive dramas, I believe that if you start developing a game by properly planning a base narrative it would improve the ending vastly. To give you an example of what I mean one of the endings to a video game that has stuck with me was the ending to Final Fantasy: Crisis Core. Without going into too much detail this was the prequel to Final Fantasy VII (and the only reason to buy a PSP) that told the story of Zack. Now if you had already played Final Fantasy VII you knew a bit about Zack and you had an idea as to where the story was going (knowing that Zack is dead when Final Fantasy VII takes place). As you send Zack on the path that would ultimately lead to his demise you really start to feel involved with the story, wanting to overwrite the inevitable. The final fight of the game is Zack fighting an unrelenting wave of Shinra soldiers until you succumb to this never ending fight and watch Zack die. While the idea of an unwinnable fight is not unheard of to end a game on it I think was quite an ingenious idea. It is your will keeping Zack alive and your ultimate decision to let him fade away. I’m not saying this is the answer to every game but making the player feel more involved in the ending will go a long way to making a more memorable conclusion.

Perhaps they will re-release this on the PS Vita?

As I conclude this article I am starting to wonder, am I in the minority here? Is the rest of the gaming community fine with 50+ hours of game play surmised by 1 minute of rubbish? If that is the case then good luck to you all but for me I am still going to expect that a conclusion to a video game be parallel to those of their cinematic cousins. After all this the way that video games are heading so I don’t think it is unfair to ask. To not sound like a hypocrite I believe I should end this article well so I end it by revealing that the whole time writing this I have been…… a ghost…. From the future……. Who may also be Keyser Soze!! Oh well at least I tried.