Top 10 Worst Game Endings

Telltale's 2015 adventure game promised that choices would matter, then delivered a finale where virtually every outcome was predetermined and miserable regardless of player decisions. The Forrester family suffered no matter what, and the "your choices will have consequences" message felt like a cruel joke.

Bungie's 2004 sequel built toward an epic climax, then cut to black mid-sentence as Master Chief said "Sir, finishing this fight." The abrupt cliffhanger after a Covenant-focused final act left players staring at their screens in disbelief, and the three-year wait for Halo 3 felt like an eternity.

Gearbox's 2009 looter shooter spent 30 hours promising an incredible alien vault full of treasure, then delivered a tentacle monster boss fight and an empty vault. The anticlimax was so universally mocked that Gearbox turned it into a self-deprecating joke in the sequel's marketing.

Ubisoft's 2018 open-world shooter allowed players to spend 40 hours liberating Hope County from a doomsday cult, only for the "good" ending to reveal the cult leader was right all along as a nuclear bomb detonates. The resist ending negates every player action and rewards the villain.

Kojima's 2015 magnum opus infamously shipped without its true final chapter, Mission 51, due to Konami's rushed deadline. The actual ending revealed that the player was never Big Boss at all, a twist that felt less like a revelation and more like a punishment for investing 80 hours in a character who did not exist.

Ubisoft's 2012 entry resolved the Desmond Miles modern-day storyline by having him touch a magic sphere and die, ending a five-game arc with an anticlimactic sacrifice that the franchise immediately abandoned. The present-day story was the series' throughline, and this ending proved Ubisoft had no plan for it.

Techland's 2015 zombie parkour game spent 20 hours building tension through excellent open-world survival gameplay, then ended with a QTE fistfight against the main villain on a rooftop. The final boss of a first-person action game was a series of button prompts, making the climax feel like a mobile game.

id Software's 2011 post-apocalyptic shooter built an intriguing wasteland and surprisingly good gunplay, then ended abruptly after the player pressed a button and watched a brief cutscene. The non-ending was so sudden that players checked online to confirm they had not encountered a game-breaking bug.

Obsidian Entertainment's 2004 RPG masterpiece was forced out the door by LucasArts before it was finished, resulting in a final act where plot threads vanished, companions disappeared, and the climactic confrontation felt rushed and incomplete. The Restored Content Mod proved how brilliant the ending could have been if Obsidian had been given three more months.

Telltale's 2015 adventure game promised that choices would matter, then delivered a finale where virtually every outcome was predetermined and miserable regardless of player decisions. The Forrester family suffered no matter what, and the "your choices will have consequences" message felt like a cruel joke.

Bungie's 2004 sequel built toward an epic climax, then cut to black mid-sentence as Master Chief said "Sir, finishing this fight." The abrupt cliffhanger after a Covenant-focused final act left players staring at their screens in disbelief, and the three-year wait for Halo 3 felt like an eternity.

Gearbox's 2009 looter shooter spent 30 hours promising an incredible alien vault full of treasure, then delivered a tentacle monster boss fight and an empty vault. The anticlimax was so universally mocked that Gearbox turned it into a self-deprecating joke in the sequel's marketing.

Ubisoft's 2018 open-world shooter allowed players to spend 40 hours liberating Hope County from a doomsday cult, only for the "good" ending to reveal the cult leader was right all along as a nuclear bomb detonates. The resist ending negates every player action and rewards the villain.

Kojima's 2015 magnum opus infamously shipped without its true final chapter, Mission 51, due to Konami's rushed deadline. The actual ending revealed that the player was never Big Boss at all, a twist that felt less like a revelation and more like a punishment for investing 80 hours in a character who did not exist.

Ubisoft's 2012 entry resolved the Desmond Miles modern-day storyline by having him touch a magic sphere and die, ending a five-game arc with an anticlimactic sacrifice that the franchise immediately abandoned. The present-day story was the series' throughline, and this ending proved Ubisoft had no plan for it.

Techland's 2015 zombie parkour game spent 20 hours building tension through excellent open-world survival gameplay, then ended with a QTE fistfight against the main villain on a rooftop. The final boss of a first-person action game was a series of button prompts, making the climax feel like a mobile game.

id Software's 2011 post-apocalyptic shooter built an intriguing wasteland and surprisingly good gunplay, then ended abruptly after the player pressed a button and watched a brief cutscene. The non-ending was so sudden that players checked online to confirm they had not encountered a game-breaking bug.

Obsidian Entertainment's 2004 RPG masterpiece was forced out the door by LucasArts before it was finished, resulting in a final act where plot threads vanished, companions disappeared, and the climactic confrontation felt rushed and incomplete. The Restored Content Mod proved how brilliant the ending could have been if Obsidian had been given three more months.