Video games set expectations. However, this isn't just in advertising and previews, but in playing the game itself. From beginning to end, games are a package deal. The title and menu screens can set tone, while the initial tutorials and levels give the player an idea of what's to come.
Any game (or movie, series, etc.) can have an excellent premise and brilliant execution. But, all games need to end. The early days of the arcade provided titles that were technically "endless" that continued to grow in difficulty until the player ran out of quarters. Since then, the industry has evolved, developing games with plots that have conclusions. There are exceptions like Massively Multiplayer Online titles, which depend on the continual addition of content to prolong their lives. However, most games have a clear-cut ending, be it a final resolution or an open-ended cliffhanger.
These endings depend on the expectations of the audience, built up (or undermined) by hours of prior gameplay. When finishing a game, a terrible ending can derail the entire experience. Meanwhile, a good ending can act as the cherry on top of the immersive ice cream sundae of an amazing gaming session. Such endings can even redeem an imperfect title's earlier missteps.
Of games with botched endings, the most notable contemporary example is that of Mass Effect 3.
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| AKA The Game With The Endings That Were ALL The Same |
It was an ending that caused so much negative feedback from diehard fans, that the scandal caused developer Bioware to revise it in order to more fully meet their expectations. Many game journalists and reviewers have covered this subject to death, and thus, I feel it has been talked about sufficiently enough. Instead, I want to talk about a game that fulfills the opposite side of that spectrum: Pandemic's final game, The Saboteur.
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| Check out my brief review at shortgamereview.com! |
By the time I reached the ending, most of Paris was liberated by my allies, the resistance, enveloping each zone in bright color as opposed to the black and white occupied zones punctuated by the red of Nazi propaganda. All that remained was a single area, the Eiffel Tower, the most emblematic symbol of Paris and France.
Approaching the area on foot, a haunting piano aria echoed throughout the underbelly of the landmark, looping endlessly. I notice the mini-map blipping with enemies who disappear as soon as they pop up. Surveying my surroundings, I realize that Nazis are throwing themselves off the top of the tower. They are killing themselves.
This took me completely off-guard. Whenever the game had tried pulling off drama, the inconsistent tone usually deflated any suspense, most notably when the ridiculously designed Super SS attack the resistance HQ. This was becoming something completely different.
I began ascending the tower via an elevator. Each trip was deliberately slow, allowing the player to view both Paris with the plummeting foes in the foreground. The first level up was covered in elaborate dinner tables, occupied by Nazi grunts, slumped in their chairs, dead. It looked like there had been a celebration earlier. A Nazi desperately tried to warn me that his commander has gone mad, but he is gunned down by an unseen shooter. I run to the opposite side of the level to take another elevator, reaching the VIP level. A scripted sequence shows a woman, presumably a prostitute, pleading for her life, only to be killed by a deranged Gestapo officer who then turns the gun on himself. I noticed the piano aria had been growing louder as I approached, revealing that the music had been coming from another Gestapo officer, playing on a grand piano. As I entered the suite, he stopped playing, quietly indicating that the commander was upstairs. The VIP area was full of officers who had lost the will to live.
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| Note the color scheme |
At last, I reached the final elevator, taking me up to the highest observation deck. There lied the commanding officer, the main antagonist of the game whom the main character had sworn vengeance upon. A lower officer was pleading that the failed occupation was not his fault, but is shot for his insolence. The villain then noticed me, noting how it's appropriate that I would appear, indicating that he had run out of bullets. He briefly attempted to dissuade the character from killing him, saying that revenge would not make anything better. Nonetheless, my character then withdrew a Luger, aiming it at his foe. At this point, the player could simply shoot the villain and that would be it. However, Pandemic programmed an alternative. If the player doesn't shoot, the enemy would back away, diving off the Eiffel Tower to his death, liberating that final key area.
The entire ending is extremely powerful, taking irredeemable foes and making them pitiful, destroyed by their hubris, now fated to burn for eternity. It left an impression on how powerful an ending can make or break a game. I remember The Saboteur because of that scene. And I don't remember many games very well. It's a game that I gladly replay to experience that amazing ending once more.
There are so many ways of delivering a satisfying ending. Sometimes it can be achieved by simply having an amazing final boss like Doom's Cyber Demon or Bowser in Super Mario 64. It's a means of taking the regular gameplay's escalation of difficulty and applying it so that the boss enemies are the hardest to beat. It's a logical progression that satisfies the player's desire to face tougher challenges. It's a great way to end a game.
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| A giant demon cyborg. Need I say more? |
Sometimes, other routes are taken. Games are often grounded in reality and thus, enemies cannot be behemoths, but regular humans using technology or other means to create a challenge in defeating them. This can be a simple quick-time-event that requires a simple press of a button as is the case in most of the Modern Warfare games.
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| Namely this one |
What I like about The Saboteur is that it followed a rarely tread path, toying with audience anticipation and springing a true surprise. This can be pretentious like with Braid's puzzling atomic bomb ending following it's fantastic twist exposing the protagonist as an antagonist who kidnapped the damsel-in-distress. The Saboteur's ending does not feel obnoxiously preachy or ham-handed, instead delivering a memorable experience.
That's how far a spectacular ending can push an average game into hidden gem status. While this will not save a developer from ruin, as was sadly the case with Pandemic, it certainly builds an experience worth remembering.
At its core, gaming is fun. And while having entertaining core mechanics and stories are important, having a good ending makes the gamer want to keep a game for the sake of replaying it and reliving its best moments. It increases the value of the end product much further, pushing gamers to buy rather than rent or sample. It's important to create something that stands apart from its peers. Many AAA games often lack the cash or good writing to create a good ending. Many publishers think that it doesn't matter, but it certainly does if a good series incites online protests from skimping on an ending. It is as significant as any other part of the game!
For all you developers out there, please work on making the best conclusions you can! Just because you have a great beginning and middle, doesn't mean that the end should be any less.
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Thanks for reading! Apologies for my 5 month hiatus! I'm hoping to start posting more regularly on whatever gaming or anime topics spring to my head. See you next time!
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