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Top 15 Worst Video Game Endings of All Time Ranked

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Ignacio Weil

Gaming - January 13th 2026, 17:00 GMT+1

Tlou 2 ending msn — 15. The Last of Us Part II (2020)

Santa Barbara has all the makings of a final chapter that should let the story breathe – then it tightens into one more grim loop. Ellie cuts Abby down from the pillars, only to force a brutal fight that plays out less like justice and more like compulsion, and the last-second mercy can feel like the game slamming the door before you’re ready. *The Last of Us Part II* ends with Ellie paying for everything: two missing fingers, an empty farmhouse, and a guitar she can’t play the same way anymore. The message is clear, but it lands harshly because the finale offers consequence without the release that players expect after that kind of emotional marathon. | © Naughty Dog

Deus Ex Mankind Divided — 14. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (2016)

The ending hits with momentum, then cuts away right when the larger story should finally show its hand. You get a high-stakes London mission, outcomes shaped by who lives and what you manage to expose, and a sense that the world is on the verge of a major reveal – except it never arrives. In *Deus Ex: Mankind Divided*, the immediate crisis wraps up while the conspiracy driving the game remains basically untouched, hanging there like an unfinished sentence. Even the final sting leans into sequel bait, which might be exciting if the rest felt complete; instead, it reads like the last act got held back. | © Eidos-Montréal

Alone in the Dark 2008 cropped processed by imagy — 13. Alone in the Dark (2008)

Right at the finish line, the game asks you to make a choice that sounds dramatic and ends up feeling more like a trap. Sarah’s fate becomes the whole conclusion, and both routes in *Alone in the Dark* steer toward bleak outcomes that don’t illuminate the bigger supernatural mess the story has been building. One ending leaves Edward overtaken, the other leaves him defeated and hollow, and neither provides the kind of clarity – or catharsis – that a finale needs. Instead of a climax that ties the chaos together, it closes with a sour, abrupt punch that can make the entire plot feel like it was heading nowhere. | © Eden Games

Far Cry 2 ending — 12. Far Cry 2 (2008)

Everything about the Jackal suggests a payoff is coming: the speeches, the obsession, the way he haunts the story like a walking thesis. Then the finale arrives and reduces the entire campaign to a bleak exit strategy where your reward is basically disappearance. In *Far Cry 2*, the closing decision revolves around sacrifice – either you die to stop the soldiers chasing refugees, or you secure their escape and then end your own life. It’s bold, sure, but it also shrinks a sprawling conflict into a final note that can read as “nothing changes,” leaving players with resignation instead of resolution. | © Ubisoft Montreal

Fable 2 ending — 11. Fable II (2008)

The game spends hours telling you this confrontation matters, and then lets the villain collapse in seconds with barely a fight to speak of. Lucien delivers his final speech, you can shoot him immediately, and if you don’t, someone else will – an anticlimax that makes the whole Spire build-up feel strangely weightless. After that, *Fable II* pivots into a reward-choice screen (resurrect the dead, bring back your loved ones, or take the money), then caps it with a quiet power move that undercuts the point of the journey. It’s not the darkness that disappoints; it’s the sense the finale takes a shortcut when it should be landing a story. | © Lionhead Studios

Fahrenheit Indigo Prophecy ending cropped processed by imagy — 10. Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy (2005)

The first half plays like a sharp supernatural crime thriller – then the finale detonates into something else entirely. What started as a grounded hunt for a possessed killer ends with factions fighting over the Indigo Child, reality-bending powers, and a climax that leans hard on frantic quick-time sequences instead of a coherent payoff. *Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy* gets criticized because the ending doesn’t feel like the natural conclusion of its own mystery; it feels like the game swapped genres midstream and expected you to follow on faith. Even when it wraps up Lucas and the detectives on paper, the tone-whiplash is so aggressive that it can make the earlier, stronger chapters feel like they belonged to a different story. | © Quantic Dream

Batman Arkham Asylum — 9. Batman: Arkham Asylum (2009)

The atmosphere does so much heavy lifting – creepy corridors, Scarecrow nightmares, Joker’s escalation – that you expect the last fight to match the slow-burn tension. Instead, the finale goes for spectacle with Titan Joker: a hulking, muscle-bound transformation that clashes with the character’s usual brand of cunning menace, followed by a boss encounter many players remember as more annoying than climactic. *Batman: Arkham Asylum* also ends with a tidy “Batman wins” beat while hinting that the Titan problem isn’t really over, which can leave the conclusion feeling like a strong game settling for a weaker last impression. When your closing minutes are less “legendary showdown” and more “why did we do this,” it sticks. | © Rocksteady Studios

Borderlands final boss cropped processed by imagy — 8. Borderlands (2009)

Pandora sells you a fantasy: chase the Vault, get rich, uncover something bigger than all the bandits and bullets. Then the Vault finally opens and the “treasure” payoff turns into a monster fight with the Destroyer that many people found underwhelming – visually messy, mechanically simplistic, and nowhere near as rewarding as the journey promised. The bigger problem is what comes after: *Borderlands* rolls out a quick wrap-up that feels like a shrug, with little sense of discovery or emotional punctuation for the Vault Hunters you’ve been dragging across the desert for dozens of hours. For a loot-driven shooter, the ending’s lack of satisfying loot and closure is basically the cardinal sin. | © Gearbox Software

Halo 2 ending cropped processed by imagy — 7. Halo 2 (2004)

One line became legendary for the wrong reason: “Sir… finishing this fight,” and then – credits. That hard cut is the core complaint, because *Halo 2* spends its final stretch escalating toward a decisive confrontation and instead stops mid-stride, leaving major arcs hanging and the immediate threat unresolved. Cliffhangers can work when they feel like a deliberate chapter break; here, it can feel like the last mission is missing, especially if you went in expecting a complete campaign rather than a bridge to the next game. The Arbiter’s thread gets momentum, the Chief’s story hits ignition, and the ending chooses anticipation over payoff – great for hype, rough for satisfaction. | © Bungie

Prince of persia ending — 6. Prince of Persia (2008)

The most frustrating part is that the game *does* land a bittersweet sacrifice… and then takes it back. After spending the whole journey healing the land and building the relationship, the finale asks you to accept a costly, meaningful ending – only for the Prince to undo it by resurrecting Elika and releasing Ahriman in the process. *Prince of Persia* isn’t hated because it’s tragic; it’s divisive because it makes your victory feel reversible, like the story’s emotional peak gets overwritten by a selfish choice you can’t really debate or avoid if you want to see the “real” ending. It’s bold, it’s memorable, and it can also feel like the game yanks the floor out from under everything you just worked for. | © Ubisoft Montreal

Assassins Creed 3 ending — 5. Assassin’s Creed III (2012)

Five games of modern-day buildup hinge on a single button press, and the payoff still feels like a rug being pulled. Desmond saves the world from the solar flare, but the price is his life – and the “victory” comes packaged with Juno’s release, turning the finale into a trade you don’t get to negotiate. *Assassin’s Creed III* doesn’t just end a story; it abruptly removes the present-day lead the series had trained you to follow, then leaves the biggest consequences dangling for later. Even if Connor’s Revolutionary War arc wraps cleanly enough, the overall ending lands sour because the franchise’s long-term plotline closes with sacrifice, setup, and a strange sense of being mid-sentence. | © Ubisoft Montreal

Cropped Rage ending — 4. RAGE (2011)

The last mission is framed like a turning point: storm the Authority’s stronghold, flip the advantage, and finally get answers about who’s really running the show. What you actually get is a straightforward shootout that plays like a slightly louder version of what you’ve been doing for hours, capped by a few switches and a quick cinematic before the credits crash in. *RAGE* became infamous because the ending doesn’t feel like a climax – no memorable final boss, no satisfying revelations, and barely any time to sit with the fallout. It’s the kind of finish that makes you check the menu, convinced there has to be another mission hiding somewhere. | © id Software

Cropped Call of Duty black ops 7 — 3. Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 (2025)

The finale goes for shock-and-awe, but it lands closer to “wait, *this* is the last hurdle?” than an earned crescendo. Right when the story should tighten its threads and pay off the paranoia it’s been building, *Call of Duty: Black Ops 7* pivots into a big, videogame-y boss encounter against a giant human tank of a final enemy – an oversized “dude” fight that feels ripped from a different genre. It’s loud, it’s absurd, and it can be fun in the moment, but it undercuts the campaign’s tone by turning the climax into a bullet-sponge spectacle. Then, just as you’re expecting a real wrap-up, the ending snaps into a tidy debrief and a teasing tag that points forward again, making the whole conclusion feel like a launch ramp instead of a finish line. | © Treyarch

Fallout 3 ending cropped processed by imagy 1 — 2. Fallout 3 (2008)

The entire journey points you toward Project Purity, so reaching that control room should feel like the moment the wasteland finally exhales. Instead, the ending pushes you into a “heroic sacrifice” frame so hard that it can come off as forced – especially when you have companions who are literally built to handle radiation. *Fallout 3* drew heat for moralizing the finale, with narration that can still scold you even if you pick the most logical option, turning a smart decision into a supposed character failure. Later additions let the game continue and soften the finality, but that only highlights the original problem: the ending wants one kind of drama, even when the rest of the game is about letting players solve problems their own way. | © Bethesda Game Studios

Cropped Mass Effect 3 ending — 1. Mass Effect 3 (2012)

Everything funnels into that final sprint – earth in flames, the beam, Anderson, the Illusive Man – and then the trilogy’s biggest promise gets distilled into a small set of color-coded outcomes. You meet the Catalyst, pick between Destroy, Control, or Synthesis, and watch variations of the same closing sequence play out with different flavors of “space magic,” regardless of the dozens of decisions that shaped your Shepard across three games. *Mass Effect 3* landed in the hall of infamous endings because it can make players feel like their choices were reduced to a last-minute lever pull, with key questions left hanging and consequences shown in broad strokes. Later updates add more context and aftermath, but they don’t change why the original finale stung: after years of investment, the last word felt more like an outline than a goodbye. | © BioWare

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You know that moment when the credits hit and your first instinct is to pause – just to check if you accidentally skipped a scene? It’s not sadness, not even shock. It’s that blank, irritated silence that follows a finale that doesn’t earn the hours you just gave it.

These are the endings that leave a smudge on everything that came before: the last-minute twists that don’t add up, the abrupt cutoffs that feel like missing chapters, the big “choices” that land like a shrug. Spoilers ahead, obviously – and a few entries that can still start arguments in group chats like they launched yesterday.

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You know that moment when the credits hit and your first instinct is to pause – just to check if you accidentally skipped a scene? It’s not sadness, not even shock. It’s that blank, irritated silence that follows a finale that doesn’t earn the hours you just gave it.

These are the endings that leave a smudge on everything that came before: the last-minute twists that don’t add up, the abrupt cutoffs that feel like missing chapters, the big “choices” that land like a shrug. Spoilers ahead, obviously – and a few entries that can still start arguments in group chats like they launched yesterday.