Four Cliffhangers We Hated in Games We Loved

We were watching the end of The Walking Dead’s big cliffhanger event last night and we couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. Waiting all summer to see which of our beloved characters was going to die was kind of a strange idea for a cliffhanger anyway, and the actual resolution was brutal, painful, and miserable. Needless to say, we wished we had been playing games instead. Games aren’t immune to bad cliffhangers, however, and some of our favorite games of all time are great examples of terrible cliffhangers. Here are four games we loved (that you should go out and play right now!) that had terrible cliffhangers.

Legacy of Kain: Defiance

I really loved the Legacy of Kain series. The games that focused on Kain as a regal vampire lord were good, but I really loved playing as the Nightcrawler-resembling Raziel. Both characters star in Defiance and the plot switches between them, Halo 2 style. The game is solid no matter which character you play and culminates in a battle between them in which you play both characters (super cool!). The game tells a very complicated story involving a long history of supernatural events and Elder Gods and it can be difficult to end a story like that satisfactorily. Unfortunately, the very end of the game leaves you with a frustrating amount of loose ends and promises for a real battle to come. I really hate when games promise that the next battle will be the real one; I always ask, then why didn’t they just make that game?

There’s gotta be a sense of closure out here somewhere.

Beyond Good and Evil

Beyond Good and Evil is an excellent game with a terrible title. It provides a beautiful world to explore, fun characters to interact with, and great gameplay (your hero’s staff is a fun weapon to wield). In the game, you play as Jade who runs an orphanage and earns money as a photographer (I was always really impressed with the picture-taking component of the game that allowed you to earn money by taking pictures of rare animals) and you spend the game working with your allies to repeal an invading alien force. These allies are also well crafted characters, particularly Pey’j, the humanoid pig who is a great mechanic and uncle-figure. The game ends with the revelation that Pey’j has been infected with an alien disease, leaving us to wonder what happened to him. I understand that games often like to build interest in a sequel, but ending a terrific game by leading us to wonder the fate of a beloved character was a real irritating misfire (did you hear that, Walking Dead?).

Ending this game with Pey’j in jeopardy was frustrating, especially since we never got a sequel.

Halo 2

You could almost hear a collective scream of rage for gamers who finally finished the Halo 2 campaign. Most Halo fans were fine with the introduction of the Arbiter, even if his story pulled us away from Master Chief for long segments. Introducing a secondary character was bold; however, the Arbiter was interesting, different, and voiced by Keith David, and his interspersed missions were diverting enough that they rounded out Halo 2 really well. We thought for sure we’d return to Master Chief for the final level, but instead we would only return to Master Chief for a few seconds at the tail end. Master Chief announces he’s here to finish the fight – and then before he can do so – we cut to black. It was an agonizingly irritating way to end a game and left players for no resolution to this story for years.

I really think Halo 5 could have used more monkeys with hammers.

Half Life 2: Episode 2

Of course, when it comes to cruel cliffhangers, nobody beats Halflife 2. We were thrilled to see the Orange Box recently added to the backward compatible games on Xbox One. Halflife 2 is the highwater mark of first person shooters; there’s never been a FPS as successful at providing a world we wanted to explore and characters we care about as Halflife 2. The game ends on a hugely frustrating note, though, as Alyx and Gordon are preparing to seek out a mysterious ship before being attacked by powerful aliens. They’re rescued but not before Alyx’s dad gets killed, leaving her sobbing as the screen fades out. As a player, you’re attached both the Alyx and her dad, and you immediately want to see how Gordon gets vengeance. Unfortunately, that game never arrived, and as we prepare to celebrate the ten year anniversary of Episode Two next year, we will light a candle for all the promised sequels that never arrived.