Players love to see the main characters whose shoes they’ve worn for so many hours meeting a soothing fate, but sometimes we get something else. Some games, even seemingly unassuming ones, might feature dark endings. And, hell, some of these “bad” endings can provide deeper way more thought-provoking experiences than a happy ending could ever hope to. Here’s a list of the best protagonists who suffer the worst fates.
8. Harry Mason from the Silent Hill series
In the original Silent Hill, Harry Mason is already reeling from the loss of his wife when he loses his young daughter. By the end of the game, he only kind of manages to rescue his daughter. This guy goes through a lot.
He goes on to have a cameo appearance in Silent Hill 3, though he doesn’t go on to finally find some solace. He gets disemboweled by a monster while waiting for the daughter that he misses so much.
Good thing he at least doesn’t have to witness her vomiting a living monster, right? Here’s to silver linings.
7. James Sunderland from Silent Hill 2
James Sunderland is already reeling a lot when the game begins, but things don’t necessarily get better for him by the end of it.
We learn later in the game that James is responsible for a deed so terrible that he thought going to Silent Hill, of all places, would be the only way to find redemption.
There’s no good ending for James Sunderland in Silent Hill 2. He’s done a very bad thing, and, even though no one else is blaming him, he cannot avoid blaming himself. He’s going to have to have to carry that weight.
6. Solid Snake from the Metal Gear Solid series
Solid Snake was aging very quickly during the events of Metal Gear Solid 4, so I’m assuming he must be dead by now. He should’ve gone out as a hero at the end of MGS4, or, better yet, at the end of MGS2 because the story of 4 was just way too wacky.
I imagine Snake must have spent his last few days rambling about huge robots and transplanted arms that possessed people to nurses who thought he was completely out of his mind.
Well, at least he didn’t have to attend that awkward wedding at the end of MGS4.
5. The protagonist of Inside
Throughout most of Inside, we play as an unnamed kid as they try to survive dozens of carefully lined-up deadly traps. The game is bleak enough as is, but things still manage to get much, much worse.
Spoilers:
By the end of the game, we have no choice but to enter a weird contraption. That doesn’t turn out too well, as the contraption turns the child into an amalgamation of who knows how many human bodies. It’s like that big monster from The Last Of Us Part 2, except we are the ones controlling it. The game provides no cure, no escape from that ailment. The best the players can do for this monstrosity is to find a nice resting place under a soft beam of sunlight.
4. The guy from Quake 4
The war against the Strogg is going pretty well up until halfway into Quake 4, but then something terrible happens. First, the Strogg forces capture the main character in a moment we can’t QuickTime-event ourselves out of. Then, they bring the main character to their Stroggification facility, and we see the entire process. It’s pretty graphic.
Weirdly, even though our character turns into a cyborg, we don’t really get many physical perks out of that upgrade. Still, the “Stroggification” is by far the most memorable moment in the game, so that’s something.
The main character goes on to play the main role in destroying the Strogg’s leadership, but there’s no way of retrieving his human body parts. Here’s hoping that the inhabitants of Quake IV‘s Earth are cool with war-effected war heroes that look just like humanity’s greatest enemies.
3. The original Lara Croft from the Tomb Raider series
As old-time fans of the Tomb Raider series surely remember, Lara Croft died at the end of Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation — OR DID SHE? Like, she’s alive at the beginning of The Angel Of Darkness as if nothing had happened.
No, she did die, or at least that’s what Core originally intended. There’s a deleted scene that shows a shaman resurrecting Lara, and that’s why she’s in The Angel Of Darkness. That’s why she’s alive again out of nowhere when the game starts.
Anyway, just to make it clear, Lara’s sad fate isn’t death. It’s that the developers forced her out of her deserved rest to have her star in the game that sent the series into dormancy.
2. Raziel from the Soul Reaver series
In the intro of Legacy Of Kain: Soul Reaver, we see Raziel, Kain’s first lieutenant, getting his wings torn off for a transgression he had no power over — that of involuntarily growing wings.
Kain casts him into a water-filled abyss, a destiny that sounds cool, but actually sucks if you’re a vampire because water is like acid to them in this universe. Raziel slowly dissolves for millennia and is then brought back to life to get his revenge.
In the original vision for Soul Reaver, Raziel would get to kill his malefactor by the end of the game, but the development hit a few snags and the team had to cut the final section of the game. In the game that we ended up getting, instead of getting revenge, Raziel gets a cliffhanger. That was actually good, because Soul Reaver became a hit, and an open ending paved the way for sequels. These sequels, however, culminate with Raziel finding not solace, but further imprisonment — this time inside the titular Soul Reaver.
And maybe the people at Crystal Dynamics wanted to bring Raziel back at some point, but that series died so hard that it has already resisted a few attempts at resurrection, so I’m assuming Raziel will spend a few more eons in prison.
1. The Nameless One from Planescape Torment
The Nameless One from Planescape Torment is the quintessential RPG character. No name, no memories, but there’s a twist. Though he has no recollection of his past, he does have one — and it’s bad. Yeah, it turns out that Mr. Nameless hasn’t always been a kind soul, and there’s no alternative to atoning for his sins by the end of the game.
The Nameless One has to spend the rest of his infinite days on an endless battlefield in a hopeless attempt to make up for his actions.
Published: Oct 20, 2023 11:36 am