The Best Endings In Sci-Fi Gaming History

Sci-fi hits all kinds of notes. It can be poignant, intellectually stimulating, emotionally moving, or terrifying, depending on the subgenre and the tone it wants to take. It’s one of the most expansive genres in any medium, including video games. The thing is, no matter how imaginative a sci-fi game is, the most important thing is that it sticks the landing.

These next games do just that. They’re great throughout, make no mistake, but everything comes together in the ending. These sci-fi games wrap up with an absolutely perfect ending, drawing on everything that came before while tying the story up in a neat bow. Some of them also manage to set the stage for a sequel at the same time. Regardless of how they go about it, these games end on a high, and #1 is arguably one of the greatest endings in any video game, sci-fi or otherwise.

10

Death Stranding

Close Your Tired Eyes

• Sam and Lou’s relationship is put to the ultimate test.
• Sam makes a selfish decision, but one that he has absolutely earned.

Trying to sum up Death Stranding is like trying to sum up a university course: it’s gonna take a bit, and it still probably won’t do the full experience justice. Suffice it to say, Sam Bridges is a porter who delivers things across a post-apocalyptic landscape. He is paired with a BB (Bridge Baby) that helps him see BTs (Beached Things), which are essentially ghosts that will make you explode if they catch you. While Sam initially treats BB like just another piece of cargo, he eventually develops a deep relationship with his “baby in a pod,” even giving her a name: Lou.

There’s a lot of crazy stuff going on during Death Stranding’s ending. The President is an Extinction Entity and gave Sam his ability to return from the dead, Cliff is actually Sam’s dad, and Fragile starts her own porter service (okay, that one isn’t as crazy), but the big moment is when Lou is returned to Sam, but she’s dead inside her pod. Sam is told to incinerate Lou before she necrotizes (i.e. explodes), and that removing her from her pod is illegal. However, at the moment of truth, Sam makes a selfish decision for the first time in the entire game. He sets Lou free, and she comes back to life. Now, Sam and Lou are on the run, but for the first time in Sam’s life, he has a purpose, a family, and a home, and it just feels right.

9

Portal 2

It’s Been Fun. Don’t Come Back

• After two games’ worth of struggle, Chell finally escapes Aperture.
• It’s about as happy as an ambiguous ending can be.

The solo campaign in Portal 2 does a lot more narratively than the first game or the sequel’s co-op campaign, and it’s pretty impressive for a series that began as a student project. Wheatley, as goofy as he is, is also the AI who wakes Chell up at the start of the game, and GLaDOS is the evil AI who is using her as a test subject. Pretty cut and dry, right? Not so much. The brilliance of Portal 2 is that the whole dynamic flips in the final level.

After Wheatley gains control of Aperture, he discovers ATLAS and P-body and decides that Chell and GLaDOS are expendable, as he can run tests on the two robots instead. So what do Chell and GLaDOS do? Team up, of course. It’s a classic switch-a-roo, but it’s extra special because it involves the iconic villain from the first Portal becoming an ally. She keeps her word, too. After Chell helps GLaDOS corrupt Wheatley’s personality cores, she rips Wheatley’s core right out of his body and shoots a portal onto the moon, sucking him into the vacuum of space. Then, GLaDOS pulls her back. Not only that, but GLaDOS sets Chell free. The game ends with Chell standing in a vast wheat field after finally escaping Aperture, which is about as happy an ending as one could imagine for the character following.

8

Dead Space

All Is Not Well

• Isaac narrowly escapes Aegis 7 but discovers that his girlfriend, Nicole, is dead.
• Isaac seems to have avoided the madness that surrounds the Marker, but the game’s final scene suggests otherwise…

Isaac Clarke is only on the USG Ishimura for one reason: his girlfriend, Nicole, works there, and when the ship goes dark, he joins the rescue team to, well, rescue her. The advent of the Necromorphs, the loss of the rest of the rescue team (or most of them), and the ensuing chaos in Dead Space are really just roadblocks for what Isaac’s main focus is: Nicole.

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You can imagine, then, the crushing realization that not only is Nicole dead, but she killed herself before Isaac even arrived on the Ishimura to keep from turning into a Necromorph. Every data log and message that Isaac received from Nicole was a hallucination brought on the the presence of the Marker (which is also what brought about the Necromorphs, so obviously, it’s bad news). The worst part is that after Isaac escapes the Ishimura, destroys Aegis 7, and seems to be in the clear, the game’s final shot sees him glance over his shoulder. There, lurking in the dark of his shuttle, is Nicole’s ghostly figure. It suggests (and the remake’s secret ending confirms) that Isaac did not escape the Ishimura unscathed, and the Marker has left a permanent imprint on his mind.

7

NieR: Automata

Hope Springs Eternal

• Ends with a tragic showdown that feels both pointless and inevitable.
• Despite the whole game being steeped in tragedy, Ending E provides a glimmer of hope.

There are technically five main endings to NieR: Automata (and 26 endings total) but the one we’re talking about here is Ending E, which is earned after beating the first part of the game twice — once as 2B and once as 9S — and then completing the second part of the game and playing the final boss fight once as A2 and once as 9S. The second time you beat that final boss fight (which you can restart by loading an autosave after getting Ending C) will net you Ending D and E. Yes, it’s confusing, but it’s also worth it.

Automata’s story, while a bit convoluted, is mostly just heartbreaking. 2B becomes corrupted and knows she will kill 9S if no one stops her, so she finds A2 and begs the rogue android to kill her. 9S sees A2 kill 2B but lacks any of the context around 2B’s corruption, so he swears revenge on A2. Meanwhile, A2 didn’t want any of this and was actively trying to stay out of YoRHa’s business, yet she’s dragged into it anyway. In the end, 9S and A2 kill each other, and it feels inevitable. That’s why Ending E is so beautiful. The androids’ Pods — 042 and 153 — refuse to accept that 2B, A2, and 9S are dead, so they start collecting robot parts to rebuild them. Does it mean that things will play out any differently? Not necessarily, but these characters are all good “people” who are pushed to do awful things because they are tools of war. Now that the war is over, maybe they can find some peace in a new life.

6

SOMA

Lost The Coin Flip

• Simon’s desperate bid to rescue humanity’s collective consciousness is successful.
• However, he loses the coin flip and is left behind.

Simon has awful luck. First, he’s in a car wreck. His girlfriend dies, he survives, but he has a traumatic brain injury. He goes for a brain scan to assess the damage, and in the process, agrees to have his scan stored for future scientific research. Then, he wakes up 100 years later in a derelict science station at the bottom of the ocean after the world above has collapsed; oh, and the station is loaded with broken-down robots who speak as if they’re humans. Yikes. How did he get there? Oh boy, that’s a whole can of worms.

SOMA is all about the idea of swapping, splitting, and moving a consciousness between bodies. The Simon who wakes up in Upsilon station is not the same Simon who had his brain scanned: he’s a copy. When making a copy, there’s a 50-50 chance that the “active” consciousness is the one that will wake up in the copy. In the case of Upsilon, when Simon makes a copy, the old version is “wiped.” When Simon finds the Ark — a spaceship with all of humanity’s collective consciousness on board — he obviously wants to launch it and get his consciousness on board to get off this horrifying station, and he pulls it off. Well, almost. The game ends with Simon losing the coin flip. The Ark is launched, humanity is saved, but Simon’s consciousness isn’t the one that was uploaded before the launch. Instead, he’s stuck on Upsilon, and now the rest of humanity has left him there alone.

5

BioShock Infinite

I’m Both

• One of the most shocking twists in gaming history.
• A single decision made by Booker years before shapes both the good and evil in Columbia.

Booker DeWitt is a former Pinkerton (the precursor to the FBI), and he’s not a particularly nice man. He is hired privately to make his way to the flying city of Columbia to rescue a girl who is imprisoned there, and in exchange, his debts will be wiped away. Not a bad deal at all. That’s how BioShock Infinite kicks off. Booker goes to Columbia, finds the girl, uses her ability to rip open alternate universes to fight off giant steampunk robots, and…wait, what?

Here’s the thing: Columbia is no Rapture. Unlike the fallen underwater city, the city in the clouds is still active, but it’s under the iron fist of its zealous leader, Zachary Comstock, the man who imprisoned Elizabeth before Booker arrived to set her free. As Elizabeth opens more portals to other universes, Comstock’s past becomes clearer (as does Booker’s), but it’s only after a final twist that everything is revealed. After his return from Wounded Knee and traumatized by his role in it, Booker seeks redemption in baptism, but at the final moment, he backs out. Or at least, one version of him does. In another universe, a version of Booker accepts the baptism, becomes devoutly pious, and takes on the name Zachary Comstock. In the end, the only way to stop Comstock is for Booker to die before he decides to accept or reject baptism, and so, with multiple versions of Elizabeth at his side, Booker drowns himself in the river, thus ending Comstock before he can be created.

4

Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic (Dark Side)

Darth Revan Rises Again

• There are actually multiple endings, but the “good” ending is a bit lame.
• The Dark Side ending feels more appropriate given the huge twist earlier in the campaign.

The thing about Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is that, for many who go into the game without knowing the twist that happens before the climax, they might be inclined to play as a “good” or Light Side character. However, this is no ordinary RPG, and the protagonist’s amnesia isn’t merely an excuse for the player to project their personality onto the in-game avatar. As it turns out, rumors of Darth Revan’s demise were greatly exaggerated.

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Darth Revan, the terrifying Sith that you hear about constantly throughout the game — the one that has seemingly died mysteriously — is in fact you, the protagonist. This revelation is still one of the most shocking moments in gaming history, but it also flips the whole game on its head. While yes, the option to be a hero remains, it feels less appropriate, especially when the Light Side ending is a little sappy. The Dark Side ending is where it’s at. By taking this route, players return Darth Revan to his former glory. He kills his friend and fellow Sith, Darth Malak, turns Bastila Shan (the Jedi who wiped his memory) to the Dark Side, attacks the Jedi and the Republic, and establishes a Sith empire across the galaxy. It’s one of the most complete and purely “bad” endings in any RPG, but it fits so perfectly with a character who, for most of his time as a Sith, fought against the Jedi and the Republic and sought power above all else.

3

Citizen Sleeper

And You Join The Chorus

• There are also multiple endings here, but they are all spectacular.
• Stunning emotional weight that plays off of massive and consequential narrative choices.

If you’re a fan of tabletop games as well as sci-fi, Citizen Sleeper is basically tailor-made for you. It’s part visual novel, part RPG, and it balances both with a beautiful dice roll mechanic that informs how you’ll do in skill checks. You play a Sleeper, an android that houses a copy of a human consciousness. You escaped from a worker colony and fled to The Eye, a massive space station that stands as one of the last vestiges of freedom in the galaxy. Everything that happens during an in-game day requires a skill check, from working the docks to fleeing the bounty hunter on your tail, which is what the dice are used for.

In fleeing their old life, the Sleeper can find several ways to begin a new existence, and each one represents one of Citizen Sleeper’s eight endings (10 if you include the DLC). The Sleeper can leave The Eye with a desperate single father and his young daughter or get them tickets off the station while staying behind. They can merge with a rogue AI and help The Eye’s garden grow wild and free, or work to keep the AI under control. The crux is that every single ending is a deeply moving and emotionally resonant blend of satisfying emotional payoff and the devastating feeling of loss that comes with a conclusion. There is no “good” or “bad” ending; just a myriad of choices that lead to a way for the Sleeper to move forward.

2

The Last Of Us

Promise Me

• Joel’s past trauma pushes him to make an impossible decision.
• His choice to lie to Ellie is a gut-punch of an ending.

Most people are familiar with the ending of The Last of Us, and it’s no longer just gamers either, thanks to the successful HBO adaptation of the story. Joel and Ellie’s journey across America to hopefully create a vaccine for the cordyceps infection that ended the world is a gripping and devastating tale of loss and trauma, but it’s one that resonated with gamers around the world in large part because of how relatable the two main characters are. That extends right through to the ending and Joel’s impossible choice.

The Fireflies admit that they can make a vaccine, but Ellie will die in the process. Joel, who already lost his daughter at the start of the cordyceps outbreak, can’t stomach losing another daughter, surrogate or otherwise. He goes on a killing spree, slaughtering the Fireflies and rescuing a sedated Ellie. However, when Ellie comes to, she naturally has questions about what happened. Joel, desperate to hang on to the person who matters most to him, lies to Ellie, and the game ends right there. While this sequence of events also sets off all the tragedy in The Last of Us Part 2, the first game still works perfectly all on its own. Joel’s decision is indefensible and verges on monstrous, yet because we get to know him so well throughout the story, we completely understand why he would do it, and might even make the same decision in his shoes.

1

Mass Effect 2

That’s What Humans Do

• Your choices matter so much that some, all, or none of Shepherd’s companions will survive.
• Culminates in easily the greatest final level in gaming history.

The ending of Mass Effect 2 isn’t just perfect when standing on its own; it’s perfect because of how all of your choices throughout the game — small and large — affect the outcome of the final mission. Not in minor ways either. Party members can die, multiple of them, if the wrong choices are made, ranging from minor mistakes like forgetting to upgrade the Normandy’s armor to major blunders like sending the wrong team members to lead a second attack squad. Keeping every companion alive is a major challenge and requires precise decision-making almost from the very outset of the game.

Shepherd’s whole mission in Mass Effect 2 is to prove that the Reapers are a) a threat, and b) on their way to Earth. Stumbling upon a human-reaper hybrid in the Collector base certainly helps his case. Unfortunately, it attacks his crew, and they have to fight the giant alien off just to survive. Winning that fight is just the start; what follows is one of the most spectacular and cinematic escape sequences in gaming history. While Mass Effect 2 does a lot of work to set up Mass Effect 3, there’s a reason why many consider it to be the best game in the trilogy, and the series as a whole. It’s virtually perfect from beginning to end, but it concludes on a fantastic note, delivering an epic spectacle fit for a Hollywood blockbuster interspersed with moving character moments that leave players hungry for more when the credits roll.

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