Video Game Trilogies With the Worst Endings
Fable
When the first Fable game was released, it was met with great critical success. Not only was it one of the Xbox’s first successful RPGs, but it was brought to the genre a slew of innovations that made the game feel unique in a number of ways. For the first time on Xbox, almost every choice you made in the game was met with a tangible effect in the game world, and more literally, a visible change in the way your character looked. The combat was easy to learn but took hours and hours to master. The world of Albion was a shift in the genre — where many games rooted themselves in dark and desperate worlds, Albion was playful, colorful and charming. When Fable 2 was released, it improved upon the many systems of the first Fable and brought with it innovations that made it feel fresh in the genre of RPGs.
When Fable 3 was announced, fans of the genre were excited to see how it would improve upon the second and how, like the rest of the series, it would remain newfangled in the crowded fantasy-RPG landscape. Sadly, upon its release, the world quickly saw that it didn’t really do anything new, save for a new story that was, unfortunately, the most lackluster in the series.
Whereas Fable 2 built upon the incredible foundation Fable created, Fable 3 felt more like a DLC pack to 2 more than anything else. The combat was the virtually the same, except in 3, there was almost no challenge attached as you could cheese any enemy by simply spamming magic. The world of Albion received nothing more than a small facelift and a touch of industrial revolution. The only part of the game that didn’t feel like a continuation was the story.
The plot of Fable 2 was great and urged the character forward. The plot of Fable 3, though, only became worse as it went on, to the point where by the end, it was laughable at best. You had just taken over the kingdom of Albion and freed it from the shackles of your evil brother. What’s next? How about instead of exploring this rich, fantasy universe some more, you sit on a throne and make decisions like a king. This could have been done well, but in the end, your time as the king amounted to maybe two hours of gameplay where you make on-the-fly decisions before heading into battle against an invasion you don’t really care about.
Video Game Trilogies With the Worst Endings
Dead Space
The first Dead Space game was an exciting take on the survival-horror genre. It was everything people loved about games like Resident Evil, except instead of a spooky mansion, it was an abandoned spaceship. Not only was it a great survival game, but it was fun and generally terrifying. It also brought with it tight and excellent gameplay and a well-constructed story. Dead Space 2, while not as rooted in survival-horror as the first, brought changes to the franchise that made it feel different and unique. Dead Space 3, while different and unique, took the franchise to a place nobody was asking for. Fans wanted the survival-horror action they had come to love in the series but instead, were given a Michael Bay take on the series. The set pieces reached extravagant heights, explosions happened at every corner, and much like most of Bay’s movies, the plot was predictable.
A love triangle for Ellie? Really? And on top of that, making her new boyfriend the enemy made the already tropey use of a love triangle feel that much more unbearable. As if that wasn’t enough, Visceral Games seemingly forgot how to create horror.
Whereas the best horror games rely on more than simple jump scares and instead utilize scenarios that really chill the bones of players, Dead Space 3 found itself relying on a random necromorph popping out of a vent you just opened time and time again. Going through there? Surprise! Necromorph. Opening a door? Surprise! Necromorph. To make matters worse, EA introduced microtransactions into the series. While there’s no confirmation that Dead Space 3 killed the series, we haven’t seen another one since and today, Visceral Games is no more.
Video Game Trilogies With the Worst Endings
Arkham Knight
Batman: Arkham Asylum, when released, was the best Batman, nigh, superhero game ever made. When Batman: Arkham City was released, it took that title for itself. Sadly, Batman: Arkham Knight wasn’t able to do the same. It came nowhere near that title either. Arkham Knight is in no way a bad game, per se, but it’s a bad Arkham game. The first two games in the trilogy, and even the prequel, sat high on the pedestals of video game storytelling.Their plots were unique, exciting, fun and most of all, inherently Batman.
In Arkham Knight, any somewhat-seasoned Batman fan could have called the identity of the Arkham Knight right from the get go. That’s because the plot of this trilogy finale is the same storyline that sees Jason Todd as the Red Hood. Jason Todd is brutally beaten by the Joker. He’s angry with Batman for failing to save him. As a result, he exacts revenge on Batman as a masked villain. This plot was exciting 20 years ago in comic books; not so much in what should have been the greatest superhero game of all-time.
Beyond the story, the game also implemented the one thing that players have wanted since day one: the Batmobile. Instead of relishing in the joys of driving one of the greatest vehicles in pop culture, players were forced to endure lengthy, repetitive and worst of all, boring missions in the tank-mode of the Batmobile. They even botched a boss fight with one of Batman’s greatest adversaries, Deathstroke, by turning it into a tank-on-tank fight. Arkham Knight, I love you, but you were not the Batman video game we needed or deserved.
Video Game Trilogies With the Worst Endings
Assassin’s Creed
Assassin’s Creed 3 is a fantastic video game — and I know it’s very divisive to say that — but it is a terrible finale to the Assassin’s Creed “trilogy.” The setting of Assassin’s Creed 3 is rich in history, just as it should be prime for assassinating targets and most importantly, paved the way for the open-world nature the series has since adopted. The character of Connor, while not near as charismatic or as fun as Ezio, tells a story unique to the Revolutionary-War era. We know how the British felt during this time. We know how the colonials felt during this time. But Connor told us what some of the Native Americans had to say, a viewpoint rarely (if at all) seen in this medium. The character of Desmond, on the other hand, gave us nothing more than a lackluster and unenthusiastic finale to a story that otherwise should have been revealing, climactic and more.
Players had been slowly learning the story of the First Civilization and the never-ending war between Templars and Assassins for years. Desmond was set to be the modern-day Assassin, and with Assassin’s Creed 3 being touted as the game that would finally give us that, it was no surprise that fans of the series were filled with anger when Desmond spent 95 percent of the game parkouring in a cave.
The evil First Generation character, Juno, was primed to reveal herself, but instead of learning of Juno’s true powers and seeing them on display, she was quickly brought to an end (and really, before she even began) with Desmond sacrificing himself for…reasons. Simply put, the finale to this trilogy should have seen Desmond adopt the assassin persona he had been growing into in order to take on the templars and ultimately, Juno. Instead, he parkoured in a cave and somehow ended the imminent destruction of the world at the hands of Juno (and let’s face it, we all wanted to at least get a taste of what that looked like) by sacrificing himself.
Video Game Trilogies With the Worst Endings
Mass Effect
You knew this one was coming. Honestly, what more can be said about Mass Effect 3 and the way it put a dark mark on the Mass Effect trilogy that hasn’t already been said. Mass Effect 1 and 2 were built on the premise that your choices mattered and that the Shephard you played as would see lasting consequences as a result, and to their defense, they did. Mass Effect 3, for obvious reasons, was built on this same premise, but when it came time for the series to reach its climactic finale, players saw that in reality, none of their choices really mattered. With all of the different variations possible in the way the stories in all three play out, it was safe to assume that 3 would end with a finale that reacted to those variations. Instead, players basically had to choose one of three options and truth be told, none of the given options were all that exciting.
As a result, virtually all of the Mass Effect fanbase found itself at odds with BioWare and so much so that BioWare eventually created free DLC to remedy the anger of disgruntled fans. While it didn’t correct the problems with 3’s ending, it did give players a glimpse at what happened next in the world of Mass Effect and how the characters they had spent years exploring the galaxy with fared after the final choice players made. It wasn’t a fix, but it was a nice gesture and BioWare’s way of acknowledging their mistake. Sadly, the last bit of goodwill that this DLC earned BioWare would go up in flames with the release of Mass Effect Andromeda. Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately depending on how you look at it, it doesn’t look like we’ll be getting a trilogy based on that game anytime soon, or ever.
