8 Video Game Stories That Waited Years To Be Resolved
Imagine waiting 18 years to find out what happens next.
A great ending can really propel a game from a level of mediocrity upwards. Those final moments are the payoff that can make anything worthwhile, rewarding you for your time and showing you that it was all investing in.
We want to be killing the bad guy and rescuing our princess, not seeing a black screen after a big reveal. Ultimately, us players just want a little bit of closure and a warm, satisfying feeling in our belly as the credits roll. Sure, leave the story open-ended if you must, maybe a little teaser after the credits but no one wants a decade long cliffhanger.
We’re looking at you, Valve.
This list will focus on those rare games that did, after all those years, resolve their stories, and they don’t have to be massive cliffhangers, either. A loose thread, a character arc, a suspected death or in some cases, actually giving us the next part of the story you chopped off the end of the last game.
Some sequels may never release but while we wait, we’re here to look at the games that took years to resolve their story.
8. Halo 2 - Finishing The Fight
Halo 2 is a weird one in regards to unresolved endings because ultimately, it wasn't the original plan.
There wasn’t supposed to be a cliffhanger at the end of the game but due to time constraints, it had to happen. Developers of the sequel have stated that its release came down to the wire and that extra few weeks of polish the previous game received just wasn’t there. They had lines recorded, assets ready but they couldn’t implement a final mission or proper send-off which matched the ending and tone of Halo 2.
Players were all ready to head to Earth, to finish the fight and kick some ass. But then, the game just ended.
Fans had to wait three years and leap into the next generation of consoles, from original Xbox to Xbox 360, before they could regroup with Master Chief and the Arbiter.
What’s worse is that wasn’t the last time Halo hit us with a cliffhanger, with Halo 5 leaving a pretty big plot point open between Cortana and her newfound AI.