10 Alternate Video Game Endings That DRASTICALLY Change The Story

The Last of Us: Part II is very much the odd duck on this list, as it has two alternate endings that make the story simultaneously darker and more hopeful.

In the released game, Ellie realizes the depths to which she's sunk in pursuit of vengeance and chooses to let her nemesis Abby live at the conclusion of the game's climactic brawl. The original ending, however, would have seen Ellie kill Abby in the game's finale, but this was changed as Naughty Dog felt it was truer to Ellie's character to show there was still good in her (essentially, they wanted viewers to see her as Darth Vader at the end of Return of the Jedi, rather than the relentless killing machine of Rogue One).

This ending would also have been a weird fit with Part II's other unused ending. Whereas the final shot in the finished game sees Ellie alienated, alone and unsure what to do with her life, the unseen alternate cut had her pick up a toy for their child, and head off to reunite with lover, Dina. Ultimately, the developers wanted to leave Ellie's fate up to the player's imagination, hence the ambiguity of the final cut.

Honestly, it's not hard to see why both these endings were cut. It would have completely undermined the story's theme on the futility of revenge if, at the end of Ellie's journey, the conclusion she arrived at was, "I choose to be happy now that all my enemies are dead!"