10 'Emotional' Video Game Endings That Fell Completely FLAT
3. Wanted: Dead
Ah, Wanted: Dead. One of the best-worst games of all time, it's only fitting that it's conclusion is as bizarre and tonally off-beat as the rest of the experience.
The conclusion to 2023's roughest diamond sees heroine Agent Stone making a tearful call to an adoption agency regarding a child whose parents died in a murder-suicide case earlier in the game. Stone's conversation with the boy at the scene of the crime is genuinely touching, but that doesn't excuse how farcical her decision to adopt him is.
Like most of Wanted: Dead's storytelling, there's no build-up to Stone's decision to adopt this child - the first we know of it is during her tearful call to the agency. The player is clearly meant to cry along with Stone when her request is denied, but instead we're left scratching our heads at why she made the effort in the first place. As far as we know, she only ever had the one conversation with the child, and her lifestyle isn't exactly conducive to healthy child-care - hell, the scene ends with her apartment being swarmed by a special forces team out for her blood!
Like most of Wanted: Dead's plot, Stone's thwarted adoption is dumped into the narrative with absolutely no regard for narrative cohesion, plot relevance, or basic common sense. Just one more reason Wanted: Dead is the video game equivalent of The Room...