10 Intense Video Game Endings That Blew Us Away
5. L.A. Noire
L.A. Noire certainly subverts expectations during its final batch of cases, as LAPD detective protagonist Cole Phelps ends up demoted to the Arson unit after his extra-marital affair with Elsa Lichtmann is outed to the press.
For the bulk of the finale, players instead fill the shoes of private investigator Jack Kelso, as he and Phelps pursue deranged arsonist Ira Hogeboom.
In the last mission, Phelps ends up sacrificing himself in order to help rescue Jack and a kidnapped Elsa from a flooding sewer, ultimately being swept away before he can also escape.
As if that's not galling enough, L.A. Noire gets even bleaker in the home stretch, as is customary for the noir genre.
Phelps' corrupt former partner Roy Earle gives a totally disingenuous, dishonest eulogy at his funeral, and never gets his comeuppance for causing Phelps' demotion in the first place, an act which effectively sets the events in motion leading to Phelps' death.