10 Saddest Video Game Endings Of All Time

After John Marston's first encounter with his old gang leader doesn't go so well, John finds shelter with the MacFarlanes. His titular redemption begins with some farm work before continuing on, traversing southern USA and Northern Mexico, hunting down his old gang and doing good deeds – with the occasional town shoot-out and gambling binge to see him through – until he at last brings his former mates to justice and rides home to be with his family, settling into the life of a farmer.

Then the Bureau turn up at his doorstep, ready to take down the final member of Williamson's gang. Despite John's best efforts, he is out-manned and out-gunned, and we are left to watch with tragic inevitability as he makes his final stand from his barn, only to fall dead beneath a hail of bullets.

Of course a few years later son, Jack Marston, gets his revenge – but this is little consolation for the loss for one of the last true cowboys who we knew had genuinely redeemed himself.