10 Seriously Dark Video Game Endings
Yup, Ciri can die if you play bad enough.
Getting to the end of a video game is no easy feat, I just rolled credits on Persona 5: Strikers a couple of days ago and there’s something so satisfying about a heartwarming conclusion, but not every game wants to give you the warm and fuzzies at the end.
If you’ve been a WhatCulture devotee for some time you’ve probably already experienced for yourself or heard about epicly dark endings like those of Spec Ops: The Line and Shadow of the Colossus. Now, these are some incredible endings but I want to dig into some other truly depressing finales.
10. The Last Of Us
Yeah, okay, I said I wasn’t going to cover any obvious choices and now I’ve gone with Last of Us but this ending is brutal in a whole bunch of different ways, so on the list it goes.
After one of the most brutal beginnings of all of gaming, The Last of Us takes you on a journey centred around Joel and Ellie seeking a cure for the zombie plague--I’m sorry--Cordyceps fungus outbreak. Ellie appears to be the key as her infection never transformed her into a mindless cannibal, as such she seems to be immune.
Come the end of the game, post plenty of clicker-dodging and Joel and Ellie bonding, Ellie is rendered unconscious by almost drowning, and the two are captured by a Firefly patrol. Back in the Fireflies base, Joel discovers that the way they are intending to create a vaccine is to remove part of Ellie’s brain, which will kill her. Well, he isn’t about to let that happen. He bursts into the operating room and kills the lead surgeon along with anyone standing between him and their freedom.
The final nail is when Ellie comes to, on the drive out of the city, when she experiences survivor’s guilt and Joel lies to her. He insists that the Fireflies discovered plenty of other people immune to the virus and concluded there was no way to make a cure after all.