10 Video Game Endings That Totally Trolled Players

As developers should know, there’s one major thing that gamers really enjoy: being given a satisfying reward or pay-off for their actions.

They’ll go to the trouble of farming bosses in Borderlands, Monster Hunter and the like for rare loot. They’ll complete the most infuriating and/or tedious deeds in a game to unlock the secret ending. All they ask is that their effort is worth it.

What’s more irksome than a game that a player has been utterly engrossed in having an unsatisfying ending? An ending in which the developers openly troll their players, that’s what. A harmless joke is one thing, but some games go far beyond that.

Whether it’s a complete bait and switch, a mocking non-ending for completing the game in question on easy mode or a final plot twist worthy of M. Night Shyamalan himself, here are ten titles with some of the most trolly endings in video games.

As was the case with Borderlands, No Man’s Sky continually drives players forward toward an ultimate goal and the potential for great rewards that awaits there. In this case, that end goal is the mythical center of the universe.

Of course, No Man’s Sky is a title revolving around the concept of boundless opportunities and limitless exploration (at least, that’s the concept), but still: there’s an ultimate endgame in mind. Sadly, though, it disappointed in this area, only adding a further layer to the complicated PR web the game has managed to weave around itself.

In the run-up to launch and beyond, the great mysteries that lie at the center of the universe were touted as the primary reason to play. The overarching objective. It takes quite some time to accumulate everything needed to reach the center, and when you do, you simply watch your craft rocket away, emerge in a different region of space with almost nothing and essentially begin the entire game again.

Meanwhile, successfully completing the Atlas quest sees the player birth a new star, supposedly, to absolutely no fanfare or in-game reward at all (beyond the whole seeing black hole things, which is kind of handy).

No Man’s Sky has certainly come on in leaps and bounds since its awful launch, but these were the sorts of decisions that cost the game so dearly.