10 Video Games That Totally Nailed Their Final Levels

2. Mass Effect 2

It's always great when a game builds towards a single, monumental event and then doesn't disappoint. Almost from the very beginning of Mass Effect 2, the player's end goal is set in stone - Commander Shepard is going on a suicide mission. An alien race known as the Collectors are attacking Earth's colonies and abducting humans; Shepard's mission is to travel to their base and defeat them once and for all. Of course, to add a bit more pressure to the situation, no ship has ever returned from that specific area of space. Everything the player does in Mass Effect 2 leads to that point. Acquiring team members and gaining their loyalty is a vital step in completing the suicide mission; characters who aren't loyal to you may very well end up dead when all's said and done. The build up is great but the final section delivers just as much - at certain points the player has to decide which of their party will perform certain tasks or actions - a thorough knowledge of your crew and their skills is essential as picking the wrong character for the job leads to disaster. The high-stakes nature of these moments adds a tactical element to the final mission and it's exciting to see it all unfold. Plus, as the Collector's base has never been explored by man, it genuinely feels like Shepard is adventuring into the unknown; it's quite unnerving at times. The suicide mission lives up to it's name, helped by the fact players get to witness the consequences of their actions throughout the game firsthand - a rare thing in gaming. Bioware didn't just dodge a huge anti-climax here, they also happened to make one of the best final levels in gaming history.