6 More Video Game Endings That Were Profoundly Insulting

Half life 3 confirmed? Those four words became the basis of a meme even greater than Valve's other contribution to internet copypasta: ‘The Cake Is A Lie’. And it was not for no reason. Half Life 3 is arguably the most widely anticipated game of all time that never got released, and now inevitably never will. After Marc Laidlaw released Epistle 3, a lightly codified synopsis of the plot Half-Life 3 would have taken, fans were left with the unassailable likelihood that this was the closest we would ever get to closure on the series, and left Half-Life 2: Episode 2 as the de facto last entry in the franchise.

The game closes with Gordon Freeman and Alyx preparing to leave and search for the Borealis, an Aperture Science vessel which went missing and holds an immensely powerful and secret cargo that will hopefully come into use against the Combine. At the last moment however, Alyx’s father Eli is killed, and the game closes with Alyx weeping over her father’s body.

In terms of cliffhangers, the ending is excellent, but seeing as this is the end of the Half-Life series, it’s one of the most profoundly disappointing endings in gaming history. It’s not really the developers' fault, at least if we assume that they intended to complete the series eventually, but it has forever left a sting in the tail of one of the greatest video game series’ of all time. Everyone loves Half-Life, and the knowledge that this is where the story ended is as devastatingly disappointing as any game ending could be.