8 Most ANTI-CLIMACTIC Video Game Deaths
4. Cole Phelps - L.A. Noire
L.A. Noire's bleak ending has left players divided ever since the game launched in 2011, concluding with the shockingly sudden death of protagonist Cole Phelps.
In the final stretch of the game, Phelps is demoted to the Arson unit after his extra-marital affair with Elsa Lichtmann is made public, and players instead take control of private investigator Jack Kelso.
But because this wasn't enough of an indignity, the final mission also sees Phelps help Jack and Elsa escape a flooding sewer, before being swept away to his demise.
While it is a heroic death, it's hardly the badass blaze-of-glory many envisioned for Phelps, enough that many surely expected him to re-appear alive in the game's final scene.
The fact that this all happens at Phelps' lowest point personally, and that those who set Phelps' downfall in motion seemingly get away with it, ensures it all leaves a massively sour taste.
But even accepting that L.A. Noire's third act was very clearly rushed, the disappointment is surely the point - the film noir tradition is defined by bittersweet, unsatisfying endings in which the hero might die an ungracious death while the villains get away scot-free.