8 Video Games Where The Best Ending Is Impossible

Even 50+ years since their inception, all most video games will ask of the player is to overcome the obstacles in their path and defeat the Big Bad in order to secure victory and save the land, rescue the princess or take over an entire criminal empire (delete as appropriate).

Of course over time, the moral choice has become increasingly popular, rewarding players with alternate endings based on the decisions they've made throughout.

Most of the time, however, this boils down to simply choosing the option that's in red or blue text when prompted, or deciding whether you want to wedgie the patrolling guards into unconsciousness or slit them up with your overly ornate knife.

Not every game's endings are quite so heavily telegraphed, mind you.

Some titles shroud their diverging paths in seemingly innocuous dialogue choices or story decisions, leading to a dreaded downer ending you could never have foreseen without clairvoyance, or a wiki open in a different window.

Others even require the player to carry out actions so completely unintuitive and arcane that a bad ending is almost guaranteed, ensuring you don't get the best ending until some time later.

Lucas Pope's bureaucracy-and-poverty simulator Papers, Please has an impressive 20 endings, only 3 of which could be argued to be "good". The first 17 end with either your arrest, death, or arrest and sentencing to death, while the final 3 all present some degree of cautious optimism.

Will you stay unwaveringly loyal to your oppressive nation and keep your job at the expense of your principles? Will you escape with your family to a neighbouring country that may not be much better than your home? Will you aid a revolutionary force that could be just as corrupt as the regime they overthrow?

Escaping to the neighbouring Obristan requires the player to illegally confiscate up to 6 Obri passports without being caught by officials (which will likely lead to wage deductions or arrest). Given the eagle-eyed nature of your superiors, this is no easy task.

Helping the Order of EZIC to overthrow the Arstotzkan government is even more complex and risky.

The player must allow several EZIC insurgents into the country, poison an anti-EZIC assassin and detain a foreign diplomat whilst allowing another EZIC agent through the checkpoint in disguise. If caught by Arstotzkan officials at any point during the game, you are immediately arrested and it's back to the start. Without some serious espionage chops, there's little hope for you.