Poll of the Day > How do you feel about multiple ending horror games where every ending is bad?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Assuming you like or have played multiple ending horror games.
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Am I supposed to have a feeling towards them
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I think all horror games/movies should have "bad" endings.
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What games? Like for examples?

I think it should have a good ending, but it's one that's very hard to get...
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MICHALECOLE posted...

What games? Like for examples?

It's not a horror game but a good example is Far Cry 5. 3 different endings and the "happiest" ending is the bad guy simply being left to do whatever the hell that he wants.
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Keebs05 posted...

MICHALECOLE posted...

What games? Like for examples?

It's not a horror game but a good example is Far Cry 5. 3 different endings and the "happiest" ending is the bad guy simply being left to do whatever the hell that he wants.

Thats not.. a horror game though..

MICHALECOLE posted...

Keebs05 posted...

MICHALECOLE posted...

What games? Like for examples?

It's not a horror game but a good example is Far Cry 5. 3 different endings and the "happiest" ending is the bad guy simply being left to do whatever the hell that he wants.

Thats not.. a horror game though..

He did seem to mention that, as well. Like as a disclaimer...
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I wouldn't even play a game like that. Sorry but I don't get along with tragedies.
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Assuming that my character survives and escapes, I guess I'm otherwise fine with it. If all endings are bad for the protagonist, it begs the question why bother playing the game at all since nothing is accomplished? >_>

Coincidentally, it's why I hate disaster movies where everybody dies yet the disaster is dragged out. Perfect Storm being a good example. I'm somewhat less annoyed when horror movies end that way, although the handling for most of the "everybody dies" endings is usually pretty poor.
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Zeus posted...

Assuming that my character survives and escapes, I guess I'm otherwise fine with it. If all endings are bad for the protagonist, it begs the question why bother playing the game at all since nothing is accomplished? >_>

That's kind of how I feel.

I get horror games are supposed to be scary and put you in a bad situation, but to me the point of horror games is overcoming that bad situation.

If every ending is bad, you didn't accomplish anything. You've just been wandering around accomplishing nothing, and it feels like you wasted your time.
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Horror or not so long as they arent all stupid i dont mind there only being bad endings. Would prefer more actually.
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Wouldn't bother me a bit if all the endings are bad as long as all the endings were well written.
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I like hyphenated words better.

And numbers that are written-out.

But, I am not against starting a sentence with a conjunction.
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On one hand, I admire having no good outcomes to a game narrative, because it's in keeping with the genre (especially games that are leaning hard into Lovecraftian sort of flavor). Establishing rules where you can WIN in a horror scenario help make the horror less frightening. True horror is when you feel absolutely helpless in the face of your ever-approaching doom.

That being said, I don't think it makes for enjoyable gameplay. Which is probably one of the reasons why I rarely play horror games.



Keebs05 posted...

It's not a horror game but a good example is Far Cry 5. 3 different endings and the "happiest" ending is the bad guy simply being left to do whatever the hell that he wants.

The happiest ending is when you give up 5 minutes into the game. Not because you're leaving him to do what he wants, but because there's at least some implication that the government will still try to bring him in, but they'll send more than three people next time (and you won't be one of them). And because it doesn't end in an automatic failure state ending, which is what happens when you play the game, no matter what you do.

It's part of the series' newly established tradition that the best possible outcome is always to not actually play the game.

It's also one of the reasons I didn't bother buying the game.


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Zeus posted...

Coincidentally, it's why I hate disaster movies where everybody dies yet the disaster is dragged out. Perfect Storm being a good example. I'm somewhat less annoyed when horror movies end that way, although the handling for most of the "everybody dies" endings is usually pretty poor.

That was a true story though.
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I prefer it. Although what would be even more intersting is to always have the ending be at least partially bad, but with the potential to be partially good.

In one scenario, you screw up badly and everything goes wrong, no one survives. In another you could end up saving these characters, but as a result something happens to that other character.

And the best part would be saving everyone but a single character. Then you'd feel really bad. And we're playing a horror game so that's half the fun.
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I guess the problem is, as soon as there's a good ending, it invalidates all the bad endings and completely changes the meaning of the end of the game. all of a sudden it's about winning when it should be about making difficult/impossible decisions.
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Sahuagin posted...

I guess the problem is, as soon as there's a good ending, it invalidates all the bad endings and completely changes the meaning of the end of the game. all of a sudden it's about winning when it should be about making difficult/impossible decisions.

You could use that logic on any choice based game.
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Revelation34 posted...

You could use that logic on any choice based game.

sort of yeah. the same problem exists in any situation with choice: given two options A and B, it wouldn't make sense to make A a choice with a good outcome, and B a choice with a bad outcome, unless it's a riddle or something. (or even like that there are clues that B would be a stupid thing to do and A a smart thing to do; in that case you're rewarding the player for paying attention, though it could hurt replay value once you just know 'always A'). rather, to avoid that issue, the outcomes shouldn't be black and white, but complementary shades of gray (or maybe starkly contrasted outcomes but for role-playing purposes where you could have obviously good choice and obviously evil choice, or choice that benefits either faction A or B, etc.).

but for the horror game thing... the existence (or lack) of a good ending seems pretty significant, regardless of all of the above (depending precisely what 'good ending' means). it's a pretty big thematic difference. almost changes the genre if you overdid a good ending. if everyone CAN get out alive, then that's what you aim for, and anything less is some kind of loss. that's changing the genre of the game, or something.

on the other hand, something seems off if we say "horror must always have a bad ending", too.
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