Best Surprise Endings
There are some games that pull you in with an engaging story, but you can sometimes see how it all wraps up from a mile away. There are a few titles, however, that throw in a surprise element in their final moments that make your jaw drop. They have a lasting impact on you, and you can’t wait to talk about them with your friends moments after the credits roll. According to you, the Tom’s Hardware community, the following games have the best surprise endings of all time.
One more thing: If you haven’t played these games, it’s best to not go through the following pages because of spoilers. You’ve been warned.
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15: 'Hatoful Boyfriend'
On the surface, this visual novel/dating simulator is all about school life and dating one of the many birds that attend St. PigeoNation’s Institute. The game features multiple endings depending on your actions and your overall choice of love interest. However, if you manage to get specific endings, you’ll get an option to “fulfill the promise” when starting a new game. This unlocks a new storyline, which explains the prevalence of birds attending the school. Your character, the only human student, eventually dies in this storyline and your avian comrades push on to solve the mystery behind your murder. As the game goes on you find out about the two bird factions vying for control in the aftermath of humanity’s near extinction caused by the deadly H5N1 virus.
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14: 'Resident Evil 7: Biohazard'
Capcom’s latest entry in the series takes you to Louisiana and the home of the terrifying Baker family. However, the wizard behind the curtain, so to speak, is a little girl named Eveline who has the ability to control minds. After you fight her minions and mutations, it’s revealed that she isn’t a young girl, but an old woman who continues to age after escaping her captors. When Eveline’s monster form is finally defeated, a chopper marked with the Umbrella Corporation logo and carrying soldiers arrives, and one of them is revealed to be series staple Chris Redfield. More information about Redfield is coming next week with the “Not A Hero” downloadable content, which was delayed earlier this year.
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13: 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare'
The series’ first foray into modern-day combat introduced a campaign with Imran Zakhaev, the head of a Russian ultranationalist faction, as the main villain. With a small group of elite soldiers hot on his heels, Zakhaev takes control of a nuclear launch facility and fires intercontinental ballistic missiles towards the U.S. His plans are eventually foiled as the protagonists safely detonate the missiles above the ocean. In the end, however, most of the game’s main characters are killed in a shootout with Zakhaev and his men, save for John “Soap” MacTavish, who kills Zakhaev. Unfortunately, all of the efforts were for nothing, because the entire incident was covered up, which sets the stage for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
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12: 'The Stanley Parable'
You are Stanley, a person who works in an office and has the employee number 427. As you explore your deserted building, a narrator will come along and guide you along your quest. However, you don’t have to follow his instructions. You can go in the opposite direction or open another door. Depending on the combination of your rebellion and compliance of the narrator’s commands, you’ll experience one of the game’s 19 endings. This includes getting out of the building completely, arriving at a museum, or staying in your office while the Narrator berates you. It’s your choice.
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11: 'Mad Max'
According to the mechanic Chumbucket, Max is the Driver, and he can liberate the Plains of Silence from the evil clutches of Scabrous Scrotus. Max will need to find the parts for Chumbucket’s prized vehicle — the Magnum Opus — to stand a chance against Scrotus and his gang. After gathering the parts, Max and Chumbucket eventually fight Scrotus, who fights the duo with his Land Mover vehicle. Despite Chumbucket’s insistence that Max not use the Magnum Opus to destroy Scrotus’ vehicle, he does so anyway and in the process kill Chumbucket, his long-time ally. What a lovely day indeed.
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10: 'Deus Ex: Mankind Divided'
Your choice at the end of the game impacts the relationship between natural and augmented humans. However, both endings reveal more information about the mysterious Illuminati organization and Adam Jensen’s employers, the equally secretive Juggernaut Collective. Jensen wants to expose the Illuminati and its evil deeds, but he needs to meet his main source within Juggernaut: a figure named Janus. However, the Illuminati has its own asset, Delara Auzenne, who kept a close tab on Jensen throughout the game. Under the guise of a psychologist, Auzenne can get closer to Jensen and eventually find out Janus’ true identity for the Illuminati.
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9: 'Mass Effect 3'
Bioware’s last chapter in Commander Shepard’s story was initially met with scandal due to the lack of substance in its final choices. However, the Extended Cut content gave it a bit more depth, and you could see how your actions affected other main characters. Depending on your selection, you could wipe out the entire galaxy, succumb to the Reapers’ plans, create a new species with synthetic beings, or place your hopes on the next generation.
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8: 'Remember Me'
Dontnod Entertainment’s 2013 game put you in the shoes of Nilin, who wants to reduce the Memorize Corporation’s control over the world’s population. The group’s influence on the world is due to its service, which allows people to remove and share their memories on the internet. With the help of a mysterious man named Edge, Nilin eventually arrives at Memorize’s headquarters to destroy the central server. As she’s about to destroy it, Edge is revealed to be part of the machine. He, or rather it, was created as the result of all of the discarded memories uploaded to the server.
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7: 'Half-Life 2: Episode 2'
In the final moments of the game, Gordon Freeman and his allies manage to destroy the portal opened by the Combine empire. The final push against the Combine forces was supposed to start with Freeman and the Vance’s journey to the Borealis, but it was not meant to be. Combine Advisors ambush the group and kill Eli Vance. The screen fades to black as Alyx Vance holds her father’s body and sobs.
This ending is even more significant because we’ll never get a proper conclusion. Marc Laidlaw, a designer and writer on the series, even published a potential summary for Half-Life 3. Fans will continue to hold out for a new Half-Life game, but it’s unlikely that the series will get another much-deserved installment.
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6: 'F.E.A.R. 2'
As Delta Force member Michael Becket you have to stop Alma, a being with supernatural abilities. With your newly acquired psychic powers, the showdown occurs in a secret building underneath Still Island, but the plan goes awry. You are then trapped inside a massive psychic chamber with Alma, who gives you another nightmarish hallucination. She then conceives a child with you, and as the game ends, she puts your hand on her belly as you faintly hear the word “Mommy,” signaling the eventual birth of another being with terrifying abilities.
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