Finishing Strong: The Importance of a Satisfying Ending

by Michael Moreno

Storytelling plays a vital role in the world of video gaming.  A story, regardless of how feeble it may be, gives the player a purpose.  It is a driving force that validates their progression from level to level.  The story provides you with your goal–an ultimate achievement which ensures that if you reach a point of frustration, you steel yourself and press onward instead of throwing down the controller and walking away. 

Unfortunately, sometimes developers forget that the falling action of a video game’s story can be just as important to achieving a feeling of success and accomplishment as the rising action and climax.Players devote a significant amount of time into video games.  Depending on the genre, length of story, and difficulty, we’re talking several hours of sedentary thumb-flailing.  As a gamer, I like to know that all of the time and energy I put into these imagined worlds is worth something in the end.  I look forward to games delivering a satisfying ending after the final push and climactic boss fight.  Not only do I look forward to it, I expect it.   A satisfying ending should not be an option, but rather an essential component of the gaming experience.

These thoughts were spurred by my recent completion of 2K Boston’s BioShock.

The beginning doesn’t give you much story to chew in the way of story.  You begin on a plane, said plane crashes, and before you know it you’re traveling to the bottom of the ocean to begin your adventures in the city of Rapture.  I wasn’t bothered by the lack of any kind of in-depth introduction to the world.  In fact, I was enthralled by it.  The sudden drop into the game world left plenty of room for plot development during gameplay, a thought that made me excited to play the game and find out exactly what was going on.  My mouth was watering at the potential for plot development within. 

BioShock’s overall story was…adequate.  That didn’t bother me though.  Just because I had very high expectations doesn’t take away from the fact that it was an entertaining story overall (regardless of how transparent).  The finale is not what got my blood boiling either, even though it was a pathetic excuses for a final showdown and did not deserve the title of “boss fight”.  

It was the ending–or lack thereof.  <spoilers> Having taken the “evil” route (harvesting the Little Sisters for my benefit) I was presented with a short ending showing that the splicers escaped to the surface to assault the world of man through my own intervention, and vaguely implies a dim future for the world thanks to my uncompromising evil-ness. </spoilers>

…and that was it.  After devoting an estimated 15-20 hours of gameplay, I was rewarded for my work with a minute long video that showed the same enemies I had spent the entire game brushing aside jumping around on a submarine with some background narration.  I was left with vague implications and no solid information about anything.  Nothing about my character’s fate, the actions of those still alive in the city, or the city itself.  I looked up the “good” ending online, and found it goes a bit farther, letting you know what happens to your character and some of the other Rapture citizens in the long run.   Still, it too was a pretty weak ending.

Was the lack of a fulfilling ending some form of punishment for choosing a course of action 2K had deemed evil?  Or was it a lack of imagination within their staff?  Maybe they were just lazy.  Regardless, when the credits rolled all I could do was stare in disbelief, mouth agape, angry that I had wasted all that time for nothing, when I could have been playing a game with a substantive story like Fallout 3. 

Imagine yourself about to finish an opponent in Mortal Kombat.  You fought a hard match and it came down to the wire, but now your opponent stands before you, dizzy from his beating and waiting for your finisher.  You enter the button combos, ready to obliterate your enemy for even contemplating fighting against you.  But, you didn’t enter them perfectly and instead of transforming into a dragon and biting your opponent in half, you hit them with a weak punch, sending them toppling to the ground.  The fight is over and while your opponent rests in a pool of his own blood, you wade in a pool of disappointment.

Do not misinterpret:  this is not a bash on BioShock.  It just had the poor fortune of being the latest game to disappoint me in such a fashion since I started this blog.  

To be a contender in today’s next-gen gaming market, you have to do more than provide a title with solid gameplay and graphics.  A video game is a total package.  If you don’t think you can provide a fulfilling story, than don’t try to fake it.  There are plenty of games that focus entirely on entertaining gameplay, and do little in the way of graphics or story.  Take Katamari Damacy for example.  The story is weak and silly, but the game does not build itself up for you to expect one.  The point  is the entertaining gameplay, and it delivers in spades.

The end of the game is the last thing the gamer experiences.  It is the developer’s send-off and the last chance to really wow the person playing the game.  Why not pull out all the stops?  Do something that slaps the player in the face and shouts “You may be done with the game, but the game isn’t done with you”.  After all, the purpose of a video game is to entertain you, not leave you wishing you could get those hours of your life back.