Finishing a video game can feel like a victory, a relief, or even a mournful farewell.
"We've had a good ride."
"Heh."
But if we've learned anything from the likes of developer trolls like Hideo Kojima and
PlatinumGames' Hideki Kamiya, it's that, sometimes, there's more to an apparent ending than meets
the eye.
When the credits start rolling, it typically means game over — but not in the case of
these games.
Let's relive the trauma and check out some of the most infamous video games that fooled
us all with fake endings.
Sunset Overdrive's Fizzco farewell
Insomniac Games' rock-em, sock-em post-a-punk-alyptic Sunset Overdrive isn't the kind of game you'd
write a think-piece about.
With a character that can be fully customized on the fly and a sense of humor that smashes
the fourth wall to pieces, Sunset plays fast and loose with its narrative.
"How'd you think you were gonna do that, when I got this here gun?"
"Yeah, I got guns too!"
"Dayum!"
That's why it comes as such a shock when your unnamed, trigger-happy protagonist perishes
in the last few minutes of the game, crushed to death by fallen debris from the crumbling
Fizzco Building.
Another game might immediately show its hand, but Sunset trolls players with a surprisingly
touching impromptu funeral, as each of the player's companions say their final goodbyes
and the camera pans to the sunset.
Cue credits — until the very disgruntled hero rewinds the game, comes back to life,
and faces off against the real big bad: a giant, evil robotic skyscraper.
That's Sunset Overdrive for you.
Um Jammer Lammy goes to Hell
It may be an obscure Parappa the Rapper spin-off, but Um Jammer Lammy was way ahead of its time.
With colorful, psychedelic graphics and engaging guitar-based gameplay, the rhythm game was
rock 'n' roll fun for the whole family.
Or, it might have been, if it didn't send your hero to the grim depths of hell.
That's right: the Japanese and European versions of Um Jammer Lammy feature a cutscene that
depicts Lammy's untimely death by banana peel and descent into the underworld, followed
by scrolling credits.
It's a shocking, emotional conclusion to an otherwise quirky quest for fame.
Luckily, this isn't Lammy's final destination.
She's abruptly rescued by an anthropomorphic jack-o-lantern who yanks the credits back
down and escorts Lammy to the next stage.
For better or for worse, this level's devilish aesthetic was nixed for the American release.
Entirely re-animated and featuring altered dialogue and lyrics, the North American version
of the Vital Idol level starts with Lammy traveling through time and finding herself
on a mysterious desert island instead of playing the big concert six hundred and sixty-six
feet under.
Crashing your funeral in Hitman: Blood Money
"It's me, 47, Diana!"
"What are you doing here?"
No one expected long-time agency handler Diana to betray Agent 47 at the end of Hitman: Blood
Money.
Even after she stuck him with a mysterious syringe, there was no way the genetically
enhanced killer was going to bite the big one — until he stumbled to the ground, seemingly
shuffling off this mortal coil.
When the next cutscene depicted him lying motionless in a casket, gamers across the
globe collectively shed a single tear.
Of course, this wouldn't be a Hitman game without one last splatter of ultraviolence.
And in Blood Money, it comes at just the right moment.
While picking off the funeral attendees — save for Diana, who's already escaped the church
and locked the gate, preventing anyone else's escape — it becomes clear that the syringe
Diana stuck 47 with contained the "fake-death serum" that made an appearance in an earlier
mission.
When she kissed him, Diana resuscitated 47 with antidote-laced lipstick, ultimately allowing
him to dispatch of Cayne, journalist Rick Henderson, and each and every last witness.
Red Dead Redemption revenge
Rockstar's beloved open-world Wild West sim, Red Dead Redemption, appears to close on a
bloody and bawl-inducing note that hearkens back to the bleak westerns that inspired it.
After he's betrayed by Agent Edgar Ross, anti-hero John Marston accepts his fate — but not
before taking as many of Ross' men as he can with him.
In typical western fashion, the reformed thug is mercilessly riddled with bullets by Ross'
firing squad.
Marston's send-off feels like an emotional punch in the gut as his wife and son, Abigail
and Jack, discover his bloodied, broken body, and bury him atop a hill to the east of Beecher's
Hope.
At this point, players expect the credits to kick in.
But they don't.
Instead, we're returned to Marston's burial site.
Three years have passed, poor Abigail has joined her late husband, and young Jack has
become obsessed with avenging his father's murder — and killing the now-retired Ross.
Only after reaping Jack's revenge does Red Dead's story truly come to an end, after which
gamers can continue exploring the West indefinitely as the morally conflicted Jack.
Meet the Big Boss in Metal Gear Solid 4
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots sees an older Snake aging at an accelerated rate
due to the cloning process that created him.
After completing his mission to destroy the Patriots and defeat Liquid Ocelot, Snake intends
to kill himself at Big Boss' grave.
He places his gun into his mouth, prepared to pull the trigger.
The camera pans up, into the sky — and, well…
Series creator Hideo Kojima knew we weren't ready to say goodbye to Snake.
So, he shoehorned in lengthy cutscenes before cutting to the credits.
In an odd twist, Big Boss — a supposedly deceased character who didn't appear in the
game — is named in the voice cast.
As his name lingers on the screen for a moment, the game returns to Snake at the graveyard,
huffing and puffing as Big Boss himself stands over him.
In true Kojima fashion, the game didn't just pick up Snake's story after many players likely
turned off their consoles — it re-introduced a fan-favorite character assumed to be dead
and gave Snake and Big Boss proper send-offs in a moving thirty-minute cutscene.
Putting you to sleep in Fallout 3
Bethesda fans who played Fallout 3 and expected it to "end" in the vein of The Elder Scrolls:
Oblivion must have been sorely disappointed when that infamous slideshow rolled around.
"So ends the story of the lone wanderer, who stepped through the great door of Vault 101
and into the annals of legend."
Where Bethesda's earlier open-world RPG allowed gamers who'd completed the main game to journey
across Cyrodiil to their hearts' content, the post-apocalyptic Fallout 3 came to a close
with its protagonist giving their life to bring clean water to the denizens of the Capital
Wasteland.
And yet, the Broken Steel DLC — released seven months after the game itself — retconned
the Lone Wanderer's death entirely, suggesting he or she had simply fallen into a coma instead.
Gamers playing this gem today have the luxury of picking up where they left off, post-final
mission.
Too bad for anyone who didn't bother buying the extra content, though — that fake ending
was real to them.
"It's still real to me, dammit!"
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