The Art of Endings
Posted: 2008-11-12
When I take a good long look back over the years I’ve been gaming, all the way from the humble ZX-80 with Hunt the Wumpus, the ZX-81, Spectrum and so on. I’ve seen a bit of a trend develop as time passed by. Games began with very little in the way of reward, you got the satisfaction of beating them and perhaps to enter a high score Hall of Fame. You didn’t really get anything but a small Game Over screen and a thank you for playing.
Titles back then weren’t all that sophisticated really, they bumbled along in their own sweet way and it’s only through the advent of bigger and better systems that we’ve been able to see a change in gaming trends. PC gaming gets bigger and better, console gaming moves on from generation to generation, with the current generation of consoles being pretty decent. With it, you’d expect the games to follow suit.
I remember completing Hidden and Dangerous, wondering where my cut-scene at the end was and watching the credits roll with a sense of growing irritation. There was just a short screen of text harkening back to the days of Ant Attack and Zombie Zombie to greet me and some guy on a hill smoking a cigarette. I have to admit back then when I was younger, I felt somewhat cheated by this.
As gaming technology grows, the art of storytelling grows with it. Some games approach their craft now with the eye of a Hollywood Director. Gears of War and Gears of War 2 are prime examples of a game with cut-scenes produced as if they were made for a movie. Epic’s latest iteration of the Unreal Engine has brought with it a whole new slew of tools that provide perfect camera control and excellent opportunities to create some gripping visuals. Some of these tools are ahead of the curve in terms of cinematic game creation; Epic’s tools in many ways rival those of the film industry.
So we have the tools and technology, game graphics are no longer an issue and creating a nice ending is not impossible. The ending that I’m talking about is one that effectively ties up the story for this part (if it’s a multi-part game) and answers questions you might have. It may lead to other questions for the inevitable sequel but it finishes the current arc, ala Dead Space. I don’t mind if it’s a long ending cut-scene like Metal Gear Solid or Final Fantasy, since at least I feel as though I’ve gotten some kind of reward for finishing the game in the first place.
What I find are the most rewarding endings for me are the ones that lead to something else, perhaps a hidden level that you get to play after the credits (Call of Duty 4) or a game like Dead Space (again) that operates upon a reward system. Beat it and you’ll unlock a round 2 play-through at the same difficulty but with the added bonus of some nice goodies at the end that you can use in the round 2 play-through. As long as the story is tied up in some way (Gears of War) I don’t mind so much. It’s when you’ve paid a decent amount of money for a game that might only last 6-8 hours and right at the end it flashes up.
GAME OVER
Now that’s when I start to feel really cheated.
I’d put that down to pure laziness in this day and age. I’ve seen what these new machines are capable of. The industry needs to hire decent writers who have a grasp of the ebb and flow of scenes; they can craft some pretty good ideas and some excellent gameplay opportunities now. Just look at what’s gone by recently in terms of games. Bungie offered us a glimpse of a decent ending with Halo, they lead directly to a sequel with Halo 2 and tied it all up as much as they wanted to with the ending(s) for Halo 3.
I didn’t feel cheated at all when I finished Halo 3, the ending was there and since I’d beaten the game on a harder difficulty I was able to view the whole series of endings and the tantalizing glimpse of something right at the end left me wanting another Halo game, so mission accomplished there Bungie. I don’t mind having an unlockable extra ending for finishing a game on a higher difficulty as long as it’s substantial enough or interesting enough to warrant the extra play time.
Titles back then weren’t all that sophisticated really, they bumbled along in their own sweet way and it’s only through the advent of bigger and better systems that we’ve been able to see a change in gaming trends. PC gaming gets bigger and better, console gaming moves on from generation to generation, with the current generation of consoles being pretty decent. With it, you’d expect the games to follow suit.
I remember completing Hidden and Dangerous, wondering where my cut-scene at the end was and watching the credits roll with a sense of growing irritation. There was just a short screen of text harkening back to the days of Ant Attack and Zombie Zombie to greet me and some guy on a hill smoking a cigarette. I have to admit back then when I was younger, I felt somewhat cheated by this.
As gaming technology grows, the art of storytelling grows with it. Some games approach their craft now with the eye of a Hollywood Director. Gears of War and Gears of War 2 are prime examples of a game with cut-scenes produced as if they were made for a movie. Epic’s latest iteration of the Unreal Engine has brought with it a whole new slew of tools that provide perfect camera control and excellent opportunities to create some gripping visuals. Some of these tools are ahead of the curve in terms of cinematic game creation; Epic’s tools in many ways rival those of the film industry.
So we have the tools and technology, game graphics are no longer an issue and creating a nice ending is not impossible. The ending that I’m talking about is one that effectively ties up the story for this part (if it’s a multi-part game) and answers questions you might have. It may lead to other questions for the inevitable sequel but it finishes the current arc, ala Dead Space. I don’t mind if it’s a long ending cut-scene like Metal Gear Solid or Final Fantasy, since at least I feel as though I’ve gotten some kind of reward for finishing the game in the first place.
What I find are the most rewarding endings for me are the ones that lead to something else, perhaps a hidden level that you get to play after the credits (Call of Duty 4) or a game like Dead Space (again) that operates upon a reward system. Beat it and you’ll unlock a round 2 play-through at the same difficulty but with the added bonus of some nice goodies at the end that you can use in the round 2 play-through. As long as the story is tied up in some way (Gears of War) I don’t mind so much. It’s when you’ve paid a decent amount of money for a game that might only last 6-8 hours and right at the end it flashes up.
GAME OVER
Now that’s when I start to feel really cheated.
I’d put that down to pure laziness in this day and age. I’ve seen what these new machines are capable of. The industry needs to hire decent writers who have a grasp of the ebb and flow of scenes; they can craft some pretty good ideas and some excellent gameplay opportunities now. Just look at what’s gone by recently in terms of games. Bungie offered us a glimpse of a decent ending with Halo, they lead directly to a sequel with Halo 2 and tied it all up as much as they wanted to with the ending(s) for Halo 3.
I didn’t feel cheated at all when I finished Halo 3, the ending was there and since I’d beaten the game on a harder difficulty I was able to view the whole series of endings and the tantalizing glimpse of something right at the end left me wanting another Halo game, so mission accomplished there Bungie. I don’t mind having an unlockable extra ending for finishing a game on a higher difficulty as long as it’s substantial enough or interesting enough to warrant the extra play time.
