10 Incredible Games With Depressing Endings, Ranked from Least to Most Sad

10 Halo: Reach Ends With a Depressing Action Sequence

Neither the Noble Team nor the Planet Makes It Through This Halo Game

Halo: Reach is a prequel to the original Halo game and shows the Covenant’s invasion of Reach. In the lore, the UNSC has lost other planets, but none as well defended or as Earth-like as Reach. The original Halo claims that the Master Chief is the last Spartan still alive, but that’s not strictly true, as many are alive in the novels, with several Spartans, including members of Blue Team, surviving in a hidden bunker on Reach with Dr. Halsey. Noble Team are the central characters of Halo: Reach, but it quickly becomes clear they aren’t set to survive the incursion, and one by one give their lives for Reach and for humanity.

Jorge, a native of Reach, sacrifices himself to take down a Covenant carrier. Kat is taken out by a sniper. Carter, wounded, flies his Pelican into a Scarab tank. Emile takes an energy sword while manning a MAC gun, all in aid of getting Noble Six and Cortana to the Pillar of Autumn. Noble Six takes over on the gun after delivering the package and heads to a Spartan rally point, only to find them all dead and a whole army on the way to take him down. The team’s sniper, Jun, does survive, however, and eventually goes on to lead the Spartan IV program.

Halo: Reach

Systems

Released

September 14, 2010

ESRB

m

Developer(s)

Bungie

Publisher(s)

Microsoft Game Studios

Engine

Blam engine

9 Spec Ops: The Line Is As Much a Drama as an FPS

Players See War from a New Perspective in Spec Ops: The Line

Set in a sandstorm-ravaged Dubai, Spec Ops: The Line follows Captain Martin Walker and his Delta Force squad as they search for the missing Colonel John Konrad and his battalion. What begins as a routine reconnaissance mission soon descends into chaos, as the team uncovers a city consumed by civil unrest and unimaginable violence. Drawing influence from Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now, the game uses its setting, unreliable narrator, and morally gray decisions to challenge traditional shooter tropes and player expectations.

An especially intriguing part of Spec Ops: The Line is its deconstruction of a traditional hero. Walker and his team walk into a situation they could never have been prepared for, and players witness the mental toll being an operator can have. Their job is to enter Dubai and see if there are survivors, then fall back and bring in the cavalry. Instead, they push on, slaughtering tyrannical soldiers and rebels alike. By the end, the water is gone, most of the city is burning, most of its inhabitants are dead, Walker’s teammates are dead, and Walker himself has a truly broken psyche, all while trying to do the right thing.

Spec Ops: The Line

Systems

Released

June 26, 2012

ESRB

M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language

Developer(s)

Yager Development

Publisher(s)

2K Games

Engine

havok, unreal engine 3

8 Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag Is One of the Best Games in the Series

It Proves the Assassin’s Creed Franchise Can Tell Great Stories

The Assassin’s Creed series has been a mixed bag of all-time classics and average-at-best games. One game that stands above the rest is Black Flag, a title many fans argue is the best in the franchise. The game thrusts the ancient war between Templars and Assassins into the latter days of the Golden Age of Piracy, bringing back a likable protagonist, gorgeous settings, and telling a moving story.

Like many of the games on this list, it’s the loss of so many of the protagonist’s friends along the way that makes Black Flag‘s ending so depressing. While sailing and jumping into hay bales across the Caribbean, Edward Kenway meets countless brilliant characters, many based on real pirates. In the later stages of the game, Edward is closing in on his prize, only to have visions of his past telling him to turn back and that he has nothing. The game ends with him finding out his beloved is dead and meeting his daughter for the first time before they head back to England.

Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag

Systems

Released

October 29, 2013

ESRB

M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Use of Alcohol, Violence

Developer(s)

Ubisoft Montreal

Publisher(s)

Ubisoft

7 Inside Is a Hauntingly Beautiful Experience

This Puzzle-Platformer Proves That Less Can Be More

Inside is a dark, atmospheric puzzle-platformer developed by Playdead that was released in 2016. The game places players in control of a nameless boy who navigates a dystopian world filled with brutal authority figures, mind-controlled drones, and ominous scientific experiments. With no dialogue or exposition, the story is told entirely through haunting, minimalist visuals, environmental storytelling, and the boy’s desperate journey through increasingly disturbing locations.

The game’s ending is especially bleak and surreal. After surviving countless deadly encounters and sneaking through labs filled with grotesque experiments, the boy is suddenly absorbed into a massive, fleshy amalgamation of human limbs and torsos known as the “Huddle.” Now part of this horrific creature, the player loses control of the boy as an individual. The Huddle smashes its way out of the facility and tumbles down a hill, finally coming to rest on a sunlit shoreline, motionless and ambiguous.

Inside

Released

June 29, 2016

ESRB

M For Mature 17+ due to Blood and Gore, Violence

Developer(s)

Playdead

Publisher(s)

Playdead

6 Life is Strange Had Two Depressing Endings

The LiS Ending Showed That Time Travel Can’t Fix Everything

Life is Strange follows Max Caulfield, a high school photography student who discovers she has the ability to rewind time. Set in the fictional town of Arcadia Bay, Oregon, Max reconnects with her estranged childhood friend Chloe Price and becomes entangled in a series of events involving missing students, personal trauma, and a looming supernatural storm. As Max manipulates time to try to fix problems, she learns that every action has unintended consequences, and that some events can’t be prevented without serious sacrifice.

The game’s most emotionally devastating moment comes at the end, when Max is forced to make a heartbreaking decision: either go back in time and allow Chloe to die in order to save Arcadia Bay from destruction, or keep Chloe alive and let the town and many of its people be wiped out by the storm. There’s no canon ending, but every Life is Strange ending involves tragedy.

Life is Strange

Released

January 30, 2015

ESRB

M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Use of Drugs and Alcohol

Developer(s)

Dontnod Entertainment

Publisher(s)

Square Enix

Engine

unreal engine 3, unreal engine 4

5 The Red Dead Redemption Games Tell Tragic Stories

These Rockstar Games Blur the Line Between Redemption and Revenge

Red Dead Redemption and its sequel are both in the running for the greatest games of all time. They feature some of the best-written dialogue, storytelling, and most immersive worlds in gaming. The overarching theme of these games is outlaws, balancing on the line between good and evil, looking inside themselves, and trying to redeem themselves however they see fit. For Arthur, it was getting John out of the life of an outlaw, and for John, it was being a proper husband and father, eventually making the ultimate sacrifice.

There are four moments that can be seen as endings across the two titles. There’s Arthur’s death, since depending on choices throughout the game, he either dies of TB on a mountain or is brutally shot dead in the mud of the burning camp. Then there’s John’s ending at the close of RDR2, where the Pinkertons have already found him, signing the warrant for his eventual demise. Red Dead Redemption ends with John knowing the government won’t leave his family alone with him alive, so he sacrifices himself. The game then picks up with Jack, who, everyone, from his parents to Arthur and Hosea, wanted to keep out of the outlaw life, heading to Mexico to avenge his father.

Red Dead Redemption 2

Systems

Released

October 26, 2018

ESRB

M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Drugs and Alcohol

Developer(s)

Rockstar Games

Publisher(s)

Rockstar Games

4 Stray Can Be Truly Harrowing

The 2022 Adventure Game Will Leave Some Players Teary-Eyed

Stray is one of the most surprisingly brilliant games released in the current generation of consoles. It lets players uncover a desolate, dystopian city hidden underground, plagued by small squishy alien creatures, all while meowing and purring as an adorable little ginger cat in this puzzle game. Some parts can be quite comical, like watching the robotic inhabitants of the Dead City discuss matters of great import with the furry feline.

But what nobody was expecting from this game was the incredible bond formed between the cat and the floating robot companion, B12. This robot is met near the start of the game, saving the cat from hostile lifeforms and vowing to help him find his way back to the surface and his cat family. In the final part of Stray, the little robot sacrifices itself to open the city, using its own power source to overload the roof controls. After dropping lifeless to the ground, the cat curls up next to it for a while before venturing out onto the surface alone.

Stray

Systems

Released

July 19, 2022

ESRB

E10+ for Everyone 10+: Animated Blood, Fantasy Violence

Developer(s)

BlueTwelve Studio

Publisher(s)

Annapurna Interactive

3 Cyberpunk 2077 Has Multiple Endings, and They’re All Depressing

Cyberpunk 2077’s Phantom Liberty Ending Is Truly Sad

In Cyberpunk: 2077, players assume the role of V, a mercenary whose life spirals into chaos after a heist gone wrong implants a biochip into their head containing the digital consciousness of Johnny Silverhand, a long-dead rocker and anti-corporate rebel played by Keanu Reeves. As the chip begins to overwrite V’s personality, the two must work together to find a way to save V’s life before it’s too late. Cyberpunk 2077 has multiple endings that offer varying levels of closure, but all are deeply depressing, emphasizing the inevitability of death, loss, and isolation.

In one of the most emotionally heavy conclusions, V survives the events of the game but is left terminally ill, with only months to live, their mind too far gone to be saved. Another ending sees V walking away from everything, becoming a lone legend but ultimately dying alone in space. Even the so-called “best” ending, where V escapes with a partner, is bittersweet, as they still face an unknown, shortened future and the emotional toll of everything lost. Phantom Liberty added another option, where V survives but can never be implanted with augments again.

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty

2 Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Is Heartwarming and Heartwrenching

This Indie Game Tackles Some Difficult Feelings

For anyone who has ever had to endure the pain and despair of losing a sibling, this game strikes chords never thought possible. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is a story-driven puzzle adventure game that has players take on the roles of both brothers, controlling each one with a different analog stick. The story follows the two siblings on a journey through a beautiful yet perilous fantasy world in search of a cure for their dying father.

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons has an ending that’s particularly heartbreaking. After overcoming numerous challenges together, the older brother, Naia, is fatally wounded in a final confrontation and dies shortly after they acquire the cure. Nii must now swim across a body of water, something he was previously afraid to do, but he uses the spirit of his brother to push forward. The final moments of the game show the younger brother returning home, burying his sibling, and giving the cure to their father, in scenes filled with grief and silence.

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons

Systems

Released

August 7, 2013

ESRB

T For Teen Due To Blood, Mild Language, Violence

Developer(s)

Starbreeze Studios

Publisher(s)

505 Games

Engine

Unreal Engine 3

1 Telltale’s The Walking Dead Was a Phenomenon

Players Fell In Love With Lee Over This Walking Dead Adventure

The Walking Dead franchise has had some truly devastating deaths, but the Telltale point-and-click game managed to capture everything that made The Walking Dead so good and so popular. The struggles felt real since anyone could seemingly die at any time, and the characters were a great mix of lovable and insufferable. It’s worth playing through every game in the series, but Telltale’s The Walking Dead: Season One had an especially heartbreaking ending.

After being bitten by a walker, Lee’s slow descent toward death becomes inevitable. In the final scenes, he and Clementine are trapped in a building as he grows weaker. With his final moments approaching, Lee instructs her on how to survive without him. Players are then faced with the devastating choice of having Clementine either shoot Lee to prevent him from turning or leave him to turn into a walker. Both choices are emotionally crushing, as Clementine, just a child, is forced to confront the ultimate trauma of losing the one person who protected and loved her like a father since the world went to ruin.

The Walking Dead: The Telltale Definitive Series

Released

September 10, 2019

ESRB

Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Use of Drugs

Developer(s)

Skybound Games

Publisher(s)

Skybound Games