Games with unsatisfying endings.

Firewatch felt like a story someone would tell you if you hung around with them long enough. It wasn’t a happy ending, sad, or anything. Just An Ending. It was the end of a job, end of a relationship with someone, end of the summer.

Firewatch had a relevent end for me. I had a long term girlfriend at the time and we had played thru 90% of the game. When i finished it alone later and Delilah wasnt there, it felt exactly how it should have.

I used to think Firewatch had a bad ending, not meeting Delilah after all that seemed kind of frustrating. But after all these years, the ending makes more sense. Henry was trying to find a escape. With Delilah, he found that. But both of them were just running away. You can’t always run away from your problems. Someday you’ll have to face them. It’s a powerful ending no matter how off-putting it felt.

This video made me realise that the whole game was isolating. That you never got to interact in person with any character. Whether it was Delilah, seeing the teens have fun, the veteran. It’s like you’re the one that has to navigate through the grief, and no one is there to help you through it. It’s you and you alone to save yourself

Dude's house catches fire. Days later, releases a video featuring Firewatch. Incredible.

I loved that Firewatch was happy to be such a specific, emotional experience. Having Delilah run from the responsibility and pressure of meeting you in person mirrors your own running away from your wife's problems. The reality you didn't want to or weren't able to face. The emptiness at the end of the game hit like a hammer and I wish there were more that took those swings.

The ending of fire watch is like graduating college. You completed your goals and you move on with your life. Its probably the last time you see or hear from people you've grown to know well. You dont get some happy ending of "we will definitely keep in touch after this is over".

The graphics, the story, the soundtrack. Fire watch is just amazing. It’s the only game I’ve played where you can feel so fufilled playing, then so empty after finishing.

I actually really liked the ending to Firewatch. It feels so real, that a man wrapped in guilt, trying to escape a life he can’t cope with would want to get swept up in some grand mystery in the middle of nowhere. The fact that it turned out to be nothing, and the main “villain” being a man just like Hank was really impactful. Even not being able to see Delilah at the end made sense realistically

When I played Firewatch, the ending actually affected me. Because I didn't get to meet her or see her, That stayed with me, because I as the player, really felt something for these characters. I went to bed, and my dreams did the rest. I dreamed that as I was escaping the Fire, I saw her there, at the end, as I reached her tower, she was there at the base of it... With the dream, Firewatch was on my mind for a solid week, before I finally let it go. It was such an emotional ride, that I'll never forget. Recently I tried replaying the game, but after about the midway point, I gave up. There was nothing left... It was like walking through a grave yard. Speaking with her again, felt empty.... Definitely the strangest experience I've had with a game.

I got confused when he switched to borderlands, cause i was like "what does this have to do with firewatch"

The way you space out this video with multiple games with bad endings but also a core focus game that you return to is really different and unique. Honestly awesome!

Man, I loved this game so much. Being able to navigate around the Forrest and solving a mystery. The conversation. The sadness. It wasn’t a bad ending. This game made me rethink the types of games I really enjoy. If it wasn’t for What Remains of Edith Finch, I would have never have found this game. Both are just fantastic.

i'm not sure if anyone still remembers this game, but presentable liberty is the epitome of an unsatisfying ending. not because the ending is poor, but because it leaves you completely hopeless. you were the cure, trapped inside of the only room which could ever grant you peace and freedom, but unfortunately you learned these things just a day late.

I was in my mid twenties when firewatch came out. I remember playing it at or around release and just really feeling disappointment with the ending. I look back at it now, seven years later, and it's kind of crazy how much more I appreciate it. When I was younger, I wanted to believe everything I had been through in my life, all my personal suffering, meant something. Firewatch begs the question that some things just... happen. There is no greater purpose or reason or meaning. Life just occurs sometimes. And you can rage and fight, putting together every combination of the pieces to try and form a coherent whole or you can just accept it, take your licks and move forwards with your life.

Firewatch's ending and story has stayed with me for so long precisely because of its "anticlimactic" finale. As you said, the vet staying in the woods mirrors Henry's desire to escape from the tragedy of his real life. The idea that the government is spying on 2 random people is easier for him to deal with then his wife's Dimentia is heart breaking and feels very real. Great Essay! Happy youtube recommended you. Subscribed.

I feel like this video really accentuates the difference between an unsatisfying ending and a bad one. Bad endings leave you with a bitter taste in your mouth, like your time would've been better spend doing basically anything else than playing this game. Often, they don't make sense or are just... lazy. Uplifting or depressing, regardless they just feel wrong. Unsatisfying endings, like that in Firewatch, are well-crafted and grounded in the reality of the game. While they don't wrap everything up with a bow and feel-good emotions, they still feel good. Fitting. Rewarding, in a strange way, despite not being what you might've wanted.

The ending to Borderlands is much better than I remember. You were one of the first to make it to the core of the compound around the vault. Eons before that ancient race was so advanced that none would ever break their security. Until now. And that security wasn't to protect a weapon. It was to protect the universe FROM a weapon. The destroyer was almost ethereal. A being from a higher dimension that thinks only of consumption, and gains the attributes of all it consumes. But by accident the ancient Eridians made exactly what was needed to kill it. It was forced to be in our dimension, and play by it's rules to feed. It was mortal. It's just sad the explanation that made it better was in future games.

LMAO, you just brought back a hilarious memory of me and a friend rushing through Borderlands 3, fighting over loot and just laughing, talking shit about borderland 1's ending, only to go on to loot the post-game Vault and find literally exclusively white tiered loot

My problem with firewatch was less the ending itself and more how the game progresses. It feels like there was a bunch of content that just never made it into the game, stuff thats hinted at but never followed up on and then it just kinda ends in a few minutes with everything being explained away.