April 23, 2009

Happily Ever After: When Sequelitis Affects Games and their Endings
By: Steven Hopper

As franchises become more and more important to game publishers, are video game endings falling by the wayside?

This past weekend, I finally decided to finish Too Human. I took the plunge and bought the game when it launched, my interest piqued by the game’s storyline and futuristic Norse setting, only to wane due to the game’s somewhat disappointing gameplay quirks. However, I decided to pick it up and finally finish it this past weekend and put an end to my experience with the game and see how the appealing story panned out.

Too Human's ending was frustrating, as it sets up a sequel that may not happen.

Much to my chagrin, the game ended on a cliffhanger, one that worked on the assumption that the game would have a sequel. Of course, we know now that Silicon Knights, developer of the game, had intended Too Human to be the beginning of a trilogy, with many plot elements and twists not yet revealed. However, seeing as the game wasn’t very well received, critically or commercially, a sequel seems pretty unlikely, leaving those unrevealed story elements gone for good.

Too Human isn’t alone. Many games out there (from Mirror’s Edge to KillZone 2) are released with the intention of milking a storyline into a full-blown franchise, leaving the player with an unresolved plot point at the game’s end in order to get them to stay interested and compelled to buy the game’s sequel. In many cases, this is pulled off successfully, as in the Halo or Metal Gear Solid series. These series have lasted for several different iterations and work well by offering robust game worlds as a result of having the benefit of several games to span the story over. However, in the case of games like Too Human that bank on franchise potential, all that leads to is frustration.

Games like KillZone 2 feature cliff-hanger endings, but does this take away from the ending's impact?

Games that offer a fully-enveloped experience are becoming fewer and far between, as companies are looking more towards franchise models in their approach to new IPs. As a direct result, games are becoming less satisfying to complete, as you now not only have to work your way through the original experience, but now wait for any sequels in order to get the full piece of the pie. Is it just me, or are game endings becoming less satisfying as they bank on their sequels to finish the fight?

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