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Open-world RPGs are all about giving players the freedom to create their own hero and shape the world however they feel. But all great games must come to an end eventually, and not every game can stick the landing.
Certain open-world RPGs can have lackluster endings for a number of reasons. The game's final boss could have been a letdown because it was too easy or unnecessarily long, or it could have robbed the player of an ending that truly felt affected by their choices. Whatever the case may be, these endings stopped these games from achieving true greatness.
Fallout 3 Washed Away All the Goodwill in the End
The ending of Fallout 3 doesn’t make it a bad game, but the intentions of the ending do leave a lot to be desired. Because it's one thing to sacrifice yourself for the greater good, and it's another thing to feel like your choices won’t really lead to any good conclusion.
Once your playable character reaches the water purifier at the end of the final mission, it is revealed that it must be manually turned on, or it will explode. There are several paths the player can take that determine the ending: either they, Sarah, or Fawkes can sacrifice themselves to activate it; the player can poison the water supply, or let the entire thing explode. No matter what happens, the ending can feel very bleak for either the player, their companions, or the rest of the Capital Wasteland.
As sour as these endings can feel, the Broken Steel DLC continues the story after the final mission to offer some better closure. Still, the original ending of Fallout 3 leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
Borderlands Didn’t Have Any Treasures Locked Away
The original Borderlands is considered a semi-open-world game. The levels are vast and filled with plenty of side content, even though several areas are locked by story progression. The story itself revolves around a group of adventurers searching for a mythical Vault on the planet of Pandora.
The journey to find the Vault ends anticlimactically. After finally reaching the Vault, the only thing that resides within it is a giant monster that the player has to defeat. And once they are defeated, the Vault is re-sealed for another 200 years. So the entire journey amounts to one boss battle that doesn’t really lead to anything special.
The original Borderlands was the start of a beloved franchise, with many of its subsequent games reaching more satisfying conclusions. But the ending to the first game still leaves a lot to be desired.
Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor Didn’t End on a Legendary Note
An action game that leans heavily into RPG territory, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor has a lot going for it, including the Nemesis System that makes encounters with NPCs more impactful. The central narrative is also strong, featuring new characters with iconic mainstays that build up the world of The Lord of the Rings. However, the final confrontation isn’t as epic.
After Talion finally reaches The Black Hand, Sauron’s physical form comes into play. Celebrimbor is able to hold him back, which allows Talion to deliver the final blow. On paper, it sounds like a great idea to face off against Sauron. What could’ve been an epic boss battle with the main antagonist of the Middle-Earth saga is reduced to a series of quick-time events that are over way too quickly.
For a game that is built around so many different systems coming together to deliver one immersive experience, it’s a shame that Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor just ends in a very anticlimactic fashion.
Far Cry 6 Didn’t Reach a Revolutionary Conclusion
Ubisoft has transformed many of its franchises, including Far Cry, into RPGs. Far Cry 6 is all about building up a guerrilla fighting force across the island nation of Yara in order to take down corrupt President Anton Castillo. Everything builds to a final showdown in the capital city, where protagonist Dani faces off with the president head-on. After gunning down several of Castillo’s forces, Dani confronts him and his son Diego in the latter’s office.
Realizing his forces are depleted, Castillo agrees to surrender on the condition that Diego is protected. Although Dani agrees, Castillo kills Diego before killing himself. It’s a very abrupt end to the main story, brushing aside Diego’s entire character for a shock-value demise and completely wasting Castillo by robbing players of some kind of final battle.
It’s a running theme of the series that, after Far Cry 3, Ubisoft has been trying to replicate the magic of Vaas Montenegro and his particular brand of insanity. Far Cry 6 and its villainous Castillo are another example of coming so close, yet so far.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Devolves Into Generic Action
Another RPG-heavy action game from Ubisoft, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora explores the intriguing sci-fi premiseof a Na’vi raised as a human who must adapt to their indigenous cultureto save the planet. But by the time the final mission comes around, it throws many of those ideas out the window in favor of a very generic ending.
After infiltrating the RDA headquarters, the protagonist wages war against the villainous Mercer and stops him from using a drill to destroy the environment. To do this, the player must destroy parts of the drill while fighting off waves of enemies. It’s a very long, highly explosive confrontation that doesn’t actually feature a fight with Mercer in the end. The final battle also brushes aside any exploration into the themes of grooming child soldiers in favor of giant action sequences involving faceless soldiers and large mechs.
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Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is at its best when it allows its characters to explore the world of Pandora for the first time, just like the players. It’s only when the story gets in the way that things go south.
