10 Games with Sad Endings to Make You Emotional!

Who said video games can't be exciting? It's true that many video game stories are fantastic, but every now and then fans find a true gem amidst so much disappointment.

A good ending doesn't necessarily have to be a victory. It can be a defeat or a death that leaves a lasting impression on the players' minds. A sad ending tends to leave an indelible mark on us and makes fans remember the game, its narrative, and the time spent playing it in a much more intense way than a positive ending and a "The End".

A bad ending can ruin a story, while a good ending can make a game satisfying. A sad ending, however, can make a game live forever in our memory.

And that's what we'll be talking about: ten sad endings that have marked the memory of many players. Warning: this article clearly contains spoilers, and if you don't want to know what happens at the end of any of these games, it's best to go play them and come back here later.

Halo: Reach is a prequel to the original Halo and depicts the Covenant invasion of Reach. In the story, the UNSC has lost other planets, but none are as suitable for human life and similar to Earth as Reach.

In the original Halo, Master Chief was said to be the last living Spartan, but that wasn't exactly the case: in the books, there are some survivors, including members of Blue Team, living in a secret bunker on Reach with Dr. Halsey. Some of these are central characters in Halo: Reach, but it becomes clear that they won't survive for long and, one by one, sacrifice their lives for the planet Reach and for humanity.

In the final battle of Halo: Reach, you command some colleagues and complete a series of objectives, defeating hordes of the Covenant. The fight continues until a ship arrives to retrieve an important package that could determine the outcome of the fight against them. It's understood that the package contains Cortana's data, who’ll be Master Chief's assistant for the rest of the story. You decide to stay behind to cover the ship's escape and finish the game subdued alone, killing as many Covenant as you can before your own end.

The Assassin's Creed series has been a rollercoaster of good, average, and weak games, but one stands out above the rest: Black Flag, a title that many fans consider the best in the franchise. Naval battles, parkour, and an excellent story combined in a single game made this one of the most memorable in the franchise.

The game transports the ancient war between Templars and Assassins to the final days of the Golden Age of Piracy, bringing back a charismatic protagonist (rivaling Ezio), Edward Kenway, stunning Caribbean seascapes, and a thrilling story, as well as challenges like the legendary ships.

As in many of the games on this list, it's the loss of so many of the protagonist's friends along the journey that makes the ending of Black Flag so depressing. Sailing and jumping on hay bales across the Caribbean, Edward Kenway encounters numerous brilliant characters, many based on real and fictional pirates. The death of Mary Read is one of the saddest things in the game.

However, the truly sad ending to the story happens in the books. In the novel adaptation of Assassin's Creed Black Flag, we discover that Edward is betrayed by a trusted friend, his daughter is kidnapped and sold into slavery and concubinedom in the Ottoman Empire, and his son, Haytham, unaware of his father's connection to the Assassin Order, is trained as a Templar. A sad ending for a pirate and assassin as important to the franchise as Edward.

Inside is a dark and atmospheric puzzle-platformer developed by Playdead and released in 2016. The game puts players in control of an unnamed boy navigating a dystopian world filled with brutal authority figures, mind-controlled drones, and sinister scientific experiments.

Without dialogue or explanations, the story is told entirely through minimalist and haunting visuals, environmental narrative, and the boy's desperate journey through increasingly disturbing locations.

The game's ending is especially dark and surreal. After surviving numerous deadly encounters and infiltrating laboratories filled with grotesque experiments, the boy is suddenly absorbed by a massive, fleshy amalgam of human limbs and torsos known as "Huddle". Now part of this horrifying creature, the player takes control of the entity as it makes its way out of the facility and rolls downhill, finally stopping on a sunlit shore, motionless and shrouded in ambiguity.

The original Life is Strange is already a killer, regardless of the ending you choose, but the game that serves as a prequel to Max and Chloe's story investigating Rachel Amber's disappearance is much worse because we already know what's going to happen and there's no way to prevent it.

During the game, we know that Rachel is very important to Chloe, but in Before the Storm we learn how they became friends and also see the development of the sad and traumatic relationship Chloe has with the memories of her deceased father. The game shows their friendship and love growing little by little, while Rachel's problems with her parents are developed.

In the end, considered a 'good ending', Rachel resumes her relationship with her biological mother while her father is punished for a series of corruption crimes in his public career. Everything seems to end well, and we practically forget what happened to Rachel in Life is Strange. But the final scene hits us like a ton of bricks, reminding us of the inevitable ending, and everything we did was for nothing, since her fate was already sealed in the hands of young Nathan Prescott.

Indie games have their own way of making an emotional impact. This is the case with To the Moon, a story about two scientists with the technology to alter memories. They’re approached by an old man who asks them to change his memories. The goal is to implant the memory of fulfilling a promise made to his wife: to travel to the moon with her, something he cannot do anymore.

From that point on, the entire game is like watching a story backwards, knowing the sad ending. It's somewhat like the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, where you see the story unfolding and the memories being reconstructed and remade. It truly shows how short life is and how moments are what matter in the end. If you haven't played To the Moon yet, I highly recommend you do so as soon as possible.

You know a game is going to be emotionally devastating when it has "cancer" in the title. The game isn't exactly a game in itself. It's the way a father found to cope with the grief of losing a son to such an aggressive and slow-moving disease that consumes not only the life of the person suffering from it, but also the lives of everyone around them.

And when you play That Dragon, Cancer, you become involved with the life of the Green family, almost becoming a member of it. You see the child grow, play, and have fun through texts, family videos, photos, and moments that show the family's highs and lows. It's not a game to play and win. It's a narrative to appreciate and let yourself be carried away by.

The game is a rollercoaster of happy and sad moments. In one instant, you see this happy family enjoying time together, and in another, the overwhelming reality of cancer. The story deeply touches those who’ve had loved ones facing this disease; the pain and difficulties of the fight against cancer are beautifully portrayed in this game.

This is a unique puzzle game that follows the story of two brothers on an adventure to find a cure for their father's illness. The gameplay isn't complex, as you basically solve puzzles while controlling both brothers simultaneously. At first glance, it seems like a heartwarming game that celebrates brotherly love. You'll find yourself rooting for the protagonists as they overcome enormous obstacles to save their father. All of this takes place in a medieval fantasy world reminiscent of works like The Lord of the Rings.

Of course, the game has its dark moments, but the last thing you expect is the devastating emotional impact of the ending. The older brother dies brutally, leaving the younger brother alone to finish the adventure they started. The epilogue further intensifies the pain by showing the younger brother paying homage at his brother's grave.

The Last of Us is a tragic story of sacrifice and survival. It follows Joel's journey as he escorts Ellie through a zombie-infested America. Joel is a man traumatized by the loss of his daughter and initially only wants to find his brother, agreeing to escort Ellie in exchange for a way to do so.

Throughout their journey, the bond between Ellie and Joel deepens as they face not only zombies, but also humans, who are sometimes worse than the zombies themselves. Having lost a daughter, Joel is given the chance to be a father again. And we see this father-daughter bond form as the game unfolds. The biggest twist in the game is that Ellie is immune to the virus and is the only one who could help develop a vaccine.

This bond also explains the ending and why Joel chose Ellie over humanity. As someone who has already suffered the pain of losing a child, Joel couldn't bring himself to go through it again, choosing to be a father instead of a hero. It's a sad and complex conclusion, which becomes even more painful in the second game.

Set in a Dubai devastated by sandstorms, Spec Ops: The Line follows Captain Martin Walker and his Delta Force squad as they search for Colonel John Konrad and his missing battalion.

What begins as a routine reconnaissance mission quickly descends into chaos as the team discovers a city consumed by civil uproar and unimaginable violence. Inspired by Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now, the game uses its setting, an unreliable narrator, and morally ambiguous decisions to challenge traditional shooter tropes and player expectations.

A particularly intriguing aspect of Spec Ops: The Line is its deconstruction of the traditional hero. Walker and his team find themselves in a situation they could never have been prepared for, and players witness the mental toll being an operator can take. Their mission was to enter Dubai, check for survivors, and then retreat to bring in reinforcements.

Instead, they advance, indiscriminately slaughtering tyrannical soldiers and rebels. In the end, the water dried up, much of the city was in flames, most of the inhabitants were dead, Walker's companions perished, and Walker himself was completely psychotic, all while trying to do the right thing.