These games ended on pretty disturbing notes. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most unsettling video game conclusions, whether they be sad, upsetting, or just plain disgusting. Beware major spoilers ahead.
Category
🎮️
GamingTranscript
00:00Welcome to WatchMojo and grab a box of tissues or go into another room cause we're looking at the 20 Most Disturbing Video Game Endings.
00:09Whether they're crushingly sad, crushingly upsetting or crushingly disgusting we're gonna talk about them. Let's do it.
00:15The Walking Dead.
00:30Telltale's The Walking Dead is another franchise that hinges on player choices to shape the game's outcomes. It also hinges on the fragility of my heart.
00:42I don't even know if that makes sense, I'm just trying to say I'm a crybaby and I hated the end of episode 1.
00:46Despite his choices, Lee, the main character, will inevitably be bitten by a walker.
00:51This results in a poignant moment where Clementine, the young girl Lee rescued during the outbreak and came to see as a daughter, must kill Lee to prevent him from turning.
01:00It's a classic zombie trope and for a good reason, it causes a grown man to cry every single time. Me, I'm the grown man.
01:14Clock Tower
01:30We've got 20 entries to get through and I don't have time to explain the plot of a 30 year old game so we're gonna get to the point.
01:35Ending F.
01:36If specific conditions aren't fulfilled by the time Jennifer arrives at the clock tower, ending F is activated.
01:42In this ending, Jennifer steps into an elevator and the door shuts behind her. After a brief silence, a loud crash is heard followed by screaming and the frantic clatter of scissors.
01:51Blood then starts to seep from beneath the elevator doors and the screen fades to black as Scissorman's laugh echoes.
01:57Despite its basic graphics and sound effects, it's deeply disturbing, especially after spending the whole damn game with Jennifer.
02:11Dead Space
02:13Throughout the campaign of Dead Space, Isaac is on a desperate quest to save his girlfriend Nicole, who is working on the spaceship Ishimura.
02:20In a shocking twist, it's revealed that Nicole has been dead the entire time.
02:25It's actually a great reveal, even if it does seem cliché.
02:28The Amarcus hallucinations have deceived Isaac into believing she's dead.
02:32The truth is that Nicole had died long before Isaac arrived at the Ishimura.
02:35The ending of Dead Space is a striking and memorable narrative choice that sticks with players long after the game concludes.
02:42Harvester
02:45There was a beautiful patch of PC point and click adventures that truly showed Isaac's potential.
02:50He had a great time, and here's a clip of him getting a bit of a kick out of it.
03:04Harvester
03:06Harvester.
03:08There was a beautiful patch of PC point and click adventures that truly just let it fly.
03:13Is that too much for a video game?
03:14Not for a point and click PC game nobody will probably play.
03:17In Harvester at the end of the story players can choose to reject the cult and achieve
03:21the good ending, or they can opt for Steve to brutally murder his girlfriend, tear out
03:26her skull and present it to the cult.
03:28I'm not joking.
03:30This act ultimately frees Steve from their control so he can then escape with a stranger
03:34whom he later kills and consumes.
03:36Again, I'm not joking.
03:38The scene takes a disturbing turn as the camera follows Steve's actions, entering his throat
03:43and stomach to reveal the remains of a stranger being slowly digested, all while his mother
03:47berates him about how violent video games will corrupt his mind.
03:50Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator.
03:57At the end of Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator, which I never expected to talk about on a
04:00Mojo video, players face a final showdown with the animatronics.
04:04After managing the pizzeria, players must survive one last night where they're attacked
04:08by the remaining animatronics.
04:10The game concludes with a purging sequence where the pizzeria is set ablaze, destroying
04:14the haunted animatronics and the remnants of the cursed establishment.
04:18The music, the voice over, the creepy visuals, who'd have thought such a small game could
04:22make your skin crawl uncontrollably.
04:25Singularity.
04:37Although each ending in Singularity has its own dark themes, if the player chooses to
04:41align with Barisov, he becomes a tyrannical ruler with control over the world, exploiting
04:45the time anomalies to reshape it according to his vision.
04:48He acts much like a dictator.
04:51A lot like a dictator.
04:52He's a dictator.
04:53This ending results in a dystopian future where Barisov's oppressive regime dominates,
04:58eventually making you guys the two most powerful men in the world.
05:01You ultimately split and face each other in an unmatched world war, showcasing a darker
05:06outcome of the player's decisions.
05:08Bloodborne.
05:09In the childhood's beginning ending of Bloodborne, the protagonist becomes a Great One after
05:27they have finally defeated Mergo.
05:29Upon completing the ritual and accepting the Great One's cosmic influence, the hunter transforms
05:33into an infant Great One, symbolizing a new beginning.
05:36The ending reveals the hunter's evolution into a cosmic entity, joining the ranks of
05:40the ancient and enigmatic beings they sought to understand.
05:44The crying monstrosity that you become is hard to wrap your head around as you become
05:48connected with the protagonist and seeing him in this form is not exactly fun.
06:05Outlast.
06:15In Outlast, after enduring one of the worst nights imaginable, locked in the asylum with
06:19inmates corrupted by a mysterious force, Miles uncovers the truth about the facility.
06:24As Miles tries to end Hope's control over the Wall Rider, he becomes possessed by it,
06:29and in a tragic twist, just as Miles is about to leave, a military unit arrives and shoots
06:33him down without giving him a chance to explain or escape.
06:37After surviving all manner of supernatural creatures and inmates, it makes it so much
06:41worse that you're eventually killed by normal people.
06:44Seriously?
06:55The Park.
07:05The often forgotten The Park is a psychological horror game that immerses players in the role
07:09of a grieving mother searching for her missing son in an amusement park where he was reportedly
07:14lost.
07:15The game is deeply unsettling, featuring unique scares and mechanics that more mainstream
07:19titles might shy away from.
07:21As the game nears its end, it is revealed that the son has been missing for a long time
07:25due to the mother's negligence.
07:27The boogeyman manipulates her into stabbing her son through the heart, but he vanishes
07:31forcing her to commit the act herself.
07:33Basically, you've been playing as a pretty terrible mother this whole time.
07:45Layers of Fear.
07:46Welcome to Layers of Fear, the only game to ever make a little bit of urine come out of
07:49my body.
07:50I wish I was joking.
07:51The game guides players through an ever-shifting mansion reminiscent of Silent Hill's P.T.
07:56as they gradually uncover the truth about their wife's fate.
07:59It is revealed that the artist has been using her remains as materials for his portraits.
08:04In the bad ending, the artist completes a portrait of his wife only for it to transform
08:08into a monstrous figure that mocks him.
08:10He then discards the painting in a dark room filled with similar discarded artworks, expressing
08:14his belief that he is trapped in an unending cycle.
08:17It truly makes Van Gogh cutting his ear off look like child's play.
08:21Little Nightmares Series.
08:31We're being bad boys by actually combining a few entries into one entry because each
08:34game in the Little Nightmares series offers more information to make each ending twice
08:38as disturbing as the last.
08:40In the first game, players control Six, a yellow raincoat-clad hero who resorts to extreme
08:45and disturbing measures to survive.
08:47From consuming a gnome to ultimately killing and devouring the Lady, Six's morality is
08:51questionable.
08:53After defeating the Lady, Six acquires her powers and uses them to annihilate all the
08:57guests.
08:58The sequel introduces Mono as the new protagonist.
09:00Six reappears and allies with Mono, but the ending is even more unsettling than the first
09:04game.
09:05As Mono dangles from a crumbling platform and depends on Six for help, Six chooses to
09:10let Mono fall, sealing him to a truly terrifying fate.
09:14Never meet your heroes, kids.
09:27Fatal Frame II Crimson Butterfly
09:40Fatal Frame II features several endings, like a lot of the entries on this list, but the
09:43darkest is the Frozen Butterfly ending.
09:46In this scenario, Mayu becomes possessed, but the ghost controlling her is defeated
09:50before Mio is compelled to kill her through strangulation.
09:53In this ending, however, Mayu turns the tables and strangles Mio to death instead.
09:58The ending credit scenes of Fatal Frame II Frozen Butterfly Ending are especially disturbing
10:03as they focus on Mayu painting her sister's lips while her decapitated head rests in her
10:08lap.
10:10Something like a disturbing visual moment to ruin an entire evening.
10:29Persona 5
10:35While Persona 5 features several distressing outcomes for failing to stop its array of
10:39events, the ending you face for not taking down the local crime lord Kaneshiro is particularly
10:45stomach turning.
10:46Upon meeting him, Kaneshiro makes disturbing references to trafficking and dehumanises
10:50both Makoto and Anne with flagrant remarks, underscoring his depravity.
10:55Should you ultimately fail to stop him before the deadline, Makoto is kidnapped and suffers
10:59a fate we'd rather not ruminate on.
11:01This is made all the worse when after she's saved by police, her confession leads them
11:05right to your door before you're arrested and eventually gunned down while incarcerated.
11:11Nobody wins in this ending.
11:30Fear 2 Project Origin
11:36In the final chapter of Fear 2 Climax, protagonist Michael Beckett finds himself trapped inside
11:42a psychic amplifying machine with the antagonist Alma.
11:46The plan is for Beckett to use his enhanced psychic abilities to defeat her, however things
11:50go awry and Beckett starts experiencing a series of vivid and disturbing hallucinations.
11:55Most alarmingly, he repeatedly sees and feels Alma engaging in non-consensual sex with him,
12:01which seems distressingly real.
12:04This is bad enough, but after breaking free from this delirium and escaping the machine,
12:07Beckett finds the world around him in flames and discovers that Alma is pregnant.
12:12As he approaches her and places his hand on her stomach, a child's voice saying mummy
12:17is heard before the screen fades to black.
12:19I have no mouth and I must scream.
12:22I don't think I'll ever stop talking about this game because it is so narratively disturbing
12:25that it will never leave my brain.
12:27The story centres on AM, a supercomputer that has exterminated humanity except for 5 survivors,
12:33whom it keeps alive and tortures for eternity.
12:35AM reveals to these captives that there are 750 humans in cryosleep and they must prove
12:41humanity's worth or the frozen individuals will be destroyed.
12:45If they fail, the final character you control murders the other 4 survivors before attempting
12:49to take his own life.
12:51However AM transforms this character into a gelatinous form incapable of hurting themselves.
12:56The character is condemned to exist in this state forever, and if this isn't bad enough,
13:00AM awakens the 750 sleeping cryopatients to torment him as well.
13:05Haunting Ground
13:06Ah, you're up.
13:12Fiona, I've decided you shall give birth to me.
13:19If you don't build a strong enough bond with Hughie before the final chapter of Haunting
13:22Ground, he will not come to rescue Fiona from Ricardo, leading to the infamous ending D.
13:27In this ending, Fiona wakes up trapped inside a glass case with Ricardo on the outside.
13:32He taunts her, claiming that she is now his possession and will soon bear his child, despite
13:37her resistance.
13:38The scene then jumps forward to show Fiona sitting in a large armchair, now heavily pregnant.
13:43Ricardo enters and tenderly touches her face, and Fiona forces a smile and starts to laugh,
13:49seemingly resigned to her fate of servitude and emotionally shutting down.
13:54Dark.
13:55Really dark, you guys.
14:07Alan Wake
14:20Although it's hard for some to wrap their heads around the metaphors of Alan Wake's
14:23ending, the actual clear narrative ending is disturbing regardless.
14:26At the end of Alan Wake, the protagonist, Alan Wake, confronts the darkness that has
14:30taken over his wife, Alice.
14:32He discovers that he has been trapped in a nightmarish parallel world, and the only way
14:35to free Alice and escape is to confront the darkness directly.
14:39Alan sacrifices himself, allowing the darkness to consume him, which in turn destroys the
14:44malevolent force and saves Alice.
14:45In the final scenes, Alice is seen safe and sound, while Alan remains trapped in the dark
14:50realm.
14:51With his fate left uncertain as he continues to write his story, implying he may still
14:56be battling the darkness.
15:04Silent Hill 2
15:14If you haven't played Silent Hill 2 and you're looking forward to trying out the remake,
15:17skip this entry because this ending is wild and famous.
15:21The protagonist, James, comes to Silent Hill after receiving a letter from his wife who
15:24had died of cancer, you spend your entire journey trying to get to the bottom of this
15:28letter.
15:29It is discovered that James' wife, Mary, while suffering from her terminal illness,
15:33was smothered by James who aimed to end her suffering and his own torment.
15:38This shocking revelation about Mary's death challenges players' expectations and forces
15:42them to grapple with the moral complexities of the story.
15:45It's so infamous that people are still talking about it to this day.
15:49Like me, right now.
15:59Fallout 3
16:00You can't talk about disturbing endings in games without giving Bethesda their praise
16:04for the FEV ending in their groundbreaking game, Fallout 3.
16:08In this ending, the player chooses to activate the FEV-based purifier at the Jefferson Memorial.
16:14This decision results in a catastrophic release of the virus, which has the potential to radically
16:19alter human evolution.
16:20The player, who may have been exposed to radiation, ensures the purifier's activation, but ultimately
16:25sacrifices themselves in the process.
16:27The ending shows the resulting chaos as the FEV contaminates the wasteland, potentially
16:32leading to a new, mutated species and a grim future for humanity.
16:37Ending an already decimated humanity is dark as hell, and continues to be an option in
16:43Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified
16:48about our latest videos.
16:49You have the option to be notified for occasional videos or all of them.
16:53If you're on your phone, make sure to go into your settings and switch on notifications.
16:59The Last of Us
17:15The ending that shook us to our cores, and solidified The Last of Us as one of the greatest
17:19games of all time.
17:21After spending the entire game trying to deliver Ellie to the Fireflies, Joel learns that they
17:25plan to kill her in order to extract samples from her brain to attempt to create a cure
17:30from her immunity.
17:32Unwilling to let them sacrifice Ellie, he goes on a violent rampage through the Fireflies
17:36hospital, killing anyone who obstructs him.
17:39He ultimately kills the doctors to rescue Ellie.
17:41He also guns down Marlene, who had originally saved Ellie and been somewhat of a caretaker
17:45to her.
17:46This dark turn takes autonomy away from Ellie, who would have likely wanted to die for humanity.
17:52After lying to her about what happened, we as the player are left with a truly awful
17:56feeling in our gut.
17:58Even though both our protagonists made it out alive, it's complicated and undeniably
18:02disturbing.