The 10 Best Games With Multiple Endings
Why settle for one climax when you can have multiple? Wait, that came out wrong. If you’re looking for games that save a little something extra for later, then boy howdy this list is for you! Each one of these games features multiple endings, so you’ll come back begging for more every time. Again, that came out wrong. Whether it’s a sci-fi opus or a high fantasy soap opera, there’s a little something in here for everyone! Here they are, the 10 best games with multiple endings. You’re not tired yet, and neither are they.
Disco Elysium
A work of literature disguised as a game, Disco Elysium is one of the most ambitious titles in modern memory. The action is set in a near future dystopia suffering from political collapse, and you take control of a cop whose mental state isn’t doing much better. After waking up from the mother of all benders, you’re tasked with piecing together the details of local crimes and the remnants of your drug obliterated personality. A non-traditional title, Disco Elysium does’t contain any combat – its plot is determined through a series of branching dialogue choices that result into entirely different narrative conclusions. There are many bangs and whimpers with which this dystopian world could end. Will you be the one to pull it back from the brink? Or kick it down into oblivion? The choice is yours.
Baldur’s Gate 3
Baldur’s Gate 3 is absolutely lousy with player choice – chock full of it. As customizable as the Dungeons and Dragons campaigns on which it’s based, the game lets you choose between a myriad of classes, moral decisions, and datable baddies. Wanna be a tiefling monk with a shady past who saves the world and wins the goth cleric’s heart? You can. Or maybe you want to be a wise cracking halfling bard that plays both sides of the political and sexual spectrum? You can do that too. You wanna be a bloodthirsty barbarian that burns the world to ashes and bags the babelicious wizard man in the process? By the gods, that’s your decision to make! Defeat the darkness, submit to it, or overthrow it and rule in its stead – there’s a million options in Baldur’s Gate 3. In romance and politics, you’ve got options.
NieR: Automata
One of the most philosophically ambitious titles on the market, NieR: Automata is part action RPG and part existential think piece. The action takes place tens of thousands of years in the future, where human controlled androids are fighting a proxy war against alien-built machines. As you cut through swathes of synthetic foes with your samurai swords, you begin to wonder if you and your enemies are more alike than different – a dangerous thought when you’re an android whose sole goal is mission success. The game features a whopping total of 26 endings, though only the first five are considered canon. Endings A through E are necessary to understand the story. F through Z are “joke” endings that often involve abandoning missions midway through and causing the game’s narrative to collapse on itself. Absurdist problems require absurdist solutions, after all.
Undertale
One of the most infamous tales of morality in gaming history, Toby Fox’s Undertale causes the player to question everything there is to know about RPG gaming. After falling through a hole in surface and into a subterranean world of monsters, your character is given the choice to befriend the beasties you meet, or murder them like most other RPG games suggest. While two of the game’s most popular endings involve killing no one or everyone, Undertale offers multiple conclusions sure to suit the morally gray protagonist as well. What if you want to kill some monsters and not others? The game lets you make those thorny moral choices, and then forces you to sit with the devastating consequences.
The Stanley Parable
One of the most beloved multiple ending games ever made, The Stanley Parable is the story of an office worker named Stanley – whose humdrum life is narrated by, well, the Narrator. After running into some computer troubles, Stanley is encouraged to explore his strange little office world – finding most of it abandoned and fallen to disrepair. While The Narrator pressures Stanley to continue the plot as the disembodied voice sees fit, the player ultimately decides whether or not Stanley listens. The Narrator’s prompts can be followed to the letter or ignored entirely, the latter decision leaving the “omniscient” storyteller woefully flustered. An absurdist comedy game, The Stanley Parable features multiple endings that stem from how closely they choose to follow The Narrator’s instructions, if at all. Have problems with authority? You’ll love this one.
Chrono Trigger
One of the most celebrated JRPGs ever made, Chrono Trigger is one of the earliest games to features multiple endings that branch from character choice. The action follows a group of teens living in the year 1000 AD, who are sent hurtling back into the past after one of their mad-scientist dads invents a time machine instead of a teleporter. After meeting an ancestor and causing a time paradox, the gang are forced to right the wrongs of the past and save the present. Easier said than done. Their meddling instead lands them in a far future dystopia, the remnants of a world destroyed by a giant cosmic horror monster. It’s RPG adventurers vs eldritch abominations! A fantasy/sci-fi mashup hailed as one of the all time greats! Chrono Trigger is a must play.
The Mass Effect series
One of the 21st century’s most stunning sci-fi titles, the Mass Effect series is a space opera with multiple curtain calls. You take control of Commander Shepard, a decorated Navy officer who is tasked with defending the Milky Way from The Reapers – genocidal robot squids from beyond the stars. How you decide to defeat the Reaper threat is entirely up to you, and your choices across all three game reshape the galaxy – for good or for ill. Depending on your choices, entire civilizations may be wiped out of the universe. More importantly, you’re laden with a crew full of dateable alien babes! Who will you save? Who will you destroy? Who you take to bed? You could do all three at the same time, but the galaxy might not survive it.
Omori
Part psychological drama, part tactical RPG, Omori is the story of one teenage boy who is stuck in his head. The plot follows a kid named Sunny, a hikikomori who struggles expressing himself in the real world. As a result, most of the game takes place within Sunny’s mind – where you play as Sunny’s alter ego Omori. As Sunny and his friends navigate the mental world of “Headspace,” the game’s surroundings turn from dream to nightmare – highlighting Sunny’s buried inner trauma surrounding the death of a friend. A surrealist masterpiece, Omori feels like a playthrough of a Satoshi Kon film – except this piece of cinema has multiple endings to choose from. Sunny’s decision to confront his past (and his friends’ roles in it) lead to some seriously devastating conclusions. There’s one Good ending, and lots of Bad ones – you’ve been warned.
Silent Hill 2
One of the greatest psychological horror games ever made, Silent Hill 2 is the story of widower James Sunderland – summoned back to the town of Silent Hill by letters from his dead wife. As James steps inside the haunted suburb’s borders, the town begins to physicalize his inner trauma, creating nightmarish creatures that stem from his greatest fears. Demon nurses that represent his pent up sexual frustration, tortured mannequins that symbolize his helplessness, sword swinging executioners that serve his desire for self-punishment – this game is a Freudian’s field day. As the game creeps on toward its devastating conclusion(s), you’re given an ending based on your in-game decisions – most of which you weren’t aware you were making at the time. It’s a deeply psychological game that probes your subconscious, and seemingly insignificant choices will result in your salvation or punishment.
Elden Ring
Would it really be the 21st century’s greatest RPG without multiple endings? The culmination of FromSoftware’s groundbreaking game design, Elden Ring puts you smack dab in The Lands Between – a god-cursed kingdom that is slowly succumbing to decay. As you navigate the decrepit world, you’re given choices to decide the fate of it. There are a total of six possible endings to choose from, which allow you to save the world, destroy it, or abandon it entirely. Like the game’s infinity of different play styles, there’s surely an ending here to suit your high fantasy fancy – even if it’s apocalyptic.
Detroit: Become Human
Detroit: Become Human is a cyberpunk epic certain to make Willaim Gibson proud. Set in an a not so distant future where androids are integrating into society, the plot follows three different automatons struggling to fit in. A police robot turned moral philosopher, a housekeeper turned surrogate mother, and a caretaker turned revolutionary – each of one these synthetic intelligences have decisions to make. As hostilities between humans and androids ramp up, you can decide whether or not you want to stoke the flames or calm them. Will this world end with coexistent peace or robot revolution? The choice is yours, but carefully consider the consequences.
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