The End, My Friend, Part Two

Destructoid has published a second installment to their interesting “The End, My Friend” editorial, this time pointing out several video game endings that “don’t suck.” Both Fallout and Planescape: Torment make the list:

In the last article, I said that multiple endings are difficult to execute effectively. The reason I said (difficult) and not (impossible) is because of games like Planescape: Torment. For all the nonlinearity and multiple conclusions the game has to offer, there is one thing in common to every playthrough of the game: in the end, the protagonist must die. It’d be too much trouble to go into why this makes so much sense in the context of the game, but suffice it to say that The Nameless One made himself immortal to avoid going to hell, and that his immortality could essentially destroy the universe.

Given that the main themes in the game are fate and futility, all roads end in essentially the same way: based on how the player acts and who he befriends along the way his death may be much more comforting, or infinitely more tragic (imagine watching every single one of your companions die, violently, just for befriending you). Planescape’s nonlinearity never compromises its storytelling: it has a particular story it wants to tell, very specific themes it wants to develop, and though the player can complete the game in a half-dozen different ways, the story is always engrossing, satisfying, and utterly tragic.