Stark wrote:As mentioned, Thief did it well in that the setting and characters were reusable, but the story had a definate end. It's over; Garrett is done. But... dawn of the metal age! Fate has a way of finding you! It's even used in a sinister way in the end cutscene without invalidating the drama in a 'you just killed Satan but his dad is coming' kind of way.
I think that what many developers (or storytellers, or directors...) do not grasp is that even if you have hints of a larger story, closure must be provided for what the player just went through. Now, the stupid thing to do it is to say, "the foe is dead, here comes the foe's father" (and brother, and sister, and extended family, ad nauseam). That's basically telling the player they didn't do their job, and in so doing yanking a well-deserved victory out of reach.
A similarly egregious offence is when an ending is just suddenly foisted upon you without warning. Fallout 3, I'm looking at you, although unsurprisingly, I recall Oblivion as having the same problem. In other words, you decide to follow the main plot and, eventually, when you least expect it, you're thrown into a scripted sequence where you either facilitate the end the game or the end of yourself. If thousands of side quests are left unfulfilled because of you didn't see the end coming, that nets the programmers bonus points in their secret crypt, or so I hear.
A good ending doesn't require much, and will often only need to consist of a wind-down and a pat on the head for a job well done. A
great ending will give you something more. It can be elaborate, or, as in the case of Thief 2: The Metal Age, consist of a simple exchange:
"All is as it was written."
"And there's more?"
"Yes."
"Show me."
