A poor showing

So I have been rummaging in my various video game libraries to find something interesting to play and a game cropped up that suggested it would be done in about 3 hours. An FPS as well. The experience was an absolute example of what not to do with an ending.

Spoilers ahead!

The game in question is Industria and I had picked it up for free on Epic. The game starts in Germany at the start of the fall of the Berlin wall. However that’s the first 10 minutes or so. After that you go through a portal that takes you somewhere else.

There is a grand total of 3 people in the cast. You play Nora, a guy called Brent is on your radio and Walter, Nora’s lover. Throughout the game the vast majority its just Nora and Brent chatting over the radio about how to find Walter. So far very normal stuff and to be fair, the interactions are well delivered and are believable. There is a touching moment in the game where you do a favour for Brent and the voice actor delivers their lines with superb emotion.

Running at full steam…

The shooting is a bit basic but the guns sound great. The use of light is excellent which generates some great atmosphere. There are some slip ups here and there, such as one level where it has infinite spawning enemies but doesn’t telegraph that to the player. The technical side of the game feels like it could use a few rounds of polish but my new computer powered through without issue.

I would knock a point off if the game relied on melee combat as I found it very unpleasant. Thankfully I had to use it once and then I got a gun and only ever used the melee weapon to break open supply crates.

…Right into a brick wall.

The parts of the game that started to loose me were the scenes set in a black & white library. You had to find your way to a door, go down a hall to see a kind of play. This didn’t really add much to the game except confusion. I didn’t find it helped the narrative at all or anything.

Then there was the ending, which kinda came out of the blue and left a terrible taste in my mouth. I believe the developers wanted to leave an ending that was like a cliff hanger. But the way it was executed was bizarre. It relied heavily on the monochrome library and then had a voice over that just thew a bunch of stuff at the player and the game genuinely ended with curtains closing.

I am going to be honest with you, I was left most annoyed. I had played a wonderful character driven story with great atmosphere with a wave of nostalgia from my childhood at the start and I was left with an ending that felt like a dogs breakfast!

Beginnings & endings matter, middles not so much.

Its distressing the number of games that fail with their ending. I’m reminded of the 2 new Deus Ex games. Human Revolution especially screwed its ending by presenting you with a choice of 3+1 options to choose from. For a series known for it choices weaving into the narrative, this wasn’t the way to do it. Mass Effect 3 did this as well, although improved it later.

There are any number of games where I will remember the start and end of the game way more than the middle. Doubly so if either of those are rough. I remember Cyberpunk 2077 when it first released and your friend, Jackie, walking through a bunch of lockers right in front of me, showcasing the games technical issues I would have to slog through.

How would I fix Industria’s ending? If you want to keep it with all the black and white stuff, fine, but it needs to be coherent. Drop all the stuff about anything else other than Walter & Nora. He’s not dead but is fighting the AI on their turf. He remembers you and loves you but needs to see the battle to its end. End scene.

The exposition drop at the end serves only to confuse the player. And then to end the game straight after just leaves a terrible memory of the game! They have announced a sequel but with no date so any resolution for that story is likely far away.

Got any endings that left you frustrated or ones that did it right? Let me know!