What better way to underscore that a player’s actions have consequences to how a game’s story unfolds than through its conclusion? Ever since the classic “Bubble Bobble,” gamers have been treated with multiple endings to a given gameplay experience. As gaming storytelling has grown significantly more sophisticated, this trend has certainly grown more ambitious with the number of endings individual games can provide players. The standout games, each with rewarding multiple endings, are the titles that we’re focusing on here.
More than just the standard good conclusion/bad conclusion dichotomy, we’re looking at games with more robust care taken with how they wrap their stories. With these endings, you can really tell how the impact of your individual decisions informed how these conclusions play out. This variety and consequence will make you want to go back and play through the game all over again to see how differently the story can play out.
These are the five best video games with multiple endings ranked, each sticking with fans long after the end credits roll.
5. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Among the best fantasy games of all time is “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt,” the conclusion to CD Projekt’s trilogy starring monster hunter Geralt of Rivia. The 2015 game has Geralt search for his adopted daughter Ciri after she’s targeted by a cabal hunting her for her magical abilities. Along the way, Geralt decides which love interest he wants to continue to romance and the fate of an ongoing civil war. The game builds upon these diverging possibilities further with a growing set of DLC, each with their own multiple endings depending on player choices.
The best games with multiple endings are the ones that make players want to play through an entire campaign all over again just to see how differing choices play out. “The Witcher 3” certainly qualifies on that score, whether it’s choosing between Yennefer or Triss as Geralt’s main love interest or deciding Ciri’s fate. Those qualities carry over to its DLC, making the game one that we revisit constantly, rarely playing it the same way twice. It takes a long time to beat “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt” and see all its possible endings, but we love every minute of it.
4. Fallout: New Vegas
While the “Fallout” games have had multiple endings before, 2010’s “Fallout: New Vegas” took those sensibilities to the next level. The game follows a courier caught between the various rival factions in the ruins of Las Vegas and its surrounding areas, after the franchise’s nuclear apocalypse inciting premise. Depending on which faction the player sides with, one of four major endings plays out upon conclusion of the main story campaign. But the game also provides glimpses of many of the other characters and individualized choices that players made throughout their playthrough.
One of the untold truths behind “Fallout: New Vegas” was that the game was originally planned to have three different protagonists. That proposed scope was reflected by the vastly different paths players could follow based on what factions they aligned themselves with. But the addition of having those smaller decisions get reflected in the ending really makes each playthrough feel distinct from each other. Still a highwater mark for the franchise, “Fallout: New Vegas” made sure choices and endings were more varied than a good and bad morality conclusion.
3. Silent Hill 2
2001’s “Silent Hill 2” for the PlayStation 2 really took its psychological horror stakes to a higher level as it charted the saga of protagonist James Sunderland. Revisiting the remote town of Silent Hill, players learn that James is still reeling from the death of his wife Mary after he receives a letter from her. While the circumstances behind Mary’s untimely end remain the same, the players’ actions dictate a variety of different endings for James to experience. The original version of the game featured five different endings, while the 2024 remake actually contained a total of eight endings that players can unlock.
While maintaining the heavy melancholia that “Silent Hill” is known for, the various endings to “Silent Hill 2” range from fittingly grim to offering a shred of hope for James. This is a story about an endless cycle of self-punishment, so a full-on happy ending was never in the cards, but differing levels of solace and acceptance can be obtained. At the same time, the game also contains the joke endings that have been a staple since the original title, as a sort of reprieve from the story’s inherent bleakness. “Silent Hill 2” is an essential horror game everyone should play and its ambiguous endings each add a new thematic layer to its haunting story.
2. Chrono Trigger
When it comes to RPGs by Square, there’s still no beating “Chrono Trigger” when it comes to multiple endings. There are over 10 endings to the 1995 Super Nintendo game in all, largely stemming from how well players fare against the villainous Lavos and the fate of Crono. The better endings feature epilogues for other main characters in the game following the destiny-altering climactic confrontation. There’s even a wild secret ending to “Chrono Triggers” that many gamers likely didn’t see as a testament to its breadth.
“Chrono Trigger” is a ’90s RPG that aged surprisingly well, and the replayability through its multiple endings play a big factor towards that. To encourage repeat playthroughs, the developers added endings that are only accessible to players who have completed the game at least once before. This ranges from joke endings to different ways that history is changed by defeating Lavos at various points in the timeline. Square has rarely created other RPGs with the same variety in endings than “Chrono Trigger,” making the ’90s title an enduring classic.
1. Baldur’s Gate III
When it comes to a virtually unbeatable scope in the number and variety of endings possible and how individually rewarding they are, there’s no beating “Baldur’s Gate III.” The game features three main endings, including whether players choose to save the world or seize control as its new conqueror. But there are so many consequential decisions for players to decide between on the way to its pivotal climax. These can yield thousands of ways for the ending sequences to be altered accordingly, from character epilogues to what type of origin the player character has.
“Baldur’s Gate III” truly is one of the most ambitious RPGs to come out in recent memory, truly epic in its scope. So many games claim that individual player decisions matter in affecting how their respective endgames each play out. Larian Studios’ 2023 title really makes good on that promise, rewarding how players proceeded during their entire run. A masterpiece right down to the level of care taken into crafting its multitude of endings, “Baldur’s Gate III” rules the roost.
