Saddest ending in a video game? (Spoilers for all games ever)

[Reasonable]

coolbeans said:

Khuutra said:

coolbeans said:

PhoenixKing said:

Reasonable said:
Hmm. Probably some of the endings in Silent Hill 2 - clue, the not very happy ones.

I also found Ico to be wonderfully sad, although it depends what you take as its ending point.

SOTC also had a brilliant ending, very moving.

Also, just today I had a sad ending in Left 4 Dead, playing offline for a while due to a borked connection my NPC buddies sadly failed to bother helping me out and let me die, the silly sods. It was a very sad ending indeed.

Shadow of Colossus? There is no development for the relationship, I had to read the manual to even know that was his sister.

Even though I've only killed around 6-8 Colossi, I was under the impression that woman was his lover.  I guess manuals are good for something

The manual never says it's his sister. It's left almost entirely ambiguous.

Oh.........so is it his sister or not? You now have me confused

You don't know who she is.  Sister seems unlikely though.  As Trollian says what matters is what you are willing to do to get her back - which is anything.  The game does imply (whether she is a lover or not) that you were instrumental in her death, and are moved by guilt and an overwhelming desire to 'wind back the clock'.

What I liked in SOTC is that at the end, rather than one big cutscene, you play as your character, desperately hanging on, desperate to reach the woman he has risked all for, and its hopeless.  You can never reach her, and you can never hang on no matter how hard you try.  It was a sublimly clever use of interactive gameplay tied to a real character moment.