Top 10 Surprise Endings in Video Games

01. The Walking Dead (Telltale, 2013)

For every rule there is an exception, and in the case of The Walking Dead video game, it is the exception to the rule that games made from TV shows and movies basically suck.

The TV show was based on the graphic novels, and the game was based on a mixture of the graphic novels and the TV show - not to say that it was the direct interpretation of the show, or even that the show heavily influenced it.

It certainly did not hurt the game that it could ride off of the popularity of the show - but in the end the game presents the stories of a completely different set of characters. More than that, it did so in a manner that was old school and so clean that it left the player feeling like while they benefited from having watched the show, watching the show was superfluous.

Mechanics-wise the combination of dialogue and point-and-click make the game a lot like the old-school title The Secret of Monkey Island - but the firm grasp on the graphic novel style of art and display render it in terms that are still strictly modern.

The story that unfolds is told in chapters, and by the time the player gets close to the end they very much identify not only with their own character - the protagonist - but with the other characters as well. If they were fortunate in the choices that they made, some of the more sympathetic character might even have survived the adventure.

In the end though, what made this game - among all of the others - the top choice in terms of Surprise Endings was the surprise ending: the protagonist dies.

Having Lee get bitten is bad enough, but the painful and sad lamenting by Clementine makes it 100 times worse - it doesn't just tug at your heart strings, it breaks your heart. And in the end that innocent little girl ends up having to complete what is both a horror and a mercy: she has to kill you.