Half-Life 2
As brilliant as Half-Life 2’s entire campaign was – from battling through Ravenholm to taking out Striders in City 17 and wrecking the Citadel with the Dark Matter Gun – it’s ending left something to be desired. Upon destroying the reactor to Breen’s teleporter, the entire structure is seemingly falling apart. Suddenly time stops and who should appear but the G-Man. After speaking about offers from various interested parties for Gordon’s services and making the choice for him rather than giving the illusion of free will, the G-Man walks through a white door and everything fades to black. While this represents Valve’s penchant for cliffhanger endings and served to hype up the story’s continuation, it was also viewed as yet another cliffhanger for fans who had already experienced the same ambiguous style of ending years ago. Nothing about G-Man’s motivations, what he had Gordon involved with etc was answered and though there was hype for what could come next, erratic releases did little to retroactively improve this ending.
