You ever enjoy a perfectly nice drink just to have to throw it all out after a fly drops into it? Well, that’s what this list represents. Each of these games has a plot point so brazen or nonsensical that it retroactively sours the entire experience in some way. On rare occasions, the crucial plot point recontextualizes the story so you can enjoy it from a different perspective, but most of these games’ stories are utterly ruined by try-hard plot moments. Here is our list of 10 video game plot points that ruined everything.
1. Mass Effect 3’s Endings
The biggest innovation the Mass Effect trilogy gave to the industry was its consequential choices affecting the events of its sequels. You could kill off beloved characters, and even have access to exclusive quests tied to specific choices. But all of that brilliant branching narrative comes crashing down when Shepard activates the Crucible to destroy the Reapers at the finale of Mass Effect 3.
Players are presented with three endings, all color-coded and nearly identical to each other. Sure, the outcomes of the endings are different, but the scenes that accompany them show the same dramatic sequence with some very slight alterations. Mass Effect 3’s illusion of choice is presented to you by the Star Child character, a shoehorned projection that pops up out of nowhere. The endings of Mass Effect 3 feel so cheap and inconsequential that many fans refuse to play through the trilogy again because of them, despite how excellent the games themselves are.
