Beware of spoilers for the following games: Titanfall 2, Bulletstorm, The Darkness 2, Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Syphon Filter: Logan’s Shadow, Days Gone, Shenmue 3, Prince of Persia (2008), Sly Cooper: Thieves In Time, Dead Space 3 – Awakened DLC, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Resident Evil Gaiden, Prey (2006), The Punisher & Conduit 2.
Stingers are a common occurrence within the world of gaming, as there are few better ways to try and drum up interest in a potential sequel than by dropping some kind of massive tease of where the series is going next. For the most part, these stingers come at the end of a complete story, meaning if a game doesn’t receive a follow-up, at least you still have a story with a clear beginning, middle and end, but there’s been plenty of games with full-blown unresolved cliffhangers.
Having a cliffhanger go unresolved can be one of the most frustrating feelings in the world of video games, much like how an unresolved film or TV show can leave viewers speculating for years on where the story could have gone. What makes a video game cliffhanger more infuriating though is that there always seems to be a chance that developers will revisit a franchise, but it’s never confirmed. These 15 unresolved video cliffhangers could be solved in the future, though if we’re really honest with ourselves, we all know there’s no chance in hell of that happening.
1. Titanfall 2
Developer: Respawn Entertainment
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Platform(s): PC, PS4, Xbox One
Admittedly, this one is a bit more of a stinger, but it’s been 8 years since the last Titanfall and the world yearns for more adventures with Jack Cooper and BT. God damn it, if it’s the last thing this website does, it’ll be to convince Respawn to finally buck their ideas up and greenlight Titanfall 3. None of these Apex Legends updates with ties to the world and characters of Titanfall, just a straight up, honest to goodness sequel.
Anyway, after a thrilling campaign of taking on lethal mercenaries and learning how to become a Titan Pilot, Jack Cooper and BT’s bond is as close as it possibly can be between fleshbag and metal man. At the climax of Titanfall 2, BT sacrifices himself so Jack can escape a life and death situation, but after the credits roll, a flickering light leads us to believe that there might be life in BT just yet.
Unfortunately, with no word on a new Titanfall, and the universe jumping forward a few decades to accommodate Apex Legends’ characters and lore, we may never find out how the relationship between Cooper and BT blossomed.
2. Bulletstorm
Developer: People Can Fly, Epic Games
Publisher: Electronic Arts, Gearbox Publishing
Platform(s): PC, PS3, Xbox 360, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, VR
People Can Fly’s collaboration with Epic Games and EA produced a shooter that might have been a bit ahead of its time, as Bulletstorm released in 2011, right in the peak of Call of Duty fever. If it wasn’t a military shooter, it wouldn’t pop off sales-wise, which is why Bulletstorm never received a sequel, even if it has been ported to multiple platforms since its original release, meaning more people can join those who have been waiting since 2011 for a resolution on that cliffhanger.
Bulletstorm sees players controlling space pirate and former merc Grayson Hunt as he and his comrades wage war against his former boss, General Sarrano. At the climax of the game, you hand Sarrano his ass, but are forced to escape before you can finish the job, with a post-credit scene laying down the battlelines for the future: Grayson and former Sarrano ally Trishka versus a cyborg Sarrano and Ishi, Grayson’s best mate who’s essentially controlled Doc Ock style by an evil AI processor.
Guess we’ll never get justice for Grayson’s favorite pet: Waggleton P. Tallylicker.
3. The Darkness 2
Developer: Digital Extremes
Publisher: 2K Games
Platform(s): PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Speaking of FPS games that didn’t fit the military shooter aesthetic, The Darkness’s marriage of Italian crime families and supernatural powers felt like a true next-gen title when it originally launched on Xbox 360. Its moderate level of success naturally led to a sequel, which unfortunately underperformed despite improvements to the game’s shooting mechanics and the inclusion of an online co-op mode.
The real kick in the teeth though is the cliffhanger that The Darkness 2 finishes on. Realising that The Darkness that possesses him has been keeping his girlfriend Jenny trapped in Hell, mob boss and mad lad Jackie Estacado launches himself head first into the bowels of Hell for a rescue mission. He reunites with Jenny, they embrace, and the credits roll. Everything is fine and dandy, until a post-credits scene reveals that Jenny is the new host for Angelus, the counter-force to The Darkness, who says Jackie’s become too powerful and should be trapped in Hell forever. Skill issue, bozo.
With weak sales for The Darkness 2, and 2K Games making more than enough money from their various other properties, we’re probably never getting answers to this one.
4. Half-Life 2: Episode 2
Developer: Valve
Publisher: Valve
Platform(s): PC, PS3, Xbox 360
We couldn’t make a list of unresolved plots and cliffhangers in gaming without bringing up a Valve franchise somewhere. The developers seemingly allergic to the number 3, Valve made two additional episodes for Half-Life 2 instead of diving straight into Half-Life 3, and even canceled a potential Episode 3, and now, decades later, we’re still waiting for that fabled third installment. What’s worse is that we’re probably never getting any resolution to the ending of Half-Life 2: Episode 2 either.
After two games and two additional episodes of fighting against the Combine forces, Gordon Freeman and his friends have seemingly managed to turn the tide for the human resistance, only for two Combine Advisors to roll in and take out Eli Vance, one of Freeman’s most trusted allies.
The episode ends with Alyx, Eli’s daughter, clutching her dead father, and we still haven’t been able to get revenge for that one. Now, with VR title Half-Life Alyx seemingly retconning that whole cliffhanger, we’re never going to know what was supposed to happen.
5. Syphon Filter: Logan’s Shadow
Developer: Bend Studio
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Platform(s): PSP, PS2, ported to PS4/5
Metal Gear Solid might have garnered the reputation of being the elite stealth-action series on PlayStation, but for a good while, Syphon Filter had its fair share of fans and acclaim. Those PS1 titles still stand as some of the best that console library has to offer, and while The Omega Strain on PS2 is a bit of a misstep, the series bounced back massively on PSP with Dark Mirror. Seemingly at its second peak, Syphon Filter then disappeared completely following the release of Logan’s Shadow, and barring some recent re-releases and references, there’s no sign of it ever coming back.
After battling his way through a complex situation involving his long-time partner Lian Xing being suspected of traitorous intent, Gabe Logan hopes to enjoy a bit of early retirement when surprise: he’s shot four times and seemingly killed. Roll credits as Lian tries to revive Logan.
On face value, the decision to murder your lead protagonist is a bold one, though when you consider the rumors that series creator John Garvin was burnt out on the series and killed off Logan to avoid making another Syphon Filter, the pieces start falling into place.
6. Days Gone
Developer: Bend Studio
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Platform(s): PS4, PC
Bend Studio has gone through the unresolved cliffhanger journey twice now, and while Syphon Filter’s untimely demise was certainly disappointing, Days Gone getting the Lennie from Of Mice And Men treatment felt quite egregious. While critical reception to the game can be described as mixed, a lot more people have warmed to the tale of zombies, bikers and a guy inexplicably named Deacon St. John. It’s a silly name, you can’t tell us otherwise.
Anyway, after battling rogue humans and violent “freakers” alike, Deacon St. John reunites with his wife and seemingly bands together a bunch of factions under one banner. So far, so happy ending, but the real cliffhanger comes after the credits when it’s revealed that O’Brian, a NERO researcher who’s been helping “Deek” out, is a unique kind of Freaker with special abilities, and he brings an ominous warning that NERO are coming for Deacon.
It’s an interesting premise for a sequel, yet one that we’ll never get, but it is funny to point out that the worlds of both Syphon Filter and Days Gone are connected, and neither will receive proper resolution. Sorry, did we say funny? We meant super frustrating.
7. Shenmue 3
Developer: Ys Net
Publisher: Deep Silver
Platform(s): PC, PS4
Ryo Hazuki just can’t catch a break, can he? His dad gets absolutely bodied by Lan Di, a man that Ryo spends three games chasing, he can’t find any sailors and if our playthrough is anything to go by, he sucks at forklift racing. Shenmue fans haven’t had it any easier either to be honest, with a near twenty year gap between Shenmue 2 and 3 and said third entry only coming about due to a successful Kickstarter campaign. Because of that, you’d think that creator Yu Suzuki would try to wrap the series up while he had the chance.
Nope. Instead, Ryo batters his way through rural China, finally confronts Lan Di and Lan The Man hands Ryo his ass in about five seconds flat. Instead of a climactic final showdown, Ryo has to run off with his tail between his legs, journeying with his mates along the Great Wall of China talking about “finishing the story” like he’s Cody Rhodes.
With a reception to Shenmue 3 that peaked at around “meh”, the chances of seeing Ryo actually get his revenge on Lan Di now are about slim to non-existent.
8. Prince Of Persia
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher: Ubisoft
Platform(s): PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Ubisoft has enjoyed a hit and miss relationship with the Prince of Persia series over the years. For every Sands of Time or Warrior Within, you get something like 2010’s The Forgotten Sands, which practically forced the series to go on hiatus for over a decade until 2024’s Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown. Two years before The Forgotten Sands though, we had the Prince of Persia reboot, which featured a new story, a new art style and a brand new Prince. Oh, and also a brand new, unresolved cliffhanger. Isn’t that nice?
The Prince meets a princess by the name of Elika, and the two work to imprison the demonic Ahriman, who was released by Elika’s father when he made a deal to bring Elika back from the dead. Prince and Elika defeat and imprison Ahriman once again, but at the cost of Elika’s life, so the Prince decides in a moment of extreme “down bad-ness” to recreate the deal with Ahriman, reviving Elika while unleashing Ahriman’s corruption upon the entire world.
At least the Epilogue DLC was mostly spent with Elika calling the Prince a goddamn idiot the entire time, and while the DS title The Fallen King continued the storyline somewhat, the rift between Prince and Elika was never addressed. At this point, it probably never will be.
9. Sly Cooper: Thieves In Time
Developer: Sanzaru Games
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Platform(s): PS3, PS Vita
PlayStation has enough abandoned mascots at this point to arguably fill their own graveyard, with Jak & Daxter, the Ape Escape monkeys and the weird Polygon Man marketing character all lying dead and buried in a Sony vault somewhere. Perhaps no mascot murder stings as much as Sly Cooper though, as the raccoon re-appropriator has been missing in action for years now, and there’s no sign we’ll see Cooper and the gang reappear on the PS5 any time soon.
The most recent release, Sly Cooper: Thieves In Time, is pretty much exactly what it sounds like, with Sly pulling off heists in a bid to stop a villain from wreaking havoc across time. After smacking Le Paradox around a bit, Sly finds himself stuck in Ancient Egypt, while the rest of the crew in the present day tries to find a way to bring Sly back from the past.
Reportedly, a canceled piece of DLC for Thieves In Time was supposed to resolve this cliffhanger, but it’s been over 10 years. You’d have more luck finding Cooper in an actual sarcophagus at this point.
10. Dead Space 3 – Awakened
Developer: Visceral Games
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Platform(s): PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Moon’s haunted.
It’s not often you can sum up a cliffhanger in just two words, but “Moon’s haunted” mostly covers the ridiculousness that awaits players once they’ve completed the Awakened DLC of Dead Space 3. The main game already left players on a cliffhanger, with main character Isaac Clarke seemingly sacrificing himself to take out the Necromorph Hive Mind hidden within the moon orbiting Tau Volantis. That’s a pretty wild cliffhanger in itself, but the Awakened DLC goes way past 11.
After surviving MoonfallTM, Isaac is desperately trying to find a day off Tau Volantis and return to Earth in order to stop the Necromorph plague from running rampant. Once he’s back at Earth, things are beyond screwed, as there’s about six different moons all bearing down on the planet, and the DLC ends with Isaac crashing into one of them. Aside from 2023’s reboot of the series, that’s the last we’ve seen of Isaac Clarke, leaving the fate of humanity against the Necromorph menace up in the air.
Fingers crossed the success of Dead Space’s remake will lead to more from the series going forward.
11. Call Of Duty: Ghosts
Developer: Infinity Ward
Publisher: Activision
Platform(s): PC, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U, PS4, Xbox One
Imagine being the Call of Duty game that gets left out in the cold. One of the most popular franchises in the entirety of gaming has had its fair share of misses over the years, and while many would like to point to Infinite Warfare being CoD’s biggest misstep, at least that futuristic take on the series didn’t end on a ridiculous cliffhanger. The same can’t be said for Call of Duty: Ghosts however, which buffs its main villain into a The Terminator-esque death defier.
Ghosts follows brothers Logan and Hesh, who in the middle of a massive, post-apocalyptic war, are trying to take revenge on Gabriel Rorke, the man who killed their father. After catching up to Rorke on a train, the two manage to shoot Rorke, derail the train and seemingly drown Rorke in the ocean. The two brothers barely survive, and as they’re both sat on the beach celebrating a job well done, Rorke suddenly appears, shrugging off his previous injuries to kidnap Logan, with the implication being Logan would be brainwashed like Rorke was.
Never mind all that though, the real cliffhanger is whether or not the best boi German Shepherd Riley is okay.
12. Resident Evil Gaiden
Developer: M4
Publisher: Capcom, Virgin Interactive
Platform(s): Game Boy Color
With a series as large and as convoluted as Resident Evil is, it’s no surprise that there’s quite a few dangling threads that have been left throughout the years. Resident Evil Revelations 2, for instance, ends with the cliffhanger of Barry Burton adopting a child who may or may not have the consciousness of one Alex Wesker residing within them, which hasn’t been explored at all in the series since Revelations 2 dropped in 2015. There’s also the post-credits scene of RE6, which set up newcomer Jake Muller (who was revealed to be Albert Wesker’s son) as a new hero for the franchise. Man has been missing in action ever since. However, the real spicy cliffhanger comes at the end of Resident Evil Gaiden.
A Game Boy Color spin-off, Resident Evil Gaiden sees Leon S. Kennedy and Barry Burton dealing with a zombie/B.O.W. outbreak on a passenger ship. As they try to contain the situation, the two realize that the B.O.W. is a shapeshifter, and after a few confusing near misses, Barry and Leon are rescued from the boat along with Lucia, a child Barry rescues. Except, Leon’s got green blood now, the main signifier of the shapeshifter.
It’s an absolutely wild twist that’d be wild for Capcom to ever revisit in some capacity, but ultimately it’s been rendered non-canon now. Resident Evil 4 and beyond would have been very different if Leon had just spilled green blood all over the place. Still, at least some elements of Gaiden were absorbed into Revelations 1 & 2. What is it with Barry Burton and adopting daughters? Is that even canon at this point?
13. Prey (2006)
Developer: Human Head Studios
Publisher: 2K Games
Platform(s): PC, Xbox 360
Pour one out for the original Prey game, which was reportedly in development for 11 years before it was released in 2006. When it launched, it offered a mind-bending FPS experience like no other at the time, making it a smash hit on PC and Xbox 360, and while the cliffhanger isn’t quite as ridiculous as other games on this list, it’s still sad that we never received a proper follow-up to this utter classic.
After being abducted by aliens from his bar on a Native American reservation, Tommy finds himself on The Sphere with one goal in mind: teach these aliens that he’s not the guy to mess with. He accomplishes that quest with flying colors, sacrificing his life to send The Sphere flying into The Sun, but his ancestors tell him it’s not his time, allowing him to return to Earth.
Six months later, an alien ally called Elhuit reappears, promising new adventures for Tommy across the stars, and while a second game was in development at one point, we’ll never see what this vision for the Prey series could have been.
14. The Punisher
Developer: Volition
Publisher: THQ
Platform(s): PC, PS2, Xbox
Ask us to name one of the most underrated games on PS2 and the original Xbox, and we’ll always say The Punisher. Before Insomniac managed to work their magic on Spider-Man, Frank Castle and Volition was probably the closest match made in heaven between comic book franchise and video game developer, with The Punisher reveling in both the comic source material and the ultra violent nature of the character to create something truly special. They even brought Thomas Jane back to voice the character, which was a nice touch.
Anyway, after murdering his way through the Gnucci crime family, the Russian Mob, the Eternal Sun Yakuza group and his old foe Jigsaw in some stolen Iron Man armor, you’d think that Frank Castle would finally be able to enjoy some of his neighbor Joan’s cookies for once. A post-credits scene showed that The Punisher was firmly in the sights of Kingpin, but even though the game reached modest success, there was never any pay-off on that battle between Castle and Fisk.
With Volition now ceasing to exist (thanks Embracer, you jerks), we can only hope that some studio out there is hoping to do cool things with The Punisher in the future.
15. Conduit 2
Developer: High Voltage Software
Publisher: SEGA
Platform(s): Wii
We’ve saved the best for last here, lads. Have you ever witnessed a moment in gaming that’s convinced you that you’re either on heavy hallucinogenic drugs, or in the throes of some kind of weird fever dream? If so, you probably played Conduit 2 on the Nintendo Wii back in 2009.
The original game, The Conduit, which launched a year earlier, started out as a fairly innocuous game of alien invasions and shadowy government agencies, but by the time we’ve reached Conduit 2, we’re at Sumerian myths and lizard people. However, it’s the end of the game where Conduit 2 really goes off the rails.
Main character Michael Ford spends the majority of two games trying to hunt down and defeat John Adams, the leader of a group called The Trust, but who’s also secretly an alien and the former second President, having come to Earth over 240 years prior to the events of the game. With us so far?
In a final showdown in Atlantis(!), Ford takes out Adams once and for all, which then causes a signal to be sent out, summoning a spacecraft that’s been hiding out in the Oort Cloud. Once the ship lands, out steps former Presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, who promise to help Ford in a battle to come.
Squadding up with the first and sixteenth Presidents of the United States to get some epic victory royales is an absolutely wild concept, but poor sales for Conduit 2 have led developers High Voltage Studio to become more of a support studio these days. It’s a shame that we’ll never see what kind of lunacy Conduit 3 could have created.
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