History Cliffhanger / VideoGames

* ''VideoGame/Life Is Strange''. While Episodes 1 & 2 end on some form of closure, the ending of Episode 3, where Max [[spoiler: inadvertently finds herself in an alternate timeline where Chloe is paralyzed]], is just plain cruel.

* ''Life Is Strange''. While Episodes 1 & 2 end on some form of closure, the ending of Episode 3, where Max [[spoiler: inadvertently finds herself in an alternate timeline where Chloe is paralyzed]], is just plain cruel.

* ''Life Is Strange''. While Episodes 1 & 2 end on some form of closure, the ending of Episode 3, where Max [[spoiler: inadvertently finds herself in an alternate timeline where Chloe is paralyzed]], is just plain cruel.

* Three of RareLtd.'s SabreMan games (''Underwurlde'', ''Knight Lore'' and ''Pentagram'') promised that SabreMan's adventures would continue in the next episode[[note]]''Underwurlde'' actually had three exits to three different "next episodes", the easiest to reach being ''Knight Lore''; the other was of course ''Pentagram''[[/note]], ''Mire Mare'' -- which never got made because the 8-bit games era ended first. This is one of the earliest and most notorious examples of {{Vaporware}}.

*** Actually, the reason why Valve chose to switch over to the development and release of episodes (instead of full-on sequels) was that no one should have wait 8 years for another sequel...

* ''VideoGame/PennyArcadeAdventures Episode 3'' ends with [[spoiler:Tycho being murdered by the BiggerBad, Gabe and the BigBad being hurled through a wormhole while the former repeatedly punches the latter, and Moira and Jim being banished to what looks like Hell, where Jim acquires a full body (and vocal cords). The last shot is of an inexplicably alive Tycho surveying a wasteland, but he seems...''changed''.]]

* ''VideoGame/SlyCooperThievesInTime'' [[DownerEnding ends]] with the titular character [[spoiler:MIA (a secret ending reveals he's stuck in Ancient Egypt)]], and one former ally [[spoiler:sending postcards to her ex after escaping prison]]. Sanzaru Games has since stated that [[ScrewedByTheNetwork they will not produce a sequel]], which resulted in InternetBackdraft and FanonDiscontinutiy.

* ''VideoGame/SlyCooperThievesInTime'' ends with the titular character [[spoiler:MIA (a secret ending reveals he's stuck in Ancient Egypt)]], and one former ally [[spoiler:sending postcards to her ex after escaping prison]]. Sanzaru Games has since stated that they will not produce a sequel.

* ''PennyArcadeAdventures Episode 3'' ends with [[spoiler:Tycho being murdered by the BiggerBad, Gabe and the BigBad being hurled through a wormhole while the former repeatedly punches the latter, and Moira and Jim being banished to what looks like Hell, where Jim acquires a full body (and vocal cords). The last shot is of an inexplicably alive Tycho surveying a wasteland, but he seems...''changed''.]]

* ''XenobladeChroniclesX'' closes the main game's story with [[spoiler:"This story never truly ends"]]. While the game is so large, the story itself left so many holes that it demands a sequel to explain the rest of it. The Ganglion's leader is defeated, yet still roaming around. The ghosts were never touched. [[spoiler:Lao revived mysteriously, alongside the unknown Black Knight.]] What now?

* A (particularly frustrating) example with ''VideoGame/{{Halo 2}}'': Cortana in the clutches of the Gravemind. Miranda, Arbiter and Johnson stuck on Delta Halo. Master Chief emerging from slipspace, stowed away on an enemy ship, to find Earth's defenses about to be overwhelmed by the Covenant fleet. Roll credits with nothing more than a heroic one-liner. Only partially resolved with Halo 3 - We see Master Chief arriving on earth, but we don't see how Arbiter and co get back. How MC actually got off the enemy ship is explored in a spin-off comic series, and Cortana's fate is a plot-point for the rest of the game.

* ''VideoGame/Halo5Guardians'' ends in similarly abrupt fashion as Halo 2. [[spoiler: Cortana has full control over the Guardians, with hundreds of AIs joining the Created, effectively shutting down the UNSC and forcing the Infinity to go on the run until they can find a way to fight back.]]

* ''DirgeofCerberus'', the canonical ending to the ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' series, ends with Genesis saving the BigBad Weiss, then saying "there is still much to do". Nobody knows what they had to do because SE seems to have no plans to continue making FFVII games.

* Cliffhangers are standard for TelltaleGames, as their games come in monthly installments.

* In the PS2 Game "Haven: Call of the King," the endgame is as follows: [[spoiler: The eponymous protagonist is chained to a wall with no way out and left to die of starvation/thirst. The "Great King" who Haven spent most of the game trying to signal so he would return and save his people is dead, poisoned by the evil alien overlord Vetch--who has escaped after the final battle, presumably to go wreak further havoc on Haven's people.]] Even getting HundredPercentCompletion doesn't help: the game adds a teaser screen for the sequel, suggesting things would carry on from there without actually giving any idea of how other than saying that [[spoiler: the king was definitely, finally, totally dead]]. Then the sequel was never made due to poor sales.

* ''[[VideoGame/EccoTheDolphin Ecco: The Tides of Time]]'' ends with the eponymous dolphin protagonist following the Vortex Queen into the time machine and "disappearing into time". WordOfGod said he had something in mind involving the Atlanteans, but alas, the third installment never materialized; the [[UsefulNotes/SegaDreamcast Dreamcast]][=/=]PS2 game ''Defender of the Future'' was instead a ContinuityReboot by a different developer.

* ''SyphonFilter: Logan's Shadow'' ends with Mujari dead and Teresa and Logan critcally wounded in a surprise attack by Trinidad. WordOfGod says this is [[TorchTheFranchiseAndRun the end of the series]].

* ''DinoCrisis2'' ended with a cliffhanger, then the third game took off on a totally different tangent, RecycledInSpace, and flopped hard, [[FranchiseKiller putting the nail in the coffin]].

* ''[[SonicTheHedgehog Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood]]'' ends with a major cliffhanger. After getting brutally smacked down by Super Sonic, Imperator Ix commands the wormhole connecting Sonic's world with the Twilight Cage to close before he disappears. The whole team rushes right on out to the Cyclone to jet and get the hell out of dodge before they find themselves trapped for all eternity. And lest you not forget how the flow of time differs in the Twilight Cage with how Ix could still be alive after four thousand years, take a moment to remember [[MadScientist who stayed behind before you crossed dimensions]] [[BigBad and what he could possibly do with all that time...]]
* Because of its episodic structure, each level of ''AlanWake'' ends with a cliffhanger. [[spoiler:Yes, this includes the [[SequelHook last level]].]]

* ''[[VideoGame/EccoTheDolphin Ecco: The Tides of Time]]'' ends with the eponymous dolphin protagonist following the Vortex Queen into the time machine and "disappearing into time". WordOfGod said he had something in mind involving the Atlanteans, but alas, the third installment never materialized; the {{Dreamcast}}[=/=]PS2 game ''Defender of the Future'' was instead a ContinuityReboot by a different developer.

* ''Escape from Thunder Island'' and its sequel ''Rita James and the Race to Shangri La'', being parodies of 40s film serials, have actual in-game cliffhangers with an announcer and punny titles.

* ''VideoGame/{{Shenmue}} II''. A third game was never made because Sega didn't earn back their budget for both games (because most people ended up pirating the first due to the Dreamcast's lack of copy protection, and the sequel was an Xbox exclusive in America), and Yu Suzuki left Sega or so we thought when he finally returned to the company and announced at {{E3}} 2015 that a third game would come to UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 and PC, tying up some very loose ends.

* The ''MegaManLegends'' series features the mother of all video game cliffhangers: [[spoiler:At the end of the second game, the destruction of the Master system leaves Megaman stranded on Elysium with no way to return to Earth. The final scene shows Roll and Tron working on a rocket to get to the moon and save Megaman.]] A third game was in the works that would've resolved this plotline, but was cancelled, which caused Keiji Inafune to leave Capcom.

* ''VideoGame/{{Shenmue}} II''. A third game was never made because Sega didn't earn back their budget for both games (because most people ended up pirating the first due to the Dreamcast's lack of copy protection, and the sequel was an Xbox exclusive in America), and Yu Suzuki left Sega or so we thought when he finally returned to the company and announced at {E3}} 2015 that a third game would come to UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 and PC, tying up some very loose ends.

* ''VideoGame/{{Shenmue}} II''. A third game was never made because Sega didn't earn back their budget for both games (because most people ended up pirating the first due to the Dreamcast's lack of copy protection, and the sequel was an Xbox exclusive in America), and Yu Suzuki left Sega, so...

* [[VideoGame/LifeIsStrange]]. While Episodes 1 & 2 end on some form of closure, the ending of Episode 3, where Max [[spoiler: inadvertently finds herself in an alternate timeline where Chloe is paralyzed]], is just plain cruel.

* ''[[VideoGame/LifeIsStrange]]''. While Episodes 1 & 2 end on some form of closure, the ending of Episode 3, where Max [[spoiler: inadvertently finds herself in an alternate timeline where Chloe is paralyzed]], is just plain cruel.