In Shadow Complex, a shameless ripoff of Super Metroid in its game mechanics, you play a guy who drives a girl out to a remote location in the Pacific Northwest and she gets kidnapped by a military organisation. You’re cut off from your vehicle, but fairly early on in the game you are able to return to the start point. You are able to get in the car and drive away and an achievement pops saying “Plenty of Fish in the Sea.” So you win but your guy gives up on his girl, leaving her to her fate.
Hack/NetHack had a similar thing where you could just leave without completing the main objective (retrieve the Amulet of Yendor, which has a random chance of appearing at the 35th level and below, and make it back out with the Amulet). I remember it saying something snarky on the Amiga version, but I don’t recall exactly what. Like it said you went on to live a boring life or something like that. Any time you felt like you were locked out of the objective or outnumbered by enemies without the means to fight through them, you could backtrack and leave (though, things like disease, hunger, and thirst could take you before you got out) and you’d “win” (as in, you get to keep living).
Far Cry 6 has a similar easter egg. Near the beginning of the game (which takes place in an archipelago) you’re given a boat to head to the main island for the quest to start but you can just take the boat and point it towards the open ocean and you’ll end up drinking beer on a beach in miami completely skipping the entire game.
This is a running joke in the Far Cry games. I know Far Cry 4 does something similar. You meet the big bad at the beginning of the game, he asks you to wait for him, and if you just chill for like 15 minutes he shows back up, honors his word, and you finish the mission that you came to the island for.
The “Plenty of Fish in the Sea” achievement.
In Shadow Complex, a shameless ripoff of Super Metroid in its game mechanics, you play a guy who drives a girl out to a remote location in the Pacific Northwest and she gets kidnapped by a military organisation. You’re cut off from your vehicle, but fairly early on in the game you are able to return to the start point. You are able to get in the car and drive away and an achievement pops saying “Plenty of Fish in the Sea.” So you win but your guy gives up on his girl, leaving her to her fate.
Hack/NetHack had a similar thing where you could just leave without completing the main objective (retrieve the Amulet of Yendor, which has a random chance of appearing at the 35th level and below, and make it back out with the Amulet). I remember it saying something snarky on the Amiga version, but I don’t recall exactly what. Like it said you went on to live a boring life or something like that. Any time you felt like you were locked out of the objective or outnumbered by enemies without the means to fight through them, you could backtrack and leave (though, things like disease, hunger, and thirst could take you before you got out) and you’d “win” (as in, you get to keep living).
Far Cry 6 has a similar easter egg. Near the beginning of the game (which takes place in an archipelago) you’re given a boat to head to the main island for the quest to start but you can just take the boat and point it towards the open ocean and you’ll end up drinking beer on a beach in miami completely skipping the entire game.
This is a running joke in the Far Cry games. I know Far Cry 4 does something similar. You meet the big bad at the beginning of the game, he asks you to wait for him, and if you just chill for like 15 minutes he shows back up, honors his word, and you finish the mission that you came to the island for.
And it’s arguably the best ending for the island and its inhabitants considering what your allies do.
Nier Automata has many moments where you can walk away from a mission and get one of it’s 20+ bad endings
That’s pretty hilarious.