Outro (computer gaming)
Encyclopedia
In computer and video gaming, the term "outro" refers to a sequence of graphics and music presented to the player as a reward for successful completion of the entire game. Outros are also commonly referred to as the game's ending. They can range from anywhere between a simple text message congratulating the player for beating the game, to a full cut scene that serves to bring the game's storyline to a conclusion (similar to the ending of a movie).
The word "outro" is a portmanteau of the words "out" and "intro", short for introductory sequence
. The term is also sometimes used in the demoscene
to refer to the final part of a demo (the opposite of an intro
).
Generally, the complexity of the outro correlates with the type of game. Games with in-depth storylines and characters, such as RPGs or adventure game
s, often have relatively long and complicated outros, which action-oriented games such as arcade game
s or first person shooters generally have shorter outros, sometimes being nothing more than a simple "congratulations, you win!" message. This is not always true, of course. Some heavily action-focused RPGs, such as the Diablo series
, have a relatively short and straightforward ending, while some story-driven action games, such as No One Lives Forever
, have a relatively long and complex ending.
Very often, outros appear to be of poorer quality than the rest of the game. This is especially true for games that are primarily action-focused rather than story-focused. Many times, a game will have a long, complicated introduction movie at the beginning, but will end with a much shorter and simpler outro movie. One of the reasons for this is that not all players actually finish a game, so it makes sense not to expend resources on an outro that comes at the end of the game and which only a percentage of players will ever actually experience. Most games have very tight development schedules, so game programmers often simply do not have time to create a satisfactory outro, even if they have developed a game with a complex storyline. First person shooters and similar action games (even ones that are heavily story-driven) are infamous for ending with short minute-long movies of the villain or enemy based exploding, followed immediately by the credits.
Unlike the conclusion of a movie on DVD or VHS, an outro is only presented after winning the climactic battle to defeat the main villain, at a point in the playing which it took days to get to. So it's often difficult to see again, even if the game had been saved just before this final battle, because the player has to "get back into shape" to be able to push all the controls in the right order quickly enough. Some games grant the player the ability to see all cut scenes once the game is won; others do not. Thus when viewing an outro, the player must be alert to catch all the details.
In recent years, an extremely popular trend among game developers is to have the outro be a cliffhanger
that paves the way for a sequel
to the game, rather than using it to satisfactorily tie up the game's storyline. This is true both for established titles where sequels are almost certain to be made, and for newly developed game series where the possibility of a sequel is still uncertain. Like any cliffhanger, this can create problems if no sequel is ever produced, as this leaves the game's story eternally unresolved. An extremely high percentage of American-made PC and video games use this strategy. It is significantly rarer in console games originating from Japan
.
The word "outro" is a portmanteau of the words "out" and "intro", short for introductory sequence
Intro sequence
An intro sequence is a non-interactive introductory sequence for a computer or video game. Previously, intro sequences were very often prerendered, hand drawn, or otherwise outside the main game engine...
. The term is also sometimes used in the demoscene
Demoscene
The demoscene is a computer art subculture that specializes in producing demos, which are non-interactive audio-visual presentations that run in real-time on a computer...
to refer to the final part of a demo (the opposite of an intro
Demo (computer programming)
A demo is a non-interactive multimedia presentation made within the computer subculture known as the demoscene. Demogroups create demos to demonstrate their abilities in programming, music, drawing, and 3D modeling...
).
Generally, the complexity of the outro correlates with the type of game. Games with in-depth storylines and characters, such as RPGs or adventure game
Adventure game
An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film,...
s, often have relatively long and complicated outros, which action-oriented games such as arcade game
Arcade game
An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
s or first person shooters generally have shorter outros, sometimes being nothing more than a simple "congratulations, you win!" message. This is not always true, of course. Some heavily action-focused RPGs, such as the Diablo series
Diablo (series)
Diablo is an action role-playing game franchise owned and produced by Blizzard Entertainment. , the series has sold over 18.5 million copies worldwide.-Story:...
, have a relatively short and straightforward ending, while some story-driven action games, such as No One Lives Forever
No One Lives Forever
The Operative: No One Lives Forever is a first-person shooter video game with stealth gameplay elements, developed by Monolith Productions and published by Fox Interactive, released for Windows in 2000. The game was also ported later to the PlayStation 2 and Mac OS X...
, have a relatively long and complex ending.
Very often, outros appear to be of poorer quality than the rest of the game. This is especially true for games that are primarily action-focused rather than story-focused. Many times, a game will have a long, complicated introduction movie at the beginning, but will end with a much shorter and simpler outro movie. One of the reasons for this is that not all players actually finish a game, so it makes sense not to expend resources on an outro that comes at the end of the game and which only a percentage of players will ever actually experience. Most games have very tight development schedules, so game programmers often simply do not have time to create a satisfactory outro, even if they have developed a game with a complex storyline. First person shooters and similar action games (even ones that are heavily story-driven) are infamous for ending with short minute-long movies of the villain or enemy based exploding, followed immediately by the credits.
Unlike the conclusion of a movie on DVD or VHS, an outro is only presented after winning the climactic battle to defeat the main villain, at a point in the playing which it took days to get to. So it's often difficult to see again, even if the game had been saved just before this final battle, because the player has to "get back into shape" to be able to push all the controls in the right order quickly enough. Some games grant the player the ability to see all cut scenes once the game is won; others do not. Thus when viewing an outro, the player must be alert to catch all the details.
In recent years, an extremely popular trend among game developers is to have the outro be a cliffhanger
Cliffhanger
A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma, or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode of serialized fiction...
that paves the way for a sequel
Sequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...
to the game, rather than using it to satisfactorily tie up the game's storyline. This is true both for established titles where sequels are almost certain to be made, and for newly developed game series where the possibility of a sequel is still uncertain. Like any cliffhanger, this can create problems if no sequel is ever produced, as this leaves the game's story eternally unresolved. An extremely high percentage of American-made PC and video games use this strategy. It is significantly rarer in console games originating from Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
.
Notable
- FalloutFallout (computer game)Fallout is a computer role-playing game produced by Tim Cain, developed and published by Interplay in 1997. The game has a post-apocalyptic and retro-futuristic setting in the mid-22nd century, featuring an alternate history which deviates some time after World War II, where technology, politics...
: An innovative ending where the narrator would tell you the fate of each of several towns you visited in your adventure. The player's actions throughout the game had a direct effect on each town's ending, and ended up determining whether each town's fate was positive, negative, or extremely negative. Finally, the game would reveal your character's own fate, which turned out to be a bitter twist in keeping with the dark overtones of the game's story. - MetroidMetroidis an action-adventure video game, and the first entry in the Metroid series. It was co-developed by Nintendo's Research and Development 1 division and Intelligent Systems, and was released in Japan in August 1986, in North America in August 1987, and in Europe in January 1988...
: After getting the best ending, the player discovers that the protagonistSamus Aranis the protagonist of the Metroid video game series. Introduced in the 1986 video game Metroid, Samus is a female ex-army soldier bounty hunter usually fitted with a powered armor suit with weapons that include beams and missiles...
, who is believed to be male due to the instruction manual and general stereotypes, is actually a female. - Phantasy Star IIPhantasy Star IIPhantasy Star II is a console role-playing video game developed by Sega AM7 and released for the Sega Mega Drive in Japan in 1989. It was also released for the Mega Drive in Europe and the Genesis in America in 1990...
: At the end of the game, the main group of characters are gathered in a spaceship called "Noah" after they defeat the final boss, a computer system named "Mother Brain" that had been keeping the citizens of the Algo star system in a state of luxuriant laziness. Suddenly several hundred people from Earth - a planet whose connection to the Algo system was never even hinted at in this game nor in its predecessor - emerge from another section of the Noah and challenge the player, revealing that they created Mother Brain to weaken the Algonians so that the Earthmen could take over. They taunt the player with the fact that - without Mother Brain - Algo's people are "too soft" to survive on their own. The playable characters each give a defiant quote, and get set to fight the Earthmen, apparently to their own deaths. (This has been ridiculed as "They all get run over by a spaceship.") Afterwards, the player sees a view of the planet Mota from outer space, with the quote "I wonder what the people will see in the final days..." - Star Control II: After the "traditional" ending in which it is told what happens after the Captain detonates the Sa-Matra, the credits roll along with humorous "outtakeOuttakeAn outtake is a portion of a work that is removed in the editing process and not included in the work's final, publicly released version. In the digital era, significant outtakes have been appended to CD and DVD reissues of many albums and films as bonus tracks or features, in film often, but not...
s" of the various aliens acting as if they were actors talking about a movie they were in. - Portal: After defeating the final boss GLaDOS, the credits roll. During which, the player is treated to the song Still Alive, sung by the song's main antagonist GLaDOS, declaring she is "Still Alive" and mocks the player for defeating her.
Infamous
- Eye of the Beholder: Once the eponymous beholder was killed, the player would be treated to a small blue window describing that the beholder was killed and that the adventurers ventured into the surface where they were treated as heroes. Nothing else is mentioned in the ending and there were no accompanying graphics.
- Halo 2Halo 2Halo 2 is a first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie Studios. Released for the Xbox video game console on November 9, 2004, the game is the second installment in the Halo franchise and the sequel to 2001's critically acclaimed Halo: Combat Evolved...
: A majority of gamers complained that the final cutscene was a cliffhanger that failed to resolve any of the developing storyline. Additionally, many stated that it felt more like a level-transition cutscene than a climatic ending, and were shocked when the credits began to roll instead of the game transitioning to a new level. - Medal of Honor: Allied AssaultMedal of Honor: Allied AssaultMedal of Honor: Allied Assault is a first-person shooter computer game developed by 2015, Inc. and created by Steven Spielberg. It is the 3rd installment of the Medal of Honor series...
: As soon as you exit the last level, the game cuts immediately to the credits. - Xenon 2 MegablastXenon 2 MegablastXenon 2 Megablast is a computer game originally produced for the Amiga and Atari ST, and later converted to the PC, Sega Master System, Sega Mega Drive, Acorn Archimedes and Game Boy platforms. The sequel to Xenon, it was designed by the Bitmap Brothers...
: At the end of this rather difficult shoot-em-up game, the player is rewarded with a few lines from an alien who has sold you weapons through the game (and the only character in the game) to the extent of "Congratulations", and then screen goes blank except for a small white dot in the middle as a representation of a television screen being turned off. The game then starts again from the beginning, except this time the enemies take twice as many hits to kill. While there was no plot present in the game, many gamers felt they should have received some reward greater than a few white pixels; especially considering the artistic and creative talent of the The Bitmap Brothers. - Infidel: Possibly one of the first anticlimactic, and among the first negative, gaming outros. Infidels ending contrasted other games at the time by being both quiet and brutal: the game trapped the greedy player character in the depths of a forgotten tomb as a reward for completing the final objective.