While it's always nice to have a happy ending, sometimes a tragic ending in a video game can make the perfect experience for players.

After the Oct. 21 release of Gotham Knights, players have faced a Gotham City in tragedy. After all, after the death of Batman, the city was thrown into disarray, and only the remaining members of the Bat Family could do anything to stop its descent.

Yet, while Gotham Knights has a tragic beginning, there are many video games that take a different route. Rather than front-loading sorrow, they introduce an incredibly painful ending to which the entire story builds. Some games are tragic even after the player finishes them successfully.

One of the best video games for a beginning gamer, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons introduces the story of two boys trying to secure medicine for their sick father. The game builds on the close relationship between the brothers, while also slowly developing a genuinely painful ending.

After all, when one brother is bitten by a spider, the injury slowly kills him. The other has to continue his journey alone and returns to their father with medication but without his older brother. It's terribly tragic, and players are left wondering if the boys should ever have undertaken their mission at all.

While Ori and the Blind Forest is known as one of the best games developed in Unity, it is beloved for more than just its stunning graphics and brilliant character designs. The slow-developing and heartwarming story keeps players engaged all throughout the game.

With the death of a protective mother, the game ends with tragedy. Though Kuro's egg does eventually hatch, she isn't there to protect her baby after losing all the others. While Ori might have completed the mission, the loss of Kuro does represent a striking and heartbreaking end.

Without the standard Halo protagonist, Master Chief, a new team is sent to help defend against Covenant forces on Reach in Halo: Reach. Noble Team proves to be an incredibly skilled group and one that is more than willing to sacrifice itself for the forces of the UNSC.

With Noble Team dropping like flies in the tail end of the story, the UNSC survives, but Noble Team doesn't. As the conflict heats up, players are treated to some of the saddest deaths in video games. While players knew that the Noble Team would almost certainly die, that didn't stop it from hurting to see them go.

One of the best story-driven PlayStation 4games, Red Dead Redemption II was a tragedy from the start, but that only made the eventual fate of Arthur Morgan even more depressing. Since the game encourages players to care by developing Morgan so well, it hurts even more when he dies.

No matter what players do in the game, Morgan will lose his life before the credits roll. The only thing they can influence is how it will happen. Does he die of illness or does his low honor turn him into a target? Influencing the manner of his death makes it even more tragic, but the tragedy will happen regardless.

A puzzle game with an incredible aesthetic and brilliant art design, Inside is as a game as it is an experience. While it has multiple endings, the game mostly explores the concepts of agency and control. Yet, as Playdead games tend to, the game ends with tragedy.

While the player character dies horrifically throughout the game, he returns and continues along his journey. The story ends with the boy either losing all agency and freeing a monster in an experiment, or else the boy is completely frozen and becomes a mind-controlled zombie himself.

A captivating video game with no dialogue, Limbo is another Playdead game with a similar aesthetic. A black-and-white 2D side-scroller, the game features another little boy protagonist as he desperately tries to find his missing sister, while avoiding threats along the way.

Unfortunately, finding his sister proves to be a major challenge. When he finds a girl who may be her, it isn't clear if she is the one he's looking for, as the game ends abruptly after she is introduced. In fact, he even finds himself in the same forest that he started in, making it seem like he really is in Limbo, utterly unable to escape.

Few Halo games are as emotionally impactful as Halo 4. After spending years with Master Chief and Cortana, having to witness Cortana's death was always going to be tragic. Yet what happened to make it worse was having to see Master Chief's reaction to the loss.

Having him shed his armor for the first time in decades really helped it sink in just how emotionally impactful that moment was. Master Chief had been through so much and, by shedding his armor, he was finally reconnecting with his humanity after losing someone as close to him as Cortana was.

After developing technology that allows dying people to experience their one wish, two scientists meet a man with a wish to do nothing more than travel to the moon. Yet To The Moon showcases one patient who doesn't take well to the technology, and the game slowly reveals the reasons why.

As the game unfolds, players are introduced to a tragic love story involving lost memories, a troubled relationship, and a promise to meet again on the moon. Yet when the patient has those memories stripped, it is somehow even more tragic than if he had been given his last wishes from the start.

A game that gets better over time, The Walking Dead: Season One is as tragic as it is memorable. In a world overrun by walkers, the story somehow continues to be painfully human as it follows the lives of Clementine and Lee, especially as the bond grows between them.

Lee's death was the saddest in The Walking Dead, especially since players can choose to ask Clementine to put him to rest after he is infected. Forcing Clementine to make the choice is even more tragic, yet the fact that they are separated is such a painful ending that it is hard to forget.

While The Last of Us Part II is best known for the tragedy early in the story, as Joel is beaten to death by an enraged Abby, the ending is somehow even more tragic. After everything that Ellie has been through, she is finally given a chance at peace with Dina and their son. Yet Ellie was too traumatized to accept it.

After everything she had been through, she couldn't let her grief go. Instead, she hunted Abby yet again, only to have to save the woman's life. After losing fingers, her girlfriend, and her son, Ellie is left with nothing of her but her immunity, and even that can't be used to help the rest of the world anymore. It's a bleak ending that left many players feeling little more than empty.

Next: 10 Best Video Games For Players Who Aren't Afraid To Cry A Little

Lukas is a recent graduate of the Macaulay Honors College in New York City. A former Editorial Assistant now serving as a Senior List Writer, Lukas made the jump to Screen Rant in the hopes of getting the chance to be a professional writer. Having started graduate school this past August, Lukas intends to become a high school guidance counselor, all while writing articles about somewhat obscure comics like Alpha Flight and Last Flight Out, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and any movies, games, or books he happens to come across. Lukas writes most of his articles with a cat on his shoulder.