We've all grown up playing some games that we fell in love with, always wanting more through sequels, expansions, or just replays. Now, while we might have grown up significantly, it's a shame that some amazing game franchises couldn't, mainly because they never got closure.

Despite meeting unforgettable characters and experiencing fantastic cliffhangers, we never got closure, and instead received spin-offs or cancellations. These game franchises were nothing short of incredible, and yet, they never got the proper send-off they so clearly deserved and needed.

5 We never got a Battlefield: Bad Company 3

It very well could have been the greatest Battlefield ever

In 2008, Battlefield: Bad Company dropped, and it was the first time in the franchise (which was still in its early goings) that we got a misfit squad of soldiers, each dripping with charm, wit, and personality, and great voice-acting performances behind them. The game was a console-exclusive, and it will always be a shame that it never came to PC, but it looked phenomenal regardless.

Then came Bad Company 2, and that's the one that elevated the franchise with thrilling set-pieces, phenomenal multiplayer, and a campaign that had you hooked from start to finish. It even ended on a banger of a cliffhanger, with the USA being invaded by Russian armed forces through Alaska. The stakes were never higher, and everyone anticipated a third game that could've blown the roof off the joint. And then... nothing.

Instead, we got Battlefield 3, 4, 1, V, and 2042. Four of these are some of the most amazing first-person shooters you could still play today, but they still chased scale and spectacle instead of the personality and charm that made us love the Bad Company duo. It's been fifteen years since Bad Company 2, and a final game in the franchise looks less likely with each year, especially considering that we're two generations removed from the series, and new, younger players couldn't be expected to have played the first two games and be familiar with the story, which remains unfinished. We'll never see how Haggard, Sweetwater, and Marlowe's narratives end. All that charm and the banter between the guys? That's all stuck in 2010, languishing in a deep, dark limbo.

4 Will Half-Life 3 ever exist?

The real Half-Life 3 is the friends we made along the way

Are there any other cliffhangers in gaming that sting like Half-Life 2: Episode Two's? The game ended with a brutal, unforgettable death, and a sense of impending urgency, only for Valve to never understand that urgency themselves. One of the greatest and most important franchises in history simply...stopped. Fans have waited for a Half-Life 3 for almost two decades now, treating leaks and rumors as gospel. We've even gotten tired of overanalyzing every new Steam announcement as a potential cryptic code for a Half-Life 3, or heck, anything to do with Half-Life: Episode 3.

Sure, we got Half-Life: Alyx in 2020, which was a technically brilliant VR title, but it was a spin-off. It did tease future developments in the franchise, yes, but it wasn't Half-Life 3, was it? Plus, it was limited to a niche audience because of its VR-exclusivity, and even though there's a non-VR mod, it's just not enjoyable.

Half-Life 3's absence has actually become bigger than the game itself, taking on the form of gaming's most famous unresolved narrative. Younger gamers may never truly get how we've lived through the wait, but those of us who did? The pain of not knowing what happens for almost twenty years is very, very real.

3 The rebooted Deus Ex trilogy never got a threequel

A fantastic Cyberpunk RPG that got ungracefully axed

Oh boy, this one hurts, and it hurts real bad. 2011's Deus Ex: Human Revolution was a prequel series, set before the original Deus Ex games. What Eidos and Square Enix achieved was a slick and stylish cyberpunk RPG with dense levels, branching paths, and a moody, unforgettable atmosphere. Icarus by Michael McCann, in my humble opinion, remains one of the greatest gaming soundtracks ever made. Adam Jensen was such a likable, brooding protagonist, complete with trenchcoat and sunglasses at night, and his story told me one of the most powerful lessons I'd ever learned in gaming.

2016's Mankind Divided was next — a phenomenal sequel that may have been less ambitious, but twice as dense and polished, and a fantastic example of good open-world design where quality trumps scale. Sadly, it was cut short narratively and even structurally, with the promise that the third would come in a third game. This sequel was so clearly the middle of a trilogy, but when the game just didn't rake in the sales Square expected it to, plans for a conclusive threequel got canned.

Heck, there was some hope renewed when Square Enix sold the IP to Embracer Studios, but even they canceled a finale that was two years in the works over at Eidos. An absolute shame. God, it's a sequel we all wanted but never got, and it will always be a shame how we left Adam Jensen's story open-ended.

2 Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Less Outlaws, more Old Republic, please

There's never been another Star Wars game quite like Knights of the Old Republic, has there? In 2003, BioWare gave us player choice, memorable companions, and one of the best plot twists in gaming history, all coming together in the lore-rich universe of Star Wars, but set thousands of years before the movies. When Obsidian Entertainment followed it up with the sequel, we all the saw the potential, but the game was famously rushed to release, and that left several story arcs unfinished.

With unfinished story arcs, comes a lack of closure. KOTOR 3 had always been in the works, and every Star Wars fan waited for it to tie the saga together. Sadly, we'll never truly know why LucasArts canceled the third Knights of the Republic game, although internal issues for the publisher, along with BioWare's shift in focus to focus on Mass Effect are some of the factors that came forward.

Ultimately, we'll just never know the conclusion to Revan's story, or that of so many other characters from this fantastic timeline. Worse still? The long-awaited remake of the first game, announced in 2021, is once again in development hell, making this franchise's future murky even after 21 years.

1 Wolfenstein: The New Order and Colossus

Feel the franchise slipping away; got me praying for the end

Another franchise that's extremely close to my heart, Wolfenstein, too, is yet to see a proper send-off or conclusion. The original Wolf 3D was my first-ever first-person shooter game, as it was for countless gamers across the world. Then, 2014's reboot with The New Order surprised everyone, myself included. This was a raw and heartfelt telling of BJ Blazkowicz story, humanizing him like never before through pain, rebellion, and above all, his sheer perseverance.

The New Colossus came three years later, and it was bigger, bolder, and even more emotional — the perfect sequel. One of the best FPS games you could ever play, Wolfenstein: The New Colossus had a fantastic climax, but it wasn't an ending. The Nazis were still in power, after all. The setup was obviously for a third game where Blazkowicz and crew would've finished the job and liberated the world, but it never arrived.

Instead, we got Youngblood, a poorly-received (rightly so) co-op spin-off with B.J.'s daughters, and narratively, it advanced the timelines and sidestepped all narrative closure. Things have been silent ever since on the Wolfenstein front, with MachineGames having worked on the Indiana Jones game, while the fate of Wolfenstein 3, BJ Blazkowics, and the alternate-universe Nazi-run world hangs in the limbo. We don't know if the fight ends, if justice is served, how the war gets finished, or what becomes of Blazko. God, it should have, by all accounts, been a perfect final blow to tyranny, and yet, it's been a fade to black, a cowl thrown over its face where we haven't been able to see the Reich fall.

These games and their players never got closure

When it comes to closure in games, we do want the stories we got attached to, to see their meaningful end, sure. But at the same time, it's also about wanting the time, emotion, and energy we invested in the first place to be honored.

Perhaps the worst part about this all is how these games were incredible, and their send-offs could have been just as amazing, if not more, had it not been for business decisions behind the curtain. These game series may never have gotten their deserved send-offs, and they might remain unfinished forever, but one thing is for certain — they're never getting forgotten.