*SPOILERS* My take on the story, after having unlocked everything and played through 3 times. *SPOILERS*

[Rango [Xeno]]

So as most of you know, apparently the main character was in a coma for most of the game. He works for a nationalist group that sends it's members on missions to kill he Russian mafia to disrupt American-Russian relations. He is forced to do these missions because the nationalists groups threaten their members and force them to do their dirty work. I believe in this case the main characters girlfriend was the driving force.

The other main character is the Biker guy. In the first boss battle at the phone company building, you kill him through the MC's point of view, but in the "credit levels" the Biker seems to kill the MC. The MC is in fact not dead, but wounded and put into a coma. The nationalist group then realizes he has failed them and sends someone to kill his girlfriend. The Biker goes on to find out the truth in the very final level and either kills the 2 janitor men who have set up the whole thing or leaves them be. Apparently they have a very extensive set of connections and plan to fix the entire USA in 5 years. I assume that the police forces and a few other high level government figures are connected with this group as well.

The MC wakes up from his coma and wants to find out what is going on. In a crazed rampage he assaults the police station, since he believes they are involved, and finds the files that document the entire thing. He goes on to do the thing he is good at, killing, and decides to get revenge on everyone involved in the plot. Russians, police, etc. He kills the mafia heads and then lights a cigarette, his work complete.

[HAN]

No. I don't think the coda is canonical. It's Dennaton breaking the fourth wall and just ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ with us - hence the "all a game" stuff if you don't finish with the letters. The final final ending is a ridiculous joke.

[Rango [Xeno]]

The "all a game" stuff can also been interpreted that the 2 people who set the scheme up didn't care about people's lives and that to them it was a fun way to get rid of the people they hated.

But it can been seen as either/or.

[takua108]

OP makes a lot of sense. The coda is probably canonical. It's like the end of L.A. Noire, where the guy you thought was the hero (but did you really?) was really the anti-hero all along, and this other guy was actually the hero (well, sorta).

I'm liking the idea that the Jacket Dude/Biker Dude fight actually resulted in Biker Dude nearly-mortally wounding Jacket Dude, and then assuming that the rest of the main game from there up until the hospital bit was all coma stuff. That seems to fit the best so far... but then how does Jacket Dude's Girlfriend fit in? Why was she killed? (Just saw that sentence in OP's post, and it sounds like that fits pretty well.) And who the hell are the Animal Mask Dudes? Were they all in Jacket Dude's mind?

[Meuhoua]

I think all dead masked dudes are other "players" of janitor's dirty game, like Jacket, Biker or the Rat (the girlfriend murderer).
Too bad to not have multiple mini stories for each of those characters, like the Biker's one.

[Rango [Xeno]]

Yeah, I'd have to agree with that since a lot of masks can be picked up off of people who have been killed by the mob.

[Ram-Kults]

Originally posted by Rango Xeno:

Yeah, I'd have to agree with that since a lot of masks can be picked up off of people who have been killed by the mob.

+ box full of masks in the sewer + Racer, who talked with masked guy in the begining(bar).

3 masked guys in the room represents MC in some ways(mainly guy with the chicken masks), its like they parts of his mind.Hmm, its not right words, but i hope you got my point.

[sonicblastoise]

The 3 masked characters in the "dream" sequences are indeed the MC himself. The majority of the game is a flashback, until the moment you wake up in the hospital. that's why the dreams stop there.

All the sequences after the hospital are the MC's quest to find out who or what has been manipulating him. The trail leads from the police station to the ailing mob boss.

The coda isn't canonical, and is indeed the developers (both Wedin and Soderstrom, who make cameos in the flashback missions) kind of tongue-in-cheekily talking about manipulating you (now no longer referring to the MC, as it's changed to Biker, which leads me to believe it refers to YOU the player) into murderizing a bajillion "people" and enjoying it. However, it still ties into the main story since it closes the loophole about how the phone calls were being made in the first place, since no explanation for the phone calls is given over the course of the main story.

[Kobest]

Agree with OP on some points (like the biker guy putting the MC into a coma), but truth is, I'm still missing the "puzzle" bits. Could someone explain what the "puzzle" menu means?

From what I gathered, you need to collect letters throughout the levels? If yes, are those like the secret masks you can pick up?

[Kobest]

Ok, I think I've found it from another post: "Turns out, these are hidden on tiny, like, 3x3 purple squares with a white pixel in the middle throughout the levels. If you have the owl mask equipped, they hover in the air like weapons." I wondered about the owl mask, but didn't have an idea what the secrets supposed to be like. :)

But back to the OP's point, my vote is for the coda being part of the canon: it simply explains too much for it to be just a joke. Sure, if you don't figure out the password for the computer, the janitor guys taunt you for the whole thing just being pointless and just a game for them by breaking the fourth wall and saying "you enjoyed it, didn't you," but it fits the plot and the atmosphere really well.

Apart from the addicting gameplay and the superb soundtrack, I didn't think I would be caught up in the story this much, so hats off to Dennaton Games! :)

[Rango [Xeno]]

"Agree with OP on some points (like the biker guy putting the MC into a coma), but truth is, I'm still missing the "puzzle" bits. Could someone explain what the "puzzle" menu means?

From what I gathered, you need to collect letters throughout the levels? If yes, are those like the secret masks you can pick up?
"

The puzzle peaces spell out the password to the PC on the very final level. It unlocks an additional ending sequence that explains how and why the phone callers were doing what there were doing.

[Nunatak]

You can see which puzzle pieces are missing by checking out the stats on the level select screen. if the dot is black, you haven't found it. They are small (floating) circles that you need to pick up, there's one on each MC level. When you have them all, do the puzzle, the pieces light up when they're in the right spot.

[Etelmik]

Hey Rango, can you I ask you, what happens when you do put the password in the computer?

[Nunatak]

Originally posted by Etelmik:

Hey Rango, can you I ask you, what happens when you do put the password in the computer?

You get more info on what/why when you talk to the guys downstairs.

[Bigga What!]

I dunno, seem to be too many inconsistencies to try and make sense of the split storyline. If he were put into a coma by the biker, then that means him and his girlfriend were never shot by the guy in the rat mask, b/c that happened afterwards. You would then have to concede that the entire hospital scene wasn't real, b/c they claim he was shot there, and the biker guy clearly didn't shoot him. Therefore, he must have "dreamed" that entire following sequence up, or something like that. No it just doesn't make sense. There is no real logical way to intertwine the two storylines. I wouldn't look too much into it if i were you.

The post-credit levels likely just offer an alternate storyline to maybe explain the real story behind the phone calls? I'm not sure. Doesn't really make sense that the russian mob would have been behind it, as the main character seems to think, since you were apparently killing russian mobsters the entire time. I think the nationalist ending makes the most sense. You saw other guys in masks being tortured/killed (presumably b/c they failed their mission and were captured) by the russians.

Mostly I just think the whole point of the game was that you were told to kill, and you did, no questions asked (and you probably enjoyed it too!). Parallels real life in a lot of ways, minus the whole blowing peoples brains out and stuff :)

Really loved the game though, especially dem hot beatz

[P.H. Jones]

Here's a fun thing to consider: Chapter Fourteen and Nineteen take place in the same building. It's the exact same lobby, only the Jacket heads all the way down the hall and the Biker follows after that girl one door earlier. Jacket only went there because of the police report saying they had leads to that place, while the Biker pulls it straight from a henchman. Did our Jacket just miss the jackpot? It's entirely possible that both the sewer hideout and the Russian setup exist at the same time, but either character only gets one part of it.

This still works with the alternate storyline-theory. If Biker makes it out, he goes after the nationalists in the sewer. If Jacket comes out, though, it's entirely possible he just misses the guys downstairs and goes straight after the Russians, thinking they're the ones responsible. Think about it: not once do any of them confirm they're behind the calls. Sadly, I think he just missed the real bad guys in this ordeal.