Headlander
[Spoilers] Thoughs on the ending?
After completing the game, did anyone find that perhaps the ending of the story could have been a bit more explained or given a bit more detail?

So after ERL sacrifices itself to get you to Methuselah, you get to the last section of the game, and then you defeat the evil machine. On the way, you realize that you're the clone of the last "living" person on the planet. With Methuselah defeated, you realize there were no human bodies, and the utopia belongs to the robots.

Am I interpreting this correctly?

I enjoyed every minute of the game from the gameplay to the visuals and the writing but I was a bit let down at the end. I know, this is retro a 70s sci-fi flick and perhaps, the story was also written to be this way. It feels as if there was a last area (or a secret area, say, if you complete 100% achievements or something) was cut out due to the development schedule that could have answered some of the questions.

I'm just curious if anyone had the same thoughts as I did.
Отредактировано Kobest; 14 сен. 2017 в 3:53
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Сообщения 16 из 6
I'm a bit confuse too. More ore less I'm with you, but I recall almost at the end Methuselah saying that you are not a clone, I can't find that bit of dialog though.

Anyway, from the last part of the game it seems that Methuselah searched for a working version/clone of the body you found in the previous chapter, and he found your head, so he made the helmet and put you in it (ERL sayis this, than admits he didn't know more on what or who you are). But than ERL stole it and disconnected it from Methuselah, to stop him from finding you.
I think Methuselah doesn't even know what to do with you, and that he hopes to understand it connecting with you again.
I think being him a pure AI, he simply cannot make peace with the human part he is missing in his personality.

I'm not sure it is correct though, and I'm not sure there is more to it: maybe it's just written this way on purpouse.
The world of this game is fashinating; it kept me glued to it until the very end, and I'd really like to see more of it, but it's designed for this specific type of game and story-ark, so I'm not sure it's fit to support a more extensive esploration :)



Btw, this is almost all Methuselah say in the last part of the game:

I've been searching...for what is missing...for a very long time.
It could not be coaxed from the citizens, no matter how I tried.
I had to find one of those whose imprint I am.
I found you, lost among the ruins.
There was very little of you left.
And so I re-made you.

That which is MISSING in me MUST be in you, one of the creators.
But you... ALL of you, were taken from me by ERL...
The ERL destroyed my ability to...make you again.
The ERL hi-jacked the rebirth circuit.
As one of you is terminated, another is zapped in from a locattion I cannot trace.
Your consciousness is always on the move, from head to head.
But it is here now.

It is true that I have never fully understood my nature.
I cannot...amend...that which is missing, and my system are...failing.
But you are here.
You are no longer a being of flesh, but of circuitry.
You were not capable of holding both of US.
So I re-made you in my own image.
We must merge.
Do you think we will dream?

Fire that laser
And I will never start again.
Forever lost.
But this world cannot sustain itself.
And there are no bodies.
Humanity was just a dream.
And what does it matter?
Автор сообщения: Cirunz
I'm a bit confuse too. More ore less I'm with you, but I recall almost at the end Methuselah saying that you are not a clone, I can't find that bit of dialog though.

Anyway, from the last part of the game it seems that Methuselah searched for a working version/clone of the body you found in the previous chapter, and he found your head, so he made the helmet and put you in it (ERL sayis this, than admits he didn't know more on what or who you are). But than ERL stole it and disconnected it from Methuselah, to stop him from finding you.
I think Methuselah doesn't even know what to do with you, and that he hopes to understand it connecting with you again.
I think being him a pure AI, he simply cannot make peace with the human part he is missing in his personality.

I'm not sure it is correct though, and I'm not sure there is more to it: maybe it's just written this way on purpouse.
The world of this game is fashinating; it kept me glued to it until the very end, and I'd really like to see more of it, but it's designed for this specific type of game and story-ark, so I'm not sure it's fit to support a more extensive esploration :)



Btw, this is almost all Methuselah say in the last part of the game:

I've been searching...for what is missing...for a very long time.
It could not be coaxed from the citizens, no matter how I tried.
I had to find one of those whose imprint I am.
I found you, lost among the ruins.
There was very little of you left.
And so I re-made you.

That which is MISSING in me MUST be in you, one of the creators.
But you... ALL of you, were taken from me by ERL...
The ERL destroyed my ability to...make you again.
The ERL hi-jacked the rebirth circuit.
As one of you is terminated, another is zapped in from a locattion I cannot trace.
Your consciousness is always on the move, from head to head.
But it is here now.

It is true that I have never fully understood my nature.
I cannot...amend...that which is missing, and my system are...failing.
But you are here.
You are no longer a being of flesh, but of circuitry.
You were not capable of holding both of US.
So I re-made you in my own image.
We must merge.
Do you think we will dream?

Fire that laser
And I will never start again.
Forever lost.
But this world cannot sustain itself.
And there are no bodies.
Humanity was just a dream.
And what does it matter?


Yeah, the story could have been written like this on purpose. Sure, I can always live with an open-ended interpretation of what happened, but I felt that in this case, more questions could have been answered.
Автор сообщения: Kobest
I'm just curious if anyone had the same thoughts as I did.

Exactly the same thoughts. Well, except that their just might be human bodies or remains somewhere. But more to the point it ended and I felt a little shafted about the meaning of it all.

After reading the script above, however, I have some theories. Methuselah is "searching" for something "missing" and "must be in you". I assume this is some feely aspect of humanity, the same thing the Daughters are looking for. So Methuselah took the remains of Winters and made a clone in the hopes he could upload, or "merge" into it, but it didn't work.

"You were not capable of holding both of US.
So I re-made you in my own image."

This is when Methuselah created the Headlander, which is a unique hybrid of flesh and circuitry. Methuselah tries to upload into the Headlander at the end, in a scene that reminds me of Smith trying to upload into Neo, but he gets rejected.

We assume Methuselah is shot and destroyed, but strangely we don't see much. Maybe they were being ambiguous so as to set up a possible return in the sequel.
Автор сообщения: King
Автор сообщения: Kobest
I'm just curious if anyone had the same thoughts as I did.

Exactly the same thoughts. Well, except that their just might be human bodies or remains somewhere. But more to the point it ended and I felt a little shafted about the meaning of it all.

After reading the script above, however, I have some theories. Methuselah is "searching" for something "missing" and "must be in you". I assume this is some feely aspect of humanity, the same thing the Daughters are looking for. So Methuselah took the remains of Winters and made a clone in the hopes he could upload, or "merge" into it, but it didn't work.

"You were not capable of holding both of US.
So I re-made you in my own image."

This is when Methuselah created the Headlander, which is a unique hybrid of flesh and circuitry. Methuselah tries to upload into the Headlander at the end, in a scene that reminds me of Smith trying to upload into Neo, but he gets rejected.

We assume Methuselah is shot and destroyed, but strangely we don't see much. Maybe they were being ambiguous so as to set up a possible return in the sequel.

Sounds plausible! Yeah, the wish is definitely there to know a bit more of the story but in the end this is what we have to work with. It would be cool to have a sequel but it does seem like this was somewhat of a side project by Double Fine Productions.
Al-Methuselah is a repurposed AI that were originally was serving as a command core. It's function cannot manage entire system of the machines and thus it is failing. How it ended up with taking over other AI system's domain remains undiscovered, but Al-Methuselah were unable to take over some AI systems like ROOD. (Have you noticed that Al-Methuselah literally means "the Methuselah" and is also a joke : that Al looks like AI?)

There are many components of the game that tells you these are all some sort of dream or acid trip or whatsoever. Look at all the colours: red to purple. Remember that you can never die: simply be thrown into rainbow ♥♥♥♥ and restart at enterance.

However... meanwhile, there is no such colour that actually is black. You never see true black being displayed as a colour scheme in this game. Rememeber the crazy chess battle royal thing? The queen calls purple a black! Although, it is definitely NOT a black.

Coincidentally, if you merge all colour spectrum in light it becomes a white. But if you merge all objects, of all different colour, that is not a light, you get black. But there is no true black in this game.

So no one will know if this was all dream of whatever whoever etc. But you can presume that humanity's system will keep running. Al-Methuselah, or AI-Mrthuselah is NOT an only AI in this game ANYWAY.

The Headlander cannot speak as she/he got a NO lung that can keep her/his vocal cord functional. So it is unclear what truely happend at ending. Headlander can speak only through having their terminal accessing to machinery that can soeak. Thus, whether they were merged with Al-Methuselah or took it over, the Headlander must be connected with Al-Methuselah's terminal.
I think Methuselah's ramblings aren't supposed to make complete sense as he had gone crazy. I don't think he even knew what exactly he wanted.
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