[WARNING]Ending discussion so spoiler ahead[WARNING]

[5tyle]

Is that the only ending ? marines all dead, harper dead, the merc dead, the training room instructor dead.

Only Cass and Hayes alive and both go to hypersleep. Amazing game but the ending is really underwhelming...

[EpimeTheAus]

I don't recall our marines dying, they were defending the dropship and probably left when Cass and Maeko came back up the lift.
In true Aliens fashion, the only main characters to survive are Ripley, Newt and the marine/s that made it to the dropship.

[Mir-5]

Lot of people die in this franchise. It's part of the cruel horror vibe. Also imagine they wanted to make sure not to have to consider scheduling same VAs for potential sequels or something. It's just that the deaths were kinda hamfisted in narrative sense. Harper dying in a long range telepathic battle after being abandoned from the plot for a while was especially pretty silly.

Additionally, lot of the lore implications at the epilogue are kinda in a territory that you shouldn't carelessly infodump at last minute. Cassandra, however, feels like a sequel or expansion bait. She's got a fresh storyline waiting and built-in alien-controlling mechanics.

[RobOda]

Originally posted by EpimeTheAus:

I don't recall our marines dying, they were defending the dropship and probably left when Cass and Maeko came back up the lift.
In true Aliens fashion, the only main characters to survive are Ripley, Newt and the marine/s that made it to the dropship.

If you watch the cinematic back, the marines are laying down suppressive fire as Cass and Maeko escape, and then they get jumped on and killed.

[DACNINJA]

Yeah kinda ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, I did raise all those marines from lvl 1, spawn killed queens just for them to die like that? Even if those were all Chargers I could have handled those xenomorphs in the cutscene and extracted my squad with nobody dead.

[Malidictus]

The epilogue mission is pretty terrible, I agree. The entire game up to that point, we've managed to stay ahead of the enemy by being smart, tactical and bringing overwhelming firepower. Hayse herself has proven to be competent and resourceful.

The last mission throws it all away. Yeah, let's send just three people with minimal gear, one of whom isn't even a combatant. Let's go poke around at the alien monster and gawk at it while it kills us. This feels like a particularly egregious example of cutscene incompetence.

Speaking of horror games, I remember playing Dead Space 2 a long time ago. Do you know what scared me the most? It wasn't the monsters or the gruesome deaths. No, it was the cutscenes. No matter how well I did in the game, I knew for a fact that as soon as a cutscene starts and I lose control of Isaac, he'd do something stupid and get someone killed.

This does not make for good horror.

[Ashley]

Just most of all feels bad for a resource management game to end in a way that does not remotely take into account your resource management. The finale should be difficult based on how well you've managed your resources. Not some painfully scripted scene where you literally become invincible.

Plot was yeah, it felt really forced for those deaths. Harper just died because... I guess they just wanted to have a narrative sacrifice to up the stakes but it really just felt forced. The other deaths just felt entirely forced and avoidable simply to try to ramp up the danger. I'm fine with characters dying but not just them becoming absolute idiots and breaking character to make sure they do.

Overall the last part is probably the worst part of the game.

[Omen]

It end almost like Alien 2 - who knows what happend next on Otago during cryosleep :D Maybe Cass got 1 in chest or there is some egg hidden around - next stop Fury 161 or similiar prison moon

[Malidictus]

Originally posted by Ashley:

Plot was yeah, it felt really forced for those deaths. Harper just died because... I guess they just wanted to have a narrative sacrifice to up the stakes but it really just felt forced. The other deaths just felt entirely forced and avoidable simply to try to ramp up the danger. I'm fine with characters dying but not just them becoming absolute idiots and breaking character to make sure they do.

Yeah, they got fridged for no real reason. I should note that I felt the same way about the doctor lady getting offed by the Drone in in an earlier story mission on the Otago. I'm not a fan of named character deaths at the best of times, but they can make for good stories if handled properly. Simply throwing away characters because... well, it's towards the end of the game and we're not going to use them so meh... feels really bad.

And when I say "feels bad", I don't mean from a dramatic standpoint. I mean from a "change the channel" standpoint. If Dark Descent were a TV show, this would be the point where I'd drop it, because it's the point where the utter failure of storytelling becomes apparent.

Originally posted by Omen:

It end almost like Alien 2 - who knows what happend next on Otago during cryosleep :D Maybe Cass got 1 in chest or there is some egg hidden around - next stop Fury 161 or similiar prison moon

Yeah, I got the same feeling. That last tracking shot of the cryopods seemed deliberately designed to suggest that aliens got on board and will kill the crew in their sleep. I mean, it didn't SHOW that, but I can only imagine the developers were struggling to hold themselves back from showing it.

[RobOda]

Yeah, the ending was... terrible.

So, let's start with the xenocity, which is large, okay, but I don't think it's large enough to hold many creatures of that size in the first place. It looks cramped enough as is, never mind with something the size of a house next to each other. I don't really get it. I mean, this thing must be sprawling across the entire moon surely? To get an entire gigantic civilisation down there, the scale has to be huge, it's a miracle they didn't find it sooner tbh.

The Xeno-snake, was odd? (Mind you, can you imagine seeing one of those facehuggers from those Ostrich size eggs? Yiiiikkkkes.)

I don't know, that last "boss" xeno was just goofy as hell, I didn't find it that impressive, something about the design is completely off. Maybe, the way it moves is just stupid?

I can get one person dying in that scene, but Stern's basically suicide by xeno is just him carrying the idiot ball.

And then, the whole 'use the force Luke' scene from Harper, basically is like the writing team was like 'okay we've been mostly serious for 90% of this game, how can we write some game of throne's level's of phone it in for the ending?'

Cos that is what it is IMO. They botched it with Marlow, they botched it with Cassandra and Jonas tbh. They could have left it as them two being able to identify intention and movement of the aliens and that would be just about believable, but then they completely jumped the shark with that last hurrah from Jonas, I don't know who signed that off in the writing team, but it isn't a 'cool' moment, it's a genuine 'eye-roll' amateur hour thing.

[Grape Ape]

Ending sucked... odd enough only people whom survived was women... did Anita Sarkeesian have a hand in this?

But honestly... all the marines died too easily. Everything they done gone to waste and made pointless...

[FArheinFisch]

Last mission was bad (storywise, no reason not to safe some marines), but i really enjoyed the game as a whole. Going nightmare next.

[lightbringer]

its makes no sense to have the marines you left on the otago not escape with it..

[GHANS]

Lets be honest with ourselves. It really wasn't a surprise. The entire game you probably notice storyline flaws building.

I loved the gameplay but the entire story has been trash when it comes to character decisions. Which is kind of the norm when it comes to modern day Aliens/horror genre. I mean, did anyone see Aliens Covenant or Prometheus? The devs probably created more rational characters/storyline than those last 2 movies.

Even still, I'll rant too. The entire game they constantly reiterate the importance of saving people but they never think of the people that die in order to save people. Like no big deal that those marines died outside the shuttle defending their escape with Cassandra.

Also, food for thought. What happened to all of the Doctor synths from the end mission that suddenly disappeared. I wonder. hmmm.. I wonder why their ship had a yellow light on the back of it by its engines. hmmm...

ALSO LOL "And then, the whole 'use the force Luke' scene from Harper "

[Mirvra]

Regarding silly deaths, I agree that the PMC just standing there to die was a poor story choice, but the others, even Harper's telepathic resistance, makes sense. (Heck, anyone with some knowledge of the Aliens EU would remember just how many times telepathic stuff has been a thing around xenos)

And the Xeno Titan: Personally I kept thinking it's actually a chestburster, or at least some kind of in-between burster and adult form... It just makes no sense for it to be crawling around like that otherwise. The eggs might be from another specimen that actually managed to grow up then died ages ago, while the Titan we face might've gotten stuck in a stasis field until everyone's favorite legion of synths decided to wake it.

Regarding the marines dying during the Dropship leaving: I don't think those are the same marines you deployed story wise, rather, I think they're a B-team of red-shirts that would arrive with the Dropship to take over LZ security to relieve the assault squad.

[Malidictus]

Originally posted by Mirvra:

Regarding silly deaths, I agree that the PMC just standing there to die was a poor story choice, but the others, even Harper's telepathic resistance, makes sense.

They make sense from a logistics perspective, sure - the armoury guy never saw what got him. From a narrative perspective, though, it just doesn't "fit". I at least went through the entire campaign never losing a single soldier (besides a few limbs). Then, right at the end, the three stooges decide to yolo into the abyss and enact the dumbest, most inept clown show of the entire experience. It's embarrassing how badly they do.

As a story, it might be forgivable. As a game, it's just repugnant. Control is taken away from the player and a really bad borderline failure state is enforced. With the couple of other story missions, it at least kind of makes sense, in that events beyond the player's control forced the bad situation. With this one... the characters were just dumb. Take more people with you. Or failing that, take gear.

It's telling that the last mission has to give the three characters infinite health and infinite ammo.