Ending...

[Larry]

Spoilers...

I beat the game two days ago and the ending has been playing on my mind.

I think the biggest issue is the fact it's a really bad ending for where the journey was taking us. It's like the minor aspect of the story was put to the forefront of the game at the last second but the main story plot was flat out ignored. I'd always thought the minor aspect of the story(the remnants) would have simply been addressed alongside the revelation of what happened to the Olympic zone and finding out how to solve the problem.

At the end of the game you basically jump through hoops to get to the center of the Olympic Zone anomaly to try find out what happened and if you can fix what had happened but at the last minute the story takes a turn and focuses primarily on the remnant basically being removed from the car and tied to yourself. You don't find out how everything started, who was responsible or how to fix it. At the end Oppy just says she gives up and is leaving. However, at no point was it ever hinted that you could simply leave the area and the game basically alluded to how it wasn't possible as they were all trapped inside pockets of "safe zones" and that's how they survived - even ARDA had issued a last ditch evacuation. You don't even find out why you were driving so close to the Olympic area, who you were, why you were there or what you were going to do at the location you were going to before the event happened. Literally nothing was explained.

I mean, I kind of felt like the rug was pulled from under me in terms of closure for the story and characters. There's no conclusion, there's no real revelation except for what we already knew from the start; Remnants were brought about when the event started and that's basically it unless the meat of the story is buried in heaps of text... which is a poor method of storytelling when it comes to games - you should be telling your story as the play goes along.

The one thing I will say is the ending was the perfect amount of time. It wasn't a slog to go through. It was a bit of a walk while hearing some characters talk in the past(More personal stuff as opposed to relevant current issues - like what happened) and then a 3minute straight drive toward an exit portal. It was good, didn't have you grinding away to get the ending for hours on end, I definitely appreciated that as too many times do games seemingly deliberately try to pad out the ending with a gauntlet to slog through.

[Alkirin]

Not entirely wrong, there is alot of vague handwaving at things that could deserve explanation. We don't know the explicit cause, we're largely just told that the government tried to weaponize Lim Tech, the Well was a result of their work, and it blew up.

Oppy and the others could leave anytime, they just refused to. The player was tied to the remnant, and would have been doomed to the strange fate that befell everyone else. Somehow this is dodged by fulfilling the remnant's purpose, which was to reach the Well.

We know next to nothing about who we are, save for a glance at the papers we had in hand at the very beginning before we were pulled inside the outer wall.

Oppy leaving makes sense, as Alan told her to. Francis stays, as Tobias told him to keep going, but.. it's underwhelming to have nothing more but some generic commentary when you return to the garage.

[76561198295811597]

And besides, after the ending there is absolutely nothing to do in the game..

[solovej]

The game has good potential, but a lot of things about it don't make sense right now. Let's just say that the game can be safely passed without using any tuning for the wagon. The plot seemed to me rather superficial and understated. I hope the developers will refine the game with DLC

[Midnght]

Agreed about who you are. But if you look fast or screen shot it your a dude delivering a package. Which is why your near the zone you just never reach your destination because you got sucked into the zone. I did the opening scene like three times and I wanted to know what was on his clipboard I didn't get it all but I got that jyst. In fact here take a looksie.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DhjmJzqEuX3hknKn27ZImVgwTL7AAord/view?usp=drivesdk

[Truffle]

Originally posted by Alkirin:

We know next to nothing about who we are, save for a glance at the papers we had in hand at the very beginning before we were pulled inside the outer wall.

This one bugs me the most out of everything. It would've been better off if the game started without that glance at a map, and randomly get sucked in while we're driving along. Because that makes it entirely player self insert, we got sucked into this weird place, and now we need to get out. We make the story in our head.

But by having the player character glance at a map, and knowingly drive to the exclusion zone, that sets the character up to have a story, reason, and logic as to why they went to the zone. Were they just curious? Were they an old ARDA member that wanted to come back? We're informed that the player has a story, but we never actually get their story.

Which just leaves me overall feeling completely pointless in the story, all you did was uncurse a car, and without a word of reason the game says to us "Oh, actually you want to stay here." But, for what? Science? The player has never been any part of the scientific discovery, they're a glorified webcam for the voices in their head that do the actual behind the scenes science and system manipulation.

Knowing that the zone can still be left at anytime with great ease makes me hate the ending even more. Just 3 old crazy people that decided to stay because they could, and not because they had no ability to leave.

[Truffle]

Originally posted by Midnght:

Agreed about who you are. But if you look fast or screen shot it your a dude delivering a package. Which is why your near the zone you just never reach your destination because you got sucked into the zone. I did the opening scene like three times and I wanted to know what was on his clipboard I didn't get it all but I got that jyst. In fact here take a looksie.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DhjmJzqEuX3hknKn27ZImVgwTL7AAord/view?usp=drivesdk

This screenshot makes it cryptic, it seems like whoever sent the package knew something would happen, and was orchestrating it, for some reason.

[Zukaro Travon]

I liked it just fine (though, I do feel like there should be a way for the player to leave the zone after the end). Also you do absolutely find out who is responsible for everything (if you're curious, it's Oppy; she's the one who invented the technology that caused this situation, and that's part of why she stayed for so long, because she wanted to fix it). You need to collect the tapes to get the backstory (they're marked on your map in teal when they're in a zone, and you can tell if a zone contains tapes ahead of time as it'll show that as one of the things in the list of things in the zone before you enter).

[Truffle]

Originally posted by Zukaro Travon:

I liked it just fine (though, I do feel like there should be a way for the player to leave the zone after the end). Also you do absolutely find out who is responsible for everything (if you're curious, it's Oppy; she's the one who invented the technology that caused this situation, and that's part of why she stayed for so long, because she wanted to fix it). You need to collect the tapes to get the backstory (they're marked on your map in teal when they're in a zone, and you can tell if a zone contains tapes ahead of time as it'll show that as one of the things in the list of things in the zone before you enter).

That's an inherent problem in gaming though, any lore documents should be supplemental and enhance the story. But they shouldn't be required to understand generally what's going on. And this game has an absolutely obsurd amount of lore. If the achievement system is correct, there are 600 lore entries.

For context a massive game like Skyrim has 300 or so in game books.
The entire Mass Effect Trilogy is around 400 to 500 Codex Entries
Dead Space around 150
And the collectible lore in those games are not even remotely necessary reading to understand the story being told.

There is zero reason for a game of this scale to have 600 entries, when the actual told and experienced story outside the lore entries is so laughably small. Heck even some of the dialogue between Oppy, Francis, and Tobias to the player are entirely optional unless you hold the button to activate them, which is a 'choice' the developers made for some reason.

600 entries tells me that Pacific Drive had a super imaginative writer(s), but they couldn't actually figure out how to put the majority of it, into the game naturally, so they just dumped it into a text log.

As much as I enjoyed this game, I genuinely feel like it was released a year too early,

[Zukaro Travon]

Originally posted by Cocoa Otter:

Originally posted by Zukaro Travon:

I liked it just fine (though, I do feel like there should be a way for the player to leave the zone after the end). Also you do absolutely find out who is responsible for everything (if you're curious, it's Oppy; she's the one who invented the technology that caused this situation, and that's part of why she stayed for so long, because she wanted to fix it). You need to collect the tapes to get the backstory (they're marked on your map in teal when they're in a zone, and you can tell if a zone contains tapes ahead of time as it'll show that as one of the things in the list of things in the zone before you enter).

That's an inherent problem in gaming though, any lore documents should be supplemental and enhance the story. But they shouldn't be required to understand generally what's going on. And this game has an absolutely obsurd amount of lore. If the achievement system is correct, there are 600 lore entries.

For context a massive game like Skyrim has 300 or so in game books.
The entire Mass Effect Trilogy is around 400 to 500 Codex Entries
Dead Space around 150
And the collectible lore in those games are not even remotely necessary reading to understand the story being told.

There is zero reason for a game of this scale to have 600 entries, when the actual told and experienced story outside the lore entries is so laughably small. Heck even some of the dialogue between Oppy, Francis, and Tobias to the player are entirely optional unless you hold the button to activate them, which is a 'choice' the developers made for some reason.

600 entries tells me that Pacific Drive had a super imaginative writer(s), but they couldn't actually figure out how to put the majority of it, into the game naturally, so they just dumped it into a text log.

As much as I enjoyed this game, I genuinely feel like it was released a year too early,

The 600 entries includes anomalies and other such things you scan. But regardless, the point is that it's a mystery. I think it works just fine how it's done, and the actual story logs are audio logs so you don't even have to read them you can listen to them while you drive.

I don't think there's anything wrong with needing to collect the lore tapes to get the backstory (and I think it's perfectly fine to have a story in which things are left vague; we don't need to know everything to enjoy it for what it is).

[IvanThePornTerrorist]

Originally posted by Cocoa Otter:

Originally posted by Zukaro Travon:

I liked it just fine (though, I do feel like there should be a way for the player to leave the zone after the end). Also you do absolutely find out who is responsible for everything (if you're curious, it's Oppy; she's the one who invented the technology that caused this situation, and that's part of why she stayed for so long, because she wanted to fix it). You need to collect the tapes to get the backstory (they're marked on your map in teal when they're in a zone, and you can tell if a zone contains tapes ahead of time as it'll show that as one of the things in the list of things in the zone before you enter).

That's an inherent problem in gaming though, any lore documents should be supplemental and enhance the story. But they shouldn't be required to understand generally what's going on. And this game has an absolutely obsurd amount of lore. If the achievement system is correct, there are 600 lore entries.

For context a massive game like Skyrim has 300 or so in game books.
The entire Mass Effect Trilogy is around 400 to 500 Codex Entries
Dead Space around 150
And the collectible lore in those games are not even remotely necessary reading to understand the story being told.

There is zero reason for a game of this scale to have 600 entries, when the actual told and experienced story outside the lore entries is so laughably small. Heck even some of the dialogue between Oppy, Francis, and Tobias to the player are entirely optional unless you hold the button to activate them, which is a 'choice' the developers made for some reason.

600 entries tells me that Pacific Drive had a super imaginative writer(s), but they couldn't actually figure out how to put the majority of it, into the game naturally, so they just dumped it into a text log.

As much as I enjoyed this game, I genuinely feel like it was released a year too early,

I agree entirely with this. If I'm playing a game with a narrative I expect to get the whole thing through average gameplay. The cool backstory stuff needs to be in the logs, not the main plot. Honestly it feels like the whole third act of this game was rushed, the ending hits like a truck and is wildly simple. It feels like the game ends half way through. They hype up The Well as some kind of portal, this huge, grand thing and I'm sitting here expecting some kind of mirror world zone where we lose contact with Oppy and Francis, and get lead by Tobias and Allan for a while getting to find out more and either fixing things or finding a way back to relay what we learned and (optionally) leave the zone with our car. Instead we get 'lol tv afterlife and a less interesting warthog run' followed by Oppy shedding all responsibility and dipping on us unceremoniously.

[Hazelnut]

I agree that the ending was abrupt and not very satisfying. I also cannot understand why the game ends way before you can upgrade to the best stuff. I was actually searching for Olympian resource as I'd only collected 23 before the last mission was next. Set off and found a zone with it listed, scoured it with the resource scanner and there was zero. My only zone available next was the end mission, hadn't intended to go yet but scanner said it had the Olympian stuff so I figured why not....

So now I have done the whole game, found no more Olympian, and feel a bit let down because I was really into the game. I really hope they add more to the end of the game in a patch or something, assuming they had plans which were abandoned due to pressure to release the game.

Anyway, I did have a great time with the game overall.. I just feel it's potential was not fully realised.

[Kel'Ithra]

The part about our driver feels like someone knew what would happen and intentionally had the driver go through that area with a false delivery. Which in turn who ever tricked the driver likely knew about the remnant and well we know what happens going forward. They also likely knew there were still people inside Olivia, Tobias and Francis still being in. Likely knew it would draw their attention, and such.

Feels like the driver was set up with someone, hoping or expecting those three to get involved and get the car to its destination. Feels like the car was the intended delivery just the driver was kept in the dark. As for the rest of the story, they likely ran out of time or couldn't figure out how to do it proper so did whatever they did. Not overly impressed considering how good the game is, until that point. Feels like the rushed it and the games not complete.

[Hazelnut]

Originally posted by ThePornTerrorist:

I agree entirely with this. If I'm playing a game with a narrative I expect to get the whole thing through average gameplay. The cool backstory stuff needs to be in the logs, not the main plot. Honestly it feels like the whole third act of this game was rushed, the ending hits like a truck and is wildly simple. It feels like the game ends half way through. They hype up The Well as some kind of portal, this huge, grand thing and I'm sitting here expecting some kind of mirror world zone where we lose contact with Oppy and Francis, and get lead by Tobias and Allan for a while getting to find out more and either fixing things or finding a way back to relay what we learned and (optionally) leave the zone with our car. Instead we get 'lol tv afterlife and a less interesting warthog run' followed by Oppy shedding all responsibility and dipping on us unceremoniously.

That would be an idea. Mine would be Oppy now wants to leave but is basically trapped, which is what the story says early on. Next phase of the game is to power up and get to Oppy so you can help her leave using the car. I really hope the sales numbers can allow the devs to add more story and finish it off properly like Larian do with their games.

[Marcos Hunger]

Look, I'm a little relieved now that I found this discussion here.

I'm Brazilian, I understand English to a certain extent and it was bothering me because driving in the middle of that chaos with people talking on the radio I wasn't able to understand everything, and I was upset that they hadn't thought of localization for Brazilian Portuguese.

I finished the game yesterday and came to the internet to try to understand the story, because the end left me quite discouraged. And then I discover that in fact it wasn't my complete failure to understand the game, but the game didn't really explain itself! It is tragic and comical.

I really liked the game, the mechanics, the premise; but the story really took a backseat, which is discouraging after so many hours. And really, after the game ends, it doesn't make any sense to continue there (despite the immense desire to unlock the improvements). But what are you going to equip the car for? If there is nothing to progress...