[spoilers] So the game has no ending?

[Malidictus]

I was quite enjoying Still Wakes the Deep until about half-way through, up to where I was running through the same locations for a third time. That's when I started getting the sinking feeling we have another Jacob's Ladder on our hands. Caz died in the beginning and this is all a dream. After all, the game becomes increasing filled with dream-like elements the closer it gets to the end.

Long hallway with a door at the end that the player can never get to, claustrophobic swimming sections which go on for miles, bizarre architecture which makes absolutely no sense. Even Caz himself comments on being trapped in a nightmare multiple times. And, of course, the constant hallucinations of his wife.

That's... not what I got. Mind you, I would have hated an "it was all a dream" ending, but... it would have been AN ending. Instead, we got a non-ending. The game falls apart into meaningless trippy visuals, we get a 2001: A Space Odyssey room scene, then cut to credits. Was it all a dream? Was it a true eldritch horror? Did Caz lose his mind and murder everyone on the rig? "It's an exercise for the reader". K, cool. But while I'm there, I might as well make up my own original fanfiction, because the game doesn't really have one of its own.

I was expecting a lot of things from this game. I was not expecting Cryostasis: The Sleep of Reason, and I am not happy that that's pretty much what I got. Except even Cryostasis actually had AN ending, even if it rendered the rest of that game was pointless. Still Wakes the Deep doesn't even have that.

I really need to stop buying video games on first impressions...

[Iggy Wolf]

I mean, just because the ending doesn't explicitly show you the creature and oil rig going up in smoke and flames, doesn't mean it didn't happen. Also, the creature was almost CHANGING reality at that point, so complaining about how some parts of the rig weren't making sense anymore ignores the fact that this abomination didn't really care for the rules of physics or geometry anymore.

Things don't fly up into the sky either, and yet the derrick had pieces of the rig flying in a circle around the center of the creature all the way up into the sky, following the curving nature of its "veins". Also, keep in mind that the creature's presence is causing all the characters to hallucinate and have headaches and other mental issues. So if it seems like a "dream", it's causing it is affecting Caz and others' ability to stay sane or lucid.

For the ones who've already turned, we have to assume they must probably see a VERY different thing compared to those still alive and/or not part of the creature's biomass. Also, if you're wondering why you should "care" about what happened, then you have to keep in mind that that's kinda how horror works. There is rarely an explanation or rhyme or reason to why things happen and who or what they happen to.

The Thing movie didn't exactly have a "resolution" as far as the protagonists were concerned. I mean, both characters in the end couldn't be sure if the other was "the thing", and the movie doesn't really answer the question anyway. A horror movie or video game having an ambiguous ending is kinda the point. Good horror doesn't answer all the questions. In fact, it usually leaves you with MORE questions than answers.

[McToffel]

Am I the only one who recognizes that Caz took his own life after losing his family and his job, plus possibly going to jail/prison? The whole game is just him processing the journey over to the other side. The lighter could be representing the flame of life, and when he dropped it at the end, he was letting go of all his troubles and accepting to leave his family behind. You can even see his wife and two girls standing on the drill when he is about to drop the lighter. I don't know if this is actually what is going on, but this is my theory. 
If you or someone you know are suicidal, please seek help

[Malidictus]

Originalmente postado por Iggy Wolf:

Also, the creature was almost CHANGING reality at that point, so complaining about how some parts of the rig weren't making sense anymore ignores the fact that this abomination didn't really care for the rules of physics or geometry anymore.

That's not really a fact in evidence, though, but rather an assertion. The creature is shown to work through purely physical means the majority of the time. To me, things not making sense is more indicative of Caz's ability to keep his sense of orientation consistent, more so than anything that the creature does, as it's a pretty good fit for how "dream logic" works.

But even if it were true, that doesn't fix the actual story. Both "it was all a dream" and "reality bending" are both generally pretty bad plot devices, because they retroactively remove the point of preexisting story elements. If literally anything can happen, then the protagonist's actions - and so the player's actions by proxy - don't matter.

My baseline for a meaningful story breaks down to a simple question - would anything have changed if the protagonist chose to stay in bed that morning. Didn't show up for the story, died before the story happened, whatever. And in this case... no, not really. Everyone dies regardless, and the rig would have blown up on its own. Remember - we went out of our way to fix the flare so we could prevent exactly such an explosion.

So whether this was a dream, whether the creature can bend reality or whether Caz just died died trying to kill the creature, things would have turned out the same if we did nothing at all.

Originalmente postado por Iggy Wolf:

The Thing movie didn't exactly have a "resolution" as far as the protagonists were concerned. I mean, both characters in the end couldn't be sure if the other was "the thing", and the movie doesn't really answer the question anyway. A horror movie or video game having an ambiguous ending is kinda the point. Good horror doesn't answer all the questions. In fact, it usually leaves you with MORE questions than answers.

A couple of points here. First, that's still AN ending, because we have reason to believe that events actually happened. It wasn't all in MacReady's head. I still think it's a bad ending for the same reason as before - nothing was actually accomplished. But at least we have reason to believe that events happened in the first place. Not something I can say here.

Secondly, I strongly disagree on good horror leaving you with more questions than answers. No, cheap writing leaves you with more questions than answers. Think Lost, for example. Making cryptic allusions and suggesting a broader story which doesn't exist is not impressive. Sure, it might work on impressionable minds who tend to project their own thoughts onto a work of fiction, but it's still not telling a story. It's creating a framing device and hoping you imagine a better story than what's actually shown.

That's great if it worked on you, but all it made ME imagine was a far worse, less interesting story than I think the development team wanted me to take away from this. I'm aware that the story isn't as bad as it seems like to me, but the game hasn't given me anything to work with in finding that. I'm simply not interested in doing the studio's legwork for them. If I wanted to imagine an cool horror story on an oil rig, I could do that. I don't need Still Wakes the Deep for it, though.

Originalmente postado por McToffel:

Am I the only one who recognizes that Caz took his own life after losing his family and his job, plus possibly going to jail/prison? The whole game is just him processing the journey over to the other side.

That specific interpretation? I've not run into it before. I do suspect that the game is meant to be a sort of death hallucination, but my suspicion is that the death happens right at the start when Caz is first knocked into the water. If you remember, the people who pulled him out talked about how he's "gone cold" and he's dead. Then cut to black and he wakes up alone. Things go progressively crazy from there. Again, very much like Jacob's Ladder.

The game is also full of the imagery of "swimming to the surface" - ascending through unfamiliar darkness into a distant light, over and over again. In this way, it's pretty similar to Cryostasis: The Sleep of Reason. That too has a protagonist who drowns under the ice at the start, proceeds to explore a ship full of monsters which makes no sense while finding snippets of an entirely irrelevant story (The Flaming Heart of Danko), ultimately ending in a boss fight with Chronos, the god of time.

The game even has straight-up reality bending, as the protagonist is able to change the events leading to the marooning of the nuclear icebreaker through means I never quite figured out. Still Wakes the Deep doesn't even have that.

[Swaggaccino]

>Guy literally sets an oil rig on fire, watches as a gigantic explosion engulfs him, and has his life flash before his eyes
>Random gamer: "I don't get it though, did he die?"

How much more do you need to be spoonfed?

[Malidictus]

Originalmente postado por Swaggaccino:

>Guy literally sets an oil rig on fire, watches as a gigantic explosion engulfs him, and has his life flash before his eyes
>Random gamer: "I don't get it though, did he die?"

How much more do you need to be spoonfed?

Would you mind actually reading the thread? I don't feel like going through the same points yet again. Your question has already been addressed.

[Fumero]

I thought that Caz is trapped in a time loop event.

[Malidictus]

Originalmente postado por Fumero:

I thought that Caz is trapped in a time loop event.

It certainly feels like it at times. The game essentially runs us through the same locations about three times, each time worse and more dangerous. I mean your guess is as good as mine when it comes to what the story is, but this makes sense.

[Chavasse]

Just finished the game. I think Suze is the protagonist. Caz goes to the rig against her wishes and everybody is killed as a result. Caz sacrifices himself at the end, which stops her anger and he is allowed back to the family home in order to re-think his decision to leave. The door opens to show the sea as a warning.

Or not...

[Fumero]

Originalmente postado por Malidictus:

Originalmente postado por Fumero:

I thought that Caz is trapped in a time loop event.

It certainly feels like it at times. The game essentially runs us through the same locations about three times, each time worse and more dangerous. I mean your guess is as good as mine when it comes to what the story is, but this makes sense.

Maybe the creature created a time loop trying to save itself, the game dont let us know if the creature is an alien lifeform that came in a meteorite, dormant alien virus, or anything that existed in earth long before even the dinosaurs or if it even originated from another dimension.

[68ST0X20]

Originalmente postado por Malidictus:

Long hallway with a door at the end that the player can never get to, claustrophobic swimming sections which go on for miles, bizarre architecture which makes absolutely no sense.

One thing I noticed late in the game, on your last visit to Accommodation, is that when you look out the window of some cabins, you will see a repeating set of window frames running off to the distance in a slight spiral. Unless it's some kind of rendering bug, it's very clearly something that can't be real.

FWIW regarding the ending I think it's just Caz's dying thoughts, and a wishful desire for everything to be OK (we hear Suze narrating a letter that's the exact opposite of the one from the start of the game).
Since the bright light Caz heads towards has the chromatic lighting of the entity and since we see his hands swimming at that point, it _might_ be that he's being consumed by the entity rather than going to the afterlife. During the game, Caz is tormented by the entity with Suze berating him or panicking over their daughters. Once consumed by the entity, Caz joins its mass and is allowed to be at peace and believe that everything with his family is perfect.

[forg]

Why is this thread so toxic. Bro was just wondering about the ending and giving his interpretation 💀

[Asha]

Originalmente postado por forg:

Why is this thread so toxic. Bro was just wondering about the ending and giving his interpretation 💀

The original post wasn't offering an interpretation, it was venting frustration at the inability to form an interpretation. Calling out pseudo-intellectuals for maligning games that don't spoonfeed their every thought isn't 'toxic'.

[Shea McD]

it really does just seem like the whole game was a dream after he fell at the start. No one gets out alive to tell the story, and it shows no aftermath of what happened when the rig exploded.

[Little Dragon]

JUST finished the game, and I loved it, and i loved the ending as well, sacrificing oneself against unbelievable odds....who knows if it killed the thing, who knows if rescue was even on its way...all we know is that Caz sacrificed himself to save his wife and daughters, to protect them even if it meant he was no longer with them, it's a beautiful ending for a man who only ever wanted to right his wrongs

[Teligth]

He probably died when he fell off the rig and what we experienced was his minds journey to fight against death and because he had to accept it in the end anyway. I just wish I cared more.