What do you think happened in The Swapper?

[Urban Shaman]

I've just finished the game - quite awesome audio and visual design, and the game was outright creepy in a major way. Which was good!

But, having completed the game, there's a piece of the story that doesn't seem to make much sense. Or perhaps I've missed something from the logs.

Obviously, MAJOR SPOILER WARNING.

So... who IS the main character? In the ending scene it is suggested she is the clone of the scientist with the 3 personalities stuck in her head. BUT, how is it possible for a clone to operate on it's own then? Throughout the game clones (as creepy as it is) just repeat the actions of one, as evidenced by the very ending. And another thing - it appears that swapping into some...thing with a soul would create a disjointed combination. But in that case, swapping into someone from the rescue crew should also create someone with a disjoined personality, no?

In other words - I'm confused. Has anyone got a handle of what exactly happened?

[Loram Ipsum]

HHhh

[Vuud]

I just finished the game and figured that you were playing as Dennet/Chalmers the whole time. By the time the scavenger lands on the station, there's only 1 live body left for Chalmers/Dennet to use. As soon as the scavenger enters the station, he probably had his mind erased or infected by the Watchers and his body was inhabited by the Dennet/Chalmers consciousness. Now with two bodies, each with a swapper, Chalmers/Dennet has a chance to escape the station, but they are fighting over control of the bodies because they disagree on how to free themselves of the Watchers. In the end, they escaped together in that rescue guy's body using the swapper.

[AlienRenders]

引用自 TJ：

If the evidence was wholly conclusive one way or another we'd be providing an answer to the fundamental question that we rather wanted to leave you with.

I find these kinds of ambiguous scenarios rather lacking in thought, originality or conviction. It's laziness plain and simple. We've seen several of these in movies and tv. The ending of The Sopranos or Inception are a couple examples. Makes the endings rather "bleh".

[Kabal]

way too much mystery for a one and done kind of game

[Space Potato]

"My Swapper stirred nervously under my coat, but the escape pod doors had already shut behind me, and I was in for the ride. NEXT STOP: Theseus Station, and Alex"

[Thingum Bob [GWJ]]

引用自 TJ：

I am contractually obliged not to comment on this sort of speculation. At least until Playstation versions are out. All I will say is that I was aware of this gap in the fiction, as it's delivered to you, and that some of the ideas floating around here are not a million miles off how I imagined it.

The gap's there partly because, as you know, sci-fi sometimes needs some plot devices to get where it wants to be; but also partly to reflect the fact that the real goings on of the Swapper are alien to the end. If the evidence was wholly conclusive one way or another we'd be providing an answer to the fundamental question that we rather wanted to leave you with.

All that said, this is my favorite explanation so far:

"Finally was the clone really flailing about in the escape pod? I think I can convince myself that those movements, whilst hasty and erratic, might not be trying to escape the pod but rather was the copy of scavenger working controls to eject the escape pod..."

I wish I could say I'd thought of it in advance.

Thanks for hanging around here and chiming in. Now I don't feel so bad about missing this game when it was released.

It's been a long time since I laid awake at night thinking about the plot of a video game, probably in part because there are no clear answers to some of these questions (and it drives me crazy).

A few parts of the game gave me a strong Frankenstein vibe, which was pretty cool.

[anonynamja]

引用自 TJ：

I am contractually obliged not to comment on this sort of speculation. At least until Playstation versions are out. All I will say is that I was aware of this gap in the fiction, as it's delivered to you, and that some of the ideas floating around here are not a million miles off how I imagined it.

The gap's there partly because, as you know, sci-fi sometimes needs some plot devices to get where it wants to be; but also partly to reflect the fact that the real goings on of the Swapper are alien to the end. If the evidence was wholly conclusive one way or another we'd be providing an answer to the fundamental question that we rather wanted to leave you with.

Tom, I can appreciate that you have limitations on what you can and cannot say at this time, but if and when you do, I hope you can appreciate that "it's intentionally ambiguous/mysterious" is an awfully convenient but deeply unsatisfying response. Surely even a handwave-y explanation is better than none at all.

[Cheeseness]

引用自 Gameslayer989：

Finally was the clone really flailing about in the escape pod? I think I can convince myself that those movements, whilst hasty and erratic, might not be trying to escape the pod but rather was the copy of scavenger working controls to eject the escape pod, meaning the clone wasn't sentient until it got some distance apart from her...

I'm a little late to the party here, having had to wait for the Linux release before being able to play, but my interpretation of the introduction was also that the occupant of the pod was acting out the actions of the original (not sure that distance is what caused divergence and apparent individuality so much as either the merging with Chalmers and Dennet creating an entirely different entity from the one that the player was cloned from, or perhaps that the player's differing environment and problems created context for individuality to grow - every other time you're swapping, all of your clones are attempting to solve the same problem/puzzle with you. Compared to one clone acting alone on the surface, tour "chain" in the game proper is focused).

I haven't spotted anybody mentioning it, but I see it as a possibility that both endings happen simultaneously. If the player swaps out, the remaining clone is still (arguably - this is part of the question that the game is trying to raise IMO) conscious and will (independently or not) proceed to walk off the cliff as the swapped consciousness boards the rescue ship. The opening and flashbacks hint that clones don't know that they're clones, so even if the player elects to stay on the planet, that's no guarantee that the swap didn't occur.

Great game. I look forward to playing through again and pondering it some more :D

[TJ]

引用自 anonynamja：

Tom, I can appreciate that you have limitations on what you can and cannot say at this time, but if and when you do, I hope you can appreciate that "it's intentionally ambiguous/mysterious" is an awfully convenient but deeply unsatisfying response. Surely even a handwave-y explanation is better than none at all.

Believe me, if this were my game I'd be on these boards running over every detail with you, because I share your frustration with ambiguity for ambiguity's sake! Sadly it's not, so you will have to pester Olli.

[mGuy]

引用自 Cheeseness：

I haven't spotted anybody mentioning it, but I see it as a possibility that both endings happen simultaneously. If the player swaps out, the remaining clone is still (arguably - this is part of the question that the game is trying to raise IMO) conscious and will (independently or not) proceed to walk off the cliff as the swapped consciousness boards the rescue ship. The opening and flashbacks hint that clones don't know that they're clones, so even if the player elects to stay on the planet, that's no guarantee that the swap didn't occur.

I like this!

[Beef Hammer]

This is still bugging the crap outta me, many months and 3 playthroughs later. Why does this ONE clone retain a "self" of it's own. "Maybe you ejected you're clone, or you're clone ejected you" is what they say. So is it just that after enough distance they become aware?

I mean just a "yea that's it" dev response would end this lol.

[whythecynic]

I believe your player character gains autonomy because you were "orphaned" from the chain of minds, so to speak.

Maybe this is what happened:

The Scavenger clones herself, creating (a mindless, or at least, dependent) you. You don't have independence in the beginning. Maybe you aren't even the only clone the Scavenger creates. It doesn't matter, because you're one in a chain descended from the Scavenger. What happens when you kill the Scavenger? Maybe you gain independence.

In any case, the Scavenger merging with Chalmers and Dennett essentially deletes each individual soul and creates a new one. So you're suddenly orphaned from their souls, and somehow that gives you independent thought.

Maybe they knew that their clones would be orphaned after melding. More likely they didn't, and simply didn't bother to get rid of the other clones for some reason.

So the person who threw themselves into the incinerator might be another orphaned clone who ended up really messed up. Since each swap gun gives you four clones, there may well be two more orphaned clones running around somewhere.

Doesn't explain:
How come you can read and speak language, move, breathe, etc.? Maybe those things are done by your brain, and there really isn't a soul- it's simply that a clone's brain is slaved to the brain-pattern of its parent, and breaking the parent-child link gives the clone independence.

On the other hand, maybe the soul interpretation is correct, and your soulless clone body got inhabited by a rock-soul, which has learned enough through its interaction with humans that it can survive.

How come when you meld with the rescue team at the end of the game, _your_ clone doesn't gain independence? Maybe it's a swap and not a meld... but that raises even more questions.

[whythecynic]

Also: I'm quite sad that there isn't a way to avoid all the sentient rocks in the game. You can avoid basically all of them until the very end, the part where you have to put four clones on four buttons.

It's not even because you can't get past the four-button puzzle without spare clones. I did it with two spare clones, too! It involves putting your clones on very specific parts of the buttons, then letting the first door crush them. Proof:

http://imgur.com/gallery/bRHJbV5/

Unfortunately the game disables your swapper gun, so you have no way (as far as I can tell) to avoid the final few sentient rocks.

[Ap2000]

I've chosen to stay.

I was kinda disappointed, when there wasn't a counter of how many clones I've "used" during my playthrough.

引用自 amadeus：

What I got is this.

A scavenger arrived to Theseus, and she recovered the Swapper, she cloned herself and launched the clone into Chori. Then, the scavenger swaps minds with Dennet and Chalmers, and then the clone launched into Chori gains own control and is no longer attached to the scavenger. That's when your mission starts.

And at the end, obviously, Dennet-Chalmers-Scavengers merged with The Head, and you can see it with the last 3 watchers just before the rescue team guy comes at you, the messages from those last 3 watchers are things Dennet-Chalmers-Scavenger said previously. And if you chose to stay, I think the watchers save your life and merge you with them.

This is exactly how I understood it.

However, I think it was never cleared where the Swapper gun came from. I don't remember there being any logs that are about the scientists actually working on it, just testing it.

[whythecynic]

I vaguely remember something about the Swapper gun being made from material from the Watchers, but I can't find anything explicit.

On the other hand, Log 18 specifically mentions the "retro-engineered Swapper gun", which strongly suggests that the Swapper gun was made by the scientists. From what, it's not clear just from the logs.