Where's The Surprise?

[DEOVONTAY MCSLANGA]

I remember reading a review close to the game's launch that didn't exactly spoil anything but did say that there was a significant twist to the story at some point. Additionally, the news paper clipping you read about your own crash at the beginning of the game says on the reverse side "GAME... ends with a surprise!"

I saw the ending coming a mile away where the Simon you're playing as is the one that gets left behind. It was sad and a particularly emotional ending when Catherine "dies" and the computer crashes, but it wasn't surprising at all. The section where you leave to a different suit and kill your old self gave it away pretty hard. Also, cutting to the Ark version of Simon completely ruined the impact of being the one left at the bottom of the ocean. For a second I thought the game had the balls to just leave it at that, but then they pussied out at the last second.

I guess what I'm asking is, was anyone actually surprised by the ending? Maybe I just need to quit reading review publications, they all suck balls anyway...

[Canadian Gamer]

the surprise is that you are a robot. you find out pretty quickly.

[PrOxAnto]

If you dont pay attention to the conversations they're having and the environment or the few "humans" talking at the start I could see why for some it's a surprise.

[Aposine]

The ending had the wrong amount of telegraphing. It could've been telegraphed more subty (the idea of minds being copied rather than transfered kept more hushed or largely ignored, and glossing over Simon-2 after switching to Simon-3) or, in a way, more blatantly (not one, but several body switches throughout the game, so the player gets used to always playing as the newest copy, and with less dwelling on the previous bodies).

I loved the ending itself and the way it was presented though. All in all, twists are overrated and people will see them where there are none nowadays.

[Matt Gore]

"GAME... ends with a surprise!" means that it is/will be a surprise FOR SIMON. He seems to be a bit easily manipulated by Cath (maybe because of the car crash or because he isn't a perfect brain copy) and the voice actor portrais this very well.
The best way to play such games (at least for me) is to see things from the character's perspective as best as possible and do the complex thinking after the game ends.

Regarding the post credit ending; I found it very interesting to be shown how it looks inside the ark. And at least it seems that this was a surprise for you.
But they've done this change of perspective already after the first brainchange and when Chun narcotizes your "Imogen Reed" body. However, the real Simon never got "teleported" into a second body, nor a third, nor (delayed) into the ark. It was always the player's view following the "most interesting" Simon with the finale as exception to show how the left behind ones feel and him realizing that he never had a 50:50 chance.

The "real" Simon died, we got everything important from audio logs. "Reed"-Simon died by the hands of us or at least sleeps in a prison, we were on site. Almost the same destiny had the third Simon, we looked through his eyes in that instance. So it was then only "fair" to show us the final (ARK) Simon's fate. And also the game's ending with a perfect "outside" view.