[FULL SPOILER WARNING] Fixing The Long Dark's ending.

[Not a Beaver]

So the episode 5 happened. I'm sure it have flashbanged not only me with it's californian scriptwriting and an ending, that only happened because every character in the end had to just shut off their brains completly.

I will be talking about entire plot so this is the last chance to stop before getting anything spoiled.

So. Let's not throw out that ending, because it have interesting bits, that was buried under avalanche of mediocre writing. Let's just nudge everything here and there for the piece to fall in the same places, but do it with grace now.

Mackenzie, having to deal with the worst of the humans and nature, gradually, over time, gets more and more desensitized to the reality, that people find themselves in. Fighting for his own survival and to carry Astrid's case the one thought was burning in his head :"I have to see it through". With Methuselah poking and proding the pilot throughout their meetings, asking him if William have enough strength to finish his task, to not stop half-way there.

Astried, mostly dealing with the elements, saving plane crash victims, not being isolated so much and being the doctor she is does not harden. She still operates with pre-collapse ideals of compassion and seeing good in humanity.

Episode 5 happens mostly as is.

During the last part of it, people of Perseverance Mills, plane crash survivors, Artwood, Jace, Molly, Jeremiah, Astrid and Will are at the gates. Something goes wrong (one of the substation malfunctions for example), and it is required for two-man team, staying behind to fix things.

Astrid stays on the failing radio telescope station, having to deal with malfunctions and some prisoners, while Will goes to fix things, and have to deal with the bear and Mathis. As the problem is fixed, the count-down to the door sealment if started. Astrid manages to get back quickly, but Mackenzie is halted by Mathis. Their struggle being interrupted by a bear attack, where both of them have to team-up to survive. William manages to get back to the gates as they are about to close, with Mathis following short.

Standing in the snow, wearing coat made out of wolf leather, covered in bites and scratches, bloodied and bruised, being half-feral and slowly losing his mind he sees his Ex-wife and the rest of the cast at the doorway. They, at first, mistake him for an animal.

As the Light in the Sky flare up, the time slows down. Mackenzie sees Methuselah, pointing behind him. As he turns around, he sees Mathis, alongside ghosts of every man and animal Will had to kill to survive. It makes him realise, how the Great Bear changed him and that he doesn't belong with civilizied humanity anymore. In the spur of the moment, being affected by the lights he makes a descision to stay. To either live through the Long Dark, emerging rebuilt and anew, or to die as half-crazed lunatic.

Bunker door closes. Mathis and Mac stay behind and are forced to work together to surive. THEN Mackenzie goes to the radio tower and records his message. As he's recording the message we get the montage of people in the bunker. Mathis succumbing to his wounds. Greymother's fate. Mac being completly alone and saying to his ring that he will wait for Astrid no matter what. Credits roll. Survival mode begins.



It's messy and there is a lot of things that can be fixed or made better, so feel free to hop on and built off the idea.

C&C is welcome.

English is not my first language, so sorry for grammatical and punctuation mistakes.

[Romo9491]

Man, I’ve loved this game since the start but the ending was crap. Jeremiah and the woman kill two nobodies in the end but the devs never thought to kill Mathis??!!!

It was insanely frustrating, with me shouting “just shoot him!!”, over and over. What a damn shame and what a weak conclusion.