Ending?

[Master Chief]

i jsut beat the game but didnt quite get the ending, can someone smarter explain it to me.

[DS]

Originally posted by Soul CornerCat Wanderer:

Originally posted by YEEKUZA:

the game might not be over... i think we've only done around 21 missions but the gamedata says theres 52... i saved all passengers and got the ending here, may need a playthrough where i dont save anyone

That sounds promising, there are a few suspicious characters that if killed could change something. Like the ????? guy that shows up in the "tunnel". Letting the train overheat and seeing what happens to them could be something. Im doing a different kind of playthrough atm, but I'll give it a go later if noone else does in the mean time.

Edit: Has anyone found the second key in the prison for the two switches inbetween the turrets?

There are two dead guards. One on a sort of platform with several zombies, next one is a little further from the 'two keys' door, on a platform with machinegun. (I may be a little wrong about locations, but look for guard/military bodies).

The more interesting thing - had anyone found a way to open a door near the exit from prison? I mean when you find a cell with no zombie and - supposed - attempt to escape, with cowboy guy down there and body - you can break the wall leading right, but there is also door leading left from there, that I couldn't open.

[Uncle Ruddy]

I am Russian and i don't get this end too.

[Halfshell]

Originally posted by DS:

Originally posted by Soul CornerCat Wanderer:

snip

There are two dead guards. One on a sort of platform with several zombies, next one is a little further from the 'two keys' door, on a platform with machinegun. (I may be a little wrong about locations, but look for guard/military bodies).

The more interesting thing - had anyone found a way to open a door near the exit from prison? I mean when you find a cell with no zombie and - supposed - attempt to escape, with cowboy guy down there and body - you can break the wall leading right, but there is also door leading left from there, that I couldn't open.

Okay so I just missed an easy key then. I have a feeling that theres a hidden key somewhere though. I test killed some passengers and you can loot their bodies in the train (by mashing the loot key). Unless I'm imagining it, their loot changes depending on which mission you kill them on, or its just semi-random. Specifically one guy dropped pants (4$) the first time he showed up and then later some rags. It seems plausible that some passengers could drop a key at certain times. I'm going to quit my current playthrough as its not very promising and test killing passengers some more.

Edit: One thing that bothered me is that during the tunnels when they tell you to "just do nothing" and "stop the train" letting the train overheat just stops all dialogue without doing anything special. Makes me wonder if theres a specific area where stopping the train could do something, especially in those three areas.
Edit 2: ???? drops "Empty", reloading with him unlooted so that his body is left in the train is unnoticed at the station (made sure to save everyone else). Confirmed that his eyes glowed briefly, so glowey eye guys can be "killed" so to speak. Also, in the tunnel area theres a map with the top left station being bright white with smaller stations nearby being white as well, stations that you never visit. I can upload a screenshot if requested.

[Skeleton Jazz Wizard]

Originally posted by FrankieDedo ITA:

Eh. That's nice. Those name references and all those recurring jazz/books themes are too prominent to be random for me. Also the Alan stuff is neat.


And now my little detour:
I think that the two heads after the tent are the girl and Alan's heads. The conductor went nuts and killed them in the woods, becoming a rage monster, (just like the black gooey monsters). He realize that in the end and accept his fate (gets killed by hunter guy).

Also, the gas is a "natural selection" kind of thing, just like capital punishment for some people, and he realize that "better people" should treat him like a "bad person", as i said, gets killed by the white-eyed hunter.

He keeps himself protected in his own self-indulgent shell (the train's engine has a protective shield from gas/guilty)

When the train/shell breaks, he got infected by guilty, and relive all the bad things he did, ending with a face-off with the concept of his family/what he did to them. Probably, the girl that ran away with Alan was the mother of his daughter too.

I don't know, everything fits well, but the criminal gang stuff is a bit of a stretch to me.

The gang aspect could be a complete stretch of my imagination, but there are 2 pieces of evidence that suggest something illegal went down.

1) Your companion's names on the jail cell doors, with specific crimes listed on them.
2) The 100,000$ briefcase near the end
2.5) Tangentally, the Alan's record company award filled corridor in the last level.

Those pieces dont fit anywhere in the story. Granted, they could have been a band that broke up and/or had a record deal go sour/or Conductor's partner could have ruined the inter-band relationship. The only piece of evidence that supports this is the stark contrast between the musical collection of the Conductor (which is a run down basement with an eviction notice) vs the awesome musical hall of fame in Alan's house.

Honestly, its hard to say which one is more accurate, but questioning the gang stuff is fair criticism :) Perhaps a DLC/Director's cut will shed some light on the story in the future.

I can also speak Russian, so I could ask the devs to give a hint on how much of my theorycrafting is correct in the Russian thread later.

Originally posted by vpr:

Just finished a second playthrough of the game to see if anything different happened by not doing any the following things:

-Speak to anyone besides those who force you into conversations or are mandatory for progression.
-Answer any of the messages you get sent to your train control panel
-Rescue anyone, and those who you cannot avoid joining you I let all die (cowboy cannot be killed, his health/hunger meters never budge)
-Use the phone once during the playthrough (answering machine at the end still flashses as if I had)
-Didn't buy any newspapers, ammo, food...anything basically
-Didn't not use any med-kits/food
-Made sure to not press the missile launch button during the mission where you get the rifle
-Did not ring the bell in the cult place (didn't interact with anything that wasn't mandatory, besides looting things)

Basically only did the bare minimum to beat the game and nothing changed, same ending same everything. Don't think there is anything beyond what is already known to be in the game, besides the locked door at the very end of the prison that DS mentioned, not sure how to open that if it even is possible to.

Devs confirmed there is only 1 ending right now :)

[DeviousDave]

Regarding the Tunnels, at the far end when you reach the next 'safe' station one of the guys at the station says that there are no tunnels on that line, just two cities...

...If we take this as a literal Alien Invasion, could it be that the Aliens are terraforming those two citites making them into that weird black stuff?

It would explain some of the tripy stuff that happens there.

Another thought is were is this actually set? Is it Earth or is it some form of Colony World? The way the structures are built combined with the weird mineral stuff they are mining (Electrum - although I doubt it's the real life Electrum gold/silver alloy stuff) in the processing plant makes me believe the latter.

Also

If you look really closely at the 'explosion' at Metropolis, it actually looks more like some form of shuttle or starship lifting off OUTSIDE THE CITY... considering that one of the characters around there said that they were evacuating the facility soon it could actually be some form of rocket taking off... maybe an evacuation starship. This would also explain the, YOU ARE IN DANGER message printed on the side of the building as anyone close enough to read it would be in the Blast area.

[Skeleton Jazz Wizard]

Originally posted by DeviousDave:

Regarding the Tunnels, at the far end when you

If you look really closely at the 'explosion' at Metropolis, it actually looks more like some form of shuttle or starship lifting off OUTSIDE THE CITY... considering that one of the characters around there said that they were evacuating the facility soon it could actually be some form of rocket taking off... maybe an evacuation starship. This would also explain the, YOU ARE IN DANGER message printed on the side of the building as anyone close enough to read it would be in the Blast area.

I thought that was the Guardian taking off...

[Halfshell]

Originally posted by FrankieDedo ITA:

snip
Devs confirmed there is only 1 ending right now :)

Yeah its not likely for the ending to change much still, there are secrets to be found. I've almost confirmed that passenger loot is base on which area you kill them in. The Scientist dropped pills in the first area, then glasses (3$) 3 times in the next area. Still needs more tests to be 100% certain, but I haven't seen anyone drop something different within the same area yet. Some passengers do drop the same thing everytime though like whiskey (17$).

[Az]

Originally posted by The Own Zone:

Originally posted by DeviousDave:

Regarding the Tunnels, at the far end when you

If you look really closely at the 'explosion' at Metropolis, it actually looks more like some form of shuttle or starship lifting off OUTSIDE THE CITY... considering that one of the characters around there said that they were evacuating the facility soon it could actually be some form of rocket taking off... maybe an evacuation starship. This would also explain the, YOU ARE IN DANGER message printed on the side of the building as anyone close enough to read it would be in the Blast area.

I thought that was the Guardian taking off...

Yeah I'm pretty sure that's the Guardian being launched.

[Halfshell]

Someone mentioned the two guards that were sent to guard the bomb dying on the train. Theres also a guy you later pickup who gets his bandaged hand vaporized. Seems like the train is capable of destroying "infected" tissue when the background jumps. However, it doesn't do this to the MC. This suggests that hes special. The MC can survive multiple hits from infected no problem and a single medpack can properly heal him, whereas everyone else has their wounds aggravated by the train and will die from not eating for half a day. One doctor said "its just a scratch, why did you even bandage that? Waste of time". Another said "Your bandaging skills are very poor" (rough quotes). I have a feeling that the MC was experimented on during his "vacation" and was then coerced into driving the train so that they would protect his daughter.

Edit: Fully tested last 12 passenger's loot (not including Cowboy), nothing interesting. First 9 are untested.

[Exceptional]

Originally posted by Jelly Donut:

I was really interested in the plot up until the ending. Stories where the protagonist dies and everything is rendered pointless makes it really hard to give a ♥♥♥♥ about the plot or do subsequent playthroughs.

Also, why even give us money after the 3rd station? That 100k at the end almost felt like a "♥♥♥♥ you" towards all the effort you put into keeping passengers alive. You could have let most of the final passengers die as long as the shotgun upgrade guy lived. It's not like you were going to spend that money anyway.

BUT IT'S SO COOL to have the player character die,no matter howwwell the player plaaayyyyy.

yes,i am sick of those game,far cry/Metro last light realy annoyed me with the ♥♥♥♥♥ ending where you die like a ♥♥♥♥♥ rat.

edit:the story is also very cliche,it's about evil alien invading(there is actualy a front&battle happening) and using bio weapon to support their invasion,the bio turn the target into zombie OR into edgy minion that are obseded with building a stable portal to the alien world(the alien can only come from one zone right now),oh there's also the possibility for the story to be even more cliche&to be about remorse,madness and woman murder.-Me?Me!Me!,E.Y.E,this game,ect.

this is soo boring,the game had amazing art&so much potential.could had been much better if the ending did not force you to die&maybe allowed you to kick the ass of this arrogant cowboy dude.

[caseygoddard]

Count me in as someone who was a little bit disappointed by the ending. It wasn't bad, but it did negate pretty much everything the player had accomplished up to the point. If the intent of the developers was to say "When your alarm clock goes off don't bother getting up because nothing you do will matter anyway," then message received.

Still...I liked the setting, atmosphere and game mechanics, so I think my time and money was overall well spent.

[Anonymous Captain]

Originally posted by Az:

Originally posted by The Own Zone:

I thought that was the Guardian taking off...

Yeah I'm pretty sure that's the Guardian being launched.

I am also preeeeeeeeeeety sure that it is the Guardian taking off.

[Venusgate]

For those curious, I didn't launch the missle near the end, and robot was still rekt. And I was still able to finish the game. Not sure if that's an accidental loophole left in or if the button doesn't have any story significance.

[DeviousDave]

If that is the case, one has to wonder where that missile we launched went?

Also makes you wonder how if they have the tec to make a flying, giant, nuclear (possibly) powered robot... how come they didn't just mass produce Gas masks for everyone?

or haz mat suits...

I mean, seriously, Fallout esc Power armor = problem solved

Well... besides the Alien things we don't see that could wreck the train in 2 seconds flat according to that scientist guy you transport. Which is probably what the Guardian encountered and failed to destroy.

[Le Dandy Meeple]

ok i just read all the ending's interpretation. Sadly, i think the metaphoric "cheating - robbing - killing theory is plausible".
The madness induced scenario has been well described by a previous post (GG for the connections there).

Though something disturbs my understanding still : why the F*** does Council have a Gigantic Robot guardian built to protect people from .... tiny human size gooish creature. This makes totally no sense, that's why i believe more and more in the murder theory.

All in all, i feel absolutely let down by the ending, though the whole storyline was climaxing with this "tunnel-another dimension" path though you should have crossed 2 towns...

IMHO, this script has been poorly managed, looks like the guys decided to rip off a storyline they loved in a random novel, without taking time to work on any proper introduction or Dot-Linking sequences.

I generally love Metaphores and Witty stories, but what i definitely hate is this kind of thinking :

"hey dev friend, let's create a game about a dude going to the supermarket to buy ketchup for his noodles, but let's do it sexier"
"All right idea-pal, let's imagine a prehistoric man struggling through ferocious animals, symbolizing the danger of cars when you cross the streets, or other people's inner animosity toward everyone, and in the end, let's surprise our custommers with a huge pile of ivy laying on the ground, and towns of blood and dead people inside, absolute mind-blowing representation of noodles with ketchup and meetballs".

This seems inspired by some crappy modern art which takes source from nowhere and gets realised to simply have one guy jerking off on other's interpretation of emptiness ...

too bad the game had to be finished in more than 4 hours, cuz i would definitely have gotten a refund...