Ending?

[Master Chief]

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

[MakTavish]

Escrito originalmente por BlackUmbrellas:

That tunnel, for instance, is pretty definitely NOT something built by humans.

Remember, the tunnel might not have even existed, but its how we percieved what was inside the portal/gateway. (star trek has this unique concept of the Q continuum, humans cannot percieve it, so Q, the person living there makes it look like a warzone because its essentially what it is). And remember, there was a guy in there who was sitting on a bench, reading newspaper with glowy eyes, cant remember exactly what he said but i know he didnt want to leave, possibly because he knew he was in their universe?

[BlackUmbrellas]

Escrito originalmente por MacTavish:

Escrito originalmente por BlackUmbrellas:

That tunnel, for instance, is pretty definitely NOT something built by humans.

Remember, the tunnel might not have even existed, but its how we percieved what was inside the portal/gateway. (star trek has this unique concept of the Q continuum, humans cannot percieve it, so Q, the person living there makes it look like a warzone because its essentially what it is). And remember, there was a guy in there who was sitting on a bench, reading newspaper with glowy eyes, cant remember exactly what he said but i know he didnt want to leave, possibly because he knew he was in their universe?

Exactly.

That the tunnel is a physically reachable space foreshadowed very early on in the game in no way implies its "real" as in the sense of an actual, tangible space that needed to be constructed. The whole level is incredibly surreal and is the closest we ever get to the disjointed nature of the prophetic dream from the start in the game proper.

Off the top of my head:

1.) The lights on the tunnel's ceiling keep showing the "motion blur" movement effect while your train is stopped.

2.) The lights change direction of movement in one room.

3.) After travelling a significant ways downward, you enter gigantic room with a starry background and the same "twin moons" seen in the dream.

4.) You go through the level to get the blocker codes but then, while still moving forwards, you wind up in an altered version of the beginning of the level, with another copy of your train.

5.) Point number 4 coincides, I believe, with the appearance of Gigeresque organic "machines" merged with parts of the level, including your train. This then inexplicably vanishes when you go to the building full of white-eyed characters and go back to the train.

6.) The "duplicate" of your train elsewhere in the level that you pass- I don't actually remember if this happens before or after or is coincidant with seeing your train getting face-sucked by a giant pulsating throat-tentacle, but we know for a fact that there's only one Belus-07 for plot reasons. There can't be two.

7.) That whole... possession sequence? On the way out? Or was it in...

8.) We have three sources confirming that that tunnel shouldn't be there:
>> A.) The train driver who brings up a tunnel near the beginning says they "don't remember" the tunnel being there before entering it and vanishing.
>> B.) The undercover military operative/conspirist- who, I'll remind you, is a member of an actual in-universe high-level conspiracy of some sort- doesn't think the tunnel should be there.
>> C.) When arriving at the next station you get further confirmation that there should have been two cities, and no tunnel.
>> Addendum.) Given the way the train network is presented as working- that is, that trains MUST stop at each station, connect to the blocker, and then be disconnected- we can surmise that the rail network does not include "bypasses" which would allow stations to be skipped or for trains to go off the "beaten path"- both of which would assumedly be nessecary for the train to have wound up on an otherwise hidden tunnel track.

[MakTavish]

Escrito originalmente por BlackUmbrellas:

-Snip-

I dont remember if this was in an older or newer version, but on the map, the routes you go over light up as a white line whilst the ones you didnt go over are belus-train-green-ish. The tunnels dont light up, as if belus-07 didn't pick up you going over the rails and using the blockers codes. Another thing hinting that whatever it is, shouldnt be there.
EDIT: I also remember the train conductor saying "Tim, did you switch my route? (No reply) Tim?"

There is so many questions. What is with the train No. 9? Did it ever work? Did they ever fix the manual braking system after the carcass was installed? Was IT the fast train that the guy on the 2nd or 3rd station refered to as the express train that was canceled?

2nd edit: I just realised, you guys remember the accident at whereever it was so blockers were installed? Could it be that the trains they made had braking problems which they never got around to fixing so they installed blockers??

[BlackUmbrellas]

Escrito originalmente por MacTavish:

Escrito originalmente por BlackUmbrellas:

-Snip-

I dont remember if this was in an older or newer version, but on the map, the routes you go over light up as a white line whilst the ones you didnt go over are belus-train-green-ish. The tunnels dont light up, as if belus-07 didn't pick up you going over the rails and using the blockers codes. Another thing hinting that whatever it is, shouldnt be there.
EDIT: I also remember the train conductor saying "Tim, did you switch my route? (No reply) Tim?"

There is so many questions. What is with the train No. 9? Did it ever work? Did they ever fix the manual braking system after the carcass was installed? Was IT the fast train that the guy on the 2nd or 3rd station refered to as the express train that was canceled?

2nd edit: I just realised, you guys remember the accident at whereever it was so blockers were installed? Could it be that the trains they made had braking problems which they never got around to fixing so they installed blockers??

I think the "cancelled express train" was just a normal express route train that was, you know, cancelled that day. Because of the alien invasion.

However, I think I can shed some light on the "accident"- some of the conversations later in the game bring up the possibility that it was some sort of cover story (my memory is fuzzy, but basically "Did you actually... know anybody who died? Anybody who knew anybody? We only have the government's word on that accident"). There's also a mention of how bringing back technology from the site of the First Visitiation resulted in a lot of deaths on the expedition, I think?

I had a suspicion when the "cover story" angle was brought up that whatever killed those people wasn't a train accident, but something else they were involved in that the government didn't want to tell people about. Maybe they didn't even die, and just got assigned to some top-secret project somewhere. Maybe what killed them was the same thing that made the government decide to cancel the Belus project after the prototype was made and "reevalute all uses of Visitation technology".

[💀RUSTY💀]

Whatever is true, he was allways watching... Image Link : https://gyazo.com/390d2921a7305af08565b8ba21f29a3b

[MakTavish]

Escrito originalmente por ✪✪ Zollec:

Whatever is true, he was allways watching... Image Link : https://gyazo.com/390d2921a7305af08565b8ba21f29a3b

Holy, i always thought that was like a pickaxe or a rock

[JimboJangle]

Escrito originalmente por ✪✪ Zollec:

Whatever is true, he was allways watching... Image Link : https://gyazo.com/390d2921a7305af08565b8ba21f29a3b

Nice catch.

[Soop]

I've just seen EnterElysium's playthrough, and this is what I got from it:

The Visitations have been attempts of extraterrestrial invasions.The first one failed for unknown reasons. The second one we can assume it did not.

The Pods turn people into those goo zombies with their gas. A very small percentage of people will instead become augmented, but controlled. This small percentage were very intelligent, very disciplined people, such as engineers, mechanics, electricians, etc. THEY are the true visitors. They will be the ones to build the portal to carry the full bulk of the Visitation into Earth.

The train. The train was a prototype, made with technology salvaged from the sites of the First failed Visitation. The core of the train, that we see briefly in a research facility, used the same portal technology the first visitors were developing. We can assume that the train has the ability to teleport or travel between worlds and dimensions, as when it crosses the three unknown tunnels that shouldn't be there. I believe these were Visitor sites, in a dimension not quite our own, building the gas pods. The radiation emanating from the core also kept the gas and the zombies at bay.

The Council. David (the grand engineer), along with several other council members, may have been survivors of the failed First Visitation. It was mentioned several times that David was beyond genius, and that the time he spent in the company produced the most innovations in years. He tried to push the prototype train technology, because he knew it was imperative for the success of the already planned Second Visitation. I think the reason the first visitation failed was that they could not develop the portal technology before humans overwhelmed then. But we did the work for them pretty much, by developing it ourselves after the Visitors were dead.

The Guardian. The Guardian was our last line of defense, and it failed, again for unknown reasons. But I'm pretty sure the Visitors knew it would fail. At one point you stop by a mining town to get their Electrilium core, which apparently kept the zombies at bay. It was meant to power the Guardian, and the WHITE EYED council member handed it over to you without a fuss. Why? Because he knew it would make you move faster through the railroad, and he knew the Guardian would fail.

The Train Driver. The player was a puppet in the Visitor's game. All the train driver wanted was to reach his daughter and wife, and so generously David gave him the prototype train with Visitor portal technology on board and set him off... right into the visitor's site. The blockers were there to stop that, i believe, but David and the council managed to pull some strings to make his journey as swift as possible.

And so we reach the end. The Final Station. The train was all the Visitors needed to build the portal. And you brought it to them. They won.

[ryz]

On thing I don't get: If the train is supposed to protect the conductor from the gas, why didn't he inhale gas in any of the numerous infected stations we visit? Sometimes we even cross a few of these capsules and they emit this very distinct gas sound, just like the one in the end.

[MakTavish]

Escrito originalmente por ryz:

On thing I don't get: If the train is supposed to protect the conductor from the gas, why didn't he inhale gas in any of the numerous infected stations we visit? Sometimes we even cross a few of these capsules and they emit this very distinct gas sound, just like the one in the end.

Perhaps the effect lasts for a while, after all before you get infected, you walk over like 2-3 maps, a long route after which the effects could've probably been removed

[MakTavish]

Any of you remember how when you pick up the female personal coach, she and the scientist assistant have a talk about how the carriage doesnt let the exogas in and it controles heat, to which the coach says "Im not worried about heat, or the monsters, but can the train outrun them", to which the scientist says "barely". Could it be that they knew of the people who didnt become monsters but the super-intelligent-and-fast humans?
EDIT: I also dont find the connection with the word "Them" being red, "guardian" orange/yellow (im kinda colorblind) and "the council" green.

[BlackUmbrellas]

Escrito originalmente por Diferential:

And so we reach the end. The Final Station. The train was all the Visitors needed to build the portal. And you brought it to them. They won.

I'm not sure that's it.

After all, you don't "deliver" the train to anybody- you drive it until it fails and dies in the middle of the desert. I don't know that the train's engine is specifically tied to teleportation, either- after all, someone else managed to get into that tunnel without the Belus-07.

I feel it's possibly more likely that the Visitors simply have some ability to thin and fray the edges of reality. That's how they're able to snatch the soldiers from your train in the foggy place, and that's why your train winds up in the tunnel-that-should-not-be.

[BlackUmbrellas]

Escrito originalmente por MacTavish:

Any of you remember how when you pick up the female personal coach, she and the scientist assistant have a talk about how the carriage doesnt let the exogas in and it controles heat, to which the coach says "Im not worried about heat, or the monsters, but can the train outrun them", to which the scientist says "barely". Could it be that they knew of the people who didnt become monsters but the super-intelligent-and-fast humans?
EDIT: I also dont find the connection with the word "Them" being red, "guardian" orange/yellow (im kinda colorblind) and "the council" green.

"THEM" seems to be referring to the unseen "military" forces of the Visitation- the things that trashed their tanks and took down the Guardian. The things that, perhaps, drop the gas canisters.

The train was designed with the scenario of an attack by THEM in mind- which gives it about a 0.01 percent chance of survival in such a confrontation.

Whatever THEY are, they're very, very dangerous.

[Halfshell]

Since it hasn't been mentioned, in the map of your train you can click on the places you've visited that lit up. If you click on some they say classified and if you click on the "tunnel" it says error or unavailable (can't remember exactly). For the most part these just have descriptions of the cities.

[MakTavish]

Escrito originalmente por Soul CornerCat Wanderer:

Since it hasn't been mentioned, in the map of your train you can click on the places you've visited that lit up. If you click on some they say classified and if you click on the "tunnel" it says error or unavailable (can't remember exactly). For the most part these just have descriptions of the cities.

As i said, belus doesn't even register them as stations