Spoilers - The ending

[OllympianGamer]

I completed this game when it first came out, loved the gameplay and really hated the ending. I've just replayed it, took my time on nightmare difficulty and explored everything, completed a lot more side quests this time and again really loved the gameplay and story until the ending and it has completely pissed me off again. As a stand alone story I think it plays out really good and then technically post credits they throw in this twist which just leaves you with more questions than answers, do other people like the twist?

[Lar Dass]

play the dlc, the "twist" is further explained, many people didnt like the ending since it didnt matter what choice you made (use nullwave or destroy talos) earth was always consumed by the typhon, but playing the dlc answers some questions, since the dlc is set DURING the outbreak i.e when all the typhon start breaking containment it makes sense that the dlc events is what caused the earth to become overidden with typhon
now the twist that you were playing as a phantom was also pretty good, we already know about looking glass thanks to calvino, but nobody could have guessed we were a phantom, well thats where the "choices" come into play. if we helped everyone and killed no human then it would make sense that the humans like alex can use the typhon against one another and hence managed to contain one and apply a looking glass visor to it
i honestly hope they make a sequel where we a) play as human on earth destroying and killing typhon everywhere or b) play as a rogue phantom partially created and engineered by alex yu (morgan is probably dead at this point) and fight other typhons (similar to using typhon neuromods) or c) playing as both human and phantom working together to restore earth

[AllergicToDeath]

Didn't like it. Unecessary (the theme of identity is already throught the hole game) and destroys the idea that your choices mattered. We lived the memories of Morgan, we did not make any choices, none of it mattered. Really underwhelming.

[RCMidas]

Your choices determine whether or not this entire experiment could be said to have been successful. It's not the people aboard Talos I that your choices are meant to be helping or not, it's the remainder of humanity back on Earth.

[davidnelsonnm]

What the Mooncrash DLC really shows you that the company probably least able to keep the Typhon contained was TranStar. And while the computer simulation you use (or play in) in the DLC is concurrent with the events on Talos I, it's actually set quite far into the future.

[Guizin]

I don't like the ending either. It's one of the tropes that pisses me off the most.

[MBOmnis]

Originally posted by AllergicToDeath:

Didn't like it. Unecessary (the theme of identity is already throught the hole game) and destroys the idea that your choices mattered. We lived the memories of Morgan, we did not make any choices, none of it mattered. Really underwhelming.

Your choices matter in helping Alex decide whether he wants to let you live or kill you and bring in another Typhon specimen to run through the simulation again.

Remember, you're not Morgan. You're a Typhon.

[OllympianGamer]

Originally posted by luck.duck:

Originally posted by AllergicToDeath:

Didn't like it. Unecessary (the theme of identity is already throught the hole game) and destroys the idea that your choices mattered. We lived the memories of Morgan, we did not make any choices, none of it mattered. Really underwhelming.

Your choices matter in helping Alex decide whether he wants to let you live or kill you and bring in another Typhon specimen to run through the simulation again.

Remember, you're not Morgan. You're a Typhon.

Apart from Alex though why or who are the other people in the room operators?

[Konchuharts]

Originally posted by OllympianGamer:

Apart from Alex though why or who are the other people in the room operators?

They're the notable people throughout the story.
The security officer, the Doctor you find in the box Igway or something,The woman you find in the near the power station, The woman who locked the Deep storage.

[OllympianGamer]

Originally posted by Konchuharts:

Originally posted by OllympianGamer:

Apart from Alex though why or who are the other people in the room operators?

They're the notable people throughout the story.
The security officer, the Doctor you find in the box Igway or something,The woman you find in the near the power station, The woman who locked the Deep storage.

I understand that but why are they operators instead of actual people like Alex.

[RCMidas]

Probably because Alex is the only one crazy/desperate enough to risk himself in the flesh with a thing which might kill him randomly if the simulation/mirror neurons did not take, even if it appears otherwise. The others will be wisely sitting this one out.

[AllergicToDeath]

Originally posted by luck.duck:

Your choices matter in helping Alex decide whether he wants to let you live or kill you and bring in another Typhon specimen to run through the simulation again.

Remember, you're not Morgan. You're a Typhon.

I know. But the big decision (or at least what is presented as the big decision) is whether or not you destroy Talos I , and that doesn't matter. The earth is doomed and you can't do anything about it. From the very first test with the "push the fat guy" questions it is an obvious metaphor of the choice you are suppoed to make, Talos I acting as the fat guy.
And it doesn't matter in the end. All of that build up, all those NPCs critiquing your every action, but in the end, psych! Was just "memories".
I think it is ridiculous to present it as "Morgan Yu's memories". Is Morgan real, or just an avatar created for the occasion? Because if it is a real person, it doesn't make sense. I don't have decisions to make if I am reliving Morgan's memories. It was Morgan's choice, and it is in the past. Alex knows how everything went, I cannot alter the past, why call it "memories"? If Morgan was real he knows the decisions he/she made, what is the point of making me live through this?

[RCMidas]

The point is to see what you would do. SPECIFICALLY what you would do.

Do you attempt to destroy everything relating to the Typhon? Do you, as a bearer of neuromods made from their material, allow yourself to be destroyed as well? Of course, there is the argument that other crew members trying to flee on Dahl's shuttle carry some too...but it is admirable that, as a leader figure, you may try to save them rather than yourself.

Do you attempt to purge the Typhon infestation without eliminating the gains made from studying them? Do you allow for the risk of scientific discovery even when facing oblivion? After all, who is to say the Typhon are the only predators out there? It might well be humanity's only hope in the long run to retain something from all that happened here.

The point, which you seem to have missed, is that regardless of what actually happened, Alex and the others now know what sort of person you have become by being subjected to the stresses of Morgan's situation. The implanted mirror neurons have given you a capacity for empathy, but that can manifest in all sorts of ways.

What they want to know is EXACTLY what you are and what you would try to do - what your goals might be in the long-term situation they are facing here.

It's like watching back a recording of you cooking up a complicated meal. It doesn't matter that when you served it, it was an inedible mess. The point is to see what you did right, what you did wrong, and how you would go about fixing that in later attempts at the recipe.

[davidnelsonnm]

There's a very good reason why Alex is in the flesh at the end and all the other ones are operators. Alex is still alive, the others have died. Alex is noticably older at the end, but there's no indication of how the others died or when. Remember that board members of TranStar are rumored to have much longer lifespans than normal via advanced life-extension technology..

The other NPCs with lesser lifespans were simply saved as operators in order to continue the Typhon work. (If you want more convincing, recall that JFK in this timeline lives 114 years.) Alex is turning grey, so a fair amount of time has passed since Talos I. My guess is the ending takes place after 2100, assuming the others passed naturally.

[OllympianGamer]

Originally posted by RCMidas:

The point is to see what you would do. SPECIFICALLY what you would do.

Do you attempt to destroy everything relating to the Typhon? Do you, as a bearer of neuromods made from their material, allow yourself to be destroyed as well? Of course, there is the argument that other crew members trying to flee on Dahl's shuttle carry some too...but it is admirable that, as a leader figure, you may try to save them rather than yourself.

Do you attempt to purge the Typhon infestation without eliminating the gains made from studying them? Do you allow for the risk of scientific discovery even when facing oblivion? After all, who is to say the Typhon are the only predators out there? It might well be humanity's only hope in the long run to retain something from all that happened here.

The point, which you seem to have missed, is that regardless of what actually happened, Alex and the others now know what sort of person you have become by being subjected to the stresses of Morgan's situation. The implanted mirror neurons have given you a capacity for empathy, but that can manifest in all sorts of ways.

What they want to know is EXACTLY what you are and what you would try to do - what your goals might be in the long-term situation they are facing here.

It's like watching back a recording of you cooking up a complicated meal. It doesn't matter that when you served it, it was an inedible mess. The point is to see what you did right, what you did wrong, and how you would go about fixing that in later attempts at the recipe.

I understand it but it ruins the story for me.

Originally posted by davidnelsonnm:

There's a very good reason why Alex is in the flesh at the end and all the other ones are operators. Alex is still alive, the others have died. Alex is noticably older at the end, but there's no indication of how the others died or when. Remember that board members of TranStar are rumored to have much longer lifespans than normal via advanced life-extension technology..

The other NPCs with lesser lifespans were simply saved as operators in order to continue the Typhon work. (If you want more convincing, recall that JFK in this timeline lives 114 years.) Alex is turning grey, so a fair amount of time has passed since Talos I. My guess is the ending takes place after 2100, assuming the others passed naturally.

The others have died but there is no indication of how or when this happened, so you're just guessing there. The ending doesn't feel like it was originally part of the story. The only indication beyond the post credits scene is a couple of hazy waking up cutscenes which could have been created and added in at the end.

[davidnelsonnm]

Yes, I mentioned we don't know when or how the others died. And it is merely a theory. But I think it's better than dismissing parts of the story as being non-canon merely because you don't like them. You don't have to like or agree with the ending, but Arkane included it.