Simple story explanation and why Walker is to blame.

[Grunt]

I'm making this topic, because there's a lot of confusion on this forum and others about the story, but to me it seems rather simple during the 2nd playthrough, correct me if I say something wrong.

This game features 4 factions

Damned - the 33rd batallion occupying Dubai

Exiles - a group of 33rd soldiers who didn't want to stay in Dubai and seperated from Konrad, this faction is gone by the time the campaign starts, you only find remnants of it, hung soldiers etc., they were executed as an example, it's however featured in the multiplayer

Insurgents - group of locals who didn't like 33rd's occupation, supported by CIA

CIA - it's agenda is to kill everyone in Dubai to make sure the story of what's going on Dubai never leaves it as it would probably mean the war of arab countries vs USA, that's why they support locals in their fight against 33rd just to create chaos

2 conflicts were:

Damned vs Exiles - Damned won presumably without trouble

Damned vs (Insurgents + CIA) - signed treaty, but CIA was planning some moves


Story:

Your mission is to just find out if there are survivors and report back. When first time you meet armed locals, Lugo is talking to them in their language while Adams and Walker discuss what to do in case things go south, they notice that and start shooting, rest of them think 33rd is attacking them and attack nearby 33rd patrol as revenge which 33rd interpretes as the end of truce, so you just arrived and already caused the treaty to break. Later you meet 33rd and they start shooting at you thinking you're the CIA (which is reasonable considering the peace that just broke) and starts rounding civilians to move them somewhere safe from the potential fighting zones against the Insurgents and CIA, I assume before that civilians and Insurgents could meet in some designated zones, there are probably friends and families that are seperated between civilians and Insurgents. Of course your squad thinks that civilans are rounded up for executions and radioman's nonchalance and eccentrism in his messages doesn't make things better in your squad's perception, later at some point Radioman knows that you were not sent by CIA, but it's too late, you've already killed so many 33rd soldiers and civilians that now they just want revenge, Walker is shocked when he realizes that it's his fault and starts being psychotic, he creates a fake persona of John Konrad just to blame someone. Notice how Adams and Lugo make numerous remarks that they should just go back or try to talk to them again and don't shoot back, but Walker always ignores those with "they will kill us if we don't kill them", "we need to find out what happened to 33rd", "we need to find Konrad" etc. But the truth is that if Walker listened to them and simply left, then most likely the peace would be signed again after some firefighs, of course some people would die, but not the massive amount that Walker caused in the end just because he wanted to be a hero.

So the point is, Dubai wasn't exactly a paradise before Walker arrived, but what Walker did was 10 times worse, he killed thousands in a timespan of a day.

The only thing that remains a mystery to me is why Walker says that he remembers the helicopter flight, for now I just assume that it was an easter egg with 4th wall break.

[MrMcSwifty]

Fantastic writeup; probably the best I've seen yet. Thanks for posting it.

As for this:

Originally posted by Wojciech:

The only thing that remains a mystery to me is why Walker says that he remembers the helicopter flight, for now I just assume that it was an easter egg with 4th wall break.

I do prefer to think of it this way, just a self-aware 4th wall break, and it doesn't seem that out of place at all considering many other messages directed at you, the player.

But there is an equally valid theory that this is because Walker actually dies in the heli crash in the beginning and the game we are playing is just him reliving his final sins over and over again in purgatory. This theory is actually somewhat supported by one of the writers themselves (though also later contradicted in other interviews)

Such a fascinating game with so much to take in. You could spend hours on this forum reading some of the many interpretations of the plot and philisophical themes. I love it.

[Grunt]

One thing I forgot to add which was an interesting detail, at the start of interrogation of Daniels (or rather the recording), Daniels says "I'm from CIA. We're looking for survivors." which seems all more likely for 33rd to assume that delta team doesn't have good intentions since it's the same thing that CIA said and then acted against them.

[RyoZ]

Even Walker himself is aware, at least subconciously, that he is the villain all along. He conjures up the false Konrad, which judges and berates him at every opprotunity, due to the massive guilt after his little incident at the Gate. The rest of the game is Walker desperately trying to convince himself otherwise until he finally meets the "real" Konrad.

Originally posted by Wojciech:

The only thing that remains a mystery to me is why Walker says that he remembers the helicopter flight, for now I just assume that it was an easter egg with 4th wall break.

Like Swifty mentioned, the most accepted theory is Walker did not survive the helo crash and is stuck is some sort of hell/purgatory. If you ever decide to play the game again, you can spot some other evidence that supports this. For one, you can spot several images of Konrad and other little hallucinations well before Walker goes crazy.

[Grunt]

Originally posted by RyoZ:

For one, you can spot several images of Konrad and other little hallucinations well before Walker goes crazy.

Like which ones?

[MrMcSwifty]

Originally posted by Wojciech:

Originally posted by RyoZ:

For one, you can spot several images of Konrad and other little hallucinations well before Walker goes crazy.

Like which ones?

Pay special attention to billlboards and banners, especially when backtracking through an area.