[SPOILER] Just finished the game and...

[FloatingSkull]

ELECTROCHEMISTRY [Easy-Success] Great acomplishement! You should buy another game RIGHT NOW! How about a cigarette as a reward?
DRAMA [Challenging-Failed] It had SO many meanings! SOO MANY! Like... police stuff?

But for reals, the game was superb! It was that sort of game, that really got me excited again, but there is something, that I found a little lacking.

The ending.

Now don't get me wrong, the ending is 'fine' as it is, but it felt so abrupt and like it just drove off of a highway that suddenly ended right before its destination.
One click, a bright flash and there go the credits. Especially after the BIG thing on the island, you would maybe expect a little bit more... trippy? Maybe another dream sequence, which, for me, hinted to a more in-depth tour to the protagonist's mental state. With his wife and his past being presented as something so hurtful and important, it literally damages you mentally, when you try to think about it, it was a little disappointing, that the topic of his wife was not as important as it seemed to be.

It could be, that I simply misjudged where the game was going, but I think we can all agree, that at least a slide show for an ending would have been expectable. Personally I thought there would be another dream sequence, which made the sudden ending that much more lacking.

Anyway, It didn't taint my experience with the game too much and it still is my GOTY.

What do you guys think? Let me know!

[Wokelander]

I thought the ending was perfectly fine. I loved the Island part, and the whole wrap-up conversion after the island was fine as an epilogue I thought, the story isn't really so much about the fates of the people our protagonist meet as it is about him confronting his demons.

I'm already looking forward to play it again and see where a through-the-roof Inland Empire skill takes me

[Sentient_Toaster]

The phasmid showing up at the exact resolution of the principal murder case was a bit strange, but.... *shrug*.

[Du-Vu]

I got the impression that it didn't so much show up as it was there the whole time, and you only noticed it/realized it was important at the end of interrogating Iosef. And that maybe you only noticed it because of your own memory problems/possible pale exposure. Given that a lot of that encounter fires off of an Electrochemistry check, maybe someone who didn't have your years of alcohol and drug abuse under their belts would have missed it-- everything is connected indeed.

[Sisyphus]

The phasmid provides another potential explanation for the Deserter's behaviour. The game throughout provides multiple possible explanations for events: psychological, social, supernatural/mystical, without ever resolving it in favour of one or the other.

It's also part of the philosophy of having all of the elements of the game prove to be interconnected, ie. what seemed like a silly side mission searching a cryptid actually turned out to be integral to the plot.

[denkart]

The ending definitely did feel a bit abrupt. The conversation wrapping things up was nice, but I was hoping to see what sort of effects the outcome of your investigation would lead to. Didn't really get that unfortunately.

Also, about the "wife", you do get to learn quite a bit about her. There's that dream sequence if you sleep on the island which reveals that she's leaving you, possibly because she believes you're insane. And if you ask questions about yourself during the final conversation, it's revealed that she was never even your wife. You were engaged but she left you. She was very beautiful and they tell you that you formed a sort of "spiritual" belief about her, which explains why she appears as Delores Deis during the dream sequence and why images of Delores remind you of her. It also would support what she tells you in the dream, about your sanity.