What was that ending?

[Vahnkiljoy]

I just don't even know what happened....

[Steely J]

I went to flip the switch on the Core, then the bug man appeared, then it went back to beginning when he was trying to read my mind, my guy pushes him away in a flash of light and disappears, and the baddie goes NOO and then it ends? The most anticlimactic, disappointing and abrupt ending.

[Vahnkiljoy]

There was also a post credit scene but still doesn't really do anything to help the situation.

[agpunx]

Terrible. Just terrible. Game is a complete mess. A disgrace.
I really regret buying it and wasting my time on it.

[Lord Of War]

You folks, haven't read the Silver Key, nor The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath or anything from the Dream Cycle, right?

[fredling192]

Most probably haven't. I can give you my take on the ending though. I do believe most things were answered, but you had to think on them for a bit to get them. Carter, his gang and their lineages were created in laboratories, meant to develop the human abilities to traverse to faraway places with their minds, and eventually transcend their material existence. Of all the manufactured individuals, Carter and his lineage were the most developed, and in his travels, he managed to get Ousia, the substance the great old ones used for creating life on earth (see At the Mountains of Madness for more info), and brought it back so that they could use it to achieve their goal (the goal of the original founders of these cities). However, the AI controlling the cities, Aperion, wanted it for his own, for creating his own physical body (as he had none), and possibly rule the Earth as a God (ergo, the society of followers praising him as such), and possibly to transcend himself (although this is unclear). He stole Ousia from them, and started creating his body, which required experimenting on people from the cities; this led to human-insect hybrids. Afterwards, Carter and the rest managed to steal Ousia back, and Carter hid it where Aperion couldn't get it, at the gates of Tehom, the place you couldn't enter physically, but only with your mind. Aperion nor any of the others could reach Tehom, although you can presume using Ousia would have eventually allowed all of humanity to reach it, as was the Founders plan. Later, Aperion tried to hunt Carter down, and killed the rest of his group, and eventually even him. Carter went back through one of his descendants, after using Ousia to improve himself enough to transcend. He talked to the founders, and went to stop Aperion. However, he was stopped by Aperion, who now had a (probably incomplete or imperfect) body, and questioned in the mindscape, which was actually the scene from the beginning of the game, now coming full circle. Carter used his mind power, now enhanced by ousia, to escape Aperion's grasp, and transcended, crossing over the gates of Tehom. Aperion represented the end of humanity, and emergence of this new insectoid race, and Carter seems to have been the only human, apart from Frank or other conarionauts from pre-Providence era, to reach that destination. Some things were left open, like what were the terms of the pact with Nyarlathotep, and the infinity crystals function, and who were those beings watching over Carter in the game and at the last scene, however, all I said above can be deduced from all the texts you find in the game.
In any case, even though I read everything Lovecraft wrote, I read his dream cycle a long time ago, so I didn't get all of this because I knew something else, or remembered something, but just by carefully reading everything in the game. I probably missed many references related to the dream world, because it's been so long since I've read Kadath, but they are more like easter eggs, not really needed to understand the general picture of the game.

[Lord Of War]

the substance the great old ones used for creating life on earth

And some creation rebelled against them. Funny though, on the cave wall depicted the Great Race Yith, fighting Shoggoths, not the Old Ones as it is mentioned in the "Mountains...".

The meeting with Nyarlathotep is pretty similar to the end of the "Dream Quest", though Carter then wakes up, yet here he's still on the journey.

Ah, I just loved the multi-layer-ness of the game! The same person goes on the journey through dreams, through one reality where he then revives memories and recording of other people experiencing their memories. Oof

Oops, forgot the "]"

[Henry]

That was the ending of the budget.

[Adhan]

Originally posted by Henry:

That was the ending of the budget.

Originally posted by Lord Of War:

You folks, haven't read the Silver Key, nor The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath or anything from the Dream Cycle, right?

I have, but I still think the ending was messy.

[mit]

Thanks fredling192 and Lord Of War. That was the conclusion I have reached more or less. But reading your explanations makes the story clearer in my head. Thank you

[fredling192]

You're welcome :). I think writing it down helped me too XD

[Leaffar]

Haven't seen such a disappointing ending for quite a while. Devs, do something about it.

[sbN]

I've read Lovecraft many times over the years and this game manages to pull so much together...but as a game dev and gamer, its still a mess. A developer should not control the experience, only create the world for the player to experience it. And if to understand anything only through text is justification of it not being a mess...then I don't know what to say. its no myst or riven where the expectation was to dive into text. The player should come out feeling like they had a good experience. The text and lore should enhance it, not be the crutch.

I've loved this studio's games since Darkness Within and will continue to play and enjoy their games. But I'm not going to defend messy game design and storytelling.

I think they need to go back to the drawing board for user experience. It felt clumsy and buggy at times. Maybe also give proper facial expressions to their characters. So many times I felt like I was playing a game where devs used character generators with a little touch ups and calling it a day. On top of that, as much as I know the purpose of buying assets for your games from the marketplace....it was a little insulting to see a subway car near the end that was directly from the Subway modular asset back Epic released for free.

Something I didn't expect so glaringly from these devs.

nonetheless, I REALLY enjoyed their continual take on HP Lovecraft mythos. :3

[Average Joe]

Its no where near as long as conarium, its like the epilogue of Conarium if anything.

[fredling192]

Well, according to howlongis.io, conarium has an average playtime of 6 hours, and transient has an average playtime of 5 hours. Medians are even closer. So it seems it's not that different, for most people at least.