Most people appear to believe that Overture and Black Plague are the real deal, and that Requiem is the dream that's not really happening or is happening only within Philip's own mind. But I am wondering if there is anybody else out there who has been paying attention to all the little hints and inconsistencies that point towards the fact that the events of all 3 games might infact just be the work of Philip's mind, whether deranged or just a dream.

Let's take a look at some of the things I believe tell us that none of this is even happening in the real world:

- If you remember the "dream world" level from Black Plague where you need to rearrange stuff in the ship cabin. If you examined Philip's jacket hanging on the wall, he says that he remembers forgetting to put it on before he left the ship. Now let's face it, it was VERY cold where he was and if he had forgotten to put on his jacket, he would have felt the bone-biting cold right away and would have rushed back inside to put it on before wandering out into the snowy wastes.

- Upon reaching the hatch that forever seals his descent into the hell that is Penumbra, he clearly hears a very monstrous sounding creature bang against the trap door and it scares him badly. Certainly he wanted answers to his father's mysterious letter, but he did not expect monsters down there! In all honesty, what kind of rational human being would even consider going down there after what he had heard, ESPECIALLY without a weapon? It completely defies all self-preservation instincts and all rational thinking.. Actions like that are common in the dream world but certainly not in reality.

- The tunnels keep on conveniently collapsing behind Philip, forcing his descent deeper into the mine. You might argue that this is just a gameplay mechanic to prevent backtracking, but I honestly do not believe that is the case. It is like the very environment is reacting to him and adapting to his actions, and this brings me to my next point..

- Philip is the only person who makes it down there alive through all the monstrosities and terrible dangers that fill the mine. He says it right at the start, doesn't he? Heroics are best left to Hollywood actors.. Clearly he's not the invincible Indiana Jones or Lara Croft type, which logically makes one think that at least one of those death traps would have surprised and killed him in a very gruesome manner if this weren't a realm of his own fabrication.

- Philip received a letter(a physical letter, not an E-mail) from his father. How is this possible? His father never left the complex before dying and as far as we've found from the various notes lying around, nobody ever made it out of there alive, even though some had come close. One might argue that Philip's father sent an E-mail to a friend and then asked that friend to copy that to a letter and send it to Philip, but that would raise MANY questions since the E-mail would have been from somebody who is officially considered to be dead.. And raising questions is not something Philip's father was trying to do since he wanted the complex to be forgotten permanently. There is no rational explanation behind how that letter reached Philip.

- Some of the research notes you find early in Overture report of a high suicide rate in the area suspected due to chemicals present in the ore. I highly doubt this is the real cause. I would say it's the Tuurngait influencing people's minds is what was causing the suicides. This led me to believe that the Tuurngait may infact be putting more people through this kind of hell within their own minds, that Philip was far from the only victim that went through all that.


And there you have it. That last point is completely theoretical and it may or may not be the case. But the other points I've raised all make pretty much perfect sense. They are the reason I believe the entire venture was just a very bad nightmare in the confines of his own mind.

OR, there is another theory I've seen somewhere that could make sense as well. It could be that Philip isn't even real, but is instead a fabrication of Red's mind, putting him through all the horrors he had endured down there over and over again until he finally decides to end his own life in that incinerator. This is a possible explanation to the endings of Requiem.. Either die in the incinerator, or relive the whole thing all over again. There is a quote from Red just before you may choose your ending that might support this theory: "Better to have a story and end it, than never to realise it has begun"

Oh, there's also the little detail that Red seems to know exactly where Philip is and what he is doing at all times, despite the fact there are no cameras around the mine. However, this could also mean that the real Red had long been dead and that it was the virus infecting Philip since early on and playing tricks with his mind, leading him down there.