The Ending [Reveled][Major Spoilers]

[Xenofur]

About the end:

The last level really seems like they got bored but completely it anyhow to cash in.

The ending itself ... I like to have a measure of choice in my games. The ending of this game is quite simply the revelation that Philip is an asshole. No two ways about it, no doubts, no inclarities. It's a simple fact. Sadly the game does not let you know that in advance, so you keep on pushing only to get punished.

P:BP was the very first game i ever played that made me feel like i was being punished for completing it.

Now, what does that have to do with choice? You have none in this game, you're completely powerless. The only choice you have in this game is to play it or not to play. Knowing what kind of person Philip is would only have resulted in one thing: Me killing him at the very first opportunity, then quitting and uninstalling the game.

I could write a lot more here, but I'll bring it to a clear point. Frictional Games, the quite honestly shit job you did on the ending convinced me of one thing: I'll never again buy a game unless i haven't pirated and fully played through it already and am convinced that the makers deserve the money. You don't.

[jo291]

About the end:

The last level really seems like they got bored but completely it anyhow to cash in.

The ending itself ... I like to have a measure of choice in my games. The ending of this game is quite simply the revelation that Philip is an asshole. No two ways about it, no doubts, no inclarities. It's a simple fact. Sadly the game does not let you know that in advance, so you keep on pushing only to get punished.

P:BP was the very first game i ever played that made me feel like i was being punished for completing it.

Now, what does that have to do with choice? You have none in this game, you're completely powerless. The only choice you have in this game is to play it or not to play. Knowing what kind of person Philip is would only have resulted in one thing: Me killing him at the very first opportunity, then quitting and uninstalling the game.

I could write a lot more here, but I'll bring it to a clear point. Frictional Games, the quite honestly shit job you did on the ending convinced me of one thing: I'll never again buy a game unless i haven't pirated and fully played through it already and am convinced that the makers deserve the money. You don't.

game was great! ending still kept some questions unanserd for mystery and so we would make big theries about it.i bet you dont like halflife ether because thers more then one game and they dont spoil evrything at once. go play call of cuthlu theres only one episode. o whait evrythings not spoiled by the end and theres something to speculate so i ges you wouldent like that ether. so go play doom because thers no mystery evry things spoiled and reavled by the end o whait that game has mystery to and theres a few games. um well stop playing games then.

[Peter Spartan]

Well,Personnally me I think you guys are getting philip all wrong.
Dont you get it?Howard sent the message to philip to destroy the evidence(so he did complete the tests and do what he is told to do) and where is howard now?DEAD.So what does that explain to philip?that there going to kill him anyways which means there screwing with him.So he knows hes going to die so he does what every terrorists does(even though hes not a terrorist ) he dies and takes every1 with them in this case the turngait.And he also did it for the various people that died down there.

so the turngait was just trying to repeat the same thing they did to howard.But they got outsmarted!

And Thats how I Figure the story is.

[Dogar]

I could write a lot more here, but I'll bring it to a clear point. Frictional Games, the quite honestly shit job you did on the ending convinced me of one thing: I'll never again buy a game unless i haven't pirated and fully played through it already and am convinced that the makers deserve the money. You don't.

I'm suprised you don't like Philip, since you're clearly a bit of an asshole yourself. Just because you dislike a developer's product doesn't give you the right to be a thief. You have no right to steal a game and then decide whether the developer is worthy of your money. If you don't like the developer, don't buy their product. The notion that you have some sort of god-given right to play their games is pure arrogance.

[Linux.Blue]

I agree. if you don't like it, why steal it? quiote honestly, I never thought of Philip as being an asshole, or anything really of the sort. and I certainly didn't feel guilty while playing it or finishing it.
It's not like it's all about worshiping the devil or playing some porno game where you have to undress someone, or to make fun of the Lord. it's a game.
it's okay if you don't like it. not everyone has to love this game.
personally, I think despite some things I don't care about, I think it's a pretty cool game.

[Kedjane]

About the end:

The last level really seems like they got bored but completely it anyhow to cash in.

The ending itself ... I like to have a measure of choice in my games. The ending of this game is quite simply the revelation that Philip is an asshole. No two ways about it, no doubts, no inclarities. It's a simple fact. Sadly the game does not let you know that in advance, so you keep on pushing only to get punished.

P:BP was the very first game i ever played that made me feel like i was being punished for completing it.

Now, what does that have to do with choice? You have none in this game, you're completely powerless. The only choice you have in this game is to play it or not to play. Knowing what kind of person Philip is would only have resulted in one thing: Me killing him at the very first opportunity, then quitting and uninstalling the game.

I could write a lot more here, but I'll bring it to a clear point. Frictional Games, the quite honestly shit job you did on the ending convinced me of one thing: I'll never again buy a game unless i haven't pirated and fully played through it already and am convinced that the makers deserve the money. You don't.

What's wrong with you?
The game is obviously linear, the only FPS-like with multiple endings is Bioshock.

[Thaliur]

The ending itself ... I like to have a measure of choice in my games. The ending of this game is quite simply the revelation that Philip is an asshole. No two ways about it, no doubts, no inclarities. It's a simple fact. Sadly the game does not let you know that in advance, so you keep on pushing only to get punished.

OK... just imagine yourself in Philip's position, will you? A lot of "gamers" nowadays seem incapable of empathy, but I hope you can shift your point of view a little.

You are a scientist. A geek, as the cynic inside me (who is NOT Clarence, luckily) says.
Your mother dies, and you get a message from your long believed dead father, telling you to destroy some documents. These documents tell you about a place in Greenland, and, being a true scientist, you get curious, so decide to go there (although a year later).
Then, when you arrive, you get attacked by practically everything. Even the tunnels themselves seem to attack you.
You get possessed by an obviously evil entity which makes you kill the only other living human down there, you find your father dead, and then you find out what was causing all of that.
Don't you think that maybe, just maybe, at this point, you would have developed some very strong feelings against this creature?

[Klarden]

Had another thought today: maybe the first part of the letter where he seems to do what he was asked is written BEFORE he steps away from the computer to see everything around disappearing? I mean like - he went through some tests and while feeling used still liked the idea of Unity. When he returned back (at least as it seemed at first) he starts remembering the events as Hive Mind speaks in his head. And this memories make him have doubts. And he starts writing the letter with doubts, but with the idea that it can be right. When he almost finishes something goes bad and he's getting a serious feeling, that everything's wrong. He starts looking around and everything starts disappearing. Than he understands SOMETHING (something i can't quite understand) which convinces him, that he's being used. So he writes the final part of the letter and sends it. That may explain the quick and drastic change of tone at the end of message.

[Skaruts]

About the end:

The last level really seems like they got bored but completely it anyhow to cash in.

The ending itself ... I like to have a measure of choice in my games. The ending of this game is quite simply the revelation that Philip is an asshole. No two ways about it, no doubts, no inclarities. It's a simple fact. Sadly the game does not let you know that in advance, so you keep on pushing only to get punished.

P:BP was the very first game i ever played that made me feel like i was being punished for completing it.

Now, what does that have to do with choice? You have none in this game, you're completely powerless. The only choice you have in this game is to play it or not to play. Knowing what kind of person Philip is would only have resulted in one thing: Me killing him at the very first opportunity, then quitting and uninstalling the game.

I could write a lot more here, but I'll bring it to a clear point. Frictional Games, the quite honestly shit job you did on the ending convinced me of one thing: I'll never again buy a game unless i haven't pirated and fully played through it already and am convinced that the makers deserve the money. You don't.

Yeah, like it isn't like that in most of the games... even RPGs sometimes don't give you a choice. If you didn't like the game at all, I'm wondering why are you in the forum at all. It's all about that...
Bare in mind that I'm not attacking you and I don't think the game is perfect.

Seriously, this whole thing here about the end bugs a bit. Why care?
Haven't you ever played games or movies or anything else with open stories? You see what they want you to see, and you imagine whatever you want. You own ending or whatever's missing.

As for me, the only thing I don't like is not knowing who philip was contacting by mail, just because I'm translating the game into my language, and this case it makes a little difference. But that doesn't have to do with the game.
And about the location, for those that don't know, many many many writters have based their stories upon locations that do exist but in which there's none of those things you see in the story. It's common. you're all just makin' a tempest in a glass of water. (Like we say here)

[ShardofTruth]

Well, i liked the idea of "think yourself if it was true or not", because the final room was definitely not real in the full sense of "real"... It reminded me of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind a little - in a genius way of removing some objects from reality (or memory) one by one. What IS interesting to note is that the Hive Mind itself tells Phillip that in the end of the tests he may even has his revenge...
It also reminded me of the whole the Machines vs rogue Agent Smith idea from The Matrix (Reloaded and Revolutions) - Clarence was part of the Hive Mind, but went separated and started thinking differently, with own ambitions. Even the Hive Mind calls him "too human".
Also i still can't understand, why did the hive mind call Howard "too weak". Because he killed himself, or because he failed the tests...

I like this explanation alot.
The Hive tells Phillip may get his revenge. He writes an email, that nobody can obtain, because there is only internal communication possible.
But it's still part of the test and he is held as a prisoner now or lost all his memories etc.