[SPOILER] Plot Discussion Thread *Spoiler Alert*

[Alardem]

But that's too deus ex, too... primitive? I mean, I'm no writer but even i wouldn't go for such lame element in the story and definitely not Pinchebek.

What exactly's lame about it? And hey, it's not any more ridiculous than a bad guy who literally says "MOAR PIG" and "KILL THEM, MAH PIGGIES!" I like Pinchbeck's writing, but there's an endearing silliness to the premise of Pigs.

A nuclear explosion in 1900 isn't a big deal? What about what happens afterwards?

A single nuclear explosion won't destroy the world and won't do much speaking globally. Take for example Hiroshima - they still live afterwards, Japan is there.
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I'm not saying that. I mean two things:

1. The heart of the British Empire getting inexplicably leveled by an explosion unlike ANYTHING humans had ever seen before. The fear of atomic power would be scarred into the public consciousness almost half a century before 1945. That would have been a major shock to history, and the imperial squabble that was the First World War would have been drastically different (if not worse).

Just think of this game as an alternate history, not literally 'what happened 113 years ago'.

2. All the death and slaughter that's already occurred is likely to have fucked up London. And that's not considering what will happen once people examine the Man-Pigs and uncover the secrets of Mandus' meat-factory. Just as he had salvaged the horrors of Brennenburg, he himself leaves a legacy of more terror to come.

Also, regarding the Machine - I myself think that the areas Mandus goes through at the end are drastically different in reality to how he perceives them. The last level's loading screen shows the grinder where meat is turned into sausages, yet Mandus sees a pyramid with the control chair at the top.

IMO, the Machine is alive and capable of growing itself underneath London. I rather doubt Mandus would have been able to secretly make all of his expansions - one of his journal entries near the end even says that he walks through areas which 'no man has ever set foot before'.