Penumbra (Requiem) Ending General Discussion

[lukkas]

If you collect all the artifacts (whatever these things are) at the end he wakes up in the boat he travelled to Greenland.

Just to clarify, the artefacts don't seem to have anything to do with the ending. I only found 2/9 artefacts in Requiem (yeah, I suck that badly), and I still had the option to turn and leave, ending up on the ship.

I don't think Philip survives if you turn away. As far as I can tell, it's all sort of a "light at the end of the tunnel" sort of trip. I can't imagine the Overmind allowing Philip to escape, after telling someone about the facility. And throughout both games, Philip constantly foreshadowed his own death. "The last time I would see civilisation", "the last flight I would ever take", etc. Not to mention, when you're in the boat, it's that crazy mental-hurdle boat, with that recursion picture, like in Black Plague, not the boat from Overture.

I think if you don't choose to join Red, it's more like Philip doesn't accept his own death and is perpetually "lost at sea" so to speak. It's just a nicer, though less concrete ending than jumping into an incinerator. (But then, who presses the button? OH NOE.)