My own little theory on the entire series

[ploppytheman]

- 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.

What? That could just mean he forgot it momentarily not that he was wandering around with no jacket. And even if he did forget it he could have been so focused on his father and what lay ahead of him that the cold wasn't noticed since he was having so much internal thoughts. Ever played video games for a long time and all of a sudden realize you are starving and have to pee really bad? Magnify that x1000

- 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.

There was no other way out. If he stayed there he would have died for sure. His only option was to explore. As I recall he was apprehensive in doing so, and I'm sure being in a small room with a huge metal door, a dog could possibly make that noise (remember they can break down a barricaded door), although it did sound monstrous. It may have been a spider as well, or possibly a young worm.

- 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..

It wouldn't matter anyway because he didn't have a way out at any time so he was forced in because the initial entry was blocked (and who knows when the ship would be back).

- 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.

How many times did you die? I died a lot, at least 10x and I'm a vet gamer. The game being difficult doesn't mean its not possible. Other people survived too, at least for a while, but they had been there longer.

- 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.

I don't remember what the letter said particularly, but I assume he sent it before all hell broke lose, and wasn't it 30years old? If you could remind me what the letter said it would help, but I'm pretty sure he sent it before (I look for plot holes naturally as well).

- 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.

Hmmm... the tuurngait was waken, but I can't really think of a timeline, but mining the area might cause suicides from this (even more than the average high amount in Greenland). So I agree the TG caused this, but the people disturbing it wanted to control and destroy it so it probably only defends itself as much as needed, much like bears kill people but we don't go out and kill all the bears, we try to live and let live, and being an intelligent collective being it probably realized it can't fight mankind (it admits man is stronger but divided) so wants to keep itself secret, which is why it tryed to get you to hide it and let it sleep. It used to live with mankind but now it wants to hide b/c man will use/destroy it

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"

I didn't get the ending. I still am undecided. But I thought the first two were real, the third was the TG or his conscience messing with him. At the end if you kill Red you go to hell because you killed him even getting the second chance. Or you learned nothing about self sacrifice and the collective so that is your punishment of "hell" by the TG. If the TG wanted to kill you it could, why torture your mind? It had 3 monsters there ready to rip you up and easily killed Clarence who is physically superior to you.

If you don't kill him you are on the boat, aka you die and go to heaven. Or the boat being well lit and safe with nice music would allow you to go home and/or save Red (and the TG too). Since you are safe on the boat, but have knowledge of what existed, you could avert it and everyone wins. There was no safety in the entire game except the boat. Since you chose not to kill red you learned the lesson from the TG about the collective, and its against the rules to kill red so the TG might trust you to leave now since you finally understand. The whole email you wrote could have been a TG fake so it never went out, just another test.

I felt bad when I killed Red both times, and when I left and went on the boat I didn't think of a dreadful repeat, I thought it was escape to heaven or passing the TG test to understand working together, not assisting Red to die (against the rules), and hiding the TG.

I view it as this is your final chance by the TG, if you kill Red it makes you live in its hell, if you don't you learned your lesson and everyone wins. That or personal guilt heaven/hell which was my first thoughts.

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.

The TG communicates telepathically. Red was infected. Later Philip was infected, the infection may have started as soon as he fell down the hatch, he might have got knocked out for some time since he fell pretty far. This also explains that big metal hatch making so much noise.