*SPOILER* the ending of ep2 - fairly disappointed

[skaff]

Firstly i should say both of these games were amazing and I enjoyed every moment of playing them. In fact I abandoned every other game to immerse myself in these episodes when I first discovered them, and both the sense of isolation and the scripting had me sometimes too fearful to open a door or leave an area I knew was safe

But I felt really let down by the ending of the second episode.

Spoiler below!

Aside from the rather rushed design of the ending which gave no sense of fear after all the preceding buttock clenching, heart racing moments before, it was this thing about some benign alien being and the invasivness of humanity being responsible for the alien protecting itself and causing the events in the game.

As soon as I heard this I thought, "oh God, here comes the lecture." It seems to be an unavoidable plot twist in games these days for a bit of self abuse about our effect on the planet. I say twist, but it really isn't anymore.

As a huge fan of H.P.Lovecraft, I think the best horror doesn't try and draw some sort moral lesson out at the end. Basically its a case of shit happens, and sometimes humans are in the way. The whole game before this was about self preservation, or occasionally some unreachable companion, and then five minutes from the end it was about the human collective and how our bad ways are the root cause of everything. This just didn't make sense in the context of the rest of the game.

In a way it suggests that, in fact this sort of horror is still safe because it will go away if we just mend our ways. HPL didn't give any such comfort. The horror was there - either deal with it or try and ignore it, but it is as careless of you either way. The result of Penumbra:Black Plague's ending was to make me feel cheated. I had a lot of investment in escaping the environment and when I eventually did I felt I was, at the end, being told off like a naughty child.

It also made me think of The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham. For anyone who has read this they will know it is a story about how two intelligent species could never inhabit the same planet as they would always come into conflict over resources.

JW doesn't make a judgement in the story about who is right or wrong (although he does take the side of humanity in the war because that is the perspective of the book's characters). This neutrality from the point of the author had no discernable effect on the story.

[Thaliur]

Well, in my personal opinion the ending completely fit into the game, right from the beginning, or even before the actual game started ("...human nature sealed my downfall").
All the major events actually "felt" like something was trying to protect itself, and then getting told that this was infact true just made total sense to me.

I guess it's just a matter of personal taste.

[Linux.Blue]

not sure why; maybe because to me anyway, it felt new that the ending part was quite good.
Most endings are sort of dull and end quick. Like Doom 3: resurrection of evil. nothing there. white screen, short dialog.
this had something.

[jamhaw]

I liked the ending but it had two problems. 1# "Humans are a heard" it ruined the ending for me, really, and 2#No alternate ending.

[m0rtal]

The zombies, talking proper english every 3 seconds was a bit over the top Overture had an element of loneliness that made you feel afraid. As soon as something mutated starts talking the scariness in it disappears. I noticed that from other games. This kind of made a rushed ending, as you can just hear what the hivemind says and say to yourself "wow... i wasnt expecting the ending to reveal itself so quickly after 12 hours of not knowing what te hell is happening"

[Thaliur]

Maybe it's just me, but I think it's even scarier if something only remotely human suddenly starts talking human languages. The hivemind made the whole infection business even more threatening and dangerous. Zombies shuffling around attacking any human they see are one thing, but disfigured humans that are controlled by a huge superior intelligence are really scary.

[ZaRboN]

The ending was wonderful, a great piece of END xd.

It was different from most of the games, and the expansion pack was a brilliant idea thinking of it, because now the fans can see what really happens (The expansion pack might be out just for us, the Fanumbras XD)

I still don't get lots of stuff in the game...
Just don't let us down, developers, on the expansion!!!

[jamhaw]

Fanumbra?! I was under the impression that the consensus was "Penumbra fan"

[Guyra]

Just putting everything in spoiler tags:

Spoiler below!

I was not exactly disappointed by the end, but the sudden change from horror to nonhorror was a bit weird, and the build up to connecting with the hive mind could've been a bit better - it never really felt like I had any reason to do it, except for the fact that Philip wanted it, and it was quickly forgotten about the couple of times it was mentioned.

But else than that, I think it was a good ending. Leave's a bit for Requiem, though, and if they weren't already working on it, I probably would've been a bit more negative about it for not knowing if there would ever be a definite ending to the story.

[Petike]

Fanumbra?! I was under the impression that the consensus was "Penumbra fan"

"Fanumbras" are the real true, hard-core, orthodox fans, you heathen !!! ;-DDD But no, seriously, I prefer "fanumbra", because it sounds a lot more funny and imaginative... :-)