Feedback wanted: Some questions on Ending (spoilerish)

[Frictioned]

I got the revenge ending.

When entering the room nothing much happened, so I explored and found the pylons were unstable. I wanted to toss Agrippa's head but just got a message that the portal wasn't open yet so I pushed the pylons over thinking that would open up the portal. Instead it destroyed it and Alexandra was consumed.

I reloaded the area to try to find another way and this time waited but nothing appeared to happen, so needless to say I got the same ending again!

I felt the ending was a bit underwhelming, with little choice, and no reminder of how to use Agrippa's head which felt like a waste, but certainly didn't ruin the game.

[Miel]

1) To sum it up, 'I hate Alexander, but I hate myself more'. I found Alexander difficult to sympathise with, though not impossible. He had his reasons for what he did, even if those reasons pale in comparison to his actions.

With Daniel, my attitude went from confused, to sympathetic to confused again, then to outraged. I found his actions unexcusable.

I wasn't sure what to think about Agrippa. It's strange, but he felt like a old man who was a bit kooky, but nice to be around. I don't think he received enough characterisation for me to form a real opinion about him.

2) I got the 'revenge' ending the first time. I was confused entering the orb room, and started clicking around. I found out I could push over the pillars and that was what I did.

3) Out of all the endings, I liked the revenge ending the least. It felt totally wrong and unsatisfying.

4) I was curious to see the other endings, so I replayed the last scene twice to get them both. The 'bad' ending felt the most right to me, and after that the 'good ending'. I preferred ambiguity of the 'good' ending to the misplaced resolution of the 'revenge' ending.

[martinstatic]

To be honest I wasn't too fond of the ending...after a really atmospheric horror where the story was kind of secondary to the game, the game drops all horror and focuses purely on the story.
A think a really large maze-like complex with light at the end and plenty of monsters and scares, with a small chase to finish off would have been a better ending, but I guess the story needed to have closure..

[hollodri]

I hastily made another thread about the ending, should have searched for this one first, sorry.

I found the ending, namely the last 2 or 3 minutes, to be deeply underwhelming compared to the rest of the game. The puzzle was boring (although I didn't really need a puzzle at all for the ending), the setup felt too close to the "end boss" cliche which doesn't really fit Amnesia's otherwise more open design and there were so many more atmospheric scenes in the game that IMO would have made a more memorable finale. I would have loved to be able to tell people: "Just wait for the ending! You will shit your pants!" But unfortunately, I can't. Whenever the "energy beams" and floating evil guys show up in a computer game I kinda feel like the designers ran out of ideas...

I also think that the 3 endings, while a nice touch and good blurb for reviews/feature-lists ("Over 3 different endings!!!11") weren't really necessary. I would have settled for *one* really disturbing ending that keeps me thinking and not able to sleep for a few days. It wasn't motivation enough to play through the game once more (all the important choices are only made in the last level, anyway), so, in the age of YouTube, I have to admit: I googled the other 2 after finishing with the "revenge" one. Much bigger motivation: The Valve-style developer commentaries. Like the commentary track on DVDs, they're really interesting and I'm already halfway through on my second run with commentaries on.

[ide]

Am I the only one who thinks that Daniel's escape in "revenge" ending is only metaphorical one?

Yeah I'm pretty sure it's metaphorical.
AFAIK he get's killed by the shadow in all endings since Agrippa (I think) tells you that the shadow is going to kill/follow you anyways and because of that it's no use to enter the portal.

[Macil]

• I felt the same way. But after a couple of days pondering about the story, I came to a very different conclusion.
  
• Daniel wasn't trying to save himself anymore.
  
• I believe that Daniel effectively committed suicide
  
• No, he wanted just one last thing from his next iteration: to do what's right. To bring righteous vengeance upon Alexander.
  
• That's actually noble.
  
• And then directed a future, innocent Daniel, to exact revenge against Alexander.
  
• I believe that under that light, the Revenge ending is the more fitting with the rest of the story.
  
• I'm glad that it's the best presented and fleshed out of the three, since I like to think of it as the canon one.
  

Just wanted to say that I completely agree. I was about to post this same interpretation, but I think you put it better than I did.

[Gert]

1) When entering the Orb Room (where Alexander is), what where your feelings toward Daniel (ie yourself), Alexander and Agrippa.

To be honest, I didn't have any special feeling toward Alexander or Daniel. Of course I knew Alexander is a bad guy, and Daniel had been manipulated to do bad things out of his fear, but the way this part of the story was told was probably not enough for me to start hating them or anything.
As for Agrippa, somehow I felt helping him should be the right thing (and doing so would also mean more puzzle solving).

2) What was the ending that you got the first time? Was this a choice?
The first ending was the pure revenge one without helping Agrippa. It was not by choice. Since nothing seemed to happen, I started knocking over the pillars and then the game ended.

3) How did you like the ending?
Compared to the rest of the game it seemed kind of weak.

4) Did you get any other endings? If so, which one was your favorite? And what where your motivation for seeing more endings?

In the end I saw all endings. After my accidental not-helping-Agrippa I immediately did the ending again, this time waiting long enough to help Agrippa, and later I was just interested in what would happen if I do nothing.

My favourite was pure revenge ending, I felt it was more rewarding then the others.
Obviously, letting Alexander go is not a real option. Helping Agrippa still gets you killed, and what do we really know about Agrippa? Does he really deserve to be saved at the price of Daniels life? Escaping, on the other hand, gives Daniel the chance to repent and better himself.

[CHANCEPHOENIX]

1) When entering the Orb Room (where Alexander is), what where your feelings toward Daniel (ie yourself), Alexander and Agrippa.

Answer: I hated them all for driving me ..er... INSANE.

2) What was the ending that you got the first time? Was this a choice?

Answer: I ended up captured and didn"t knew what to do ..., and 20 minutes later was killed by:

http://i56.tinypic.com/hsl5qh.jpg



3) How did you like the ending?

Answer: First i got was shit , cuz it looked like i was getting killed and GAME OVER....

bEST ONE IMO was where i allowed Alexander to leave and i got killed.


4) Did you get any other endings? If so, which one was your favorite? And what where your motivation for seeing more endings?

All of them ...

motivation was curiousity.

favourite?

see anwer above.

[Karkarov]

1) When entering the Orb Room (where Alexander is), what where your feelings toward Daniel (ie yourself), Alexander and Agrippa.

Like I said in other posts I did a very lengthy Let's Play of this game, if you watched it I made it fairly obvious how I felt at many points. To put it simply I wanted Brennenburg and Daniel dead and buried. Agrippa I didn't have a issue with but you never really know what he did to get Johann into the portal and in his note he didn't seem to mind the shadow killing a bunch of innocents who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. That said Agrippa had spent well over 100 years chained to a wall being poked and tortured more than likely so he had sort of paid his dues.

2) What was the ending that you got the first time? Was this a choice?

The revenge ending, it was very much by choice. In the aforementioned let's play I even make a comment at one point on how I would like to save Agrippa HOWEVER if saving him means I don't take down Daniel and Agrippa he was going to be SOL. I honestly expected both Alexander and Daniel to eat it because of my actions.

3) How did you like the ending?

I wanted basically the entire cast to die. That was what I would have considered to be a "good ending". That was not an ending option... Beyond that I liked them and felt they were solid. I wish they were more fleshed out though.

4) Did you get any other endings? If so, which one was your favorite? And what where your motivation for seeing more endings?

I played all of them out myself. My favorite is a hard answer I honestly got the most personal enjoyment out of the "bad" ending where Alexander escapes because you get to see Daniel get his comeuppance in a very direct and personal way and it was extremely well executed. Actual results wise the "revenge" ending is my favorite. I don't like that Daniel survives but he is still on earth at least and you do get to personally see Alexander eat it. My motivation for seeing them all was simply that I knew there were multiple endings and I wanted to see them all, I was also hoping for an ending that left everyone except maybe Agrippa 6 feet under. If the "Agrippa" ending had panned out with Daniel being left to the shadow I would have been immensely satisfied...

[Lyssa]

Is letting Alexander live really a 'bad' ending?
I think there are just as many redeeming qualities about that one as there are in the others. I wasnt so annoyed with Alexander after I found out his motivations. He's just a man whos been seperated from his love and his home and is trying whatever he can do be re-uinited with them.

I just think that if I was in Alexanders position I would probably do much of the same. If I was taken from this earth and put on a whole new world with new creatures that I had no connection or affinity with, I wouldnt find it hard to abuse them to meet my ends.

Lets say I banish you to another world. On this world, there are nothing but ants. They are not the same as you. They do not understand you or your people. Their knowledge about this universe is massively inferior to your own. You dont belong there. You get homesick.

Countless years pass and you finaly you find a way to get home. But it involves killing and torturing ants. There are millions on this world, what you do will be a drop in the bucket. Do you do it? I know I would.