Yeah the endings were very disappointing. The cartoon was cute I guess but there's so much that isn't wrapped up. All your companions are basically forgotten about, and both the good ending and the bad ending are functionally identical. There's no indication as to why one is good and one is bad

I agree that it's a bit of a letdown to not have the game address what happens to the other survivors (or the people in cold storage), and that some of the conspiracies hinted at earlier (relating to the Mutamods, for example) aren't really resolved, in favour of adding unexpected Interstellar-style family drama at the last second.

I don't mind having two bad endings, though. The game establishes early on that this entire mission is a The Swapper style desperate attempt to save the human race from self-inflicted extinction (which is also why no one has pressed the return-to-Earth button, they have a mission to accomplish). And of course, things immediately go south from there. Honestly, given the information we have about the state of humanity I'd have found it a lot less in tone with the rest of the game if there had been a clear "good" ending.

Also who the hell was that in the spaceship crying in the 'good' ending??

Originally posted by MaceWindows:

Also who the hell was that in the spaceship crying in the 'good' ending??

He was the Void Child, and also your son, that you'll never see again because you choose not to go back to Earth. If you managed to find Herbert Westfield's logs, or if you paid close attention to Dr. Nebula's story and dialogues, you'll know that the Void Child convinced Nebula to steer the ship into the black hole while he was in the form of this boy - his son. (and your son in a way, just from another timeline).

Originally posted by Revenant:

So, no one actually lives in either ending, but in one of them you get to have a weird cosmic child follow you around for some reason. Great. Why wasn't going to the "destination" an option instead? How did either of these choices help the sleepers? How did either choice help the main character (or his allies)? What was the point of any of this if the ending is just "everyone dies, the end ". Even if we say you need to have two bad endings for whatever reason, it still feels strange anyway since, if it was literally just one (or two) button push(es) to go back to earth whenever anyone wanted, what was the point of the journey at all? (on that note, I can accept that the cutscene includes a time skip of weeks or months to actually get to the target destination, or the void child speeding things along somehow, but would have been nice if it was explained.). The game also builds up a number of conspiracies related to the start of the great journey, the board, etc and then late-game audiologs you find seem to just say "yeah LMAO none of that was true, idk".

Just feels insulting towards the player to have the endings be like this and leave so much unexplained at the same time.

The game’s ending is intentionally open-ended. And returning to Earth is clearly the worse outcome. But... if you think about the “good ending,” you’ll realize that it’s completely open-ended and nothing is certain. You’re on a ship where thousands of people are still alive and asleep, waiting for you to awaken them. You saved them already. That's good.

You also found the convoy, and it’s clear that several ships are still perfectly intact. In other words, there’s hope. Amira says she’s not getting any signals from the ships, but what does that really mean? That they’re dead? That’s by no means certain. And even if the awake ones had died, there are still many, many thousands of people lying in stasis on those ships, alive and well. So is this ending really that hopeless and dark? Not entirely.

But at the end of the day, this is a satirical, dark game with horror elements. We didn’t want the ending to be all “happiness and flower power”; we just wanted to offer a little hope and a little mystery too. Of course, everyone interprets the game and its ending in their own completely subjective way, so in the end, there’s nothing wrong with that. :)

Originally posted by Bánk B. Varga:

Originally posted by Revenant:

So, no one actually lives in either ending, but in one of them you get to have a weird cosmic child follow you around for some reason. Great. Why wasn't going to the "destination" an option instead? How did either of these choices help the sleepers? How did either choice help the main character (or his allies)? What was the point of any of this if the ending is just "everyone dies, the end ". Even if we say you need to have two bad endings for whatever reason, it still feels strange anyway since, if it was literally just one (or two) button push(es) to go back to earth whenever anyone wanted, what was the point of the journey at all? (on that note, I can accept that the cutscene includes a time skip of weeks or months to actually get to the target destination, or the void child speeding things along somehow, but would have been nice if it was explained.). The game also builds up a number of conspiracies related to the start of the great journey, the board, etc and then late-game audiologs you find seem to just say "yeah LMAO none of that was true, idk".

Just feels insulting towards the player to have the endings be like this and leave so much unexplained at the same time.

The game’s ending is intentionally open-ended. And returning to Earth is clearly the worse outcome. But... if you think about the “good ending,” you’ll realize that it’s completely open-ended and nothing is certain. You’re on a ship where thousands of people are still alive and asleep, waiting for you to awaken them. You saved them already. That's good.

You also found the convoy, and it’s clear that several ships are still perfectly intact. In other words, there’s hope. Amira says she’s not getting any signals from the ships, but what does that really mean? That they’re dead? That’s by no means certain. And even if the awake ones had died, there are still many, many thousands of people lying in stasis on those ships, alive and well. So is this ending really that hopeless and dark? Not entirely.

But at the end of the day, this is a satirical, dark game with horror elements. We didn’t want the ending to be all “happiness and flower power”; we just wanted to offer a little hope and a little mystery too. Of course, everyone interprets the game and its ending in their own completely subjective way, so in the end, there’s nothing wrong with that. :)

I mean, is either ending worse than the other in that interpretation? Is the ship suddenly unable to just warp again? If the "character" chose the earth ending, finds everyone there already dead and the planet uninhabitable then (obviously they would also be quite sad) wouldn't they just turn the ship around and return to the golden journey anyway? I'm not sure if I understand how the endings are any different at all, save for that the void child happened to come along in one case (Which was, apparently, always within his power and him not joining a trip towards the golden journey was just his own arbitrary decision anyway.)

Originally posted by Bánk B. Varga:

Originally posted by MaceWindows:

Also who the hell was that in the spaceship crying in the 'good' ending??

He was the Void Child, and also your son, that you'll never see again because you choose not to go back to Earth. If you managed to find Herbert Westfield's logs, or if you paid close attention to Dr. Nebula's story and dialogues, you'll know that the Void Child convinced Nebula to steer the ship into the black hole while he was in the form of this boy - his son. (and your son in a way, just from another timeline).

Fair enough. I think this wasn't very clear since as far as Im aware we never actually see what your son looks like before then and there was no real indication it was him and/or the void child (compared to the other ending where its obvious)

Originally posted by Revenant:

I mean, is either ending worse than the other in that interpretation? Is the ship suddenly unable to just warp again? If the "character" chose the earth ending, finds everyone there already dead and the planet uninhabitable then (obviously they would also be quite sad) wouldn't they just turn the ship around and return to the golden journey anyway? I'm not sure if I understand how the endings are any different at all, save for that the void child happened to come along in one case (Which was, apparently, always within his power and him not joining a trip towards the golden journey was just his own arbitrary decision anyway.)

I think the biggest thing making the "Return to Earth" ending the bad one is that you're explicitly returning there to die on a planet that can no longer support life as we know it. Your character, and you if you've been paying attention, knows without a doubt that Earth is inhospitable, and he is only holding onto the hope that his family is still alive for him to die with. It's entirely possible that one of the people you brought to the Janitor's Haven would be able to return the ship to the Convoy after your character uses an emergency escape to return planetside, provided the ship *can* still make such a jump, but you were the chief medical doctor on board, leaving the question of whether anyone else awake and alive can safely wake up the Sleepers without you, given we don't know much of anything about what that process entails, or what your character remembers by the end of the game. Dr. Green certainly didn't seem concerned with their wellbeing when her department was getting them...

All in all, I don't think the endings are necessarily "good" or "bad", but more "Holding onto hope in the face of impossible odds" and "Giving into suicidal despair". Both choices are valid, given the circumstances. Likewise, seeing Earth again and getting no signals could be the push to make the character give up on dying with his family and reinvigorate a drive to save humanity, just as seeing the convoy and getting no signals could drive him into despair that he gave up the chance to see his family again and they were all doomed anyway. Your interpretation makes the ending what it is.

As for the Void Child... I think he suggests he could go along with the Golden Journey choice, but he's openly only interested in sadness in its various forms, and the convoy choice is, at its core, a choice made from hope. Even if you take the chance of Aurora 5 rejoining the convoy afterward, for all the sadness your character carries, and all the sorrow in the Island of Memories, Earth in its known state would absolutely dwarf everything else in terms of human sorrow, making it well worth whatever trouble he'd have to go through to join you for it.

Originally posted by Bob Biscuit:

As for the Void Child... I think he suggests he could go along with the Golden Journey choice, but he's openly only interested in sadness in its various forms, and the convoy choice is, at its core, a choice made from hope. Even if you take the chance of Aurora 5 rejoining the convoy afterward, for all the sadness your character carries, and all the sorrow in the Island of Memories, Earth in its known state would absolutely dwarf everything else in terms of human sorrow, making it well worth whatever trouble he'd have to go through to join you for it.

This. 100% this.

In my playthrough I didn't restrain much on fighting with enemies, but avoided using upgraded mutagen, so after the credits I received a guy with normal face, thinking of his family. I looked through "all" endings on YouTube, but didn't notice the one you get if you don't kill anyone at all.

So I'm curious if there's a special cutscene for this kind of gameplay?

Originally posted by Twy:

In my playthrough I didn't restrain much on fighting with enemies, but avoided using upgraded mutagen, so after the credits I received a guy with normal face, thinking of his family. I looked through "all" endings on YouTube, but didn't notice the one you get if you don't kill anyone at all.

So I'm curious if there's a special cutscene for this kind of gameplay?

Wow, you got the very best ending. At least canonically. It is called "There is still hope..."

The after credits endings are work this way: (spoilers)
1: "Abomination" - Use a lot of Mutamods, also upgrade at leasd 3 different Mutatmods to level 3.
2: "I am the Void" - You died at least 20 times during one playtrough. And none of the conditions for a stronger ending were met.
3: "There is still hope..." - You finished all the side quests. And none of the conditions for a stronger ending were met.
4: "Space Disease" - Never use any Mutamods in the game. And none of the conditions for a stronger ending were met.
5: "The Wrench is the KEY!" - Kill at least 20 enemies with the wrench. And none of the conditions for a stronger ending were met.
6: "Everything is funky" - None of the conditions for a stronger ending were met.

The story, as I understand it, revolves around your in game character's choices. Dr. Westfield set everything up with him falling for the Void Child's ploy. He sets you up to be his replacement and to "fix" his choices. He suffers from survivor's guilt and his great sorrow leads to deeper horrors for everyone else. Thus, you are hurting from the get go and must fix something that cannot be fixed.
Do you need to help everyone or do they even matter? Remember you pump a purifier through out the ship designed to kill off mutations, and all of your friends, well, are mutated. You probably just killed off or significantly hurt your friends. They may or may not live beyond the day. You helping them with their own personal goals reflects more on you than anything else; even if you do not receive anything for doing it.
The state of the ship means you will need to wake up more crew to start repairing and maintaining the ship. So you won't be alone as you start the next phase of your life.
Ironically, you, Dr. Westfield, losing all memories means you won't suffer from survivor's guilt nor sorrow of what has happen; you never knew anything better.
Thus you now face the horrors of the unknown, potentially more void child-esque entities, while moving forwards. You know going backwards will lead to a certain doom as stated multiple times though out the story and the void child's explicit interest in sorrow. Only real path towards any potential future, is forwards.

Basically, I do see the story as interesting. I am not happy with some of the bugs stopping me from getting 100% in my first playthrough; if a mutamod machine breaks then you could lose out on getting all mods; You may never obtain the secret weapon; the mutamod upgrade machine is bugged out so you cannot scroll; the void tear bugs out and I cannot go between timelines again; etc.
Still recommend the game as I love Immersive Sims and this scratches that itch real well.
I'll probably do another run when the game gets an update to fix most of these issues. Especially the weird save issue with the harder difficulties.

Originally posted by Recursive Gamer:

The story, as I understand it, revolves around your in game character's choices. Dr. Westfield set everything up with him falling for the Void Child's ploy. He sets you up to be his replacement and to "fix" his choices. He suffers from survivor's guilt and his great sorrow leads to deeper horrors for everyone else. Thus, you are hurting from the get go and must fix something that cannot be fixed.
Do you need to help everyone or do they even matter? Remember you pump a purifier through out the ship designed to kill off mutations, and all of your friends, well, are mutated. You probably just killed off or significantly hurt your friends. They may or may not live beyond the day. You helping them with their own personal goals reflects more on you than anything else; even if you do not receive anything for doing it.
The state of the ship means you will need to wake up more crew to start repairing and maintaining the ship. So you won't be alone as you start the next phase of your life.
Ironically, you, Dr. Westfield, losing all memories means you won't suffer from survivor's guilt nor sorrow of what has happen; you never knew anything better.
Thus you now face the horrors of the unknown, potentially more void child-esque entities, while moving forwards. You know going backwards will lead to a certain doom as stated multiple times though out the story and the void child's explicit interest in sorrow. Only real path towards any potential future, is forwards.

Basically, I do see the story as interesting. I am not happy with some of the bugs stopping me from getting 100% in my first playthrough; if a mutamod machine breaks then you could lose out on getting all mods; You may never obtain the secret weapon; the mutamod upgrade machine is bugged out so you cannot scroll; the void tear bugs out and I cannot go between timelines again; etc.
Still recommend the game as I love Immersive Sims and this scratches that itch real well.
I'll probably do another run when the game gets an update to fix most of these issues. Especially the weird save issue with the harder difficulties.

My man, your story explanation is spot on! It's like close to perfect! :)

Not on the bugs: We already fixed the Mutamod machine bug, and also made new save options. Please update your game to build: 6508

Changelog:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2067820/view/685266627108800733

Originally posted by Recursive Gamer:

Remember you pump a purifier through out the ship designed to kill off mutations, and all of your friends, well, are mutated. You probably just killed off or significantly hurt your friends. They may or may not live beyond the day. You helping them with their own personal goals reflects more on you than anything else; even if you do not receive anything for doing it.

Good summary, but just to add a little nitpick: Two of your friends are robots, so they shouldn't be affected by a purifying agent designed to attack DNA mutations at all.

They're also all in the Janitor's Haven, which IIRC (please correct me if I'm remembering this wrong) is established to kinda exist outside space and time, so I'm not sure the purifier would be pumped in there as well.

Originally posted by Cahalith:

Originally posted by Recursive Gamer:

Remember you pump a purifier through out the ship designed to kill off mutations, and all of your friends, well, are mutated. You probably just killed off or significantly hurt your friends. They may or may not live beyond the day. You helping them with their own personal goals reflects more on you than anything else; even if you do not receive anything for doing it.

Good summary, but just to add a little nitpick: Two of your friends are robots, so they shouldn't be affected by a purifying agent designed to attack DNA mutations at all.

They're also all in the Janitor's Haven, which IIRC (please correct me if I'm remembering this wrong) is established to kinda exist outside space and time, so I'm not sure the purifier would be pumped in there as well.

I thought the purifier just eliminated whatever extradimensional factor caused the mutations to spread out of control, no? If it kills off anyone who had a mutamod, why is the main character still alive in the bathroom cutscenes? (especially the one for eating mutamods like candy)