So...lets talk about that ending. If you want to play the game, go do that, and come back. It's only 5 hours long (it took me 7 cause I stopped a lot and wandered around looking for one missing anomaly for over an hour only to find it where I started!). If you don't want to but still want to know what the hell I was talking about at the end of my review about a gimmick ending, read on.
Spoilers again. Last warning.
The whole island trip is a time loop?!?! Whaaaaaaaaa?
It's pretty excellently foreshadowed too. The ghosts give clues about Alex having "tried to do this before" or "this is not the first time". It's vague enough to not give it away but clever enough to make the twist ending not feel completely out of left field. Plus there are other time loops in the game (something I couldn't mention in the review because the mere existence of the mechanic is a spoiler) that cross over into full blown time travel when Alex goes back to the past. It's a twist that I haven't really seen in a game that makes you want to explore all the other details of the game, as well as looking online, which leads to the ARG. Hence me calling it kind of a gimmick in the review, but it led to a fan community asking the question, is leave possible?
Still cool shit though.
*For those reading who didn't play, Maggie Adler is the only permanent resident on the island who recently died. You can find letters from her which explains her attempts, with her friend Ana, to communicate and even try to help the ghosts on the island. Ana got pulled into the ghosts "time realm" and sadness ensues.
I got what I thought was the best possible ending. Ren and Nona get together, convinced Micheal not to leave in the past so he is alive, he is still together with Clarissa so she doesn't hate Alex, and Jonas is friends with Alex. But then as Alex starts to monologue about her future life, the glitches start up again and Alex talks about leaving to Edwards Island for the party. The whole thing is a damn time loop that Alex may or may not be stuck in. I say "may not" as other "Alex's" in the game that give you advice are other people who have played the game hinting at multiple universes (which you also get to do in front of mirrors at the end to give other players advice....or be evil and give them poor advice).
There is also Alex's monologuing at the end where she knows what her friends do for a significant time frame, like if they go to school out of town, which makes me think this Alex and friends is free but the time skip is for an alternate reality Alex who hasn't escaped...? Or, does the time loop happen just a bit later, like the gang escape for a while, then are sucked back in at an indeterminate time?
How do you know what you know Alex? When does the loop start/end?
Like, holy shit, is it my Alex stuck in a time loop or all possible Alex's? If my Alex is free, then some Alex's would be trapped, while others.....wait. Is this a Bioshock Infinite ending? Are there "constants and variables". What is the time frame of the time loop if you can revisit the past on the island? Maybe Alex is free for a while and gets looped to before Micheal dies but Alex only noticed when she goes back in time on the island and ahhhhhhh.......Is it. Is this Back to the Future rules or alternate universe rules? Is my Alex distinguishable from other Alex's? And...is this even a question worth asking? Is it a question without an answer?
This makes New Game + so valuable and my SECOND SPOILER warning. If you haven't played this game a 2nd time you absolutely should. It is drastically different. If you reload the game you get the option to "continue timeline"....which tells me it should be the same Alex, my Alex, and not an alternate reality one. Or, maybe not.
SPOILER WARNING FOR A VERY DIFFERENT NEW GAME +
This is were the ending actually doesn't feel like a gimmick because it gives a plausible reason to play the game again. And, incredibly, the game changes a lot. I can't think of another game that made this many changes for a 2nd playthrough. I mean, it helps to have a short game, and this wasn't available at PC release (PS4 did though), but it's still pretty damn cool.
The NG+ is significantly different from the first playthrough. The glitches become more intense. Creepy images flashing onto screen linger longer. Some parts of the game are skipped entirely with Alex having the option to comment on it. Alex has new lines of dialogue questioning if she has done this before, if other characters have done this before, and can now call out the foreshadowing from the ghosts! She can question them and find out if "leave is possible". There are also new objects in the game world like new radios that Alex can use to try to warn... uh, her self via broadcast. She even hears a different Alex try to warn her early on as if she has attempted this numerous times.
You can play through the game, a shortened version of it, just as before so you can get a different outcome to the interpersonal conflicts if you so please. In this version, the only real difference I made was at the very end. I decided to go the sacrificial route, closing the portal with the radio, rather than talking the ghosts out of their possession plan. It didn't really change anything weirdly. You still wake up on the ferry. Everything ends the same with Alex getting time looped again.
This time though, right after the time loop, you get the hidden ending that takes place outside a convenience store which Alex brings out her radio for and hears the warning about not going to Edwards Island. The group is a little freaked out about hearing Alex through the radio, the fickle teenagers decide to ditch the party and go get pizza instead, and it ends with a "how do you know Jonas, Alex?" stinger to make you question if Micheal is alive or dead....goddamnit.
Click on picture to enlarge.
Backing up a bit, while recording the last warning message, Alex says to Jonas that this won't help them but will help another Alex somewhere else. This should put the final nail in the coffin for the same Alex always, linear timeline theory and conclude that this game uses alternate universes. The ghosts themselves exist in a universe outside of the main one, a place where time loops infinitely, and are trying to possess the gang to get back. But I can't help but be selfish here and ask, did I save my Alex or just an Alex? Is this a meaningless question? (Unlike No Mans Sky, I actually like this existential crisis).
No wait. Why would NG+ Alex question her reality if it wasn't the same Alex? A new Alex, like in the first playthrough, doesn't see the entire trip as being Deja Vu. Shit...BUT Alex treats the radio warning pretty callously thinking it's just a fail safe and doesn't seem 100% sold it will work.....or....
Or, the ghosts are the key. (This is what I think actually happened. The ending is purposely ambiguous about some things to make people do what I just did, go crazy, so this is my theory). The ghosts say that they have witnessed the end of the universe over and over again. They also mention that they tried to do a fast possession with Ana but it failed. They think possession works better when they "wait and soak" - their words. This would imply that Alex has succeeded in leaving the island, many times, only that she is destined to return to the island so the ghosts can continue to work on possessing them next time the universe starts again. Wither the time loop is immediate or if Alex lives the rest of her life is irrelevant. It IS the same Alex and alternate reality Alex's at the same time. The question really is meaningless.
Well....that's what I think anyway.
Great game. Great twist ending that convinces you to play the New Game + for an answer to "Is leave possible". The answer is yes, and if that is a future for my Alex, or just an Alex, is not a question worth pondering. Or, I should stop trying to apply logic to this time bending story.
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Side note: I know they are not technically ghosts even though the game itself calls them "ghosts" as a short hand. Really don't feel like writing "extra-dimensional beings who are neither alive nor dead" every time.
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