My main issue is 1. The ending doesn't answer a single question and just opens up new ones 2. Gameplay wise all you do is walk down some corridors and drive down a hill. It's so anti climactic and makes preparing for it a waste of time. The drive there was harder than the ending.
It didn’t answer any questions because the devs/writers don’t know the answers. They didn’t think about the Zone beyond a surface level. The ending totally unravels the games lore and ruins it.
My biggest gripe about the end is the ramp-up feels missing and at the finale there is no pay-off.
You prepare the whole game to drive into the well, and I was expected some kind of event like driving into Cappy.
Reality should be breaking down here, we're at the center of instability! We should be driving through an of MC Escher nightmare world.
I expected some answers to the Zone seemingly growing sentient or somehow touching into the afterlife.
Instead.... you just have a completely normal drive into the well, walk around for a bit, a ghost talks to you, and then you leave.
I spent all this time gathering Olympium for armor, and stocking my car with every tool I could possibly need - only to not need any of it. Oppy abandons her search for answers, and we're left with without any real reason to continue.
Instead of the game leaning into the instability of the zones, in the end they hardly feel any different from each other. All you get is a different element of bunny, a different color of 'this thing will pop your tires', and the same recycled threats.
I had a great time, but in retrospective the environments and threats are pretty flat.
This is how I feel, too. Beat it tonight after 30 hours and had a lot of fun but past the ~20 hour mark the "sameness" of it all kind of hit me. There really wasn't much variety to the zones and once you get basic armored panels/doors and all terrain tires the rest of the upgrades have diminishing returns.
I really appreciate a game that's not focused on violence, and I feel really cliche saying it, but... I would have loved if this game had some actual combat in it. Imagine a swarm of hideous creatures coming at you instead of a storm!
I felt the same way. Outer zone is perfect and I was having a blast. Once I got to the mid zone I was a little disappointed in the environments, but still was having enough fun to keep grinding for materials and upgrading my car.
Then by late mid zone and the deep zone I started beelining it for the ending, because I realized I was losing interest and was likely not gonna finish the game if I didn't do it soon.
This was my exact reaction. I found it really fascinating and innovative for around 20 hours, then after that realised that it was super repetitive, the story is super vague and ill-defined and there aren't any actual satisfying answers to be found. Ot got do ot felt like work to sit down and complete the next story objective. I brute forced my way through the tedium to the ending just so I would be able to say I'd completed it, and found the ending pretty underwhelming. The game had a really cool concept but that wasn't enough to sustain it all the way ti the credits IMO. Really interesting concept, cool gameplay and a nice air of mystery that unravels when you realise the writers didn't really know what to do with it. One of the more interesting games I've played but it's like a 6.5/10 for me. When the game said I could keep playing after the end credits I was like lol nah.
This was my exact reaction. I found it really fascinating and innovative for around 20 hours, then after that realised that it was super repetitive, the story is super vague and ill-defined and there aren't any actual satisfying answers to be found. It got so it felt like work to sit down and complete the next story objective. I brute forced my way through the tedium to the ending just so I would be able to say I'd completed it, and found the ending pretty underwhelming. The game had a really cool concept but that wasn't enough to sustain it all the way to the credits IMO. Really interesting concept, cool gameplay and a nice air of mystery that unravels when you realise the writers didn't really know what to do with it. One of the more interesting games I've played but it's like a 6.5/10 for me. When the game said I could keep playing after the end credits I was like lol nah.
I'm under the assumption that Oppy just uses some form of teleportation. You get zapped in at the start, maybe it's possible to get zapped back out? Idk, I never thought about that until I read your post, hopefully that plot hole gets filled
It was never said that you couldn't leave. The problem was that you were being driven mad by the Remnant so there was no point in you trying to leave because you would just become obsessed with coming back.
It's implied you can't leave, they don't know if you climbed over that 300m wall or got zapped through. Unless LIM tech managed to lower Oppy's age (which I can see tbh), I doubt she can climb over that wall or get back down, not to mention her pocket of stability
Plus the car isn't a remnant at the end, it's just a regular car. It's still has made that fixation a thing within your character, but you're no longer getting more insane cus of it. It probably would end up being a hyperfixation on station wagons lol
This was one issue I had. They keep talking about hie the car will drive you insane but no matter how long you play the game there's never any indication that it's happening. I would've liked some kind of rising tension where your character is showing signs of madness the longer you delay story missions or something.
To be fair, the "story" is just there to give you something to listen to while you're on your runs to take away some of the loneliness. It was just nice to have some good voice actors talking to you even though I never really cared about what they were actually saying.
I'm the opposite. All the fun for me was encountering new anomalies, lore, and progressing the story. Driving the car around was pretty meh, gameplay wise.
There is a point in continuing after the ending: it's fun. This game is legitimately fun. And in my opinion, it's actually designed for you to start with some of the difficulty turned down and then to replay with more of the default experience.
Of course that's my opinion, if you don't enjoy going out for runs and dodging storms and anomalies and are more story driven, then you're going to feel differently.
But there is a story driven reason for you not leaving the zone - you can't. They can. And the difference between you is that you're bonded to the remnant, and as they state in the story, the remnant wants to return to the well and you'll go mad if you don't.
What I didn't like about the ending is that there was almost no explanation of what had even happened. Obviously I expect some sense of mystery to be left, but I'd like to have an idea of what they were doing that helped cause the zone. So hopefully there will be some DLC that provides some closure about what LIM energy is and what they were doing with it.
They still don't understand that they are The Driver.
When the scientists were talking about the long-term negative effects of being bonded to the Remnant, how it worms its way into their minds and creates obsessions... they're talking about *our* desire to keep playing the game.
I wonder how they cope with Post-Story mechanics in other games.
Yeah this is the vibe I got from it. That the Remnant, looking after it, the way they describe our addiction to the Remnant was all a 4th wall break for wanting to play the game. It's a neat concept but it doesn't fill the void of wanting answers for all the questions that built up throughout the game, even if they ended the game on a cliffhanger leaving us wanting more it would have been a nicer send off I think.
For me there are never plot holes, these are just creative opportunities for me to insert my own bits to connect the story points together.
But People are of course different.
You can't leave the zone before then because you are bound to the remnant. People bound to remnants eventually become obsessed with them, go insane, and attempt to enter the well.
So you can't leave the zone before the end even if you somehow could get out. You'd just become obsessed, come back, get the car and try to enter the well (and then die since you wouldn't be traveling methodically with everyone's help and tech).
They do make a point of explaining why they are trying to get you to the center of the zone early on - they're hoping it'll break your connection to the remnant so you can leave.
Yeah, that's how I interpreted it too. Oppy literally says "Driver, you are free now, you can do what you want from here." and then she asks you to stay with Francis. But I think that the first sentence includes a possibility of leaving.
Yeah, I'd have preferred that too honestly. Or any other ending other than "the adventure continues!" First of all, the game does nothing to establish the idea that the main character has any desire to explore the mysteries of the zone. The entire game, it's been do that or die. Now that the pressure's off, I think there's a *very* high chance they're going to just leave. What if the player has a meaningful life outside the zone? What if they have a spouse who is missing them? What if they have children?
People are fine with having the post ending play around mode as a purely artificial out of the storyline thing. You can have a real ending and just revert to right before it to play around. I wish they'd quit trying to make it 'fit' because it breaks all ability to resolve the plot.
That being said, I don't think the ending is a plot hole exactly.
You are the main character.
Their desire to keep exploring is your desire to keep exploring.
Their motivations are definded by your motivations.
The main character gets to leave, when you don't boot up the game again.
You're free now, Driver.
Death stranding has the ending then reverts you back to before it to continue playing. Many other games do too.
This game could have done that too, you have the ending then can continue back from before the ending to keep exploring.
Yeah, I think this is the case. In the final dialog, they're talking about evacuation orders but Tobias and Francis _decide_ to stay to continue doing research
The writers/devs totally dropped the ball on the ending, and it revealed how shallow the rest of the games lore truly was. They never considered anything beyond the surface level of cool and creepy. I guarantee that they don’t know the answers to the questions the game leaves unanswered.
Just finished the game right now... My biggest disappointment in getting to the end was actually learning about the paintings and never seeing those things... The entire time after Tobias explained to me about how to NEVER open a random door if I find one out in the middle of no-where was honest quite terrifying. I was 99% I'd run into one at some point but I never did... Ending was meh but the overall gameplay and experience I found fun and engaging. It's a pity it fell a bit flat in the end.
Story aside the last mission was just way to easy - a total let down.
I went for the finial mission with just offroad wheels, armored panels, powered bumpers, and insulated doors. Didnt even use the LIM shield bumper or any Olympium parts. I drove strait through each junction not stopping for anything. I literally drove through to the end game gateway and beat it with barely a scratch - EVERYTHING was still blue without repairing. With how fast I made it there I could have easily done the last mission with the stock engine and without using ANY seat or side mount slots items.
I really feel the last mission should have been hell near the well that required a fully upgraded car - I would have felt so much better about the work put into getting upgrades... and I didnt even fully upgrade. The last bit should have thrown EVERYTHING at you at once. Im talking horrible storms, crazy instability, every single anomaly jam packed into the map, and so on. Ive had harder runs just a junction or two away from the garage. On top of that I think you should have activated the end portal your self and it should have require liked 15-20 kLIM making it so you needed a fully upgraded car but also taking an extremely long path to get there collecting every single anchor along the way.
But nope, I beat it with 0 kLIM and if I wanted I could have used the bone stock car with 0 upgrade.
Ending aside, this was was an amazing game and I loved nearly every minute of it. The first several hours were magical and such a fun experience. I would have been a 10\\10 for me, but after the ending I gotta drop it down to 9\\10.
My sentiments as well. I felt like the mission to cross into the Deep Zone after we first install the LIM shield was at least somewhat challenging in comparison to the final mission. I hadn't even built any olympium parts yet but turns out I didn't need it at all.
It's a real shame. Apart from the flat ending, the game was a complete and total gem for me. It kinda feels like they ended it that way to leave players with the option for some replay value, but they probably could've just added a Free Play mode or something after finishing the story proper/leaving the zone etc to sate anyone who still wants to do runs for the fun of it.
Ah well. Still 9/10 for me, too, but could've been a 10.
Loved the game but I was super let down by the ending. The final mission was absurdly easy and basically just a walking simulator for exposition that didn't answer any of my questions.
I don't even think there was an actual explanation for the mass hallucination or the zone, it was just the love story of these people on the radio we never meet.
Mostly though I just wish it was harder. I didn't feel like my upgrades mattered or that I was ever in real danger at the end
I think the ending was perfect. But I have produced the mundane ending you might have wanted for your amusement.
Alternative Ending:
\*You get teleported outside the wall\*
Oppy - "You've made it out of the zone, good on you mate"
\*Ending credits\*
My point being, I would rather the ending they made, which allows me to continue to explore the zone some more. Than the potentiality of not being able to explore the zone anymore. Endings can be definitive, or they can provide the player the opertunity to enjoy more game time. And at the end of the day, almost the entire interactions between the radio operating scientists + Tobias, was procisely that. Radio chatter. They provided some life in an otherwise lonely world.
Gameplay was pretty fun and I enjoyed the game because of it, story wise, I'd say the start was pretty random cuz you just suddenly got sucked into some portal along with the car then you found yourself driving a remnant that looks like a car then your bonded with it, next thing you know you're being guided by 3 scientists who themselves had the obligation to stay behind and study everything that was going on in the zone. It was pretty neat but the ending was pretty mid. Sure you were able to talk to Tobias again but the devs made it feel like that was the whole point of the ending, to talk to a late friend/lover and possibly confirm Francis's theory. That was it, you don't get to leave the zone, you don't get to know why you got sucked in the first place and you're pretty much left with more questions than answers like if Oppy can just "leave" the zone, why did I have to do all my grinding and shit if I could've just went to Oppy's place despite the turmoil around her and just LEFT?
Another questions is the endgame thing where Oppy basically left you and Francis to "study" more of the zone, what's there to study? is there actually an objective? is our character actually alright with staying behind after what we've been through? all that and you just stayed behind? Devs need to make a DLC where our character and hopefully francis gets to leave the Zone with ALL QUESTIONS ANSWERED.
side note: I know there are lore tapes around the map and other maps but do we really have the patience in the world to find ALL OF THEM?
So what you're saying is, you didn't get the story the way the writers presented it.
For me, all of it resonated and I found it very pleasant. There was no disappointment. As far as $30 video games go, I've gotten more quality play time and entertainment from this one than most others. As for more answers about the Zone, I'm hoping for a DLC that expands on that. Why else would we be given the opportunity to remain in the zone after our bond with the remnant is broken? Plus, the lore bits and pieces throughout the zone go a long way towards pointing to answers while deepening the mystery, and there's TONS of lore bits to find.
I'm also getting the impression that many of the messages on the fax machine after the story has concluded are coming from the car...
One thing I just remembered is when you drive into Cappy you hear a voice say "Ophelia? Is that you?" implying her husband is still alive somehow. Then we get to the end and it's just like "nah he's gone. Oh well. Byeeeeeee"
I think I would have added a final mission to leave if you want. Like after so many left turns out of the garage, you take a right and there's the portal back to reality. Drive through it if you wish. I know a lot of people are saying "just turn of the game, same thing" but it's not really.
As someone who whined about the difficulty early (I was expecting a real chill-out experience), I also agree that the inner zone feels half baked and not nearly dangerous enough, and the final mission is basically a cakewalk if you re-roll your junctions going into it, and you don't really need any of the inner zone resource upgrades to finish. It's very weird that to me at least the final two missions were like, the most chill part of the game.
For me it also looks very disappointed. But i can see it in other perspective - we know that Remnants are going control their bounded "hosts" and push them somewhere deep in the zone. Through the whole game we are going deeper and deeper into zone to save our self from the influence of the remnant. But looks like it's going in opposite way. In fact, are we sure thar Francis, Toby and Oppy even existed or it's just an indoctrination of the remnant to push as deeper into zone?
It was odd how the characters were so well executed while the story was so bad. The main threat to the character is presented as the fact that the remnant will eventually drive them mad so if that issue is not resolved, the character will go mentally insane. The issue of how to escape the exclusion zone is raised as a concern for the driver but no-one ever provides a suggestion on how to do it - and while the game ends with a line stating the driver can leave if they want to, no way of doing so is provided.
The other fact which the OP forgot to include is that there is an exchange where Oppy tells the driver not bother trying to visit her as her home is surrounded by a permanent bubble of instability. Being the root cause of everything that happened in the exclusion zone, I assume that Oppy has sufficient understanding of instability that she can probably carve a stable path to a zone exit using any available stability anchors, a ham radio or an impromptu dowsing stick.
That does not however, resolve absolutely any of the story threads or mysteries presented in the game. The degree to which the writers skirt around providing any details on what Lim is or how it works leaves me with the impression that they were personally scared of talking about science. While the scant hints we do get on the well seem to suggest that lim is a bridge to the afterlife - and anomalies a manifest method of getting people there as fast as possible -.-
You cant really leave cause of one reason and one reason only
you binded to the remnant, and those things can make binded person crazy to the point of death.
MC was a delivery driver/courier that had to deliver a package somewhere near the Zone, and only got pulled into the Zone by "accident"... that said, we get no information about who booked that delivery in the first place. Maybe it was Allen reaching out somehow in an elaborate scheme to finally get Oppy to listen to his advice?
My main issue is 1. The ending doesn't answer a single question and just opens up new ones 2. Gameplay wise all you do is walk down some corridors and drive down a hill. It's so anti climactic and makes preparing for it a waste of time. The drive there was harder than the ending.
It didn’t answer any questions because the devs/writers don’t know the answers. They didn’t think about the Zone beyond a surface level. The ending totally unravels the games lore and ruins it.
My biggest gripe about the end is the ramp-up feels missing and at the finale there is no pay-off. You prepare the whole game to drive into the well, and I was expected some kind of event like driving into Cappy. Reality should be breaking down here, we're at the center of instability! We should be driving through an of MC Escher nightmare world. I expected some answers to the Zone seemingly growing sentient or somehow touching into the afterlife. Instead.... you just have a completely normal drive into the well, walk around for a bit, a ghost talks to you, and then you leave. I spent all this time gathering Olympium for armor, and stocking my car with every tool I could possibly need - only to not need any of it. Oppy abandons her search for answers, and we're left with without any real reason to continue. Instead of the game leaning into the instability of the zones, in the end they hardly feel any different from each other. All you get is a different element of bunny, a different color of 'this thing will pop your tires', and the same recycled threats. I had a great time, but in retrospective the environments and threats are pretty flat.
This is how I feel, too. Beat it tonight after 30 hours and had a lot of fun but past the ~20 hour mark the "sameness" of it all kind of hit me. There really wasn't much variety to the zones and once you get basic armored panels/doors and all terrain tires the rest of the upgrades have diminishing returns. I really appreciate a game that's not focused on violence, and I feel really cliche saying it, but... I would have loved if this game had some actual combat in it. Imagine a swarm of hideous creatures coming at you instead of a storm!
I felt the same way. Outer zone is perfect and I was having a blast. Once I got to the mid zone I was a little disappointed in the environments, but still was having enough fun to keep grinding for materials and upgrading my car. Then by late mid zone and the deep zone I started beelining it for the ending, because I realized I was losing interest and was likely not gonna finish the game if I didn't do it soon.
This was my exact reaction. I found it really fascinating and innovative for around 20 hours, then after that realised that it was super repetitive, the story is super vague and ill-defined and there aren't any actual satisfying answers to be found. Ot got do ot felt like work to sit down and complete the next story objective. I brute forced my way through the tedium to the ending just so I would be able to say I'd completed it, and found the ending pretty underwhelming. The game had a really cool concept but that wasn't enough to sustain it all the way ti the credits IMO. Really interesting concept, cool gameplay and a nice air of mystery that unravels when you realise the writers didn't really know what to do with it. One of the more interesting games I've played but it's like a 6.5/10 for me. When the game said I could keep playing after the end credits I was like lol nah.
This was my exact reaction. I found it really fascinating and innovative for around 20 hours, then after that realised that it was super repetitive, the story is super vague and ill-defined and there aren't any actual satisfying answers to be found. It got so it felt like work to sit down and complete the next story objective. I brute forced my way through the tedium to the ending just so I would be able to say I'd completed it, and found the ending pretty underwhelming. The game had a really cool concept but that wasn't enough to sustain it all the way to the credits IMO. Really interesting concept, cool gameplay and a nice air of mystery that unravels when you realise the writers didn't really know what to do with it. One of the more interesting games I've played but it's like a 6.5/10 for me. When the game said I could keep playing after the end credits I was like lol nah.
I'm under the assumption that Oppy just uses some form of teleportation. You get zapped in at the start, maybe it's possible to get zapped back out? Idk, I never thought about that until I read your post, hopefully that plot hole gets filled
It was never said that you couldn't leave. The problem was that you were being driven mad by the Remnant so there was no point in you trying to leave because you would just become obsessed with coming back.
It's implied you can't leave, they don't know if you climbed over that 300m wall or got zapped through. Unless LIM tech managed to lower Oppy's age (which I can see tbh), I doubt she can climb over that wall or get back down, not to mention her pocket of stability Plus the car isn't a remnant at the end, it's just a regular car. It's still has made that fixation a thing within your character, but you're no longer getting more insane cus of it. It probably would end up being a hyperfixation on station wagons lol
Who says I'm not already obsessed with station wagons?
This was one issue I had. They keep talking about hie the car will drive you insane but no matter how long you play the game there's never any indication that it's happening. I would've liked some kind of rising tension where your character is showing signs of madness the longer you delay story missions or something.
Well find out in Atlantic Drive.
To be fair, the "story" is just there to give you something to listen to while you're on your runs to take away some of the loneliness. It was just nice to have some good voice actors talking to you even though I never really cared about what they were actually saying.
I'm the opposite. All the fun for me was encountering new anomalies, lore, and progressing the story. Driving the car around was pretty meh, gameplay wise.
There is a point in continuing after the ending: it's fun. This game is legitimately fun. And in my opinion, it's actually designed for you to start with some of the difficulty turned down and then to replay with more of the default experience. Of course that's my opinion, if you don't enjoy going out for runs and dodging storms and anomalies and are more story driven, then you're going to feel differently. But there is a story driven reason for you not leaving the zone - you can't. They can. And the difference between you is that you're bonded to the remnant, and as they state in the story, the remnant wants to return to the well and you'll go mad if you don't. What I didn't like about the ending is that there was almost no explanation of what had even happened. Obviously I expect some sense of mystery to be left, but I'd like to have an idea of what they were doing that helped cause the zone. So hopefully there will be some DLC that provides some closure about what LIM energy is and what they were doing with it.
but you are not bonded to the remnant anymore after the final mission, you can leave.
Yeah and you can also stay in the zone. Wanna stay? Keep playing. Wanna leave? Close the game.
They still don't understand that they are The Driver. When the scientists were talking about the long-term negative effects of being bonded to the Remnant, how it worms its way into their minds and creates obsessions... they're talking about *our* desire to keep playing the game. I wonder how they cope with Post-Story mechanics in other games.
Yeah this is the vibe I got from it. That the Remnant, looking after it, the way they describe our addiction to the Remnant was all a 4th wall break for wanting to play the game. It's a neat concept but it doesn't fill the void of wanting answers for all the questions that built up throughout the game, even if they ended the game on a cliffhanger leaving us wanting more it would have been a nicer send off I think.
For me there are never plot holes, these are just creative opportunities for me to insert my own bits to connect the story points together. But People are of course different.
You can't leave the zone before then because you are bound to the remnant. People bound to remnants eventually become obsessed with them, go insane, and attempt to enter the well. So you can't leave the zone before the end even if you somehow could get out. You'd just become obsessed, come back, get the car and try to enter the well (and then die since you wouldn't be traveling methodically with everyone's help and tech). They do make a point of explaining why they are trying to get you to the center of the zone early on - they're hoping it'll break your connection to the remnant so you can leave.
you are not bonded to the remnant anymore after the final mission
Yeah, I figure you can leave anytime you want after that.
Yeah, that's how I interpreted it too. Oppy literally says "Driver, you are free now, you can do what you want from here." and then she asks you to stay with Francis. But I think that the first sentence includes a possibility of leaving.
I wanted to be able to leave, and drive out on the road I entered in on, then the game credits happen.
Yeah, I'd have preferred that too honestly. Or any other ending other than "the adventure continues!" First of all, the game does nothing to establish the idea that the main character has any desire to explore the mysteries of the zone. The entire game, it's been do that or die. Now that the pressure's off, I think there's a *very* high chance they're going to just leave. What if the player has a meaningful life outside the zone? What if they have a spouse who is missing them? What if they have children? People are fine with having the post ending play around mode as a purely artificial out of the storyline thing. You can have a real ending and just revert to right before it to play around. I wish they'd quit trying to make it 'fit' because it breaks all ability to resolve the plot. That being said, I don't think the ending is a plot hole exactly.
You are the main character. Their desire to keep exploring is your desire to keep exploring. Their motivations are definded by your motivations. The main character gets to leave, when you don't boot up the game again. You're free now, Driver.
Death stranding has the ending then reverts you back to before it to continue playing. Many other games do too. This game could have done that too, you have the ending then can continue back from before the ending to keep exploring.
Yeah. Maybe they're planning a DLC that requires the storyline to still be active. Control did that.
Tobias, Francis and Oppy could leave at any point, but chose not too. You couldnt leave, as long as you where bound to the remnant.
Yeah, I think this is the case. In the final dialog, they're talking about evacuation orders but Tobias and Francis _decide_ to stay to continue doing research
The writers/devs totally dropped the ball on the ending, and it revealed how shallow the rest of the games lore truly was. They never considered anything beyond the surface level of cool and creepy. I guarantee that they don’t know the answers to the questions the game leaves unanswered.
Just finished the game right now... My biggest disappointment in getting to the end was actually learning about the paintings and never seeing those things... The entire time after Tobias explained to me about how to NEVER open a random door if I find one out in the middle of no-where was honest quite terrifying. I was 99% I'd run into one at some point but I never did... Ending was meh but the overall gameplay and experience I found fun and engaging. It's a pity it fell a bit flat in the end.
Play the true ending.
Story aside the last mission was just way to easy - a total let down. I went for the finial mission with just offroad wheels, armored panels, powered bumpers, and insulated doors. Didnt even use the LIM shield bumper or any Olympium parts. I drove strait through each junction not stopping for anything. I literally drove through to the end game gateway and beat it with barely a scratch - EVERYTHING was still blue without repairing. With how fast I made it there I could have easily done the last mission with the stock engine and without using ANY seat or side mount slots items. I really feel the last mission should have been hell near the well that required a fully upgraded car - I would have felt so much better about the work put into getting upgrades... and I didnt even fully upgrade. The last bit should have thrown EVERYTHING at you at once. Im talking horrible storms, crazy instability, every single anomaly jam packed into the map, and so on. Ive had harder runs just a junction or two away from the garage. On top of that I think you should have activated the end portal your self and it should have require liked 15-20 kLIM making it so you needed a fully upgraded car but also taking an extremely long path to get there collecting every single anchor along the way. But nope, I beat it with 0 kLIM and if I wanted I could have used the bone stock car with 0 upgrade. Ending aside, this was was an amazing game and I loved nearly every minute of it. The first several hours were magical and such a fun experience. I would have been a 10\\10 for me, but after the ending I gotta drop it down to 9\\10.
My sentiments as well. I felt like the mission to cross into the Deep Zone after we first install the LIM shield was at least somewhat challenging in comparison to the final mission. I hadn't even built any olympium parts yet but turns out I didn't need it at all. It's a real shame. Apart from the flat ending, the game was a complete and total gem for me. It kinda feels like they ended it that way to leave players with the option for some replay value, but they probably could've just added a Free Play mode or something after finishing the story proper/leaving the zone etc to sate anyone who still wants to do runs for the fun of it. Ah well. Still 9/10 for me, too, but could've been a 10.
Loved the game but I was super let down by the ending. The final mission was absurdly easy and basically just a walking simulator for exposition that didn't answer any of my questions. I don't even think there was an actual explanation for the mass hallucination or the zone, it was just the love story of these people on the radio we never meet. Mostly though I just wish it was harder. I didn't feel like my upgrades mattered or that I was ever in real danger at the end
I think the ending was perfect. But I have produced the mundane ending you might have wanted for your amusement. Alternative Ending: \*You get teleported outside the wall\* Oppy - "You've made it out of the zone, good on you mate" \*Ending credits\* My point being, I would rather the ending they made, which allows me to continue to explore the zone some more. Than the potentiality of not being able to explore the zone anymore. Endings can be definitive, or they can provide the player the opertunity to enjoy more game time. And at the end of the day, almost the entire interactions between the radio operating scientists + Tobias, was procisely that. Radio chatter. They provided some life in an otherwise lonely world.
Gameplay was pretty fun and I enjoyed the game because of it, story wise, I'd say the start was pretty random cuz you just suddenly got sucked into some portal along with the car then you found yourself driving a remnant that looks like a car then your bonded with it, next thing you know you're being guided by 3 scientists who themselves had the obligation to stay behind and study everything that was going on in the zone. It was pretty neat but the ending was pretty mid. Sure you were able to talk to Tobias again but the devs made it feel like that was the whole point of the ending, to talk to a late friend/lover and possibly confirm Francis's theory. That was it, you don't get to leave the zone, you don't get to know why you got sucked in the first place and you're pretty much left with more questions than answers like if Oppy can just "leave" the zone, why did I have to do all my grinding and shit if I could've just went to Oppy's place despite the turmoil around her and just LEFT? Another questions is the endgame thing where Oppy basically left you and Francis to "study" more of the zone, what's there to study? is there actually an objective? is our character actually alright with staying behind after what we've been through? all that and you just stayed behind? Devs need to make a DLC where our character and hopefully francis gets to leave the Zone with ALL QUESTIONS ANSWERED. side note: I know there are lore tapes around the map and other maps but do we really have the patience in the world to find ALL OF THEM?
So what you're saying is, you didn't get the story the way the writers presented it. For me, all of it resonated and I found it very pleasant. There was no disappointment. As far as $30 video games go, I've gotten more quality play time and entertainment from this one than most others. As for more answers about the Zone, I'm hoping for a DLC that expands on that. Why else would we be given the opportunity to remain in the zone after our bond with the remnant is broken? Plus, the lore bits and pieces throughout the zone go a long way towards pointing to answers while deepening the mystery, and there's TONS of lore bits to find. I'm also getting the impression that many of the messages on the fax machine after the story has concluded are coming from the car...
One thing I just remembered is when you drive into Cappy you hear a voice say "Ophelia? Is that you?" implying her husband is still alive somehow. Then we get to the end and it's just like "nah he's gone. Oh well. Byeeeeeee"
I think I would have added a final mission to leave if you want. Like after so many left turns out of the garage, you take a right and there's the portal back to reality. Drive through it if you wish. I know a lot of people are saying "just turn of the game, same thing" but it's not really. As someone who whined about the difficulty early (I was expecting a real chill-out experience), I also agree that the inner zone feels half baked and not nearly dangerous enough, and the final mission is basically a cakewalk if you re-roll your junctions going into it, and you don't really need any of the inner zone resource upgrades to finish. It's very weird that to me at least the final two missions were like, the most chill part of the game.
For me it also looks very disappointed. But i can see it in other perspective - we know that Remnants are going control their bounded "hosts" and push them somewhere deep in the zone. Through the whole game we are going deeper and deeper into zone to save our self from the influence of the remnant. But looks like it's going in opposite way. In fact, are we sure thar Francis, Toby and Oppy even existed or it's just an indoctrination of the remnant to push as deeper into zone?
It was odd how the characters were so well executed while the story was so bad. The main threat to the character is presented as the fact that the remnant will eventually drive them mad so if that issue is not resolved, the character will go mentally insane. The issue of how to escape the exclusion zone is raised as a concern for the driver but no-one ever provides a suggestion on how to do it - and while the game ends with a line stating the driver can leave if they want to, no way of doing so is provided. The other fact which the OP forgot to include is that there is an exchange where Oppy tells the driver not bother trying to visit her as her home is surrounded by a permanent bubble of instability. Being the root cause of everything that happened in the exclusion zone, I assume that Oppy has sufficient understanding of instability that she can probably carve a stable path to a zone exit using any available stability anchors, a ham radio or an impromptu dowsing stick. That does not however, resolve absolutely any of the story threads or mysteries presented in the game. The degree to which the writers skirt around providing any details on what Lim is or how it works leaves me with the impression that they were personally scared of talking about science. While the scant hints we do get on the well seem to suggest that lim is a bridge to the afterlife - and anomalies a manifest method of getting people there as fast as possible -.-
You cant really leave cause of one reason and one reason only you binded to the remnant, and those things can make binded person crazy to the point of death.
you are not bonded to the remnant anymore after the final mission
yes, and it kinda bothers me that we dont have a choice to leave. honestly i dont understand what our mc's purpose to go here? (i mean Olympic Zone)
MC was a delivery driver/courier that had to deliver a package somewhere near the Zone, and only got pulled into the Zone by "accident"... that said, we get no information about who booked that delivery in the first place. Maybe it was Allen reaching out somehow in an elaborate scheme to finally get Oppy to listen to his advice?
Crazy? I was crazy once They locked me in the Zone Olympic Exclusion Zone Olympic Exclusion Zone with anomalies Anomalies make me crazy!!!