Human Revolution - Ending(s) and story (Big spoilers, duh)

[Kelron]

I know this is the right decision. It doesn't help.

Eliza spoke of choice, of letting the world choose its own path. It's not my responsibility to choose for them. In a way I'm still choosing. I'm choosing to snuff out the lives of hundreds of people, choosing to cover up a momentous event. Yet what else can I do?

Should I play along with Sarif, in gratitude for all he's done for me? He gave me my life back, twice. I like him, even if I've never considered him a friend. But he hid from me things he had no right to hide, whatever his reasons (am I doing the same now?). Above all, he lost me. He lost me when he told me - told ME of all people - that he wasn't creating super soldiers. I can't allow him to lie to the world, to continue unchecked. For all the good this technology does, I can't help but be scared of where it may lead.

Deep down, I agree with Darrow. I have to stop what he's doing here, I can't justify his actions, but the fact of what he's done today can't be argued with. Augmentations are dangerous, they place too much power in the individual. Taggart told me, so did many other people, that augmentations would change me, that they change human nature. I dismissed them as narrow-minded, but I'm living proof. I've killed so many people to get here, this point where I'm deciding the future of humanity. I've stolen because I could, stolen from total strangers for no other reason than their possessions were useful to me. The social implants are the worst of all. Does "human nature" still hold meaning if I can sway someone to act against their nature with a few chemicals?

I know I'm still human. I like to think I've acted for good. But I can no longer deny that augmentation has changed me for the worse. Humanity must find its own path ahead. I can't be trusted to decide the future, and neither can Taggart, Sarif or Darrow.

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The biggest criticism I can level at Human Revolution is it doesn't push the boundaries of gameplay out like the original did. It's like an exceptionally good tribute act, it ticks all the right boxes but doesn't stray from its comfort zone. But it does something the original never managed to - it makes me seriously think about the decisions I'm making. I care about its characters, I care about its world and about the problems it presents. I don't empathise with fictional characters easily, but it put me in the shoes of Jensen, I felt like I was choosing as him rather than as an analytical player behind an empty RPG hero.

I was feeling a little disappointed as I reached the end. The boss fight didn't help. Three buttons to press, three distasteful options, taking me out of the illusion and back at my keyboard. Then Eliza offered the 4th option, and it hit me like a rock. I knew I had to do it, but it upset me. It was genuinely hard for me to walk down that final corridor. I haven't cared that much about a game since Planescape: Torment.

[Kevin]

Yep the same ending I went for. It seemed like it was going to where Deus Ex 1 was, with three outright horrible endings, but I'm glad Deus Ex: HR had that 4th option.

Granted, I did feel a bit terrible when I remembered that meant killing the awfully nice LIMB clerk and those other people with Sarif and Taggart that had little to nothing to do with their camps.

And lets face it: You're a tool if you went for any of the other three options.

[Jockie]

For the sake of arguement I'll say I don't think Darrow's message was wrong, just his method of delivery (also his cod-shakespeare accent was pretty terrible).

[Anthile]

I chose the Taggart ending. Augmentations help people, they save lives. But on the other hand you have corporations like Sarif and such, who use the technology to create harmful tools and who try to make a profit from the suffering of others. Restrictions are necessary to ensure augmentations really are beneficial for mankind. It's not a perfect solution but still better than nothing.

I was tempted by the kill-em-all option but I played non-lethal and it simply felt wrong killing everyone in the station.

[Kelron]

I'm reluctant to see the other endings, because I suspect the writers interpretation of the outcomes would disappoint me. Taggart talks sense and moderation, but he's not someone I'd trust. I don't think he'd want to share power with Jensen, he'd do away with him as soon as he'd got what he wanted.

Before I was presented with the last option, I was going to go with Darrow, but I'm not sure what exactly I'd have been doing there. I wasn't sure if the choice was simply broadcasting his confession, or whether it was enacting his plans of destruction. I didn't want the latter, and I wasn't sure if the former would have resulted in total abandonment of augmentation, which is what he wanted.

[Lacero]

I went with "darrow's" at first, simply because it was the only one where you give people the truth.

I found the idea that you're letting humanity decide by deny access to information it needs to make the decision pretty creepy.

Yep the same ending I went for. It seemed like it was going to where Deus Ex 1 was, with three outright horrible endings, but I'm glad Deus Ex: HR had that 4th option.

Helios is disappointed in you, but it will protect you and serve you and all other humans even so.

[outoffeelinsobad]

I went with Sarif's ending. Humanity may choose to evolve, but I don't think that means we would destroy those who didn't. They make it sound like it would be homo sapiens v. neanderthal, when it would actually be more like The Rest of the World and The Amish.

As far as corporations using augmentations to harm people, well, that's where government regulation comes in. Obviously, we would have to outlaw things like lobbying and PAC groups for that to turn out well, but restructuring political funding policies and slapping leashes on corporations seems more reasonable that any of the other options.

[Malawi Frontier Guard]

When I came into the last room, I saved and pressed each button to watch the cutscenes.

I never thought there was a big decision to be made because there was none. Whatever you choose, it has no consequence to the game itself. It would have been okay if during the course of the game you made choices that fleshed out an Adam Jensen that actually had an opinion on these issues come time to press a button, but like this it just feels tacked on and irrelevant.

The endings just feel lacking compared to the previous games. There is no merging with an AI or throwing the world into a dark age, even the crazy endings of Invisible War were better. Every consequence that your choices could have had are left to your own imagination because the game is too afraid to step on the toes of the original's lore and instead chooses to wax on about human augmentation and freedom and power and morality. I'm not interested in that.

There's also the issue of the presentation leading up to the decision. That weird human-powered AI came completely out of nowhere for me. Why would you use this AI to "hack the signal"? Why is her chip rejected? Why is the boss battle such a confusing mess? The game throws those things at you in the last couple of minutes and doesn't bother explaining anything, leaving you to pull together the scraps of vague foreshadowing left throughout the game to make sense of this last room.

There are other things that bother me about the ending, like how the addition of (slightly anachronistic) Eliza feels like handwaving the issue of the impact a singular broadcast could have, so she just spreads your decision to all media (or none).

This all seems pretty harsh to say about a game I liked up to that point, but the endings really irritated me a lot.

[Tei]

I played first the option to destroy the facility, and let humanity search his own solutions. After watching the video, I am happy with it.

- Lie to people and tell then that "extremist did". I hate lies, and the world is big and diverse. You never knows what wrongs things you could be helping by extending lies. Is better to tell the truth, so the good people is informed. I don't want this option (sarif one).
- Darrow's,.. 'science is bad for you, lets go hippy!". I say no. Science help us, save lives and make our life bearable. We live longer and better thanks to science. Tools are part of us, tools are our phenotype!. Whatever is the solution, It sould include augmentations. I don't want this option.
- Sink the facility, and let people search the truth. It was my best options, since I don't want to build something on top lies or build against augmentations and science. I think 99% of people is good, and on the end is the good people that win. Is a slos process but ultimatelly it prevails.

One button was not on for me, so I don't know what option represents. (Taggart?)

[mrpier]

Uhm, I only got two choices in the end, Sink the station, kill everyone who knew anything and let humanity make its own choice or broadcast darrows message and augmentations and advanced technology will be shunned for the foreseeable future. I noticed there were two more buttons to push, but they weren't active for me.

[Flint]

One button was not on for me, so I don't know what option represents. (Taggart?)

It is Taggart yes. If you press his button, you'll send out a message saying the whole incident was because of unexpected faulty patch of the medicine that augmented people use to keep their bodies accepting the new parts. This in turn leads to heavy restrictions for augmentation usage and development (though doesn't stop them outright).

It's the ending I chose. Sarif's move for limitless augmentation and Darrow's ban of everything scientific were two sides of the same crappy coin and having restrictions on such powerful technology is something I'd personally see an eye to eye on. The fourth option didn't really seem like it would solve anything, but looks like it's the likely canon ending simply because of that.

Not massively related to the ending itself, but what was up with that supersecret hidden Hangar 18 email? I got the (possible) reference to the grays but other than that its crypticness flew over my head.

mrpier: did you speak to Taggart and Sarif in the Panchaea after you got their SOS messages?

[mrpier]

I don't think I even got their SOS-messages. Will have to check the saves when I get home.

[Anthile]

Not massively related to the ending itself, but what was up with that supersecret hidden Hangar 18 email? I got the (possible) reference to the grays but other than that its crypticness flew over my head.

[Flint]

Oh, no wonder I didn't realise that then. What a disappointment, I was thinking it was some sort of awesome foreshadowing and instead it's just metal :(. How disappointing.

[JackShandy]

I liked the ending so much I wrote a blog post on it.

And here that blog post is! http://themachination.net/blog/human...-me-something/

The endings don't give closure, and they don't have any consequences in the game. That's not the point: The choice isn't about the game, it's about you. It's meant to make you decide what you think about Human augmentation - the issue the game's been hammering into you for about for thirty-odd hours.

[Tei]

I liked the ending so much I wrote a blog post on it.

And here that blog post is! http://themachination.net/blog/human...-me-something/

The endings don't give closure, and they don't have any consequences in the game. That's not the point: The choice isn't about the game, it's about you. It's meant to make you decide what you think about Human augmentation - the issue the game's been hammering into you for about for thirty-odd hours.

Woot, we have the same screenshot. That mountain or metal crap betwen two houses. That thing was interesting, I wonder if exist in real life...

[Malawi Frontier Guard]

The choice isn't about the game, it's about you. It's meant to make you decide what you think about Human augmentation - the issue the game's been hammering into you for about for thirty-odd hours.

A game can't make me decide what I think about human augmentation. It can't do anything with that information, and I don't need it to make up my mind about the issue. It's always morality with those games.

[JackShandy]

Well, it can lead you to the water, but it can't make you think. Neither can anything else, of course.

[Anthile]

What really makes me wonder, Human Revolution seems to receive outstanding reviews and it seems that it also sells very well, and with that comes naturally the thought of making a sequel. But where to put it? A prequel to the prequel seems unlikely, considering that HR is only 16 years in the future (even though it's an alternative timeline). A "Human Revolution 2" is the most likely option, I think, but that would be not particularly exciting because of the foregone conclusion. The most interesting option would be to set it after the Omar ending of Invisible War. A post-apocalyptic world, scavenging augs from others or something like that.

[Tei]

What really makes me wonder, Human Revolution seems to receive outstanding reviews and it seems that it also sells very well, and with that comes naturally the thought of making a sequel. But where to put it? A prequel to the prequel seems unlikely, considering that HR is only 16 years in the future (even though it's an alternative timeline). A "Human Revolution 2" is the most likely option, I think, but that would be not particularly exciting because of the foregone conclusion. The most interesting option would be to set it after the Omar ending of Invisible War. A post-apocalyptic world, scavenging augs from others or something like that.

I don't think this is a problem,has can pick any timeline, or even do a "reboot".

Think Assassin Creed... you can put your conspiracy as back in the past or forward in the future as you need it.


Random images.






Who is Adam Jensen dad? is he created in a laboratory with his magic genes?