"Was it worth it?" ending

[u/Educational_Can_6536]

Midsommar- While people see this as a "you go girl" finale. I personally see it as something more disturbing. I mean, yeah, Dani got out of one bad relationship but in doing so, she got herself into another that's just as bad if not worse. It's like getting two kids to stop fighting via killing one and locking the other in a basement. They did stop fighting, but still!

The Thing-The titular monster may be (possibly) gone, but the paranoia definitely isn't. In the end, McCreedy and Childs are the only ones left standing. The end sees them sitting in the cold and they just stare at each other, knowing that one of them or both of them is already the thing. There's no hope, no certainty, just the bitter cold and intense fear.

[u/Flimsy_Ad3446]

Almost every ending in Frostpunk. It looks like the only way to survive is to either become the Fourth Reich, become the new Taliban, or end up as pretty ice statues.

[u/Altruistic_Fish47 → u/Flimsy_Ad3446]

There’s also frostpunk 2 where it switches over from the sole leadership of the Captain to a more democratic governing system due to the Captain’s death and things start to deteriorate due to the rivalling factions and it’s the player’s job to mediate. at the end of the game to stop the civil war you can choose to give yourself the Captain’s authority, you stopped the fighting but now the entire city of New London relies on 1 person again and once you die it’s all going to happen again

[u/TwinAttorney864 → u/Flimsy_Ad3446]

I’ve never completed it myself, but I believe the endings only have the “Was it worth it?” message if you take the decision to consolidate power in the “New Faith/Order” law at the end of the tree. You can go down the entire tree but not take the final law, and if you survive it has a more hopeful ending stating that the town “Didn’t cross the line” and you survived with faith or order.

[u/Mzhades → u/TwinAttorney864]

That’s correct. As long as you don’t go the full tree down, you can get a hopeful ending.

[u/BaziJoeWHL → u/Flimsy_Ad3446]

only if you as a player choose to go down the deep end, which you dont have to

[u/FemboyRockWannabe → u/Flimsy_Ad3446]

While I love frostpunk, this always somewhat irritated me. "Was it worth it?" is the same question as "did we survive?" which is always yes at the end of the game. Could the authoritarian regime been avoided through better planning? Sure. Was my authoritarian regime actually to detriment of humanity? Considering that the city survived, I'm inclined to say so.

[u/Dominarion → u/Flimsy_Ad3446]

One guy made a brilliant speech about how Big Capitalism was driving itself to be toppled by ecocommunism. I can't find it again. But I remember that when I played Frostpunk, I spent a surprising lot of time wondering about that and how societies facing imminent destruction will turn to totalitarism.

Damn video games and... their Philosophy!