Those of you familiar with XCOM: Enemy Unknown have realised that I ended my narrative before the game itself ends. If you really want to know how the game as shipped ends, you should take a gander at Jarenth’s version of the tale. I really hate the game’s canon ending, and I really wasn’t looking forward to guiding McNutcase’s team through it. The end is thoroughly unsatisfying – it’s blatantly obvious sequel-bait. When I managed to accidentally write a far more satisfying ending after completing two missions in a single day, I could not pass up the opportunity.
In the original X-COM, the conflict escalates along a quasi-parallel course, but it diverges after raiding the alien base. In Enemy Unknown, the alien base raid is followed by having to track down an overseer ship which is designed to only really be defeated by the Firestorm, a reverse-engineered fighter version of the aliens’ own craft. The Commander’s lamentations about air superiority were meant to be foreshadowing to the development of the Firestorm, which drastically changes the odds in the skies. Once the overseer ship is captured, the endgame with the Temple ship is triggered, though I am unaware of any true deadline on having to defeat it.
In UFO Defence (aka, UFO: Enemy Unknown, the original X-COM), the alien base assault leads to discovering the location of the alien’s true headquarters – on Mars. At that point, the aliens are no longer the aggressors, but are instead on the defensive. The next move is X-COM’s, who launch an assault on the Mars base, invading it to locate and kill the alien brain – literally a brain, as fitting the time – that controls the alien invasion.
The newer XCOM does not give a clear resolution to the story; all that happens is Earth is not destroyed. The aliens are not defeated and there is no sign that the war has actually come to a conclusion. In the older X-COM, however, the war is decisively won by humanity, with the alien threat completely neutralised. In short, it actually ends, and because it does, it gives a far more satisfying finale.
Since I was going to be stuck with an open-ended finale either way, I chose one that was more a continuing conflict than some lame “noble” sacrifice to defuse the Deus Ex Machina doomsday device suddenly introduced nine-tenths through the story.
Hmm. Were the original X-COM aliens FROM Mars? Or was Mars just a forward ops base? That makes a big difference. Otherwise it’s just like any alien invasion story – you defeated the aliens but they’re still out there somewhere.
I severely doubt they’re going to make a sequel where they go out and invade the alien’s planet, if that’s what you’re thinking, although I guess they might make a new one with new stronger enemies and such or something? It’d be totally new as opposed to a remake though unless I’m missing something.
It’s been a while, but I recall that they were from Mars.
The sequel-bait left implies there was something ELSE out there that the Ethereals were trying to create a perfect melding of flesh and mind to combat, and Humanity has turned out to be that perfect melding, except now we won’t have the benefit of Ethereal guidance to fight it.
This was implied, yes. But imagine the word ‘implied’ blazoned across the sky in bright burning letters.
I wasn’t a particular fan of this ending either. The Temple Ship just feels too contrived. And what would’ve happened if, I dunno, the Ethereals hadn’t graciously given the Volunteer’s squad entry to the ship? Or if killing the Uber Ethereal hadn’t triggered the ship’s Fuck-You mode? As (I think) dr. Shen points out early on, there’s nothing in the human arsenal that can even think about beating that ship.
Still, if this whole mess somehow leads to a Terror From The Deep expansion or sequel, I’m all for it.
Please pardon my disjointed thoughts, but I’d like to go over some opinions I have about the ending.
I found the “noble sacrifice” rather cliche, but then this setting is pretty much one huge “alien invasion” cliche.
I don’t mind open-ended stories, but I don’t like when stories end with a cliffhanger simply to set up for a sequel. That’s not to say that I don’t want a sequel for this game, but I think a story should stand on its own.
The game ends with the aliens (presumably) losing their entire invasion force. There’s no way to know how much that has weakened them, but I would guess that based on the numbers they committed to the conflict, this would be a significant setback for them. As for the implication that there are other, more powerful threats out there, I think that meshes well with the quote from the game’s intro. The uncertainty of not knowing what is out there is a big part of the game’s theme. In this setting, Humanity’s position will always be precarious.
In conclusion, I don’t really have a conclusion. I think I understand why you don’t like the ending, but I personally don’t have strong feelings either way.