QUESTION: Because Daniel forgot his past, and had a hard time returning to England. He remembers snippets, small details, and he knows he's from Mayfair, but otherwise he forgot everything. He knows he had family, but he can't remember their faces. He tries to live a normal life, but is unable to keep jobs because of his nightmares and fears. Same with friends, even if he manages to find some of his old friends with the help of his journal, he's afraid he might hurt them if he ever has a flashback or a panic attack, that’s why he avoids friendships, and starts shutting himself away from people. He still feels guilt for what happened in Brennenburg, and wonders if he really did the right thing, if it really set him free. In the end he’s too broken, full of regret and the reminders of the horrors he had to endure, and may have ended up in an asylum. (I question if the game even has a true good ending) (My friend really didn’t like my idea for this ending) -sent by anonymous
I very much agree with you there, though, I don’t personally think the game has any “good” endings - how good or bad an ending is depends on the interpretation of the player and where their sympathies lie. Does the player sympathise with Daniel and decide to grant him a new chance at life, to live it out as a better person than the one he was before? Or does the player sympathise more with Alexander’s motives, choosing to end his agony and let him finally go home? Or would the player rather rescue Agrippa, a third party we don’t know that well and who at least seems a more decent person than Daniel or Alexander? Those are some awfully hard choices.
Don’t ask me what I think, because I honestly still don’t know, even after all these years of pondering. It all depends on your point of view.
Personally, I don’t think any of these choices are ideal, but the situation Daniel is in probably doesn’t even have an ideal solution. It’s just simply a really shitty situation to find yourself in, and the choices that follow are all different levels of horrible. I think it’s realistic, though saddening. Life isn’t as simple as always being able to pick the ideal option, especially in highly stressful or life-threatening situations. Sometimes all you can do is pick between two bad options and try to go with the least catastrophic one, and hope that you can survive the repercussions somehow. All choices and endings in Amnesia have their own consequences, some good, some bad, and most importantly, many that aren’t good or bad but somewhere in-between.