The story with the wife went nowhere. The relationship with the boss went nowhere.

a big fake-out... theres no great conspiracy, theres no behavioral experiment, theres no mental issues going on...

doesnt that put us in the headspace of the characters? isn't that the whole point? our minds run wild with conspiracy and uncertainty, due to our isolation from ANY other form of stumulation than our walkie-talkie and the actions of others we meet? A story about the happenings of an area, rather than some utterly impossible scenario, where the little bits and pieces of information we get, arent clues to a big puzzle... they're just white noise like you would find in any world scenario, but they helped our minds try to puzzle out things that just werent there...

The scene in the night when they both look at the fire and it gets all romantic. Shame the romance didn't caught up. I hoped they would meet at the end. just show a glimpse of her model near the helicopter and then pics of them hugging each other.....man. Still, I guess that would be too cliche but I wanted to see that

problem is that they built up that nice conspiracy/experiment story just to fall flat when you find out whats going on. I really wanted to know whats going on... the builtup was just too good for that quick and dirty wrapup. It seems that they planned more, a deeper story, but had to wrap it up.

Alot of stuff that happened in the game just wasnt resolved. And the choices i made seem pointless.

you tell Delilah to wait for you?
i just told her to go so she left, could i have met her? or i this one of those illusion of choice things?

Nothing happens. She still flies away without You and sends another chopper for YOu saying that she was sorry and couldnt handle the smoke. Real shame they didn't meet

she left anyway, leaving me and my character disappointed

When Delilah blames people for having stolen the Pork Lake sign, and near the end we see it happily hanging on the wall of her watch tower instead

Spoiler:

That's when I fell in love with her... dammit..

especially that cute little defence about how great the sign was.. i definitely noticed that as well... oh delilah, you little minx

I kind of approach it more like a work of art that acts as an existential experience. The protagonist never interacts with anyone directly (girls and Ned, although spotted, are obscured and at a distance; Juliet's face is covered in the photograph; you never see Delilah; you only see yourself) and everything around you is a metaphor for life and death (youth in girls - plus they drink which points back to your history, death in Brian being the children never borne and regret, the forest burnings - controlled versus not referring to choices you made, the community of trees showing importance of family, etc.). The animal life is reflective of meaning (never see the bear other than marks - fear of the unknown, raccoon shows up multiple times in odd places - surprise such as the mugging, elk is dead - death again yet tracked just like you, turtle is a companion - friendship in nature, pointing back to the dog).

Things not found in nature are all either broken down or abandoned: the skis and snowmobiles, the scout camp, the old ranger cabin, Ned and Brian's ropes, Brian's gear and articles, the monitoring equipment; later, Ned's equipment, and there's even a joke that the emergency trolley might not work, broken window, cut communications line, you breaking the alarm, tossing the old radio, the broken/stolen signs incl. one you knock over, etc. Yes, you're out in nature, but it's reinforcing your sense of isolation and your feelings of abandonment of your wife. Here you are trying to escape something and yet everything is a reminder that you rely on yourself for empowerment. The only man-made things that really work are the cache boxes but they all have oddities and, more importantly, are behind locks, which is also strongly symbolic.

I didn't read about the game beforehand so I can see some people might have different expectations. I didn't see it so much as making choices that would have an impact rather than as an existential journey - that is to say, from an existentialist standpoint, the game should be disorienting and in the end seem meaningless, as that is a tenet of that philosophical school. The game fits it pretty perfectly. I realize that might be a "cop out" or excuse for them making a shorter game without much true consequence (I do think it's overpriced) but when viewed from that school of thought it makes more sense. If you explore a lot and gather a lot, and especially look for details like the notes you hang up and analyze in the tower, you'll see a man who is trying to make sense out of something that really has no depth to it; absurdism by its very definition.

the idea of the isolated characters, over months, coming to connect and form a bond, and then due to having NO real stimulation (especially on henry's side) other than voices from a walkie-talky, events that happen, no matter how simple and straight forwrard, take on more sinister tones... their imaginations run wild... and EVEN BETTER, was that because I took my time with it, I WAS IN A SIMILAR HEAD SPACE.. thats why i find the game so clever.. i come across missing person posters, and im thinking theres a killer in the woods... delilah even tells me 'stuff like that just happens here', but in my mind, im thinking 'no lady, theres a murderer out here!!

i see a missing person poster of a guy with a huge ass beard... and my mind is going.. oh god is this me? did i go nuts and im living in the bush? is delilah just a voice in my head as im talking to a pinecone?! oh god, am I THE MURDERER?! I come across the teens wrecked campsite.. did.. did I do this and forget because of the crazy narrative my mind is cooking up? oh god, was it that bear?.. no.. no theres a note here... perhaps there really IS a murderer!

then that whole bit with the research outpost thing.. that really cemented the conspiracy plot in my head, and im thinking oh god these bastards! im just part of an experiment! but what kind?! But the outposts existence in the woods, and how ned was using it, were fully explained and COMPLETELY rational... I mean shit, I even found a note saying the base was deserted and the researchers were away, but my mind just couldnt accept the facts i was seeing because of the conspiracy in my mind... when i think back on it, just how fucking cool is THAT?!

to me it was just awesome, i was totally in the same headspace as henry... and the fact it turned out to be a father who had a psychotic break with the death of his son, trying to hide the truth... it honestly didnt piss me off, because i thought back on it all, and i REALISED.. that it all fit.. and that all the things i was doing, experiencing, finding... even the conversational choices i was PICKING with delilah... it was all me having a NATURAL and imperfect interpretation of events beyond my knowing...

did i want more? i mean.. its hard to say no... but when it hit me just how engrossed i had gotten in the story, and how I, as much as the character, was incorrectly interpreting events and turning them into some grand crazy story, I realised what a truely unique and fascinating experience this was.

games always deal in facts.. everything is as it apears, and the characters always understand situations perfectly the moment a piece of 'info' is given to them... this game completely subverts that.

I initially thought Delilah was in on it for several reasons: one, the call Henry overhears early on; two, she suggests tearing up the girls' tent, then it happens; and three, she suggests burning the research station and then it happens! The last one is critical because it can happen after you switch walkie-talkies. You can actually pick up the old walkie-talkie and it says "keep as evidence." You're led to believe she doesn't leave her tower but she does at least twice, once to deliver that walkie-talkie and again for the food delivery. Note in the latter case, the box is hardly conveniently located for the other lookouts and she'd know if you took them (her tower location is nearby). Also the Pork Pond sign in her tower, etc. She knew her way around and managed to avoid you for an entire summer.

In any case, isolation can definitely cause paranoia. Isolation and depression also tend to go hand-in-hand. It all makes perfect sense in the grand scheme of things which is kind of why the game probably disappoints a lot of people. People expect crazy things to happen in games and movies to the point where when something (mostly) rational and explicable occurs, we're actually thrown off. Yet a person isolated like Henry (and Delilah), especially one likely suffering from depression, is very likely to get paranoid and imagine crazy things. Man separated from technology quickly becomes a worshiper of the sun (or a giant fire) once more. I guess you could look to The Lord of the Flies for reference.