ENDING *SPOILERS*

That moment Walker had to "choose" was a hallucination, it was time for him to realize what he found most important, or what made him more of a hero, being loyal to his fellow servicemen, or right against wrong. So if you kill the soldier, Walker feels himself to be a hero for saving the life of the innocent man who only stole water, but shooting the civilian makes walker feel he's loyal to his fellow countrymen, being a patriot is being a hero.

In the end that surreal moment when the soldiers surrender is just a hallucination, to set the tone for the ending, the unreliable perspective walker sports that'll soon be stripped when he's faced with the truth of what he's been feeling.


I think that's one of the main aspects of the story I love, how you can't go into a horrific situation like this and fix everything with such black and white sensibilities, right and wrong don't exist in the chaos that is war, you just have to try and do as little damage as possible, which is next to impossible if you want to survive 5 minutes in this situation.

You can't change war and atrocities, war and atrocities can only change you, just as it did the 33rd and the men who fought against the 33rd, people like the CIA agents are already living in their heart of darkness, they're not phased by the terrible nature of the war in Dubai because they're already preoccupied with being terrible.

When Walker meets the men of the 33rd and the insurgent resistance trying to fight them off, he notices the lack of humanity, the lack of order, the chaos, the darkness within them all, they've all grown into something ugly, just pure, raw hate and pain sculpted by the nature of war.

They all almost seem savage, and brutal, how could anyone be like this is all that Walker and his men could think when going into this city and seeing the things, seeing the hallow people fighting a hallow war.

Some feeling of redemption stirs within walker, an unsure past, Walker marches through trying to find his action to redeem himself, trying to bring order to this mess, trying to just find that piece of good within himself from this place of horror.

But once him and his team reaches the zenith of their gun-ho heroics, they realize they have murdered a few dozen civilians, coming to Dubai and trying to change things, coming and trying to help, trying to be a hero... His mind defends himself from himself, instead of accepting his actions, and accepting the fact he killed those people, he decides to blame it on Konrad. Why not? A hero doesn't murder civilians, not intentionally anyway, a hero tries their best, and sometimes people do die, but as long as their's someone else responsible, than a hero can still be a hero. So he marches on, trying to find some smidgen of reality that'll point into the direction of Konrad's responsibility. But after a few paces he finds the command of the 33rd, burned and executed... The power of deduction would dictate that order is gone, the 33rd has stripped themselves of all doctrine, and leaders, including Konrad, so that's why Walker comes into "contact" with Konrad at that moment, because he realizes there's no one left to find, Konrad may not be among these bodies but these bodies let Walker know that any order, including Konrad's is gone, the 33rd are just as chaotic and lost as everyone else. So Walker's mind makes Konrad up, to further protect Walker from himself.

Once walker realizes that there is no one to blame, no one to point the finger at, no Konrad, no villain, his mind finally can't protect himself from what he is, just as vicious as the men he fought in some midguided attempt to protect. Walker is then left with the decision; do the last heroic gesture a hero would do in this situation, a good man would do, something like Konrad would do once he realizes what he's responsible for... To get out of the chaos, "you can't lose if you don't play the game" so in this last gesture he can accept what he is, just a walking horror fighting a horrific war, no hero, no redemption, the only redemption is at the barrel of a gun, like Konrad, pressed at his own temple...

So Walker does the only thing that'll benefit anyone, to not be involved, to not stir things up, to not try and be a hero where heros are never born, but are killed.

But that ending is if Walker chooses to face himself, or he can deny it, still hold onto the notion that he is a hero, he is a good man, deny and live on...

That's where the epilogue comes in, that's where my favourite ending lays.

Sure I do think him killing himself is a good ending, and I do think that him facing himself is a ironic paradoxical hero gesture he was pursuing through out the game.

But I love it when the American patrol is sent into retrieve Walker, and the shellshocked, dissociated Walker is waiting, now there's 3 endings, fight the soldiers and be shot down, surrender your weapon and go home...

But what home is there to go to, he'll have to live with the things he's done for the rest of his life, he'll have to know that everything he wanted but never got; being a hero, saving some lives, redemption, and everything he didn't want but got; murder, horror, and chaos. And then there's the ending where he gets shot down, an ending where it's more honest to himself, he dies bleeding into the ground as Konrad talks about how men like them don't get to go home, they must cross a line where they can never cross back, they must stay in this bleak world they stepped into, until the day they find peace... Peace through death is the only mercy once you step across the line.

But my favourite ending, is when you gundown the entire American patrol, so viciously, without hesitation, without mercy, without anything.

The scarred leathery rough and worn exterior of Walker is the most honest he's ever looked, he's no hero but he still wants to be (Wearing Konrad's dress uniform), the burn scar around his face, the rough untamed look of his beard. Walker is what he is, a uncivil shell of a man, Like Dubai a once handsome, and distinguished vessel that shows great promise (The modern day Dubai is also known for having the tallest building in the world) But now like the city, Walker is rough and worn, changed.

He guns down the patrol without reason, without order, without purpose (Like the war in Dubai) he just does it because it's all he knows now, it's all that there is to do, he wanted to be a hero but failed, he now just plays the role he was given.

And as the patrol command radios in for a sitrep, he calmy, coldly, gets on the radio and says the line that sends shivers down my spine


"Gentlemen... Welcome to Dubai"

But its the way he looks, the way he's dressed, the way he's scarred. He just as crazy, just as insane, and just as horrible as the men he was fighting only a couple weeks before. All the men he fought and tried to stop he's become, maybe they too were like him at one point, wanting to do good but failing and just rolling with the sand, rolling with the war, rolling with the chaotic nature of Dubai.

He's one of them, and he's accepted it, no home to go to, no bridge to cross back over, he's what he is and he's not going to deny that... He's a horrible person, and he walks away, back into the horrible city, back into the horrible war, back over.. The Line.

The many mysteries of what happened in Dubai in a space of 6 months!
However I see him as not the leader, but Konrad trusted him greatly, he was a talented journalist, and so he was simply chosen to address the 33rd of any situation, another way to keep order with the insurgents. He never exactly ordered the 33rd to do anything within the game, he just simply went with the flow of the 33rds operatio....... I mean, madness.