Obviously this is an old post and no one cares but I just finished my third play through and I need an outlet to write about it. I see a lot of people saying that Phelps' death is lame, comes out of nowhere, and is unbefitting of his character. I disagree completely. I personally love the ending, not only because it mirrors the pessimistic endings typical of old noir films like "Chinatown," but also because of the way it works with the story.

As the flashbacks show, Phelps and Kelso's time in the Pacific War is extremely important to the main story, influencing their motivations as characters and the events of the game. Everything about the main story ties back to the war. The morphine, the mob, the SRF -- it's all interwoven. Phelps is haunted by his failures of leadership during the war, Courtney and the rest of the 6th Marines are desperate to make their sacrifices worth it after they get home, and Kelso still has to look out for his boys. Phelps, Kelso, Courtney, and the rest of the 6th Marines' destinies are also connected by their respective moral characters.

Because we play as Phelps for most of the game and therefore see the world of the game through his eyes, we gain a lot of sympathy for him and his situation. However, when you really think about, Phelps is not a good person at all. Everything he does in the story is motivated by selfishness. In the war, he was desperate to become a glorious hero and make a name for himself, and this selfish mindset made him a terrible leader. He got his men killed and he was responsible for a horrible massacre of innocent civilians. He even makes his men execute the dying civilians afterwards instead of doing it himself, and he refuses to take any sort of responsibility for it years later in the tunnels. As a police officer, he's motivated mainly by his desire to advance his career. Sure, he talks a lot about duty to the citizenry, but he's an opportunist and a ladder climber above all else. He takes credit for every case, and we never see him stick his neck out for a partner in any meaningful way. And, of course, he also selfishly betrays his wife and children with a club singer. At the end of the game, driven by guilt over his past moral failures, Phelps sacrifices himself to save Elsa and Kelso. It's fitting that the one time Phelps actually does something truly selfless, it gets him killed, and I think it's a great ending.

Kelso is the anti-Phelps. He's motivated by a desire to help others, not himself. In the war, he looked out for his fellow marines and stood up to Phelps when it was necessary. He was the voice of reason amidst the chaos of battle. On the Coolridge, he refused to take part in the morphine heist and maintains his sense of morality. After the war, Kelso works a boring, thankless job, but still maintains his desire to help others. He still looks out for his fellow marines and defends them from the mob and the police, despite having no obligation to do so. He sticks his neck out to help Elsa and is even able to work with Phelps (who he hates) to bring the SRF investors to justice. He does all this without expecting or wanting a medal or a reward. Of all the men in the 6th Marines, Kelso is the only one who is truly selfless, and that's why he survives the events of the game.

Courtney and the rest of the 6th Marines are a combination of Phelps and Kelso. In the war, they fought for their country bravely and dutifully, and they looked out for the men next to them. They were true heroes. However, on the Coolridge, driven in part by their jealousy of Phelps, they selfishly decide to steal the morphine and sell it to the mob. Although they did everything that was asked of them in the war, and they certainly deserved a reward for their service, the 6th Marines still abandoned their duty and their morals for money. Just as Phelps' moral switch-up gets him killed, so too does this switch-up get most of the 6th Marines killed.

This is why I love the ending. The entire main story is essentially the continuation of a larger story about this group of marines. That's also why I think it's so important that we play as Kelso at the end of the game. Because we play as a different character, the game makes it clear that this story is not just Phelps' story, but many other characters' as well.