I just finished Obduction, having played for a bit under 12 hours without once looking at a walkthrough or reading hints or asking on forums, and got the "bad" ending and that quite ruined the whole experience.

I didn't get the good ending for several reasons. Firstly, throughout the game, you've had to do whatever C.W. asks just to move the plot forward. Why should that suddenly change for the final step? Secondly, the purpose of the battery is never made clear - at the time I plugged it in, the end of the cable wasn't even attached to anything! I know there is mention of "C.W.'s battery plan" in a journal but the role the actual battery plays is never mentioned and, by the end, it seems like you have to follow his plan because that's the only thing left to do in the game. The possibility of following his plan but NOT connecting the battery is logical contradiction. Lastly, the appearance of a scene of ruined buildings in one of the worlds never seemed to me to be an indication that earth was in ruins - I read it as an indication that Hunrath wasn't the only sphere from Earth to ever be swapped, there had been others and that was one of them.

Being slapped in the face with the "everybody dies" ending after 12 hours was just trolling the player-base.

It was only when I started reading to try to answer questions I had about the ending that I discovered there was another one. Naturally, I went back to watch it but that felt awful, completely removing any satisfaction from solving all the puzzles without hints.

In hindsight, and having read a lot of threads on this, I see how the existence and method of achieving the "good" ending were hinted at, in the game, if you happened to go everywhere, read every journal and interpret all of that in exactly the way the developers expected. But all of this was unbelievably obscure. Even at the end of Myst, it was at least apparent that more than one ending existed and that you were expected to make a choice.

The game punishes the player for thinking differently to the developers. For puzzles, this is ok because the consequence is getting stuck and having to think again, until you solve the puzzle. That's precisely the point of a game like this. For the ending, though, it is bollocks because the only way to try again is to either re-play the game or load your last save and just play the end - destroying any sort of immersion.

In summary, instead of leaving me with the satisfaction of having defeated the puzzles entirely unaided and a palatable conclusion to the story that was rather vague, anyway, the game has left me with a feeling of having missed out and then having to ruin the experience by searching forums. Very poor show.

I see what you are saying, there could have been a bit more information given to suggest you needed to make a choice. I got the bad ending first as well. Immediately after, two things popped into my mind, that Farley said not to trust anyone and that her journal said that maybe CW plan was not the way to go, but to let it happen naturally.

It didn't both me that I failed the first time, as in other adventure games (not particularly Myst games) but games like Quest for Glory or King's Quest games, you die many many times, and just load your game and carry on. That didn't ruin the experience for me. I just loaded the game and experienced the good ending and enjoyed it.

I also completed the whole game without a walk-through or hints.

Sorry to hear this soured your experience.

After playing Myst, Riven, and Uru, you will realise not all is as it appears. I think Riven had five endings where only two were expected. So when playing these game we have to expect this stuff. With both Riven and here we were pushed to make a choice based on that 3rd party's ideas. However we need to think about all the options given to us. I'm hitting this game for a second time an only now do I understand many of the clues given. It's like a movie that requires two or three viewings to absorb it all. BTW there is 3 endings. The 3rd involves Maray. Even with that ending you don't need to start over, just reload.

I agree. I think the ending is handled terribly. It took me about 12 hours to beat the game, and 11 hours and 50 minutes of that was following CW's directions. Why would I suddenly not follow his directions in the last 10 minutes? No clear indication that following his direction would have a negative outcome. I went online after to find out why I made the "bad" choice, still don't really know? It's not like CW wanted everybody dead (including himself)?

I reloaded and got to watch the good ending after, but yeah... great game and very disappointing ending.

Not sure why getting the bad ending initially ruins the experience? It's not like you have to replay the entire game to get the good ending. Did you forget Farley's warning at the beginning not to trust C.W.? I thought it was quite clear? C.W. is building a huge version of the swapper machines with the tree being where the seed would be. There's a journal or other document that explains the swapper machines and mentions the role of the battery, it's not too much of a leap to work out what the battery is for. The wire wasn't connected at the beginning because C.W. hadn't built the machine yet. I'm guessing you didn't notice him making progress with the machine as you progressed in the game? Farley said not to trust him! There's a difference between going along with his plan and going along with his plan and subverting it. So outside of Hunrath you see the rest of the Mofang planet (Soria was it?). Outside of Kaptar you see the rest of Maray and outside Maray is the rest of Kaptar, there was a chart in Farley's house demonstrating the concept. Logic suggests that the rest of Earth would be visible from the Mofang sphere, we just don't get to see it until the end of the game. When I finally found my way to the Mofang sphere I immediately wondered what the outside world would look like. It was trolling no-one, the solution is strongly hinted at. C.W. even says things right near the end along the lines of "Make sure you turn the battery on! My whole plan will fail if someone turns that off!". There's a clear binary choice presented to you there, do you switch the battery on or off before destroying the bleeder? To not even suspect there might be another ending after that is a failure on your part. Why would you expect to understand without going everywhere and reading every journal? It really was spelled out if you actually read them all.

I hope you don't mind me asking, did you play the game in German or English? I sort of wonder if the problem is down to the German translation being bad or something?