I really hated the change over to Kelso when it happened. But...as the story went on I actually agreed with the change.

I know some of the ending talk was a few pages back, so I may end up repeating things that have already been said, but here's my thing. Phelps was a poser from the beginning. I kind of hated playing as him. He was a total asshole and I honestly didn't have a care for him. I was invested in the progression of the story and moving it forward, but I didn't really find myself caring what happened to Phelps at all. So why was I so concerned when the story shifted and the focus became Kelso? I guess I was still holding out to find some connection to Phelps. To care about him in some form. To see him take down the people that he's been building up the cases against. To not get that opportunity bummed me out at first. Then I got to the second case with Kelso.

Leading up to this point I've played as Phelps getting swept under the rug, demoted, and screwed over by almost everyone in charge of or surrounding him. This guy had people in front of him at any given time that he knew were covering up shit and said nothing. Even when directly goaded by that Vice dick that set him up. Now I'm playing as Kelso who after one day of looking into the Elysian Fields stuff is punching out his boss and calling him out on banging 12 year olds? Fuck yeah! He coyly plays with Monroe about meeting and storms the guy's mansion, punches out a chick that shoots him, and puts one in the big guy himself? Then leaves him to scoot over to the phone or bleed out?! This guy is gettin' shit done!

And that's kind of where it hit me. The guy I'd been playing most of the game was all about bravado about how he was gonna change the city, but in turn completely backed away from all the major players. The more we get of the war experiences with Phelps the more we see the kind of person he is compared to Kelso. Even the final scene on the boat with Kelso only made his character stronger. He made his moral stance regarding the issue, and vowed to not be part of it, yet we know from earlier in the game that he still attempted to help Courtney when he had nowhere else to go. He can't help but be the good guy.

In the end was the lack of any emotional grasp on Cole intentional by the game makers so that the change over to Kelso had an even bigger impact? No idea. Sure is a convenient excuse even if it wasn't. But that's totally what the game left me with. The vacuum of feelings that I had in regards to Cole did a complete 180 by the end of the game for Kelso.

Unfortunately the ending doesn't really give us any closure on Kelso and where he goes from there. The new DA obviously making some mystery deal with the chief gives the impression that the corruption continues, only on most likely different terms, but we're not really given any further info on how Kelso fits into that which is a bummer.

You have a very positive outlook on it as a player. Me? I was pissed they made me play so long "as Phelps" only to show that I never was.

Go back and read from where I started the end-game spoilers for my view and then foxdvd's alternative take. You seem more forgiving than either of us, even though foxdvd justified it as well.

Fuck the bait & switch of this game. 75% is too much to give us Cole. 25-50%, ok, it would have been easier to accept.

I hear ya. I guess I wrote off Phelps so early on (My notes on my 2nd day of playing are basically a giant "This guy is an ass!" ) that I was mainly playing for the story and kind of threw character involvement out the window. (As opposed to a game like Red Dead where the character trumped everything else for me.)

I do feel that Cole saving Kelso at his own sacrifice at the end was still at least a bit of a redemption for him. All his "heroism" theretofore was all bullshit. At least that was finally something.