Spoilers Ahead
I've recently completed my first run through of Outlast 2. Until now, I didn't think there were multiple endings. It turns out that there is kind of. I found out that Jessica can have two appearances in the ending cut scene. The below screenshot shows her two appearances:
If you look closely, the left Jessica has a bruise/scab around her neck and her face is blue due to suffocating, presumably from when she was hung by a noose (this is seen throughout the game). The right Jessica looks normal in appearance with no bruising or blue face. In my run of the game, I saw the left Jessica. I only found out that there were two different versions of her by watching a Markiplier video and his game showed the right Jessica.
The source that I found the image from isn't sure what causes the different versions of Jessica in this cut scene. As far as I can tell between what happened in my game, and the Markiplier video, the cut scene is exactly the same except for Jessica's appearance.
What determines which Jessica you see?
1 Answer
The creator of this thread suggests that the alternate Jessica shows up if you turn around immediately when you hear Jessica scream.
So after watching Markiplier's playthrough of the game I think I figured out how to get the alternate ending. [...]
So near the end of the game there's one of the school sections were you actually walk around with Jessica and get caught by Father L [...]. When Father L forces you out of the room your only real option is to run to the door of the school to the outside. When you get near the door you hear Jessica screaming and calling your name and then you run to her (The stairs). Here's how I think the 2 endings are decided.
Alternate Ending 1 (Dead looking Jessica) - You get this ending if you waste time trying to leave the school when you hear Jessica screaming. Alternate Ending 2 (Live looking Jessica) - You get this ending if you turn around immediately when you hear Jessica and stay near Father L as he walks to the stairs.
Other users have been saying that doing this has caused this ending to trigger in their games as well.
This is totally it, I didn't know where to run so it took me a bit on my first play through and I got the dead Jessica in the end. On my second I ran back the second the scream triggered and got the alive Jessica. I also replayed that scene on a different occasion and got living Jessica by speed running it, my sister also got living Jessica and she said she ran back as quick as possible. Very weird this is what causes it, there is very little significance it seems.
When I played, I ran back as fast as possible. She didn't have the rope mark for me. I think you may be right.
There have been other theories related to collectible completion and other factors, but this one seems to have a bit of support.
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