Spoilers: I think the game is instructive in its bleakness. Yes the revolution failed but the world is still populated with people who keep on living. Fetishizing the old revolution and giving into the legitimate hopelessness will not save you or anyone else… that is to say, you love your ex something the way the guy on the island loves his revolution. Neither of you can bring it back, only destroy yourselves. But Harry can manage to make a new lifelong friend Kim, help the people of Martinaise in small ways, and discover something totally new and wonderful. The world may end but you still get to decide how you live in the ashes and there are still enriching experiences and relationships to discover.

I don’t think a game where you restart the revolution would be more uplifting because when you turn the game off it isn’t true. What the game actually is means something to me about our present reality.