Moments pages are Spoilers Off.
The Game
- Wolfe, to who Cutter had noticably grown attached to during the game, dies. In the final scene she gets a special funeral by the Talan (the planet's native race) which concludes in her wrapped body being flown into the sunset by the silly and lovable bird/lizard met earlier in the game after Cutter having said his final goodbyes. During all this a heartbreakingly beautiful tune is played. Afterwards Cutter steps into the teleporter that is hopefully going to take him home, all alone.
- A New Beginning makes this even more sad by revealing that Cutter and Wolfe had already been attached: they were former lovers who had a daughter together. One of the flashbacks Cutter sees in the sequel is of him having to explain to their daughter, Camilla, that her mother won't be coming home from Adelpha.
- And then it all happens to Cutter again at the end of A New Beginning. Yel, a female Talan that Cutter had fallen in love with, gets killed in his arms by his archenemy. And, unlike with Wolfe, Cutter doesn't get to say goodbye to her as Yel's body reverts and her essence returns to the Yods immediately. The ending then implies that Cutter, who is understandably bitter about what the Earth authorities did to him and the Talans and whose daughter has become one half of the new Almayel (Talan female leader), has decided to remain on Adelpha rather than return to Earth. Poor guy just can't catch a break.
- A New Beginning can be a pretty big gut punch to returning players when it's revealed what happened to both Earth and Adelpha between games.
- It turns out that Cutter didn't repair the probe in time to stop the vortex, which destroyed most of Earth's resources, ultimately resulting in the deaths of half of the human race. In the twenty years between games, all national governments have collapsed and the survivors have reformed under the militaristic World Federal Alliance which has built a new portal and launched an invasion of Adelpha to harvest the planet's resources. And it's implied this isn't typical human imperialism, it's a desperate act of survival.
- Adelpha has been invaded by the WFA, who have systematically exterminated or enslaved the Talan. Remember the Recreators, those helpful guys in the original game who created your ammo and equipment? They're almost all dead, having been wiped out by the WFA so they couldn't copy the WFA's weapons. There is literally just one Recreator left, and he's terrified of being found and is in hiding. Remember Jan and the Dolotai Guardians and how Cutter taught them to fight back against Fae Rhan/Xue and Kroax? They're dead too, having been killed by the WFA when they tried to fight back just like Cutter taught them.
- Flashbacks seen by Cutter pretty much spell out that Cutter got railroaded by the WFA, being blamed for the deaths of Kaufmann, Wolfe, and Xue and the vortex which ravaged Earth. His reward for going on a suicide mission to Adelpha, doing his best to save Earth, and losing his friends? He was executed, specifically executed by Wolfe's fiance, Jack Boerum, who blamed him for Wolfe's death and then raised Cutter and Wolfe's daughter to hate him.
