User blog comment:Dorgles/(Spoilers) Which DX3 ending do you think is canonical?/@comment-90.152.9.182-20110905162813

4th is the only one that fits as you say. Adam is ridiculously powerful and knowledgeable by the end of HR, and I suspect would have been a Tracer Tong-esque character if he was still shuffling around by 2052- same with Sarif Industries. The fact that both are obviously absent from DX1 (beyond the fact this is a retro-fitted story) is that both of them were dead. Same with Darrow et al- if they had "won" they'd still either be in power or remembered, they are neither.

Plus I think they did a number on us with this. DX1 was all about having to make that choice- you didn't really have a "I don't know, it's too big a decision for me to make" option- just lesser evils depending on your own PoV. This ending set actually does the opposite- it waves the power of choosing the course of Human Evolution through the three main choices- and then gives you the option to actually let Humanity decide. JC was a benevolent dictator not matter what choice you made- the fact is you made that decision for the everyone else. Alex on the other hand, had the option to say "I'm not God".

Notice the difference in reaction when you select that option as well. Both the others elect a generic, and I'd say disappointed, reaction from Eliza. The Decompress ending doesn't- it evokes admiration for making the tough choice- the only one where you don't directly benefit at all (i.e. you die). I think Adam was a martyr for the cause of free willing and self-determination.