Beating Consternation I on hard mode grants an additional level and different ending.
Those locations in Consternation 1 aren't a coincidence. You may remember how I said Consternation 1 was a visual representation of the killer's mind. These locations are important to the story.
The first ending is the easy way out. The hard-mode ending in Consternation 1 is canon.
His name is Howard Steed. The clap sound you hear is only an intimidation tactic. Nothing more.
If you have any more questions I'd be happy to answer them!
I've beaten the first Consternation on the hard mode, and I think I get it know...
The protagonist is trying to escape the basement that he was locked in by someone (with the possibility of the ghosts in the game representing these people). He might have gone insane due to the time he spent in isolation and started seeing all the people around him as demons and monsters.
The last level is a cornfield, we're escaping from a farmland where we were held, and once again, just a speculation, but our relatives might have locked the protagonist inside the basement because of a certain mental illness, or were just simply extremely abusive, which has led him to develop one...
He contemplated suicide, but decided to go on and try his chances of escaping his prison of a home...
I don't know if you'll appreciate this or not, but I thought your game should be archived in history, at least partially:
https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/The_Slasher_(Consternation)