Games that force you to make hard choices

Hey all!

I’d like to request recommendations (spoiler free!) for games where you need to make choices, take sides, kill or not kill someone, follow or do not follow orders, but where the consequences actually matter - and most importantly, where the choices aren’t “obviously good choice vs obviously bad choice”.

Give me games where I can choose to side with one kingdom or another, but there’s no clear moral high ground, or where I need to decide to save someone dear to me at the cost of innocent lives. I do not want things like “save all the children and get the happy ending and make flowers grow” versus “kill everybody and everything blows up and the world gets all its water replaced by acid”.

What games fit this requirement?

2BearsHiFiving,

I’m a big fan of Tyranny by Obsidian Entertainment. Classic CRPG, isomorphic for the majority of it. The game starts with you making decisions that set the initial state of the world as you lead the army that finishes your evil overlord’s conquest of the world. Then the game truly starts and goes on to be one of my favourite CRPGs of all time.

JamesBean,
JamesBean avatar

The word you're looking for there is 'isometric.'

Lycist,

Popped in to mention Tyranny, saw it was the first comment.

Absolutely LOVE Tyranny, its got so many morally questionable choices to make! I really, really hope Obsidian makes a sequel!

Keegen,

One of the few games where I gravitated towards the lawful evil route because it just felt so natural. It’s such a shame we will probably never see a sequel.

LemmySoloHer,
@LemmySoloHer@lemmy.world avatar

Disco Elysium is a fantastic one. There are an insane amount of choices that shape how you go about the investigation of the hanged man and ultimately what happens beyond that investigation. Choices of who to side with, how to side (openly or playing multiple sides, etc.), choices that ultimately define what kind of detective you are (by-the-book boring, superstar douchebag, violent tough guy, Sherlock Holmes-esque genius, etc., including my favorite: Twin Peaks Lynchian detective that bases their decisions off of dreams, intuition and imaginary conversations with the dead body), and even how failing or succeeding at something can lead to progress in very different ways. If you fail to hit that person you tried to punch, or miss that shot with your gun, or utterly fail to convince someone to help you, you progress through in very different ways so that failing your way to the truth is just as satisfying and entertaining as succeeding your checks to get there.

And of course Fallout: New Vegas. Whether you choose to support the New California Republic, Caesar’s Legion, Mr. House, or a truly independent New Vegas, none of them are perfect. Each succeeds in an ideal society in some ways but completely fails at others, leaving you to decide which imperfect system you feel is the right one for the world instead of shoving an obvious answer in your face.

Carighan,
@Carighan@lemmy.world avatar

Or maybe I am some kind of supercop… 🤔

Disco: Elysium really is an absolutely fantastic game. Hard to describe how much it moved the goal post for these games.

TheEighthDoctor,

Sometimes Always Monsters

OhFudgeBars,

An indie game called OneShot from the Undertale knockoff genre has only one choice that matters, but god damn what a horrible choice, particularly since a child has to make it. And by the way, the game is called OneShot because it’s designed to be played exactly once. If you want to play again, you have to mess with some files to do so.

lawrence,

Believe or not, Cyberpunk 2077. There are a few very hard ethical and moral dilemmas.

MasterPraetorian,

My playthrough of cyberpunk I found that they had these choices, but the effect was identical regardless of what you chose (except the very end of the base game, and the DLC) I enjoyed the game, but that was my biggest annoyance

solitaire,
@solitaire@infosec.pub avatar

Citizen Sleeper. It’s a short game about precarity and human connection. There are a few off ramps out of the current, desperate situation you’re in that are usually weighed against letting someone go or leaving things behind. It’s unique in games with difficult choices for so rarely about being given compelling reasons to do bad things, just choices that are hard for their emotional consequences.

Eccitaze,
@Eccitaze@yiffit.net avatar

I’m going to go a little against the grain and recommend Fuga: Melodies of Steel and its sequel. It’s not exactly what you described, but the game is very adept on forcing extremely difficult and impactful choices on you naturally through its gameplay.

Squizzy,

I made the choice in GTA that let me continue the free roam unhindered despite it not being what was best in game.

MSids,

Every game on Steam that uses the publisher’s launcher.

hark,
@hark@lemmy.world avatar

Triangle Strategy. I hit a number of points where I had to think hard to make my decision and even then I wasn’t sure if it was what I should’ve gone with. Trying to save and reload to pick something else is futile since I’d just run into another tough decision down the line which modifies things further and it’d take too long to play through multiple key points. It’s an amazing strategy game as well.

daniyeg,

i’m gonna blatantly disregard your “but where the consequences actually matter” and recommend most of telltale’s games (The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us are the better ones).

besides them and the suggestion of others i would also recommend Tyranny. great CRPG made by Obsidian.

ByteJunk,
@ByteJunk@lemmy.world avatar

Depends on the kind of games you enjoy.

While not particularly about consequences of decisions, I highly recommend Frostpunk. It always feels like any decision is about trying to choose the less horrible one, but without ever knowing if it will work out or not. The atmosphere of that game is just superb.

DwightAllRight,

Witcher 3, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, Nationstates.net , all are excellent options along this line.

Dagwood222,

[off topic]

Daemon by Daniel Suarez. A persistent computer virus develops a game where the only way to win is to kill off your team mates. The people who show the greatest willingness to backstab are recruited for missions in the real world.

Carsonian,

My favorite of all time for exactly this is Spec Ops: The Line. Its a third person shooter and really fun, but its main selling point is making super tough morally gray decisions. Still one of my favorite game stories ever. You can usually get it really cheap and its just perfect for what tou described.

keyez,

Was also going to mention this! Love that game and have played it twice. I even remember two set pieces in the game like a movie and sometimes recant them to friends as if it were from a movie cuz they probably wouldn’t understand.

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