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?

Blubber28,

A bit of an obscure one is Roadwarden. If I remember correctly, it was made by a single person. The grafics are pixelated style, which is usually a bit of a turn off for me (I don’t need hyperrealistic, just don’t like big pixels), but the gameplay is amazing. It is a combination of a graphical novel and an RPG where choices matter. It does not have spicy real-time combat or a leveling system, but your choices in the story and of your class matter.

To give a quick introduction to the story: You start as a roadwarden, someone tasked with keeping the roads safe. You are tasked by the elite in a rich city to assess the trading prospects with a poor province up north; assess its people, infrastructure, and resources that they offer. You have a limited time to complete your task, as autumn and winter are closing in, and the nights are too dangerous to venture on the roads.

In this game, you cannot help everyone. Helping one group can condemn another, and actions that may be noble in spirit may fail spectacularly. I’ve had a lot of fun playing through this, and it is my recommendation if you don’t really care for real-time combat.

Chip_Rat,

“Passage” is a very short one. But the choices matter.

calamitycastle,

If you use Steam you can search on the category “Choices Matter” FYI

TJDetweiler,

Frostpunk. That game gave me anxiety with the tough choices sometimes.

ZC3rr0r,

I haven’t seen Morrowind’s mentioned, but some of its side quests are very grey in their morality, in ways that later Bethesda games aren’t. Definitely recommend if you want to make choices that keep you wondering if you actually did the right thing, and whether it was in character with your character.

But then again, that goes for the whole story. There’s just enough hints and mentions throughout to make you wonder if you actually are the chosen one or just someone stumbling their way through the game, luckily having events line up with a prophecy.

It’s hard to imagine Bethesda ever attempting something so ambiguous again.

gogosempai,
@gogosempai@programming.dev avatar

Detroit: Become Human fits the bill perfectly! It’s a great game with some of the hardest choices you’ll ever make in a game period.

SendMePhotos,

Life is Strange (any of them, favorites are the 1st and True Colors. Both could be played without the other (separate stories)).

Mass Effect (I started with 2nd) is among the best imo.

Detroit Become Human

Heavy Rain - this one had my first immersed quick decision that I was like, “holy shit I just did that” and it made me question if I would’ve acted that way in real life given the scenario.

Mistic,

I’d also add Beyond: Two Souls to the list

Stalinwolf,
@Stalinwolf@lemmy.ca avatar

I made some shit ass choices on my first playthrough of ME2, during the final mission. Precious Tali took a bullet to the face because of it. I forced myself to live with it and made more sensible choices the next time around. I don’t believe I lost anyone the next time, but when it came to the Kaiden (accidentally called him Carth there for a moment) vs. Ashley, I definitely let Ashley go boom on that second playthrough and every consecutive time afterward as well. Kaiden is moody and a little annoying to have around, but at least he’s not a fucking dickhead like Ashley.

IvanOverdrive,

I love me some Mass Effect, but it’s less “choices matter” and more “illusion of choice”.

solitaire, (edited )
@solitaire@infosec.pub avatar

Life is Strange hit me so hard. A content warning for people unfamiliar, but a core theme of the game is suicide. It comes at the topic a few times with different contexts that had me crying more than once. Highly recommended.

ShaggySnacks,

Pathologic 2 - Stress Simulator, decide what to do with dwindling resources. Notoriously difficult.

Orwell: Keeping an Eye On You - The information you pass on, is going to really affect the story. A couple of times, I really felt conflicted about the decision.

This War of Mine - Do you rob innocent at the cost of your humanity or fight those bandits who are looting at the cost of your life

adrian783,

this war of mine is gold, Jerry gold even.

2nd_Fermenter,

I’ll second This War of Mine. It draws from the experiences of civilians during the Siege of Sarajevo in the 90s. The choices are hard, and they have real consequence, and what you pick will haunt your dreams.

Mango,

Kenshi

Also does anyone think Morrowind counts?

Coasting0942,

Dishonored franchise. The world goes from bright to nightmarish depending on your choices

ElectroLisa,
@ElectroLisa@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

Deus Ex? The original one

echoplex21,

Mass Effect was pretty great with this and really paved the way for games now. i still don’t know another set of trilogies where the game can be affected from the choices you made years before in an earlier game. I think they went so ambitious that it really tied up their hands with a lot of things for ME3.

Crashumbc,

2077 cyberpunk only plays out badly

Drewelite,

The saddest ending is the one where you win.

sealhaslupus,

technically on par for a dystopian game

memo,

A good chunk of comments have spoilers, so if you read this first beware. I guess people like to brag about game knowledge more than they like having other people experiencing stuff.

Custoslibera,

Annnnnd now I close this post.

Nanners,
@Nanners@lemmy.world avatar

I’m not sure I’ve seen it posted here, a little older, but the TellTale Walking Dead games are killer. You make full choices that affect your game later. Tons of fun, not a ton of action gameplay but the stories told are next level IMO

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