It's hard to make game choices. Many have tried and failed, with decisions leading to slightly different endings or having no effect at all.
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However, there are a few titles that don't just pretend your choices matter. Instead, they take into account how you choose to play your characters and adjust the game accordingly. As a result, every important decision seems extremely important, because at any moment you can irreversibly change the universe in the game or change the main storyline. This is a collection of such titles.
Updated May 22, 2023 by Ben Jessey:Many games require player choice. However, in many cases, the decisions you have to make won't significantly affect the overall experience.
This doesn't always ruin the title, but it's much better when you're playing a game where your choices matter. There are many titles that fit this description. We have included some of the most noteworthy in this list. And now we've updated the article by adding a few more.
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29 The living dead
TellTale's The Walking Dead is more of a collection of games than a single. This is because there are four seasons of this narrative adventure experience along with several spin-offs. The main seasons focus on a young Clementine who finds herself in the midst of a zombie apocalypse.
Its main goal is simply to survive. To achieve this, you must make a whole series of difficult decisions that affect her and her surroundings. Not all of them have a significant impact, but the biggest ones usually do.
28 Divinity: original sin 2
Divinity: Original Sin 2 is an isometric turn-based RPG set in the fantasy world of Rivellon. It's a beautiful world, but it's currently under attack by creatures known as Voidwoken. Your customizable hero is the only hope to save this place. That's the main premise of the story, but there's much more going on in this dense universe.
Throughout your adventure, you make tons of choices that affect the overall experience. Not every decision is a binary decision you have to make. The actions you choose while exploring alone will affect your adventure.
27 Chrono-trigger
An early example of a game with a significant number of players to choose from is Chrono Trigger. This 2D RPG from 1995 tells the story of a group of adventurers who learn that a global catastrophe is about to occur.
So they plan to use their time travel abilities to visit different eras and come up with a plan to save the world from destruction. The story can be told in several ways. Which one you get depends on the actions you take during the storyline.
26 Grand Theft Auto 5
In Grand Theft Auto 5 you control three heroes who have different personalities. But one thing they have in common is their willingness to participate in criminal activities, especially those that bring them significant sums of money. They commit several robberies throughout history in this way.
Not only do you take part in the heists yourself, but you are also in charge of the planning, which means that you have to make important decisions. What method do you use? Who do you want in your team? These choices affect the course of the heist and its success.
25 When dusk falls
When dusk fallsit all depends on your choice. After all, the most important thing you do in the game is making decisions that have a huge impact on the course of each scene. Even seemingly small choices sometimes turn out to be very important. So you have a big influence on the main storyline.
The plot revolves around two families who meet on one faithful day in 1998. The first half of the adventure shows what happened that day. The second half takes place many years later and shows how the events affected those involved.
24 Nier: Automata
Nier: The Story of Automata tells the story of a major conflict between alien-created machines and human-created androids. It sounds simple enough, but it turns out to be one of the most complex stories in recent gaming history. And you have to go through a lot of playthroughs to see and understand everything.
During these runs you can getlitany of different endings. They are activated based on the actions you choose during gameplay. For example, if you decide to remove the chip that enables your Android character to function, the game will immediately end. So be careful what you do in this action RPG.
23 Red Dead Redemption 2
This open-world Western game isn't something people often think of when talking about choice-based games. After all, it's not like you're bombarded with binary decisions every two minutes. The honor system is much more organic as it tracks all your actions. So if you want high honors, don't shoot a lot of innocent people.
Whether honorable or not, the whole story is about the adventures of the Van Der Linde gang and their struggle to survive in a changing world. You play as Arthur Morgan, and your honor level affects how the world sees and talks about you. Moreover, it also affects the ending.
22 Prey (2017)
Prey takes place entirely on a space station that has been taken over by a dangerous alien force called Typhon. Your goal is to get rid of them all by any means necessary. However, you are not the only living person on the station. As you make your way through the story, you meet different people.
Most of the choices in the game revolve around these guys as you are constantly tasked with deciding whether to help them and how much help to provide. Your actions in these situations affect the course of the story.
21 Life is strange: true colors
The Life Is Strange franchise is known for its choice-based gameplay, and True Colors is no exception. In this you play as Alex Chen who meets her brother in a small mining town called Haven. It is worth noting that Alex is not an ordinary person. He has the supernatural ability to recognize and feel another person's emotions.
He uses this to try to uncover all the secrets of this seemingly happy city. Along the way, you have to make some important decisions. They affect the lives of various other characters and your relationship with them. At the end of the game, you see what everyone thinks of you.
20 Heavy rain
Heavy Rain is an interactive narrative adventure game centered around a serial killer called the Origami Killer. They are known to murder their victims by drowning them in rainwater and leaving a piece of origami in place.
You play as several different heroes who want to discover the killer's identity and put an end to his crimes. Their level of success depends on you. Your choices and button-pressing skills affect the course of each character's story. As a result, there are several endings you can get.
19 mass effect 3
In the third Mass Effect game, Commander Shepard proved himself to be the most important person in the fight against the Reapers. As sentient machines actively attack ME3, the importance of the hero increases even more.
So in an action RPG, you make a litany of choices that directly affect how ready you are for war, which determines what endings are available. In addition, during the game you have to decide the fate of different races. You can even effectively wipe out several species by making certain choices.
18 Stanley's parable
In The Stanley Parable, you control a silent hero whose actions are narrated by actor Kevan Brighting. The narrator tries to lead you down a certain path, but you don't have to listen to him.
So you're constantly deciding whether to follow his instructions or not. And those decisions change the ending you get. Not that you're sticking to that conclusion because every time you reach the end of the path, the game resets. Therefore, the game is about discovering different endings by making different choices.
17 The outer worlds
Not every decision you makeThe outer worldsis significant. However, the biggest ones have a big impact on the game world, especially when it comes to the ending.
Almost the fate of every place you visit and the faction you meet depends on the actions you take throughout the game. And on a smaller scale, your choices also affect what everyone thinks of you on a personal level. So you have to be careful with your decisions in The Outer Worlds.
16 Man from Medan
After the prologue of Man Of Medan, it appears that a group of young adults are going diving together. However, this does not last long, as the main characters quickly get into trouble.
Most of their problems come after jumping aboard a creepy old warship. It's up to you to keep them safe despite the horrors they face. In fact, the lives of all the main characters are in your hands. Which of them survives has a direct impactwhat ending do you have.
15 defiled
Few games handle choice as well as this title from Arkane Studios. The world of Dishonored is created by you, not by your words, it is based on your actions.
For example, if you choose to kill a lot of people during the storyline, you will find many more rats and unsavory creatures roaming around. Alternately, the streets will be quite clear when going from stealth. Your chaos level also affects guard patrols, people's opinion of you, and the game's ending.
14 Cyberpunk 2077
Cyberpunk 2077deals with personal choices that affect not only the main mission, but also the side missions. For example, you have the chance to save your neighbor who has serious personal problems, but as V, are you really making the right choices to do so?
Cyberpunk also has different endings, and the journey you take up to this point with V and Johnny Silverhand determines which ones you'll see. So what you do throughout the story really matters; however, don't worry too much about choosing a life path because that's not the case.
13 Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
The Assassin's Creed franchise isn't always known for putting you in control of the events that happen in a given game. But things have changed a bit in recent episodes, as this Vikings adventure shows.
Application fromEivor and Sigured's adventure is directly defined by a series of decisionsthat you have to do during the story. Plus, you have a lot of little choices that affect things like who lives? Who controls what? And who is related to whom?
12 Killer 3
While Hitman 3 isn't exactly considered a choice-based game, it's entirely dictated by how you choose to play it. In each level, there are different ways to defeat the objectives, and some of them are very different from each other. For example, in the Dartmoor mission, you can conduct a full murder investigation, including talking to suspects and finding clues, all completely optional.
Also, at the end of the game, you have to make a big choice. Will you kill the character or choose a better fate for them? This is a big tip to watch out for when it comes to conclusions. There's even a "secret" ending to unlock, three in total.
11 A wolf among us
ZCount's Speechgames are often quite mixed in terms of storytelling and choice-driven storytelling, but few others do it as well as The Wolf Among Us. This title is a much stricter crime thriller than most other adventure games where you follow your detective to catch a killer in a strange fairy tale version of New York City.
What makes these choices so important is the lack of time to make them, as most important decisions in the game have timers that stop you from overthinking certain topics. You have to make your own impulsive decisions, and while some may lead to new plot details, there are plenty that can be missed if you don't rethink your actions.
10 Fallout: New Vegas
Most of the newer onesUpthe games can be a bit on rails with their stories. The main overarching plot usually doesn't change based on your decisions, and Fallout 3's simplistic choices of good or bad style have won the admiration of many fans. However, Fallout: New Vegas is the exact opposite.
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Almost every decision has a huge gray area around morality and the benefits it will bring you. You can get close to certain characters, befriend different factions that bring you into conflict with others, and you can kill almost every NPC you encounter to create even more different stories and endings. It's an endless amount of choices and lots of decisions about which builds and perks you choose, ultimately becoming an amazing personalized experience with every playthrough.