Highlights
- Games like The Witcher and The Walking Dead offer tough moral choices that challenge players to navigate a gray spectrum of morality.
- Papers, Please forces players to balance the well-being of their family with empathizing with desperate refugees seeking refuge at the border.
- The Last of Us and Spec Ops: The Line explore the darker side of humanity, questioning players' actions and painting a bleak picture of the consequences.
Games where a player's choices matter have become really popular, especially in the realm of RPGs and adventure games. In fact, most story-driven titles employ this mechanic to great effect, making for a fun time as players can choose a response that fits perfectly in line with their chosen character's personality.
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There was a time when these decisions were pretty binary when it came to being either a good or evil character in a video game, with the original Mass Effect trilogy being a great example of the same. However, gaming has evolved beyond this point, and players would prefer choice-based gameplay that questions a player's morality and falls within a gray spectrum no matter what people have to choose.
6 The Witcher Trilogy
There's no denying that CD Projekt Red became such a powerhouse in the gaming industry because of the amazing work they did on the Witcher series, with the third title becoming a household name as more and more people got into this wonderful RPG and became invested in their quest to locate and save Ciri from the clutches of the Wild Hunt.
One aspect of the games that has remained consistent from the very first game is the incredible writing, with the first title doing an especially great job of integrating a wealth of moral conundrums. The choices that players could make in the game were incredibly tough and morally gray, forcing players to take the lesser evil... which could also differ based on a player's interpretation of events.
5 Papers, Please
Lucas Pope has made a name for himself as one of the greatest indie developers of all time, crafting two incredible experiences that have gone down in history as some of the greatest video games ever made. While Return of the Obra Dinn is easily his magnum opus by a country mile, Papers, Please should also be lauded for its incredible writing and tough decision-making.
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Steampunk has gained a lot of steam over the years and there are a lot of video games that adapt the style. Here's a look at some of the best.
Players work as a run-of-the-mill immigration officer who needs to perform competently at their job to secure the well-being of their family. However, this becomes an issue when many people make their way towards the border and are desperate to seek refuge. As a result, players must either think of their family first or empathize with the person in front of them and grant them the safe haven they deserve.
4 The Walking Dead
Telltale Games became one of the biggest players in the gaming industry, and a huge reason for this was the work they put into The Walking Dead. This adventure game was a breakout hit, with the story of Lee and Clementine being an emotional one as players are forced to make some tough choices in a limited time.
The zombie apocalypse is a harrowing scenario indeed, and Lee has to satisfy some aspects of his moral compass while ignoring others — a task that's easier said than done. There are many tough decisions that players have to make over the course of the games, and it's easy to see why players can find it rather tough to play this game without second-guessing the choices they've made.
3 The Last Of Us: Part 1 & 2
The Last of Us is one of the most notable IPs of all time, spawning two games and an HBO adaptation that is pretty great in its own right. The game takes place during a zombie apocalypse but is more about the exploration of the human condition and how people can turn on each other in the blink of an eye to secure their well-being.
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These games require some serious decision-making skills.
Both games feature incredible stories that make players question their actions as both Joel and Ellie's motivations clash with the notion of the greater good. While Part 2 was rightfully criticized for trying to tell a story that was never going to succeed via the medium of video gaming, it still poses some interesting moral conundrums that the HBO show can hopefully do justice by.
2 Deus Ex
The first Deus Ex is touted by many as one of the greatest video games ever made, being a definitive immersive sim that helped this genre become so popular in the first place. The game may look extremely dated from a visual standpoint, but that's a price most people are willing to pay if they wish to experience a riveting storyline laden with conspiracy theories and ideological discussions that hit very close to home in the modern era.
JC Denton may have the most deadpan delivery around... but that actually makes sense given how nanoaugmentation works in the game's universe. The questions posed in this game and the morally gray nature of the game's three endings make it one of the most incredible cyberpunk games that players can check out for themselves.
1 Spec Ops: The Line
Most modern video games set in war-torn settings end up glorifying the act of being a soldier and fighting for one's country. While this sentiment is certainly understandable to an extent, the fact is that war can also be hell, and people frivolously lose their minds and bodies in these bloody conflicts.
No game personifies this better than Spec Ops: The Line, a game where the main character slowly loses his mind and tries to justify his morally heinous actions on an antagonist who was never there, to begin with. The story is truly chilling, and all of the game's endings are bleak and don't paint a positive picture of the events to come on purpose.