What is the hardest choice you've had to make in a video game?

The Game Room
1

Look, it’s a game. It’s not real. It’s like a movie or show or book. You know it’s fiction, so you know choices don’t matter a whole lot…

..but sometimes…
…sometimes you get really into a good game and it’s well-written and well-done and the choices matter and, well, at some point you’re faced with a heavy choice that actually makes you think for a moment.

Have you ever had this moment happen to you while playing a game? Where it makes you pause for a minute and consider and weigh the choices?

I’ve had it happen a few times in games and I’ll spoil them all out of consideration.

Top three would have to be…

Telltale’s Game of Thrones series One of the last choices is between picking one of two brothers, both that you’ve been playing as main characters in the game, to stay behind and get killed by he enemy. Took me a moment to decide.

Spec Ops The Line. Which hostage to shoot? Those of you who have played this game know the part I’m talking about, @DWMarch

and finally, the hardest one to date…
Far Cry 5/Far Cry New Dawn

There is a moment in New Dawn where you meet a character from Far Cry 5. The guy is EVIL…but…you’re not playing as the same character you were in FC5, thus technically, the person you’re playing as would not know that history of this character, who is appearing helpful. Only the PLAYER knows of the history of the character, so the choice becomes…play it “realistic” i.e. as it would probably be in real life where your character would have no real reason to distrust the evil man or think of him a evil…or play with your “inside knowledge”, even though it would not make sense for your character to suddenly start treating this random stranger he doesn’t really know … like shit and kill/injure him.
I just felt like it was a great set up moment and choice. I decided not to kill him, even though in FC 5 I wanted to badly. It would just make no sense for the NEW character I was now playing as to suddenly have “revenge needs” for the guy he just met. It was a choice hard enough to actually make me put my controller down and think about it for a few minutes, though.

So what about you? You ever come face to face with an actual hard choice in a game that had to make you think for a second about it? Spoiler any endings or reveals that should be spoiled, please, but do tell.

2

The end of Dragon Age: Origins, before the final battle with the archdemon—

Morrigan’s proposal.

It’s challenging enough all by itself. But if you’re playing a female warden and you’re romancing Alistair, it’s just agonizing. You sit there and go back and forth in your mind. There’s no good option, only choices with different kinds of awful.

The fact that it’s not terribly impactful in the long run of the story over the subsequent games is beside the point. In the moment, it’s a mindbending bombshell.

BioWare used to be really good at this stuff.

3

In Mass Effect (the first one), you have to make a choice between saving Kaidan or Ashley.

Personally, I don’t find a forced choice between two options as bad as a cruel option that’s purely optional though.

4

Character creation.

5

Well there was this one time with a trolley and a bunch of people standing on a track just after a switch…

6

Blizzard, though… not so much.

Seriously, did anyone ever choose Nova over Tosh?

7

Really, at that point I’d ask if they could both go. I didn’t care for their characters.

(Wrex all the way, baby!)

I can’t say there was any one particular choice, but the game Vampyr was full of them, especially because I tried playing it without ever harming an innocent person. Which was really difficult to pull off, since it limits your character progression massively.

8

This.

9

Yup, that game was awesome.

10

I came across a great example in my Assassin’s Creed Valhalla journal (post 51). There’s a street bard that pleads you for a very large (for him) amount of money to support his songwriting efforts. If you refuse to give him the money, he immediately starts spewing out an incredibly insulting, offensive, disgusting song and absolutely will not ever stop until you kill him. If you give him the money, he’s so grateful that he plays a song praising you (which is still absolutely horrendous)…during which time you can pickpocket your money back from him. The event ends after he thanks you for your generosity, but then he’ll repeat the same hideous song infinitely until you kill him (which immediately gets you your money back).

So to recap, your four options are:

  1. Don’t pay, then kill him immediately (or listen to the entire song beforehand so that you have “justification” or “cause for anger” if you’re into that sort of thing).
  2. Pay, kill him before he’s finished the song, and get your money back.
  3. Pay, let him finish the song, kill him during his encore performance, and get your money back.
  4. Pay, take it all back, let him finish the song, and kill him during his encore performance.

All the choices get the job done, and I can’t say any one is ideal. #1 is essentially “Eivor doesn’t realize how dire the situation is, pays the price for her carelessness, and resolves it the only way she can.” It’s an efficient way to resolve the event, but leaves Eivor completely at the mercy of events, which I find deeply unsatisfying. #2 is “Eivor tries to buy good treatment from a stranger, realizes her mistake, and is forced to rectify it.” This is also efficient, but makes Eivor look like something of a sucker. She is reacting here, not taking command like a powerful leader like her should. #3 and #4, while requiring you to suffer the bard’s existence for a few more seconds, have Eivor fully in control of the situation, albeit in slightly different manners. #3 is the “at least he gets to die happy” approach, while #4 is “nope, still not good enough” territory. After giving it some thought, I think that #3 would be most in line with what someone like Eivor would actually do. She’s witty, she loves karmic payback, and she tries to solve problems as expediently as possible. Letting a useless lump of gutter trash think he’s won only to send it all crashing down with one well-placed spear thrust sounds right up her ally. #4 actually sounds like how Connor would handle it: Get justice, and if the cretin still persists, get his head.

I ended up doing #4, which was more than satisfactory, but there always was that tiny little voice saying that maybe I should’ve done #3. Or #2; like, who cares about a bit of extra dialogue?

Idle_Thoughts - Re. Far Cry: I have no problem sparing or even helping evil characters as long it’s justified in-game. (I hate it when a character who is most definitely not evil meekly accepts the actions characters who are for absolutely no good reason, which was one of my huge beefs with Assassin’s Creed Valhalla) In the Grand Theft Auto series, for example, you assist everyone from drug lords to crooked cops to shady politicians to gangbangers to smugglers. You’re a crook. You do crook things. Since I’ve never played any of the Far Cry games, my guess is that the best course of action would be whatever is more beneficial in the long run. Will you need this person’s help to fix things, get something you need, scout, negotiate, build, etc.? Will he harm someone important to you, or steal or destroy something you need, if you don’t take action against him now? Unless there’s a morality system, “staying in character” shouldn’t be a concern. You are in control, and you want to make things as smooth for you as possible.

Here, I’ll give an example of what I’m talking about. In Wing Commander 3, after you learn of Hobbes’ betrayal, you have to decide whether to seek immediate revenge and go after him (in direct violation of your commander’s order) or stay put. It just so happens that the Kilrathi are just minutes from launching an all-out attack on your ship. If you go after Hobbes, you can kill him (and it’s a straight duel so it’s not complicated), but Vaquero…a young, humble, eager pilot with a great attitude…gets killed in the attack. Which means that, for me, revenge is absolutely not an option. If I go after Hobbes, I have the blood of a good wingman on my hands. I don’t care what’s “in character” for Blair. I don’t care that “he has no way of knowing.” I know, which means I can’t do it. Ever.

(To be honest, I’m a lot more concerned if he’s a jerk. If a situation ever arises where I have to go easy on a total jerk, I usually just delete the game then and there. I’m really grateful Assassins’ Creed Valhalla gave me an out. :slightly_smiling_face:)

11

I mean, there’s nothing stopping you from following your own morality system, even if the game doesn’t demand it. Sometimes you make choices because they make you feel good about yourself, or because they make a good story, not because they help you.

12

I think you’re missing one, there? Or more likely, two?

13

In one of the Mass Effects (the second one?) you had to choose whether to cure the genophage and it was a really hard choice for me.

14

That’s Mass Effect 3.

15

Also in Mass Effect 3, if you haven’t made the right choices up to that point, you have to choose between genocide for the Quarians or the Geth. That’s a pretty rough choice.

16

Yeah, those choices made the game seem, I don’t know, more real or something.

Loved those games!

17

Like what, not talking to him in the first place? (Knocking him unconscious doesn’t shut him up, so that is definitely not an option.) I mean, yeah, you COULD do that, but slinking away from confrontations isn’t the Assassins’ style, much less a hardcore head-chopper like Eivor. And it’s pretty dang unsatisfying. I only consider choices that don’t make me feel like I wasted $60+ and uncountable hours of my time. Shikieiki knows PS4 games had enough headaches.

18

I’m fascinated by this thread because I cannot play evil in games. I have a hard time when I have to choose to do “bad” things.

Like in Skyrim I was totally digging this newfound brotherhood I became involved with and then shit I have to be a werewolf?

I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t even do it long enough to find out whether it was even a big deal or not.

The first RPG I ever got into was Champions of Norrath on PS2. In the sequel you could choose to be good or evil. By all accounts, it was the exact same game either way.

I couldn’t do it. I tried but I could not proceed.

I have played just the beginning of the first Mass Effect - I got the remastered version. It seemed like the decisions were pretty clear between being an asshole and being a good guy. Don’t know if it ever got more complicated than that.

Is there an option where you don’t kill him?

19

Why not just pay him and move on? Don’t pickpocket him, don’t kill him later - just pay him, listen to a bad song once, and it’s over. Why is that not an option?