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?

Mango,

Kenshi

Also does anyone think Morrowind counts?

Deestan,

Terra Invicta may be too high-level for the emotional impact, but it could fit. You are playing on the geopolitical stage, preventing (or steering) an exctinction-level war between humans and aliens. Stage a coup to overthrow a democratically elected government, make it as corrupt as possible to drive it to poverty so that the faction that wants to surrender to the aliens can’t win the space race?

The Last Federation where you play as the last member of an alien race that everyone tried to destroy, and your last act is to prevent them all from killing each other. Maybe you will harass them all to make them ally against you and become friends? Maybe convince 4 of them to gang up on the 5th?

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.

MechanicalJester,

Just answer our increasingly difficult questions.

Trolley problem: One track is one person, the other is 10

Next level

Okay well now the one person is your mom, and the 10 are 1 year olds you don’t know

Next level

Okay the one person is your best friends mom and the 10 are young kids from your immediate or extended family

Next level

Okay the one person would cure cancer tomorrow, and the 10 are friends or family

…

nutsack,

The trolley problem is easy all of these questions are easy

Voroxpete,

Or, y’know, go with the original version of the trolley problem, where you start with the classic formulation (do you pull the lever?), then move to a new scenario;

“You’re a doctor, working in a hospital that has been cut off from outside resources by a disaster. You have five patients, one in need of a liver, one a heart, one a pair of kidneys, one a set of lungs, and one a pancreas. You have no suitable organs available, and all five patients will die without transplants, but there is a healthy young janitor working in the hospital who, by a stroke of extreme luck, is a compatible donor for all five patients. You could kill the janitor, harvest their organs, and save five people. Should you do it?”

Fascinatingly, almost everyone opts to pull the lever in the first part, but refuses to kill the janitor in the second, even though they are, from a deeply utilitarian perspective, the same choice. Unravelling why we see them as different is where things get really interesting.

dutchkimble,

Level 1 - one person Level 2 - the kids Level 3 - best friend’s mom Level 4 - cancer cure guy

None of it matters in the long run anyway, so might as well pick the choices that affect you directly. Toughest one in this is the best friend’s mom definitely.

knatsch,

Yes, your grace, is a great short game

Arcane_Trixster,

Banner Saga

perviouslyiner,

War hospital puts you in charge of a WW1 medical camp trying to allocate limited surgeons, nurses, medical supplies as people come in injured from the front line.

Zahille7,

I haven’t finished it, but I’d say Vampyr makes you make some difficult choices

xkforce,

Does it though? Do I om nom and gain power or do I not isnt really that deep.

CitizenKong,

I mean it also fucks up the city if you kill the community pillars.

Doublepluskirk,

Yeah, tanking a district makes that area harder and doesnt feel great; however, if you don’t kill any of them, the combat is really hard because you’re under levelled. So you have to make moral judgements and choose who is “best” to kill.

Zahille7,

I mainly remember totally fucking up helping that nurse save that homeless guy, and I tried to go back so I could do it right and the game specifically tells you to live with your choices.

Doublepluskirk,

I like it. Roll with the consequences of your actions, be they accidental or not, but I can see how that can be frustrating for some

Squizzy,

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

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.

Chip_Rat,

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

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

TheEighthDoctor,

Sometimes Always Monsters

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.

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.

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