“Choices matter” is a common tagline or back-of-the-box bullet point in modern gaming; from the early days of text-based CRPGs to more current narrative-focused adventures, some gamers are enamored with the idea that a game’s plot can be shaped and changed by their decisions. It’s certainly a cool concept, but it’s not always well-implemented.
Creating a branching narrative, accounting for every possible repercussion, and writing dialog and changing around story beats to make it all work can sometimes border on impossible. As a result, some games that claim to take the player’s decisions into account only offer a cheap illusion of choice.
8 BioShock
The 2007 FPS hit BioShock presents players with a heavy choice early on; after defeating the deranged Dr. Steinman, players can opt to either rescue or harvest a Little Sister. Little Sisters and medically mutated girls who carry a valuable substance known as ADAM, meaning that the player’s decision boils down to more power at the expense of innocent lives or less power and a clear conscience.
However, there’s really no reason to harvest the Little Sisters, as Dr. Tenenbaum, their creator and caretaker, provides the player with ample reward for saving them. Additionally, while there are two separate endings based on how many Little Sisters were saved, they are so short as to be inconsequential.
7 Fallout 4
Player choice was an integral element in the earlier Fallout titles, though Fallout 3‘s lackluster ending options rubbed many the wrong way. Fallout 4, however, devolved NPC interactions even further, with most dialogue choices resulting in the exact same outcomes no matter what.
Some major choices can affect things on a macro level, but most inconsequential conversations and side quests won’t ultimately have an effect on anything at all. Many players viewed this as one of Fallout 4‘s most significant shortcomings, and things became even worse with the release of Fallout 76, which didn’t have any NPCs whatsoever at launch.
6 Spec Ops: The Line
Released in 2012, Spec Ops: The Line was a cerebral and terrifying title that lampooned the military shooter trend of the time, offering up an Apocalypse Now-Esque journey of horrors both real and imagined. It also prods at the concept of “choices matter” gaming, forcing the player to commit terrible deeds, and then scolding them for it in the aftermath.
Along with the infamous white phosphorous scene, there are several instances in the game during which the player is made to believe that their choices may have actual consequences only for that to subsequently be revealed as a farce.
5 Call of Cthulhu
Call of Cthulhu was a 2018 outing loosely based on the famous tabletop RPG of the same name—and, of course, the H. P. Lovecraft novella that inspired it. A narrative-driven title that played at least a bit like an occult approximation of L.A. Noire, the player was faced with choices at every turn, though not all of them were as consequential as they appeared to be.
Many of the dialogue options are rudimentary, the investigation mechanics often come across as basic, and the whole thing feels at times like a walking simulator disguised as a more in-depth experience. What’s more, there are only four endings, all of which are fairly similar.
4 Dark Souls 3
FromSoftware’s Dark Souls games are famed for their intricate lore and incredible detail, but, in the minds of less story-focused gamers, the ambiguous endings come across as a bit lacking. While Dark Souls 3 featured four separate endings, some of which demanded that players pursue seemingly unimportant narrative threads, each of the final cutscenes are very similar and very much open for interpretation.
While this doesn’t detract from the game’s overall quality, it may have disappointed those who put in the effort to explore every catacomb, conquer every boss fight, and divulge every secret.
3 Cyberpunk 2077
Ahead of Cyberpunk 2077‘s release, developer CD Projekt Red touted a selection of starting scenarios, each of which supposedly allowed for vastly different story experiences. While the three lifepaths do come into play in both crucial and less-consequential points in the game, in the beginning, the differences essentially boil down to different opening missions.
Regardless of what players chose, they’ll befriend Jackie Wells and start out on the same exact questline. The game’s branching pathways do expand from that point, but it was a bit of a disappointment to see that, at least, initially, Cyberpunk 2077‘s lifepaths changed very little.
2 Mass Effect 3
One of the most notoriously disappointing decisions in any video game, the finale of Bioware’s legendary Mass Effect trilogy saw the player opt to either destroy, control, or synthesis all life with the Reapers. Impactful as that sounds, each of these choices brought about very samey cutscenes that lacked the depth, gravitas, and intrigue players had been led to expect.
So negatively received were these end-game decisions that Bioware essentially retconned them in the subsequent DLC expansions. While Mass Effect 3‘s dud of a finale doesn’t detract completely from the impeccable quality of the series, it remains a blunder that even the ferociously underbaked Mass Effect Andromeda couldn’t wipe from fans’ minds.
1 Telltale’s The Walking Dead
Telltale’s series of interactive The Walking Dead stories were heralded as genre-defining choices-matter titles. Forefathers of equally-acclaimed games such as Firewatch and Life is Strange, Telltale’s The Walking Dead was considered to be a must-play in the early 2010s, but opinions have since softened somewhat.
While player choice still has a non-negligible impact on in-game events, some specific decisions can only result in one consequence regardless of what’s picked. These instances became more frequent in subsequent Telltale-developed games, and, while they were much more pronounced in the studios’ Batman and Game of Thrones licensed titles, they drastically detract from The Walking Dead outings, as well.
