Memorable Video Games With Choices and Consequences

Perhaps the most compelling thing about video games is the element of interactivity. You can shout at horror movie characters all you want, but they’ll still go into the haunted house and (probably) get themselves killed. You can love to hate (or hate to love) your favorite novel’s main villain, but all you can do is cross your fingers and hope they’ll get what they deserve.

Video games, on the other hand, put you in the driver’s seat. It’s up to you to time that sword swing right, to find the key to the locked door, to solve the puzzle that’s keeping you from a date with destiny. Even if the character on the screen looks and acts nothing like you, you are the one with the power—and the responsibility—to get them to the end of the story alive.

Games with real choices and consequences are exciting because they amplify this aspect of gaming. In a linear game, if a character dies, it’s technically the writers’ fault. But in a game with a branching narrative, who lives and who dies may be entirely up to you. The best examples of these games are among some of the most memorable gaming experiences of all time; below, I’ve compiled a list of just a few.

A Few Great Games with Choices and Consequences

This list of games with choices and consequences is in no particular order; however, I’ve done my best to choose them based not just on quality, but on how well these titles represent decision-based storytelling in games.

Life is Strange

No list of choice-based games would be complete without Life is Strange; both the story and the gameplay revolve around the question of whether we really have the power to change our lives (and our world) with our choices or not. I haven’t played all of the games in the series yet, but the original is a classic starring not one, but two strong female protagonists. It’s well worth checking out if you haven’t already done so.

Mass Effect 2

It’s difficult to choose a single entry from the original Mass Effect trilogy to highlight here. The first game features one of the most memorably difficult choices—the choice to save one teammate or another; you can’t save both—and the third has some of the best character relationship development in video games, period.

But the second game really showcased the weight of player decisions—everyone’s life hangs in the balance, and everyone can die at the end if you play your cards badly enough. As Commander Shepard, you are responsible for these people—and the game makes sure to hit you where it hurts if you fail them.

Detroit: Become Human

Detroit: Become Human is the perfect length for a choice-based game: long enough for the player to form serious attachments to their favorite characters, but short enough to be easily replayed to explore at least a few of the 85 total variations of the finale. Yes, many of those include significant overlap, but still—85 endings?! As both a writer and a gamer, it boggles my mind to this day.

Detroit also features one of my favorite platonic relationships in gaming ever (Connor and Hank, the perfect buddy cop duo)—and yes, whether they end up as friends or enemies is one of the many story elements that entirely up to the player to determine.

Until Dawn

Another entry where everyone can die, Until Dawn earned its place as one of the most influential horror games in history by balancing a great story with truly pulse-pounding decision-making gameplay. Not only do your choices matter, but you better make up your mind fast—hesitating even a second too long in some cases can be the difference between life and death.

Oh, and if you thought 85 endings was a lot, Until Dawn offers a whopping 256 variations on three types of endings and a myriad of potential horrible deaths for your favorite character to suffer. Fun!

Heavy Rain

Another Quantic Dream title, in many ways Heavy Rain paved the path that more polished titles like Detroit and Until Dawn would later walk with greater flourish. It’s dark and moody and, yes, sometimes a bit ponderous—few games would dare use something as utterly mundane as pouring a glass of OJ for tutorial fodder—but it doesn’t pull its punches. With a child’s life (and all of the protagonists’ lives) on the line, every choice hangs heavy on the player’s shoulders.

The Witcher 3

Like a few other games on this list, choices in the Witcher series not only impact the story of the game they take place in but also have ramifications in subsequent titles. All of these choices—whomever you’ve loved or lost, killed or spared—come to a head in the final game in the trilogy.

Not all of your choices are weighted the same, of course; some only impact the outcome of a single side-quest, while a precious few others will alter the future of entire kingdoms. Rarely, if ever, is there an easy “good versus evil” decision to be made; more often than not, it’s all about choosing what seems like the lesser evil and then hoping for the best.

Kim Berkley

dark horror interactive romantic cozy fantasy fiction

Memorable Video Games With Choices and Consequences