Top 7... Games that force you to make disturbingly amoral decisions

You can do anything you like, as long as it makes you feel awful

Words: Tom_Goulter on October 26, 2012

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crswaites - October 29, 2012 11:55 a.m.

It's funny, because I couldn't disagree more with the decisions made in Skyrim-- they're idiotically simple, and don't hold a candle to Fallout 3, which itself is pretty cut-and-dry compared to any of the other games on this list. Seriously, Skyrim?? The only two places the game actually lets you make real choices is who you side with (and either way the plot pretty much plays out the same) and whether you choose to betray a friend at the end of the game or not. I mean, I loved Skyrim, I sunk 180 hours into the game, but the game was pathetic when it came to decisions of any consequence.
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spiderman0071426 - October 28, 2012 6:56 a.m.

Possible spoilers!!I would say dragon age origins has some tough choices. The werewolf's are better allies but the dalish are mostly innocent just their corrupt leader. King Balen is a total douche bag from the get go, but he turns out to be a far better king that Harromount. Morrigan gives the warden a way out, but you have to betray the one you love if not her, and for all intensive purposes possible release a new evil down the line. There are many more like that
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Craza - October 27, 2012 8:11 p.m.

Aha! Witcher 2 has been added. And thanks for using my quote, GR. c:
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LordEvan88 - October 27, 2012 11:02 a.m.

Would have liked to see a game older than 5 years. Heck, would have liked to see more than 2 games older than one. Would have liked to see a game that had anything other than cartoonishly good or cartoonishly bad choices. I am reminded of a lot of Black Isles games back in the late 90s. Fallout and Planescape put a lot of thought into your characters actions and how they affected the world around them. And if you want to get into actual terrible descisions, Manhunt did a great job of trying to make the player hate themselves. Also, it just seems odd to include the last game in a trilogy where the first game actually had choices that affected the other two.
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sirdilznik - October 27, 2012 9:01 a.m.

"Mass Effect 3's choices are so big you might get dizzy" Yeah, it's just too bad that all those choices are rendered completely meaningless by the games endings, even with the expanded endings DLC.
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JachAnen - October 28, 2012 2:11 a.m.

Please stop that. It's over and not going to change. And the ending in the third didn't get more thought than the other two games, you can't see the difference of your choices really. And I don't know why people like you expected something more than usual. Game company's lie you know, so if it's because of their promise you should have known better. You can always choose to avoid ME4 if you're still mad by then.
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minionofgruumsh - October 26, 2012 9:05 p.m.

Ok, after reading the choices, and then seeing the community choice, I feel like I should chime in. Going strictly by the the title of the article ("Games That *Force* You to Make Terrible Decisions") I would argue that Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume, for the Nintendo DS, should hold a high spot. Every encounter/chapter, however you want to look at it, you may select one party member to "superpower" and then at the end of the chapter they die...permanently. And while you don't have to do it every chapter, you must do it eventually and every so often to keep the story going (or depending upon how good/bad you are, just to make it through the chapter). And before you think you can just sacrifice Joe New-Guy every time, it doesn't work that way; the goddess only lets you sacrifice characters who actually *mean* something to the main character, people who have been through some times with the main character and trust him, and who don't see it coming. So it's a game that requires you to kill the people who love and/or trust you in order to complete it, how's that for forcing amoral decisions? ;P
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Jacko415 - October 26, 2012 6:04 p.m.

Yeah! the whole second and 3rd act was dependant on a single choice in the first act. The Witcher 2 awesome!
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Viron - October 26, 2012 5:11 p.m.

Witcher 2 had choices? Could of fooled me.
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yonderTheGreat - October 24, 2012 8:39 p.m.

The end of Chapter 4 of TWD was amazing. All along I was afraid it would simply be "a different version of the exact same story" but wow... I was comparing my ending to a friends and she was like "wow, you and I played the game entirely differently, didn't we?"
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Sjoeki - October 24, 2012 1:22 p.m.

I've got the feeling that I'm really missing out on something great cause I haven't tried the walking dead yet. And this might be off topic but I could use some help, my hard drive crashed (PS3), got one option, try to restore it by pressing X, so I did that and I can use my PS3 again. Is this a sign that my console is dying and would I be wise to replace it for a new one? Or would it be better to just make a new account (lost my account codes). I have to start all over again anyway. But I don't want to start over again and again.
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FreezeRay - October 24, 2012 10:12 a.m.

Almost stopped reading the list right at the Fallout 3 entry. The choices in that game are pretty poor. its either be a super douche, or save the world. The consequences of which are not felt outside of the quest you are on or a single random encounter. Fallout New Vegas was way better with choices at least carrying over a little. However, both games should be no where near this list.
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MasKas - October 23, 2012 9:04 p.m.

lol at XCOM If there was a real alien invasion it's gg for the nations that are dependent on the XCOM initiative. Kinda sad since IRL the States are kind of like XCOM and you can't really be surprised if they put their own home first. O video games how you reveal the harsh truths of this world. I'm just glad that IRL there isn't a real alien invasion and that most countries have their own XCOM... Figuratively speaking.
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KnowYourPokemon - October 23, 2012 6:21 p.m.

Kinda surprised not to see Witcher 2. Practically every decision in that game had a downside to it story wise. Nothing was simlpe black/white good/bad.
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Craza - October 26, 2012 12:22 p.m.

That's exactly what I was thinking. Witcher 2 was by far the most difficult in terms of making a choice and definitely the most complex (Until TWD came out, in my opinion), and there were things I missed out on that I didn't find out about until I saw them online (The dragon!? I felt absolutely terrible after finding out!). There were so many times where I would sort of re-neg on a decision I made by helping out the person I had left behind or not chosen to go with before, but if you don't go with them on that first major choice, they'll hate you for the rest of the game., or at least be pretty skeptical of you. I still liked how even though you didn't side with a person, you could still help them out or even save their life later on in the game, yet you weren't automatically sided with them if you did.
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