What's the most difficult decision you've had to make in a game?

[ZedClampet]

I never played Far Cry 3, but I've heard you have to decide whether to kill your girlfriend or not. I think I would have decided not to do that. Pragmatism isn't my ethical standards. Ubisoft is good/bad with these sorts of things. In Far Cry 4 you have to decide which of your friends that you've been helping the whole game that you want to kill. I decided against killing either, and after the game ends you find out that both of them are more evil than prior leader you got rid of.

So what are some tough decisions you've had to make?

 

[Pifanjr]

The only one I remember is from Mass Effect, I think the second game. I don't remember any of the context, I just remember the game suddenly giving me a renegade prompt to kill someone and I had to quickly decide if he deserved it or not. It was the only renegade action I took in an otherwise perfect paragon run over all three games.

 

[ZedClampet]

As my mom used to say, this went over like a ton of bricks

I just had another tough decision: mahogany or burnt beech in my luxury yacht in House Flipper. You can't top that.

 

[DXCHASE]

Being a necromancer in any game with one or not. I know generally how one works and most games that have them have great builds with them, but then i also get bored with more than half their skills due to summons, sometimes i want to kill things myself ya know?!

 

[McStabStab]

Honestly I think it was Yennefer or Triss. I chose Yennefer.

 

[Zloth]

There was one in Dragon Age: Origins that vexed me. The party was storming a castle and we found a succubus that had taken control of some guard. The succubus had an illusion going for the guard where he thought he had a wife and kids. It seems the guard really had no family, and the succubus' illusions were making him very happy and content. The succubus wasn't starving him or slowly killing him in any way I could see and, if I were to attack her, she would definitely make the guard attack me. So, if I attack, the guard may well die and will certainly lose his illusion. If I don't, the guard and succubus are happy, but the guard is in a fantasy world instead of dealing with reality.

Except that my party was just the start. Once my party finishes, others will come, and there's no chance they will just let those two live in peace. They'll attack and, because they are wussy NPCs, lots of people will die. Even if the guard lived, he would probably get killed for being 'tainted' or some such. Better I do it - and I did. Sten probably died, but he was always doing that, so it doesn't really count.

I never played Far Cry 3, but I've heard you have to decide whether to kill your girlfriend or not. I think I would have decided not to do that.

That was one of the most dumb decisions I've ever seen. Killing her made NO sense at all in that context. So, of course, I killed her off - just out of spite for the game's story. The game was fun, one of the baddies was fun, but the story in that game was terrible.

Honestly I think it was Yennefer or Triss. I chose Yennefer.

Me too, though if Shani had given me a chance....

 

[Slasken]

Honestly I think it was Yennefer or Triss. I chose Yennefer.

Same here, but with Triss.

Replayed it, and was going to choose Yen, but couldn't 😅

 

[ZedClampet]

...but the guard is in a fantasy world instead of dealing with reality.

It's all the same. Just experiences immediately pushed to memories. Now, if there is purpose to the universe, that could theoretically give reality an edge depending upon what that purpose is. I've heard the answer is 42, but I can't vouch for it.

 

[Zloth]

I think it's more about dolphins than porpoises... oh, pUrpose! Sorry, spring allergies have my ears eyes a little stuffy.

 

[Brian Boru]

I've heard the answer is 42

That's so old school… last millennium stuff, ya know? The modern answer is:
101010
See how much more symmetrical that is, how much more in harmony with the spheres?

As Zloth said, FC3 'story' was ridiculous, so I took one choice first play and the other first playthru—never bothered with finishing it on further playthrus. FC4's 'story' was much better, but likewise the choices didn't bother me at all—same deal, picked Amita first play and Sabal for first replay. In neither case were the choices any sort of dilemma, merely little speedbumps interrupting the great gameplay.

illusions were making him very happy and content

Reminds me of Ally McBeal 2.11 'In Dreams' episode, where her old teacher had a great dream life, so Ally petitions to have her returned to a coma.

Seem obvious you mean the Q to be about moral or ethical choices. All my difficult game decisions have been strategic or tactical.

 

[mainer]

In Mass Effect 1, choosing between Ashley or Kaiden on Virmire, when one of them has to stay behind and detonate the nuke. It's not as tough a choice now as it was back when I first played it (then it was agonizing) as I've played ME1 at least 8-10 times over the years.

The Dragon Age games had several tough choices to make, though I can't seem to bring any to mind right now. Wait, there was Solas's personal quest in DAI, where you had to save Solas's friend (who was a spirit from the Fade) which was summoned against it's will by a group of mages and turned into a demon which would attack you, and you don't want to kill it because then the Solas's spirit friend dies. But there's a way to avoid that once you figure it out. Once that problem is dealt with, you have to deal with Solas's anger, as he want's to kill the mages. So you've got a moral choice to make: allow Solas to murder the mages, or to convince him not to kill them.

The Witcher 3 also has many tough decisions to make in some of the quests, and most of them don't have a right or wrong, or good or evil choice. I think one of the toughest ones was at the end of the Bloody Baron questline, where you had to choose between saving his wife Anna or rescuing the orphans. There is no happy ending there, you just have to go by your own moral compass.

Honestly I think it was Yennefer or Triss. I chose Yennefer.

Years ago back when I first played Witcher 3 on GOG, I went with Triss. This time, in the Next-Gen version of W3, I went with Yennifer. I think I was partially influenced from reading all the Wicher books last year, and many of the character personalities stuck with me when playing the game.

 

[Brian Boru]

Gameranx just did an 18m video that fits right in with this topic:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0D2vrfRuK98