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Do Modern Games Really Give You a Choice?

Do Modern Games Really Give You a Choice?

Ever since games like Mass Effect and The Walking Dead: Season One rose to popularity in the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 era, people have started wanting more opportunities to make their own decisions in games. They want to have the opportunity to make decisions that majorly influence the experience and ending. Unfortunately, we haven’t always seen big payoffs in such titles. Mass Effect 3 ‘s ending put us in something of a corner, initially, and Telltale games have gotten in the habit of sending us down a certain path regardless of what we say or do. The question is, are things getting better in 2016? Do our decisions finally matter?

It’s a complicated question that doesn’t have an exact yes or no answer. There are examples on both sides that suggest the situation is and isn’t improving. Let’s consider a game like Telltale’s Game of Thrones . There are moments where the decisions you make seem to determine more who will or won’t be appearing, rather than what will or won’t happen. Similar charges can be levied at the developer’s other titles. With only one episode of Batman: The Telltale Series released, it’s impossible to see if it’ll be the game to break the trend.

No Man’s Sky is a better indication of stagnation. We were promised a game where siding with certain factions would influence our adventures. People could come to our aid in battles. We might get the opportunity to do new things when we agreed or disagreed with certain alien races. At the moment, decisions don’t matter. One of the silliest things is that aliens will keep arranging betrothals for you. So you’ll be running around the galaxy, technically engaged to all these aliens, but nothing ever happens or comes of it. So far, every ending seems to be the same, with a shared result after you reach the center of the universe.

That isn’t to say games aren’t improving. We saw two last year that absolutely made our decisions matter: The Witcher 3 and Undertale . The former had a number of quests with multiple options for dealing with and resolving them. You’d see the repercussions of your decisions both immediately and after a delay. In one quest involving the crones, I could either work with a tree spirit to try and recover missing children and deal with an issue, or collude with the crones to resolve the problem. There didn’t seem to be any good guys, but the crones terrified me, so I went with the tree spirit. I ended up seeing the children later. Undertale actually keeps track of all your decisions, leading to pacifist, neutral, and chaotic endings. Even deciding to stop and restart will alter dialogue, showing that some characters know what you did the first time you played.

Do Modern Games Really Give You a Choice?

There’s also a strong indication that another, future title is going to try to do better. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided came out this month. Already, Square Enix has said it’s fixing issues found in Deus Ex: Human Revolution . You’ll have multiple means of completing missions, where the previous game sometimes locked you into certain paths. Also, Mankind Divided ‘s choices are apparently going to matter in the next game. While Human Revolution had four endings, the things you did weren’t tracked as you played, so you can’t start this new installment with a save file knowing what happened and seeing effects of that. This new game is watching what you’re doing.

I think the best thing we can say is that progress is being made. The situation is getting better. Companies are trying to make our choices in games more meaningful. It’s something that can’t just happen overnight, though. While games like No Man’s Sky ended up letting us down, there’s a good chance ones like Deus Ex: Mankind Divided could inspire even greater freedom. Progress takes time.

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