Top 5 Hardest Choices to Make in Gaming

Video games are, without a doubt, a great medium for storytelling and some even have that element of interactivity where you can impact how the narrative pans out, unlike movies, TV series, (comic) books… Sometimes, the choices are very drastic, and you are faced with two (or more) options, where none seems appealing, but you must renounce something dear and important to you. In this article, I’ll go over the five hardest choices to make in gaming (story-wise).

GTA IV – Deal or Revenge?

Without spoiling too much of the story for you all (well, something will be spoiled inevitably) our beloved main character Niko Belić (model citizen in his spare time), gets advised by Roman to conduct a deal with Rascalov, while Kate is advising Niko against the deal. You are met with a choice, with dire consequences no matter which path you take.

If you decide to take the Deal

Well… Roman dies at his wedding because a bullet intended for Niko hits him during a struggle between Niko and Rascalov’s hitman, and later on Niko takes his revenge on Rascalov in a spectacular Hollywood-tier action movie ending. We also learn that Mallorie (Roman’s bride-to-never-be) is pregnant, and Niko vows to keep the kid safe and that it’ll never have to worry about anything. Niko also probably marries Kate, and they live happily ever after.

If you decide to take revenge

It’s a promising start to this ending choice because you kill Rascalov. Roman isn’t very happy, because he feels you’ve missed out on a lot of money. Niko decides to leave crime and settle down with Kate. Fast forward to Roman’s wedding, Jimmy Pegorino starts shooting at Niko, but hits and kills Kate instead. This causes another Hollywood movie-like action scene where Niko kills Jimmy Pegorino (and many more). Roman and Mallorie get married, and have a kid that’s named Kate, in honor of the murdered Niko’s bride-never-to-be.

You either lose a cousin or your girlfriend (wife).

Prey (2017) – Trolley Problem, but it’s in outer space.

At a certain point in the game, you are met with a choice: destroy the shuttle that’s heading to Earth with five humans in it remotely, or let it pass and land safely. What are the consequences, you may ask? Well, the problem arises from the fact that you do not know whether Typhon mimics are present on that shuttle. If there are no alien life forms on board then it’s 100% safe to land. If there’s at least one… well… Earth will be inevitably swarmed by them.

Would you be able to push the button, secure the future of our planet, and not lose sleep from constantly thinking that the shuttle may have been mimic-free and that you’ve murdered five people for nothing? Most players believe that destroying that shuttle is the right thing to do because doing that does not stop you from getting the achievement that you didn’t harm a human being. So, based on this (if it wasn’t a developer oversight), we can safely assume that the entire crew of that shuttle was already killed when you pushed the button.

The Walking Dead – Shoot Lee, or let him turn into a zombie?

Ooopsie-daisy, Lee got bitten by a zombie, and we know what that means: Lee will turn into a brain-devouring monstrosity pretty soon! Despite their best attempts to try and stop the turning process, or at least delay it, eventually, it’s up to Clementine to either shoot him there and then while he’s still human or leave him for dead, handcuffed to a radiator, where he’ll inevitably turn, and perhaps get freed somehow, and potentially harm another human being.

I find it mind-boggling that Lee doesn’t do this to himself but instead puts that choice up to a minor. The outcome doesn’t change much; Lee is gone either way, but it’s up to the player to choose whether Clementine is forced to pull the trigger and find herself in a lifelong trauma of being a murderer, or living with a guilty conscience, not knowing what happened to Lee afterward, how much he has suffered, and if he has some humanity left in him after he becomes a zombie.

Deus Ex – Which of the three plans is most tempting?

Deus Ex is a game that was without a doubt ahead of its time, and many players are trying to draw parallels between the real world and the in-game world. We’re facing a three-way ending in a legendary hit from the year 2000. You can accept one of the three “plans” from Helios, Tracer Tong, or Morgan Everett. Each of these will irreversibly shape the world in this game, so let’s go through the options:

• Siding with Helios creates a cyber-technological dictatorship. Something like this might actually be doable in our world.
• Siding with Tracer Tong creates a complete technological blackout. No more endless feed scrolling through social media!
• Siding with Morgan Everett results in you joining the Illuminati and becoming the ruler of the world. But no, there’s no “Tears for Fears” song in the credits.

I’ll add that Deus Ex: Invisible War, released a couple of years later, has four different endings (somewhat similar to these ones in hindsight), with the fourth being a wasteland scenario.

Far Cry 4 – Which type of dictatorship would you like with your fries, sir?

Sabal and Amita are two very mean characters, and inevitably, you will have to choose which one to side with or, better said, which ruling ideology.

• Sabal will establish something we can refer to as a pretty bloody and murderous clerical fascist dictatorship, punishing everyone disagreeing with the official “narrative” with prompt death.
• Amita will establish a state that has drug trading as the key economic branch, and not just that, but children will also be recruited. As the meme says, Minecraft is popular because the children yearn for the mines.

Even though it’s out of the question to allow child slavery, even in the fictional world, Sabal’s rule is nothing better.

Honorable Mentions

• Saints Row 4: When you become the President of the United States, you have a choice between curing cancer and solving world hunger.
• Mass Effect 3: There are so many actions you will take in Mass Effect 2 (if you ported your save) and later, Mass Effect 3 that will influence the final outcome of the game that we’d need a completely new article just for the explanation of ME3’s endings. Everything you’ve done in the game will bring the death and destruction of many living beings, maybe even entire races. Massive kudos to the story writers who made a gigantic effort to gloriously “pack” this entire story package.

Check out our articles on the funniest anti-piracy measures and most broken items in video game history.