Top 20 Video Game Decisions You're Going to Get WRONG Either Way
#20: Choosing a Starter
“Pokemon” Series (1998-) We admit “wrong” is a relative term here. But the fact remains that in most “Pokemon” games, there will be negative side effects to whichever starter you choose. Firstly, your rival will always have type advantage over your starting Pokemon. Secondly, in the majority of the games, only one version of that starting Pokemon exists. That means you’re locked into one with no option of getting the other two unless you trade. Furthermore, depending on the game, you might have type disadvantage against the first gym leader. There are a number of factors to consider whenever starting a “Pokemon” adventure. Better choose wisely.
#19: Saving Conrad
“The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan” (2019) This entry from Supermassive’s “Dark Pictures Anthology” follows a group of divers investigating a seemingly haunted ship. But before they even get to it, their own boat is ambushed by pirates. It’s possible to have one of your characters, Conrad, escape and go for help. It just takes making the right decisions and succeeding on some quicktime events. But if you, as another character, don’t do something completely separate, Conrad is screwed, despite you having saved him. You have to radio the military while aboard the haunted ship, as well as get your boat’s distributor cap destroyed, in order for Conrad to come to the rescue. Otherwise, he’ll get stuck on the ship alone.
#18: The Raffle
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“BioShock Infinite” (2013) Many players likely stressed over picking a bird or cage brooch for Elizabeth, only for it to mean nothing. One decision that happens earlier, however, has a negative outcome no matter what you do. After Booker DeWitt enters Columbia, he’s drawn to a crowd by a stage. He then enters and wins a raffle, the reward of which is throwing a baseball at an interracial couple. Did we fail to mention the city is incredibly racist? You can choose to throw it at them, the announcer, or do nothing. Whether you choose to be evil, good, or impartial, they’ll recognize you as a so-called “false prophet.” A fight breaks out, and Booker becomes Columbia’s most wanted.
#17: The Trial
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“Chrono Trigger” (1995) Across space and time, Crono and his allies face all manner of challenges and enemies. Yet, one of the moments where he comes closest to death is because of a broken justice system. After returning to Guardia from the Middle Ages, Crono will be arrested for the alleged kidnapping of the princess, who happens to be his friend. He’s then put on trial where he must answer a series of questions. Whether you answer truthfully or lie, whether the jury finds Crono innocent or guilty, doesn’t actually matter. He’s still getting thrown into a prison cell to await execution. At least that doesn’t happen as Crono ends up escaping.
#16: World Domination
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“Deus Ex” (2000) This sci-fi classic gives you three choices at the climax, which determine what ending you’ll get. Unfortunately for the wider world, they’re all pretty bleak outcomes. Before taking on Bob Page, the wealthy and powerful big bad, you’ll be contacted by three others with their own plans for defeating him. Hacker Tracer Tong wants a return to the Dark Ages with no communications, Morgan Everett wants the Illuminati back in power so he can rule from the shadows, and the Helios AI wants to merge with you to become a dictator. The world is already dystopian, can’t we just fix that? Being an NPC in this world has got to suck.
#15: Hunting the Sasquatch
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“Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare” (2010) Some games actively try to make you feel bad simply for completing a quest. In the “Undead Nightmare” DLC for “Red Dead Redemption,” John Marston helps folks put an end to their supernatural problems. These include zombies, unicorns, and even El Chupacabra. However, one NPC tells you about a group of baby-eating sasquatches, which you must hunt down. After killing 6 of them, the final one will tell you that no, actually, they eat berries. Turns out, they’re exceptionally peaceful creatures and you just murdered his entire family. He then asks you to take his life, not wanting to be the last of his species. Whether you do it or not, it leaves you feeling much more monstrous than him.
#14: The Geth
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“Mass Effect 2” (2010) The “Mass Effect” series places a lot of importance on the player’s decision making skills, at least most of the time. So, you better be absolutely sure about what you want to do. One decision that tortured us concerned the Geth, an AI race that overthrew their creators after becoming sentient. During Legion’s loyalty mission, you learn of a civil war among the species. One side has a virus that will essentially brainwash the other so that they can all keep warring against organic life. Well, we can’t have that. By the end, your options are to either kill the perpetrators or brainwash them. Considering their history, brainwashing doesn’t sit right, though murder is a bit extreme as they’re only fighting for their people.
#13: Nightcrawler or Jean Grey?
“Marvel: Ultimate Alliance” (2006) Superheroes have to make tough calls at the drop of a hat. And the team behind “Marvel: Ultimate Alliance” simulated that by making us choose between two beloved members of the X-Men. At a certain point, Jean Grey and Nightcrawler are kidnapped and taken into Mephisto’s realm. With both in cages, you choose who lives and who dies. Whoever perishes is brought back under Mephisto’s control to fight you, but eventually sacrifices themselves so you win. Losing either is a major bummer, and they each come with negative effects during the ending. Saving Nightcrawler reveals Jean would return as Dark Phoenix seeking vengeance. But saving Jean leads to Professor X’s death and the disbanding of the team.
#12: Dealing With Ramsay
“Game of Thrones: A Telltale Game Series” (2014) Ramsay very quickly became one of the easiest characters to loath on “Game of Thrones.” In Telltale’s video game, things haven’t changed at all. The plot follows the smaller House Forrester and the role it plays following the famous Red Wedding. At the end of Episode 1, Ramsay comes knocking on the family’s door, and it’s the young Ethan who answers as the temporary head. As is befitting of Ramsay, he’ll start playing vicious games, even threatening to take Ethan’s sister as his ward. The player can then offer themselves up instead, grab his sister, tell Ramsay off, or do nothing. Of course, Ethan’s dead no matter what, so it’s really just how you want to go out.
#11: Sacrifice, Love, or Wealth?
“Fable II” (2008) At the end of “Fable II,” with your journey complete, you get the option of three prizes in the form of cards. They’re all both positive and negative in their own ways. One, called “Sacrifice,” will revive the untold numbers of citizens who died building the Spire for the villain, but not your loved ones. Another, labeled “Love,” resurrects your dog, sister, and spouse if you had one, but no one else. The third, called “Wealth,” gives you a ridiculous amount of money but resurrects no one. The DLC did make this choice a little easier as it let you magically revive your dog companion. But no matter how we look at it, someone’s not getting a happy ending.
#10: Vault 34
“Fallout: New Vegas” (2010) There are plenty of tough morality choices in “Fallout,” but Vault 34 is one of the bigger ones. While exploring the wasteland, you learn this vault is leaking radiation into the water and killing crops in a nearby town. However, you also learn that there are still people trapped inside Vault 34, hoping to get out. You can disable the reactor to save the crops, but it will doom those trapped inside. Or you can reroute power to the trapped citizens, allowing them to escape, but the radiation will result in further damage to the growing food and starvation amongst the town folk. No matter what you choose, one group of people will be severely screwed over.
#9: Losing the Twins
“Until Dawn” (2015) “Until Dawn” hit you with an incredibly tough decision right off the bat. Except, little did we know, both choices resulted in the same grisly outcome. While partying at her family’s lodge, a prank from her so-called friends sends Hannah running into the woods with her twin, Beth, chasing after her. The two eventually tumble off a ledge while pursued by a shadowy figure. As Beth, you can choose to drop Hannah to free your other hand, let go together, or do nothing. Whether you want to be a good sister or not, both of the twins are going to fall into the chasm. All that’s different is how you feel about yourself afterwards.
#8: Roman or Kate?
“Grand Theft Auto IV” (2008) This choice hurts a little bit more as you won’t be aware you’re making it during a first playthrough. Towards the climax, Nico will be enlisted to help on a drug deal with a Russian mobster who betrayed him. While Nico’s cousin, Roman, advises him to go along with it peacefully, his love interest, Kate, wants him to choose vengeance. The person you side with is then given a death sentence. Peace causes the Russian mobster to betray Nico again, sending an assassin to Roman’s wedding where a stray bullet will kill him. Vengeance results in a drive by shooting at the same wedding, where Kate pays for her advice with her life. Either way, Nico loses someone close to him.
#7: The Golden Butterfly Case
Top 10 Video Game Decisions You're Going To Get Wrong Either Way
“L.A. Noire” (2011) As you investigate the seedy underbelly of 1940s Los Angeles, you’ll come into conflict with all manner of twisted criminals. The Golden Butterfly Case refers to the murder of a housewife, and your investigation leads you to two suspects. One is Hugo Moller, the deceased’s abusive husband, while the other is Eli Rooney, a suspected child predator. Evidence points to Moller, but the department desperately wants Rooney behind bars. Both are certainly bad people, yet who you decide to put away doesn’t actually matter. You get a “bad” ending if you go with the husband. But you find out later that neither man was responsible, so you end up looking clueless regardless.
#6: Chloe or Arcadia Bay?
“Life Is Strange” (2015) In Dontnod’s groundbreaking episodic adventure, players have the ability to rewind time. But that won’t save you from a tremendous lose-lose situation. At the beginning of the game, Max has a vision of a tornado destroying her home town. After being sucked into a kidnapping and murder plot, Max realizes that the storm happens because she saved her best friend’s life. Your choice then becomes clear. Do you go back in time to let Chloe die? Or do you allow the tornado to rip through Arcadia Bay, killing untold numbers? Logic might tell you to save the town. But Chloe is with you the entire game, forming a very strong personal connection.
#5: The Conduits
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“inFAMOUS 2” (2011) The original “inFAMOUS” has you choose between doctors who can stop a plague and the love of your life, only for your girlfriend to leave you either way. But the consequences from the final choice in “inFAMOUS 2” are far worse. The entire game has you hunting a powerful conduit known only as the Beast. By the end, Cole chooses to either side with him or continue the fight. The so-called good ending sees you sacrifice yourself to save the larger world, but it also kills every Conduit on the planet, including those that didn’t know of their powers. Of course, if you side with him, you kill your friends and become the new Beast.
#4: Which Dictator?
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“Far Cry 4” (2014) When going up against a tyrant, it’s best to know as much as you can about who might replace them. In “Far Cry 4,” you work to overthrow Pagan Min with a rebel group named The Golden Path. Two of the group’s prominent members, Sabal and Amita, argue about how they should progress. You can influence them, but you eventually have to choose one as leader, and they’re both pretty awful outcomes. If you side with Sabal, he executes all of Amita’s supporters and turns Kyrat into a patriarchal theocracy where women have little rights. Siding with Amita turns the country into a drug state, forcing villagers to work for her and turning children into soldiers. We have to ask…was Pagan Min really that bad?
#3: Your Final Fate
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“Spec Ops: The Line” (2012) The nature of “Spec Ops: The Line” means you were never going to get a happy ending. It follows Captain Martin Walker leading a recon mission in Dubai, only to accidentally commit awful war crimes and have his psyche severed from reality. By the end, you have a few choices for which bad ending you want. You can choose to shoot yourself out of guilt, or call a platoon to take you home, where you’ll likely live a shellshocked life. You can also choose to fight the platoon, either dying to them or embracing your violent tendencies and becoming the unhinged villain Walker was set up to be. Either way, it's a fittingly dark ending.
#2: The Whispering Hillock
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“The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt” (2015) Speaking of dark, the world of “The Witcher” is pretty bleak. In this quest, Geralt comes across a spirit inside an oak tree. You can either choose to release it or kill it, but both options will have far-reaching consequences across several groups of people. If you kill it, the three crones will eat a bunch of missing children from a nearby town. If you save it, the spirit will save the children but the town’s villagers will be killed. However, this also impacts another quest. Killing the spirit will cause the Baron’s wife, Anna, to go mad while saving it will cause the crones to curse her, eventually killing her, so that the Baron takes his own life in grief. Just awful all around.
#1: Lee’s Fate
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“The Walking Dead: Season One” (2012) It’s been over a decade, yet we all still bare the emotional scars of Lee’s fate in Telltale’s “The Walking Dead.” After he’s bitten while looking for Clementine, you can choose to chop his arm off to try and stop the infection. It won’t matter, though. Lee’s as good as dead. After the pair are reunited, you’re then forced to choose between telling Clementine to shoot Lee or let him turn. Both are obviously awful choices; you either spare Lee the prospect of becoming a monster or you force a child to murder someone she deeply cares for. No matter what you choose, Lee’s fate is undeniably tragic.
