Best games in terms of freedom of choice and consequences

What are the best games in presenting to the player, in the development of the story, freedom of choice and the consequences of those choices?

To me the best of these games are:

• Witcher 1 and 2, but especially the first game, as the consequences are many and ripple throughout the whole game, changing it considerably;
• Alpha Protocol, as the interactions between the characters are very well acted, and the choices are many and consequences have significance.

Also Life is Strange is interesting in this department, but as of now it doesn't feel quite as player driven and consequencial as the other two games. Maybe with the other three episodes still unreleased, I'll change my opinion.

What about you?

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines and Deus Ex

Thes two really represent the highest level of choice presented in a game.

It's probably not complete freedom, but SMT games are always neat in that they don't have some visible value or bar showing your current alignment. For the first playthrough of an SMT game, it's always best to go in blind, just to see where your choices lead you.

Football Manager.

• You can choose your style of play
• Be a total dick or cosy up to other managers
• Be a total dick or cosy up to players
• Lay down an ultimatum to the club's board
• Storm out of any press conference at any time for no particular reason

Life?

JK

I'll leave now...

Deus Ex.

Jay Anthony Franke who voices JC Denton (the main character) at a panel in PAX Aus blew my mind when he said there was a choice a few hours in that changes everything and playing the game at the time you have no idea that you're even making a decision or in my case that you've made the 'wrong' decision.

For whatever its (many) faults may be, Alpha Protocol is the one game I can think of where player choice can dramatically affect how certain segments play out. It's so impressive that it elevates what would otherwise be a sort of terrible action RPG with ok international espionage stuff to something I'd say is worth playing.

I also really like how choice is handled in Planescape: Torment. Obviously the choices you make aren't game-changing, but it's the one CRPG I can think of where you can actually "role play", to the point where you can express your intent in dialogue options, whether you're telling the truth or lying. Sure, pumping points into wisdom and acting all Lawful Good is the easiest way to play the game, but there are some fun options for being an evil bastard as well.

Yep.

Fallout: New Vegas is pretty great about this. Not necessarily about huge world-altering decisions, but the quality writing means you absolutely feel like what you're doing is important.

Fallout 2. You can associate yourself with and betray whoever you want, and it does have a ripple effect on other quests.

And what ArbitraryWater said about Torment.

What was the choice?

@guybrush:

Ok maybe not a few hours in but a bit later when you meet up with Paul Denton in the hotel and he tells you to run away. If you, like me, you do run away then Paul dies and so you miss out on all the dialogue between the two brothers and also kinda makes it seem like more of a revenge story. But yea, I had no idea that he could even survive the encounter and that I was actually making a choice at that point in the game.

@caska: No way! I didn't know that either. That's pretty cool. Deus Ex was full of stuff like that. I should really play it again.

For another game which handled choices and consequences pretty well, I'd say Silent Hill 2.

The story is linear, sure, but the way the endings are determined are based on subtle decisions you make throughout the game.

I feel this doesn't happen often with other "free choice" games, where in the end you simply choose your ending by performing some clearly signposted actions.

Freedom of choice and the mature stories are the main reason I love Obsidian as much as I do. KotOR2 and Alpha Protocol are among my favourite games of all time simply because of that. I don't even care about their general lack of polish. KotOR2 especially is probably the single most intelligent story in a video game ever and I'll love Obsidian to death because you simply can't get that much respect as a player from the developer anywhere else. Needless to say I'm very excited to see what they do with Pillars.

It really is a bit of a wet dream... my favourite developer giving their take on my favourite style of CRPG. And the best thing is it can't even really disappoint as long as it features Obsidian's signature approach to video game stories. I'll gladly admit I'm a fanboy... a very happy and excited one at this particular moment.

Dwarf Fortress.

The original Deus Ex handles this the most naturally. It wouldn't even feel like you were being given so many different approaches unless you explored enough to notice them all.

In terms of more story-focused stuff. Mass Effect 2 was great. Dragon Age Origins was quite good too.

Pretty much any FMV or light gun game ever. One wrong click and HUMANITY ENDS. Those are pretty drastic consequences.

I know it isn't what you're asking for but I personally like the Telltale approach to this. Your choices don't affect the big plot points - they still happen regardless - but they do affect the tone of the narrative, such as whether you're loathed or loved by certain characters, which in turn leads to scenes changing for example gentle reassurance can become angry shouting, stuff like that. In a way that kind of is like real life in that often you can't control the big stuff that happens around you, just how you respond to it, and who you talk to/lie to about it, which in turn affects how people see you and respond to you.

I doubt any game will ever come close to offer the same freedom of choice as Ultima 4 did. It's a game where your end goal isn't to overcome some foe, but to become the messiah of the world.

ahahah nice!

For it's many flaws, I felt that Heavy Rain handled choice and consequence very well. Through playing the game I could never get a sense of the binary ways in which my choices would affect the story, which at times made it feel very fluid and more complex than it actually is.

@cactusapple: until you replay it and find out same things happen whatever you do

@caska: It's funny, a lot of people seemed to have a similar experience with Faridah in Human Revolution.

I've heard mass effect is pretty good.

The walking dead game has a lot of choices to make

@kubqo: That's... what I said, yeah.