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Searching for a game where your decisions can change the story completely
Hi. I am looking for a game that has a scripted story, but lets you make your own decisions, and that could lead to small differences at some point of the game, and at alternate endings. Is there such a game out there? I would like it to be a "meaty" game, with a lot of content.
Also, is mass effect such a game? If yes, do not recommend it please.
Edit: Not necessary an MMO. And no to the TES series.
Comments
Witcher 2...also, this should be in the general gaming forum.
Are you team Azeroth, team Tyria, or team Jacob?
You will hear this alot (or not) but I'd say at the moment for an MMO its Star Wars: The Old Republic. I've been playing since beta and have noticed changes in the story when I redo actions from the choices I made. In any game they tend to change but so much, so don't expect turning the game on its ear so to speak. If you havent played Skyrim yet, though it isnt an MMO.. I'd fully recommend that game cause it is so rich in content its almost abit overwhelming.
Mass Effect definitely has some dialog decisions that matter, but it's pretty rare for a game to offer a lot of these decisions (even in ME the decisions which branch the storyline are rare.)
While ToR was relatively fun, personally I felt like there were only a tiny fraction of my decisions which branched the story.
Few games really bite off a huge amount of story branching though, because it makes their content way less efficient (and usually they're already struggling to provide enough content to remain interesting in the long run.)
The simplest example being that if you have one decision at the start of the game which entirely branches the game's quest content, you've effectively halved the game's total quest content for any given player. With one decision.
Which is why you don't really see anyone do that, and instead decisions' impact only ripples so far (Mass Effect's ripples mostly only affect the mission you're currently on, with the occasional secondary mission/event surfacing later due to particularly momentous decisions.)
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
Star Wars: The Old Republic
The Deus Ex series is probably a great example of what you're talking about, especially the first game in the series. The storyline is semi-scripted, in that you're being directed towards one general outcome and basically have a predictable mission structure, but you can significantly alter the fates of important characters and the outcome of the game through your personal choices.
MMOs pretty much universally lack this concept due to developers wanting quests to exist in an instanced universe for each player rather than have one unifying plot.
It actually has nothing to do with developers wanting quests to exist in an instanced universe for each player. It has everything to do with content efficiency.
Designing choices means double, triple, quadruple the work with the same effective player-facing value. If I have dev hours to do 1000 quest arcs and I do things linearly, every player experiences 1000 quest arcs. If I offer 4 choices per quest, that's 250 quest arcs each player experiences. And 250 is the theoretical maximum. Realistically, it's far less due to the increase in dev complexity making it so you can't actually produce 1000 total quest arcs because each individual arc takes a little more work.
So if we're realistic, we're talking about a game with 1000 quest arcs or 200. In games that live or die on content, it's really hard to decide to go with that 200 number.
But to get back to your original poitn, in a world where quests are actually exclusive and not unique-per-player, you'd have to cut that number by an even more dramatic amount because now only one player can utilize any given quest.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
Yeah, in The Witcher 2, the entire 2nd Act experience is determined by 1 choice and there are several minor choices that have an impact on the story.
StarQuest: Every decision you make shapes the universe. There is not storyline questing though. It is pure sandbox lore, and player history. Sadly it's fate will be determined in the coming weeks as we await an announcement on the future development of the game.
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You shouldn't hear that a lot because it's not true. NOTHING you do in that game effects the outcome of the story or end of the story. EVERYONE no matter what choice they make, ends up at the same planets, doing the same quests. I don't think that's what the OP wants and certainly not what Bioware said they were doing with TOR from the start of development. It just was easier that way for them.
To answer the OP though... few games really have captured that feel. I'm hoping for some MMO's that will make it work right and really allow for world changing events. I just don't see it happening any time soon.
But you may want to look at some sandbox games like SKyrim, Mount and Blade, and others. They let you walk freely and do what you want... but some lack storyline where others lack more freedom.
I agree with this. Although pick-your-path stories are fun as text adventures, but scaling that up to the size of an MMO means an enormous amount of content not being seen.
I think that scripted stories are the wrong approach to games where decisions need to matter. You want simulations, not stories - an author shouldn't write the consequences, a simulation should calculate the ripples of how that decision propagates through the game world. But MMOs I have played have always been surprisingly light on simulation - perhaps because of a distrust of the dead ends and dark corners that unscripted dynamics can potentially create?
The OP said "but lets you make your own decisions, and that could lead to small differences at some point of the game" That is certainly true for TOR. You can choose to kill/spare certain story NPC's live in many of the quests.
The storyline is semi-scripted, in that you're being directed towards one general outcome and basically have a predictable mission structure.
Its a single player game, but isn't Dragon Age 1 similar to what he is looking for??
Quite a few. Witcher series, most games from Bioware, Heavy Rain, I vaguely remember either an FPS or RTS game someone was telling me about that apparently has heavier emphasis on decisions than even ME (I want to say Supreme Commander but I'm not positive), most Bethesda/Obsidian games are heavy into decision making. I'm sure there are plenty more, those are just off the top of my head.
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Short list:
Baldurs Gate 1&2 + expansions
Planescape: Torment
Neverwinter Nights 1&2 + expansions
Dragon Age 1
Indigo Prophecy/Fahrenheit
Heavy Rain
Knights of the Old Republic 1& maybe 2
Witcher 1&2 (Only played a little bit of these games, but they were both really good)
All of these games are 110% amazing imo. All have complex, deep stories (with the exception of maybe DA1 and Indigo). And I think each one is well worth a playthrough, even though some take 60+ hours to beat. I really recommend BG1&2 and Planescape.
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