Photo by  cottonbro studio: LINK

Part 1

Next on my list, is a game known to probably every gamer: Detroit: Become Human by Quantic Dreams – this game is different from the previous two. Not only because it has a very impressive outcome count, but also because even the best route can be achieved in many different ways. You never know when you lose the option to achieve a happy ending.

What’s more, even if players can have bad choices from the start, most of them will not decide to choose them in their first playthrough, for it is better to get to know the story first. However, it all depends on how the players read the characters, and that’s the most interesting thing here. Sometimes they think that „due to a character’s personality” they have to make this choice, and it may not be the „good” one. Here all the choices matter in the final outcome – what ending the player will achieve and if they will be satisfied with it. What’s even funnier, even if you think you have guaranteed the best ending, it is not always the case. Not until actually seeing it. There are just so many choices that you may even change the story at the very end. This is also one of the games that shows the option of „sometimes no choice is the best choice”.

Screenshot from Detroit: Become Human by Quantic Dreams taken from  Steam LINK. Used for educational commentary.

The next game has far fewer choices. Actually, even if it does have a few dialogue options, there’s only one choice that matters. The game I’m talking about is Cold Front created by STUDIO INVESTIGRAVE – this is a very short game that I have found recently. As I mentioned, this game does not give you a lot of choices. But gives you a very interesting one. The story is about two friends that grew apart from each other. They found themselves in the middle of a winter in July and have to figure out what is happening. The game at a certain point, after giving you many clues about what may be happening in the head of our main character, gives you a choice. Talk with your friend or push him down the stairs. This is a fascinating choice, because it mostly depends on a player. What they got out from the game but also what they think – will talking change anything? The game doesn’t tell you beforehand if it’s a good choice or not. It doesn’t give you any idea. The only idea is whatever happened in your own head while reading through the story. Did you grow sympathetic? Did you identify with the character? Did you notice that something doesn’t add up here? Do you think there’s a bigger picture? Do you believe in friendship? Do you think a person can do such a thing?

Screenshot from Cold Front created by STUDIO INVESTIGRAVE taken from LINK. Used for educational commentary.

You get the image in your head and then you choose one of the options. The game doesn’t really prove you wrong, no matter what you choose. You just get an ending, and you decide if it’s a good one or not.

We’re almost at the finish line. Slay the Princess by Black Tabby Games is the next one. The plot is easy – you have to go and slay the Princess. However, the idea of the game is „Do not listen to her, she will lie, she will manipulate you. Remember this is a love story”. It’s another title with many choices and where you never necessarily know which one is a good one. Until the very end, when the whole plot is unfolding. In the game you meet the Princess, but she changes according to your choices. There are many forms of her to discover. Some Princesses need a soft side, but others… need this violence. You need to be violent if you want to achieve an ending. Sometimes being good doesn’t work. No matter how much you try. The game pushes the idea many times to make you wonder, if what you are doing is good. There is a Narrator who keeps pushing you to be violent. Other voices in your head do not agree. Not necessary. The game also gives a player the benefit of the doubt, assuming they will navigate the dialogue and choices carefully, as skimming through can equal to overlooking the one different choice among a sea of similar ones. The most important thing here is: there’s always a choice, unless you used up that choice. There’s not really right and wrong here, since, as I mentioned before, Princesses are different.

Screenshot from Slay the Princess by Black Tabby Games taken from Steam, LINK. Used for educational commentary.

The last position on my list is Mouthwashing created by Wrong Organ. It’s at the end of this article not without a reason. It does not give you any choices. You just watch the game played right in front of you. Then why is it on this list? Because the player wishes they would have it. One of the examples of wanting the choice happens right at the beginning of the story, when you do not know what is happening yet. You are in the spaceship and the only thing you know is that you are delivering some goods. You get a big message „steer left if you want to avoid the collision”, but when you sit down at the steering wheel you see message „steer right”. When I first played it I thought that maybe I read it incorrectly, so I went with it. When I played it with my friends later, my sister – who was the one playing – moved away from the steering wheel, searching for a different option. She tried a lot, she spent quite a few minutes on it. Just trying to find any other way than the one that would clearly be a wrong choice – the one that was pushed onto the player. During the game there are a few more situations like this. When you just don’t want to do what the game tells you to do. Sure, you want to see the story through, but you don’t want to act it. You wish you had a different choice, but you don’t. The story is quite gruesome and violent and you wish it wasn’t.

Screenshot from Mouthwashing created by Wrong Organ taken from Steam LINK. Used for educational commentary.

To finish this small article of mine, I want to just once again tell you that choices in games are definitely something very interesting. And focusing on players mindset of „why choose this and not that” is very entertaining. I think it’s a great thing that so many games show so many ways to play with those choices. It’s also a great storytelling tool. You do something, you suffer consequences of your actions. Games like that are very thought-provoking, if made correctly. Even the silly thing of starting to wonder if you should’ve killed that character for that achievement and then having to bear the guilt.

Photos taken from STEAM

🎮 Anna Kubacik, absolwentka kierunku Języki obce w mediach i biznesie, studia licencjackie,  2024/2025, Akademia Nauk Stosowanych w Koninie