Summary

It’s difficult to make choices in a game matter.

Occasionally, exploring a game’s map is enough.

What are some open-world titles with stories that can be ignored?

Fallout New Vegas Best Quests

However, there are several titles that dont just pretend that your choices have meaning.

Instead, they actually take into account how you choose to play your characters and adjust the game accordingly.

This is a collection of these sorts of titles.

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You follow Henry, a son of a blacksmith and wannabe knight.

One of those things is making decisions.

you’re free to make a significant impact on the world around you through your choices.

A collage showing Arthur from RDR 2, Sans from Undertale, and Yennefer from The Witcher.

Naturally, this plays directly into the ending of the game.

WWE 2K25 (MyRise mode)

MyRise is the career mode in WWE 2K25.

There are plenty of cutscenes and a full narrative for you to play through.

The ranger from Fallout New Vegas and protagonist from Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon

That narrative revolves around a mysterious group attacking you and other top stars in the WWE.

The story can play out in various ways depending on the choices you make.

Your two characters' personalities directly impact the storylines you embark on during your career.

Henry holding a sword in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2.

Your goal as one of the teenagers is to figure out what is happening.

Along the way, you engage in plenty of interesting conversations containing dialog choices.

These dialog choices and other decisions you make in the game impact what ending you get.

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Thankfully for him, you’re in control, so it’s your job to make those decisions.

There are plenty of them that heavily impact how the story plays out in both large and small ways.

It’s the main selling point of this third-person action RPG.

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As their title suggests, they track down ghosts and get rid of them.

Unfortunately, Duarte dies near the start of the game, so she then becomes a ghost.

It isn’t just a binary choice you make at the end of the game.

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However, one thing that doesn’t change is the inclusion of choices and consequences.

You play a character named Rook who goes on an adventure to stop Thedas from being conquered by gods.

Along the way, you have to make a lot of choices, which impact how everything plays out.

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They certainly impact the latter stages of the story.

Along the way, you make a bunch of different choices.

Most of them impact different characters and how certain quests play out.

Triple H speaking on a microphone in WWE 2K25.

In the aftermath, he embarks on a revenge mission.

What you do and say affects your reputation with various groups and cities.

Your decisions also impact how plenty of quests conclude and what path you take to the game’s ending.

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As this is a Telltale game, you make plenty of choices along the way.

This impacts how the narrative plays out and your relationship with other characters.

From Arkham Asylum to Batman Begins, here are the best games of the caped crusader!

Jonas and Alex looking forward inside a cave in Oxenfree.

The most significant decisions you make, though, revolve around your strange buddy, John Doe.

Resident Evil

None of the Resident Evil games are known for being choice-based.

The first one is whether you play as Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine.

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Both characters offer slightly different playthroughs and experiences.

Both protagonists have an ally that helps them throughout the game.

Jill gets Barry Burton, while Chris teams up with Rebecca Chambers.

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In both cases, several choices and actions you make determine whether your buddy in question survives the story.

Crusader Kings 3

Crusader Kings 3 is a deep strategy game about ruling nations and siring heirs.

In fact, much of the experience revolves around making choices.

Alpha Protocol protagonist shooting at two masked men through a fire.

Yet, Frostpunk is a little different.

It’s also a survival game in which you have to keep your citizens alive in hazardous conditions.

This is because it’s set in a world ravaged by a volcanic winter.

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As such, you gotta manage your resources and make difficult moral decisions.

It isn’t a game for indecisive players.

Mafia 3

Mafia 3 isn’t a game loaded with different choices.

Banishers Ghosts of New Eden screenshot of Antea and Red standing next to each other.

Yet, there are a set of key ones relating to your underbosses.

During some of these missions, you take over a racket.

It isn’t always an easy decision because your allies are pretty temperamental.

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This can impact how the game ends, as does another choice that won’t be spoiled here.

While down there, you (aka the boy) have to make a multitude of choices.

For certain decisions, you don’t find out the consequences until the very end of the game.

Solas concentrating on casting a spell in Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

For instance, how you treat the bosses you fight impacts the game’s conclusion.

Starfield

There are certain things you expect to see when you play a traditional Bethesda RPG.

It certainly follows the Bethesda staple of including decisions that really matter.

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It isn’t just the big main story choices, either.

There are plenty of decisions to make in the side quests, too.

Road 96

Road 96 is a unique game set in a fictional country.

Carth Onasi in Knights of the Old Republic.

The people in question are teenage hitchhikers.

As them, you must make a series of choices in an attempt to flee the horrible nation successfully.

What you say and do to the people you meet during your escape attempt directly impacts how things end.

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The clan is in serious trouble, and your ultimate goal in the narrative adventure is to acquire help.

Yet, this is the Game of Thrones universe, so merely keeping characters alive is a challenge.

There are also decisions that impact various other things.

Henry with bow and arrow in Kingdom Come deliverance.

Altogether, they affect what ending you unlock.

The Quarry

Summer camp is the perfect setting for a horror story.

The one in The Quarry contains several teenage counselors who serve asplayable protagonists.

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You control them all at different points in the tale.

So, instead of running an enjoyable camp, your objective is to stay alive.

This is because there are four seasons of this narrative adventure experience, along with a couple of spin-offs.

Batman: The Enemy Within screenshot of Joker infront of a casket with a smile on his face.

The main seasons focus on young Clementine, who finds herself amid a zombie apocalypse.

Her primary goal is simply to survive.

They don’t all have a significant effect, but the biggest ones usually do.

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It’s a beautiful world, but it is currently under attack from creatures known as Voidwoken.

Your customizable protagonist is the only hope to save the place.

While adventuring, you make an abundance of choices that impact the overall experience.

Collage of Batman fighting in Batman: Arkham Knight, and Batman: The Telltale series.

Not every decision is a binary one that you’re prompted to make.

Simply the actions you choose to take while exploring impact your adventure.

This 1995 2D RPG follows a group of adventurers who learn that a global catastrophe is going to occur.

The main characters Jill Valentine, Barry Burton, and Chris Redfield inside the front hall of the Spencer Mansion.

There are several different ways for the narrative to play out.

Which one you get depends on the actions you take throughout the tale.

Thus, they go onseveral heists throughout the story.

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What method do you use?

Who do you want on your crew?

These choices impact how the heist plays out and how successful it is.

Austria and its surrounding countries on the map in Crusader Kings 3.

As Dusk Falls

As Dusk Falls is all about choice.

Even choices that seem small sometimes end up being really important.

So, you get plenty of influence over the main storyline.

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The tale revolves around two families who meet on one faithful day in 1998.

The first half of the adventure shows what happened on that day.

The second half is set many years later and shows how the events impacted those involved.

Frostpunk screenshot of Coal Generator Settlement.

And you have to do multiple playthroughs to see and understand everything.

During those runs, you’re free to geta litany of different endings.

They trigger based on the actions you choose to make while playing.

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So, be careful what you choose to do in this action RPG.

After all, it isn’t like you’re being bombarded with binary decisions every two minutes.

The honor system is much more organic than that, as it tracks all your actions.

Lincoln Clay with a gun standing in front of a car in Mafia III.

So, if you want high honor, don’t shoot a lot of innocent people.

Plus, it also impacts the ending.

Your goal is to get rid of them all by any means necessary.

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You aren’t the only living person on the station, though.

While making your way through the story, you meet several different people.

Your actions in these situations impact how the story plays out.

A small figure looking in the mirror of a home and text reading: “Despite everything, it’s still you."

It’s worth noting that Alex is no ordinary individual.

She has a supernatural ability to recognize and feel someone else’s emotions.

She uses that to take a stab at figure out all the secrets in this seemingly happy town.

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Along the way, you must make several big decisions.

They impact the lives of the various other characters and your relationship with them.

You see how they all feel about you towards the end of the game.

Starfield screenshot of pirate firing machine gun.

Their level of success depends on you.

Your choices and button-pressing skills impact how each protagonist’s story plays out.

As a result, it’s possible for you to get several different endings.

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As the sentient machines are actively invading in ME3, the protagonist’s importance increases even more.

Commander Shepard’s change a lot, huh?

On top of that, you also need to decide the fate of several races during the game.

Road 96 screenshot of person holding a sign with “please” written on it.

it’s possible for you to even effectively make a few species extinct by making certain choices.

So, you’re continually choosing whether or not you follow his instructions.

And these decisions alter what ending you get.

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Therefore, the game is all about discovering different endings by making distinct choices.

The Outer Worlds

Not every single decision you make in The Outer Worlds is significant.

Yet, the biggest ones heavily impact the in-game world, especially when it comes to the ending.

Telltales Game Of Thrones screenshot of Mira Forrester and Cersei Lannister.

And on a smaller scale, your choices also impact what everyone thinks of you on a personal level.

So, you should be careful about your decisions in The Outer Worlds.

Things don’t remain pleasant for long, though, as the main characters quickly find themselves in trouble.

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Most of their problems occur after they hop aboard a creepy old naval vessel.

And it’s up to you to keep them safe despite the terrors they face.

In fact, the lives of all of the main characters are in your hands.

Chris Hackett taking phone call in The Quarry.

Which of them survives directly affectswhat ending you get.

Dishonored

Few games handle choice quite like this Arkane Studios title.

In Dishonored, you mold the world but not by your words; it’s based on your actions.

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Alternatively, the streets will be pretty clear during a stealth run-through.

Your chaos level also impacts guard patrols, people’s opinions of you, and the game’s ending.

But things have changed a little in recent instalments, like this Viking adventure shows.

Lee sits in a vehicle and comforts Clementine who lays next to him in Telltale’s The Walking Dead.

Alongside that, you have plenty of little choices to make that impact things like who lives?

And who is allied with whom?

Plus, you’re required to make a big choice at the end of the game.

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Will you kill a character or choose a kinder fate for him?

That’s one big clue to look out for when it comes to the conclusion.

There’s even a ‘secret’ ending to unlock, making for a total of three.

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Fallout: New Vegas

Most of the newer Fallout games can be somewhat on-rails with their stories.

Fallout: New Vegas, however, is the exact opposite.

Nearly every decision has a huge amount of grey area surrounding its morality, and how itll help you.

Divinity Original Sin 2 screenshot of Red Prince character creation screen.

Of course, this sounds like a disaster recipe, and it is.

Its a beautiful homage to horror movies in the same vein.

This adventure has three separate stories that eventually intertwine.

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Should they be treated as humans?

Is it possible they can feel like humans?

The main narrative does have three very distinct outcomes: one happy, one bittersweet, and one sad.

A crowd watches the teleport machine in the town square.

Each of them is incredibly satisfying compared to many othermulti-ending games.

Even the expansions have multiple endings depending on your choices, both in and out of the new content.

Therefore, you had better pay attention when playing if you want happy endings!

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In the end, though, all of their lives are in your hands.

The game is also filled with plenty of other choices that impact the Mass Effect universe.

You won’t see some of the consequences of your actions until you play Mass Effect 3.

Grand Theft Auto 5 screenshot of Michael and Trevor dressed as guards in The Big Score mission.

The Dragon Age game series is full of dramatic moments and epic characters.

But only hardcore fans might have recognized easter eggs from the books.

Yet, it isnt just different endings that made this one so great.

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Plenty of character customization options affect the story, romance, and friendship options.

The setting is definitely an interesting one as cyberpunk themes just lend themselves well to complicated psychological dilemmas.

Beyond the story, though, this RPG presents you with a lot of brilliant combat choices.

Jay standing in a diner in As Dusk Falls.

It helps that there is a spectacular range of stealth and action options.

And whichever skills you pick will make every boss and mission an utterly unique experience.

People love this game, and rightfully so.

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The concept of this puzzling story is pretty unique.

Its about a character who can rewind time and play out choices differently.

Throughout it all, you’re forced to make plenty of complicated choices.

Nier Automata screenshot of 2B and 9S standing next to each other and looking into the distance.

These decisions impact the outcomes of each character and the overall story.

Baldurs Gate 3

Tabletop games like Dungeons and Dragons are all about having freedom and making choices.

These decisions can significantly alter how the main story and certain side quests play out.

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There are also plenty of choices to make in regard to exploration and combat, too.

Red Dead Redemption 2 screenshot of Arthur’s face in chapter one.

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Prey screenshot of Aaron Ingram begging for Morgan Yu’s help through glass.

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Life is Strange True Colors screenshot of Alex, Ryan, and Gabe together.

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Heavy Rain screenshot of Madison putting her hand on Ethan’s face.

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Commander Shepard during the final choice in Mass Effect 3.

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Split image screenshots showing the male and female versions of Commander Shepard.

The Stanley Parable player standing in a dark office room.

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The Outer Worlds screenshot of Parvati fighting an alien creature.

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Man of Medan screenshot of two characters swimming underwater.

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Dishonored screenshot of a guard getting blown away by an explosion.

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A headshot of Johnny Silverhand from Cyberpunk 2077.

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Eivor And Randvi look forward in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.

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Hitman 3 screenshot of Agent 47 on a rooftop looking at the clouds.

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The Protagonist from Wolf Among Us recovering in bandages from an injury, speaking to Snow White.

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A ranger from Fallout New Vegas with a long pistol.

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The player flanking an alien opponent using a truck.

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Sam and Mike from Until Dawn staring off in distance together.

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Detroit Become Human screenshot of Connor interrogating an android.

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Geralt facing down a cockatrice in a grassy area in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

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Male Shepard and Tali standing side by side in space suits in Mass Effect 2.

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Several male video game characters standing in a circle.

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Adam Jensen sneaking by a robot in Prague in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.

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Beyond: Two Souls gameplay screenshot with close-up of Jodie’s face.

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This Life Is Strange screenshot shows Max Caulfield And Chloe Price in the woods.

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Baldur’s Gate 3 screenshot of Minthara looking mad.

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