Video games are all about making the right moves. In some games, you are stuck unless you make the correct choice. Things, however, are different in choices-matter games. Picking different options in these games affects the direction of the story. The fact that your choice can change everything that follows is what makes these games so interesting. The more you play, the more you want to know how things would be different if you had made a different choice. If this sounds interesting to you, we have a list of the best choices-matter games where you see the impact of your actions.
Image Credit: Steam
Oxenfree is a supernatural adventure game about a group of teenagers who accidentally stir up something ancient and mysterious on a remote island. Yeah, it sounds like the setup to a typical straight-to-video horror flick, but this isn’t some cliché teen slasher tribute. It’s actually a story about people, relationships, and growing up, and it uses the horror setting in a much smarter way.
You play as Alex, a blue-haired teen heading to Edwards Island with a group of friends and her new stepbrother, for a night of hanging out, drinking, and exploring. Along the way, you’ll have plenty of interesting conversations with dialogue choices that actually matter. These choices (and other decisions) shape how the game ends, and the different outcomes revolve around the group dynamic. So yeah, you can definitely make or break friendships based on how you play.
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Over four years after its famously rough launch, Cyberpunk 2077 has finally climbed to that sweet spot on Steam, “Overwhelmingly Positive” reviews. When it first dropped in 2020, it was honestly in pretty bad shape. So bad, in fact, that it didn’t even deserve a spot in our “best choices matter games” list, and CD Projekt Red basically had to restructure itself. But to their credit, they learned from the backlash and spent years fixing the broken parts and doubling down on what worked. It even recently had a collab with Fortnite battle royale which was a surprise for fans.
Now, Night City is such a visual treat that skipping drives or fast-travelling feels like you’re missing out. Sometimes it feels like the game turns into a living, breathing, voyeuristic screensaver with how good it looks. It’s still not perfect, but it nails that player-driven RPG vibe, where your actions really shape the world.
Your choices affect the main storyline and side quests in noticeable ways, anything from an extra line of dialogue from a character you spared, to a cool weapon, or unlocking an area that’s usually off-limits. The biggest choices revolve around the game’s multiple endings, especially the relationship between V and Johnny Silverhand, and whether they can come to terms.
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Disco Elysium has over a million words of written dialogue and if that isn’t enough to draw you in, nothing will. There’s a massive amount of philosophical debates, locker-room humour, and choices for our disaster of a detective, Du Bois. And these choices often come with chance-based outcomes, which means you might not only fail differently, but you might get a completely different outcome altogether.
Every response to an NPC or problem pulls you deeper into a twisting narrative, shaping your character, his relationships, and his skills. A single gaming playthrough really isn’t enough, because there’s so much you’ll miss. It might not have dozens of different endings, but the game can feel completely new just by playing as a different kind of person the next time around.
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Most choice-based games stick to the whole “be good or be bad” formula, but The Walking Dead flips that on its head. In a world full of walkers, good and bad don’t mean much anymore. “Right” might mean shooting a kid before they turn into a zombie, and “wrong” could be stealing supplies just to survive.
This game is really about the choices you can live with, and the ones you can’t. And it hits hard. Every dialogue decision feels like a big deal, especially when you see the iconic “…will remember that” message pop up.
Telltale’s The Walking Dead isn’t just a good video game adaptation; it became its own powerful, emotional story and that’s why it also secures a rank in our best Post-apocalyptic games of all time list. It’s one of those games that stays with you, not because of big action moments, but because of how human it feels. Heartbreaking, heavy, and unforgettable.
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The core of Until Dawn, the story, characters, and gameplay, is pretty much the same as when it first came out. You’re put in the shoes of eight young adults who’ve returned to a mountain lodge a year after a tragedy that left two friends, twin sisters, missing.
Whether these characters survive depends on your dialogue choices and how well you handle quick-time events. It’s a bold setup, and Supermassive totally nailed it. The new dev team, Ballistic Moon, didn’t mess with what already worked, which was a smart move.
What you get is a highly cinematic, character-focused game that doesn’t follow a straight path. It plays out like an interactive horror movie, where every choice can change how things go, and who makes it to the end.
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Detroit: Become Human is all about making the right choices, even when those choices don’t feel that important at first. What seems small in the moment ends up pulling you deeper into each character’s journey.
David Cage (yeah, the same guy behind Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls) crafted a game where, for the first time, you can actually see a breakdown of your decisions after each chapter, or even mid-scene via the pause menu. It’s a cool feature that helps you see where your actions took the story and gives you the option to go back and do things differently, making it one of the best choices matter games out there.
Like when Connor has to choose between saving a human life or chasing a suspect, you’re the one making that call. Or when Kara has the option to help a terrified little girl or leave her behind. These moments feel real, and your actions shape how each storyline unfolds.
Image Credit: Epic Games
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is the final chapter in Geralt’s story, and CD Projekt Red went all-out to make it one of the best choice matter games. It’s a massive action RPG full of tough decisions, some small, some game-changing. It’s so good that we’ve also given it a prime spot in our best stories of all time list.
Minor choices might impact your rewards or how difficult a quest is. But other decisions can completely change people’s lives, affect political outcomes, or reshape entire regions. Out of all the choices in the game, there are about fourteen that stand out; major ones that have huge consequences for Geralt, his close allies, or even whole nations.
Not every choice comes with a clear right or wrong answer, either. Sometimes it’s just about choosing the lesser of two evils, or figuring out what Geralt can live with. By the end, the world can look and feel totally different depending on who you helped, who you didn’t, and the paths you took in Velen, Novigrad, and Skellige.
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