The most difficult game choice

video games are always presenting us

with choices some are easy and some are

hi folks its Falcon and today on game

ranks that 10 hardest choices we’ve had

to make in video games just a quick

disclaimer keep in mind there are a ton

of other games that have very hard

decisions in them

we just ironically enough couldn’t

decide on which ones to do there’s

really no way to do all of this in one

videos so we will be doing more in the

future and also just a really quick

spoiler warning there’s gonna be

spoilers in this video for sure starting

off with number 10 in life is strange

you had to do a bunch of well strange

things obviously and this includes

bending time and doing a lot of sort of

traveling with in interdimensional stuff

and it eventually lands you in a place

where stuff gets too messed up to save

everyone and the choice you’re

eventually presented with is do you save

Chloe or do you sacrifice Arcadia Bay

now throughout the whole game you end up

saving Chloe because that’s like the

thing you tend to do in this kind of

game and as it turns out it’s been

gradually building up as sort of cosmic

disaster and you could kind of choose to

ignore it if Chloe is more important to

you at that point sure yes there’s

really nothing stopping you from

choosing her over a bunch of people

except you kill a bunch of people to

save one person and therein lies the

difficulty moving on to number 9 Caden

or Ashley from Mass Effect Oh what a

decision did not expect that decision to

come up at any point because they do

plenty to characterize pretty much

everybody in Mass Effect

everybody has their flaws everybody has

their strengths and if you go looking

you’ll find some pretty wild arguments

about which one is right to save and

which one isn’t you’ll find people who

talk about how they never really made a

connection with one of the two

characters as far as flaws well one of

them is fairly xenophobic obviously but

the other isn’t exactly like super

Pleasant he’s kind of whiny actually

they both certainly have their use as

far as utility goes ashley outranks you

and chitin has all of his biotics and

that’s obviously quite useful in a fight

but I have a feeling a lot of people

more make this choice based on who they

can

with and who didn’t there’s one very

slightly redeeming element of this

choice and that is that these two seem

fairly mutually exclusive even in the

game you end up liking one and usually

not caring about the other it kind of

depends on what you get into the game

for and what you’re enjoying about it

and moving on to number eight this one

is less about specific characters or

sacrificing an individual and more about

how you go about handling something

throughout the game in BioShock you’re

given the opportunity to either harvest

or rescue the little sisters this of

course has a direct effect on the ending

and is a big deal you get the nice

ending or the depressing ending based on

which one you do but the game kind of

incentivizes you to do the thing that

gives you the bad ending and harvest the

little sisters for their Adam Adam being

the substance that allows one to rewrite

DNA given one the powers that one gets

in Bioshock obviously making the game

easier to have more of it makes you more

powerful of course so when the thing

that makes you more powerful gives you

the less good ending it presents you

with quite a quandary do you sort of

unleash the possibilities of the game’s

mechanics or do you attempt to get an

ending that feels more satisfying and

significantly more cathartic that’s a

hell of a choice to present the player

with and during the course of the game

you may not even know that this is what

you’re choosing moving on to number

seven in Far Cry 3 you’re given the

opportunity to either kill your friends

or save your friends this is pretty much

the defining choice as far as the ending

goes if you choose to kill your friends

you end up with citro who that gets

steamy quick and then after it gets

steamy she gets stabby some people think

that’s worth it the Warriors death you’d

I don’t know that it’s worth the steamy

elements of things but if you choose

your friends you live Citra dies as a

matter of fact because Dennis gets into

an altercation with you and ends up

accidentally stabbing her you see he’s

mad that he didn’t get with her I guess

and also mad that you didn’t get with

her which is I don’t know I don’t fully

understand Dennis

in there I realized he can’t see the

future and understand that you’re gonna

die if you picked that ending but I mean

what else you gonna say to him I was

gonna die if I pick that one he doesn’t

know you’re a video game he doesn’t know

he’s a video game anyway you end up

monologuing over shots of the island

lamenting if you decide to save your

friends you never recover from it either

way so I don’t know maybe dying was

better moving on to number six in spec

ops the line you are presented with a

scenario in which a convicted soldier

and a convicted civilian and you have to

decide who gets executed now the

civilian stole water which I don’t know

if you consider that a real crime but in

the world of the game it’s a massive one

I don’t know if it was real life I could

probably understand wanting some water

and the soldiers job was to apprehend

the civilian who had stolen the water

but in the process and said killed his

entire family the game presents these

two as responsible for the man’s

family’s death but I don’t know for me

the choice isn’t really that hard if he

stole water and stealing waters of

crimes and the obvious thing is not to

kill his family but instead I don’t know

charge him for the crime but there’s

also people who I know who would say

well if he just decided not to steal the

water my argument against that is that

of course water is a fundamental

building block of life at least on earth

and it’s really hard to fault somebody

with a family who’s stealing water in an

area that is well you know devoid of

water much much harder for me to play

him that person then the soldier who

just decided oh he’s stealing water it’s

worth killing his whole family to get to

him that’s just me though I’ve gotten

into arguments about this one online and

I’ll tell you there are people that are

pretty stringently opposed to my

viewpoint on this indicating it’s a much

harder choice than it seems the question

really is what is realistic letting him

just have the water or not as I said

water isn’t exactly abundant in the

world of the game so I got it at least

it’s just impossible for me to fault the

guy bring water your family duh I would

totally do it moving on to number five

sacrifice love or wealth in fable two

now if able to is a friggin awesome game

did it over promise yes did I

by peter molyneux you over-promised yes

that doesn’t mean it’s not an awesome

game and it presents you with the choice

at the end of the game of going down a

path of sacrifice of love or of wealth

now it’s a bit of a tough one

not necessarily the wealth one it’s

pretty easy to put the wealth one aside

you can make tons of money in fable two

it’s not hard but between sacrifice and

love sacrifice of course gives you the

best alignment as far as good goes and

it gives you a statue

everybody loves having their own statue

right everybody who has a statue anyways

I don’t have a statue so I don’t really

know but love of course gets you a

family and saves your dog dogs are great

right in their own way they’re all kind

of a sacrifice because they put you down

a path that definitely limits you

particularly wealth if you decide that

you want wealth in the game you

definitely don’t need to pick wealth

it’s a total waste of a choice

the statues not great honestly it’s

probably about what would happen if

somebody made a statue of me in real

life they’d put it somewhere that’s out

of the way and it wouldn’t be that big

be basically a passive-aggressive statue

but on the other hand that’s the one you

need to pick if you do the DLC so ah

moving on to number four in black ops 2

you’re given a lot of choices for people

to kill and at some point you need to

choose whether or not you kill Harper

and Menendez now you’re given these

choices at different times any of you

kill Harper his friend farad more or

less never recovers and ends up taking a

bullet for someone later really he ends

up suffering either way so it’s kind of

a wash neither choice is really a good

one per se and then later you’re also

presented with the choice of killing the

bad guy are capturing him Menendez is of

course kind of a bad fella basically if

you kill Menendez his plan doesn’t stop

the white house burns down so you have

to capture him in order to stop

everything but on the other hand it’s a

lot more satisfying to put a bullet in

the dudes head his plan is not cool

moving on to number 3 in The Witcher 3

there’s a hell of a time where you have

to pick between putting a baby in the

oven or not now you don’t really put a

baby in the oven and like cook it or

anything

it’s actually an elaborate trick in

which you’re intended to make it look as

if you’ve done something bad

for a demon that is possessing a person

and feeding off of them it’s still a

heat-of-the-moment thing where you’re

saying to yourself do I put a baby in an

oven but the tension is relieved fairly

quickly when they bring the baby out and

like hey look we didn’t Charbroil the

baby the demon sees is that the baby is

whole and realizes it can’t feed on

geralt conscience because Geralt didn’t

just do something that he regretted the

outcome is obviously better to put the

baby in the oven however you just heard

what I said we’re talking about putting

a baby in the oven it’s very hard to be

in the moment when it’s really forcing

you to make a decision fast go yeah put

the baby in the oven of course and at

number two the final choice of killing

Michael or killing trevor or going into

the big Death Wish then essentially

Death Wish is the cannon ending and I

picked it without a lot of trouble but

at the same time both of the other

endings give you a lot of insight as to

the other character and what they really

think of the character that you picked

to die so in my opinion it’s actually

kind of worth it just to do all of them

and obviously do Death Wish last because

it ends the best but like if you had to

pick one you really do give it some

pause they’re all actually quite

interesting and I guess that’s kind of

the real pickle you’re in so to speak

regarding the choice but of course we

all want our characters not dead

so death wish although named maybe an

inappropriately make sure that they all

stay alive and in my opinion is of

course the best and also cannon choice

and finally at number one Jane or kenny

from the walking dead season 2 now The

Walking Dead telltale series is just

littered with choices that are difficult

to make and this is one of the doozies

the reason is basically you want both of

these characters alive for very

different reasons of course kenny is

decent jane is kind of not decent but

very interesting and it’s kenny

selflessness the trait that you might

want to save him for that is actually

kind of his weakness when it comes to

Clementine Clementine is of course able

to manipulate him through that

whereas Jane not as good person at all

isn’t so easily coerced it basically

makes you grapple with

fact that in the very harsh world of the

game the things that you value aren’t

necessarily things that are useful and

it asks you to figure out whether you

prioritize human goodness over survival

which is again really not an easy choice

what did you do in all these instances

leave us a comment let us know what you

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very much for watching this video i’m

falcon you can follow me on twitter at

falcon the hero and we’ll see you next

time right here on game ranks

Video games can give you crazy amounts of choice,and sometimes they make it really hard on you.

Hi folks, it’s Falcon,
and today on Gameranx,

10 of the most difficult decisions
in video games, part two.

Now, before we get going,

basically wanna say
consider this list a sequel

to the “10 Hardest Video Games Choices

“That Made Us Sweat,” video,
which came out a while ago.

It covers a similar topic,

so we’re gonna avoid repeating ourselves.

I’ll give off a quick list
of what’s in that video.

So if you’re interested
in watching that one,

it’s also good.

Of course, we enjoyed making it,

and we hope that you enjoyed it.

The “Life is Strange” ending choice.

Saving Kaidan or Ashley in “Mass Effect.”

Killing or sparing the
Little Sisters in “BioShock.”

The ending of “Far Cry 3.”

The ending of “Spec Ops: The Line.”

The ending of “Fable.”

Whether or not you kill an ally

to keep up cover in “Black Ops II.”

“Witcher 3’s” baby in the oven choice.

“GTA V’s” Deathwish ending.

And the “Walking Dead’s” final choice.

So without any further ado,

starting off at number 10 is
“Wolfenstein: The New Order’s”

branching timeline.

“The New Order” is a game
that’s kind of unique.

It’s not really a choice game.

You’re not making moral decisions in it.

But the story starts with one huge choice

that affects the outcome
of not just this game,

but the sequel as well.

It happens at the end
of the first mission,

Deathshead’s Compound.

You, along with your allies,
manage to break into this lab,

but you’re ambushed and captured

by the mad scientist’s super soldiers.

That’s when he gives
you a sadistic choice,

either he kills Fergus or Wyatt.

You don’t get a third
option or any way out.

One of these guys has to die.

At this point of the story,

you barely know who these guys are,

but just the fact that this
freak makes you choose who dies

makes you not want the decision.

Nobody wants to make
that decision, you know?

Depending on who lives though,

the character becomes
one of your major allies

for the rest of the story.

They don’t just play a small role either,

they’re important characters,

so that choice is actually
a lot more important

than it seems.

It even affects what kind of
things you can do in the game,

like if you can hot-wire
electronics or pick locks on doors.

And it’s hardly the only sadistic
choice decision out there,

but it’s one of the most memorable.

– In your opinion, which
one of these two varieties

would best support my research?

– [Falcon] At number nine
is “Saints Row: The Third,”

the ending choice.

Now, the third entry into
the “Saints Row” series

likes to hit you with
choices from time to time

but they’re usually
pretty inconsequential,

until you hit the penultimate
mission, Three Way.

The whole thing starts
with a three-way battle

between the Saints, STAG
soldiers, and the Luchadores gang.

Mid-mission you find out two things.

First, the leader of the
Luchadores, Killbane,

is fleeing the city, and that
one of the leaders of STAG

has kidnapped some of
your people and the mayor,

who is, by the way, Burt Reynolds,

and tied them up on the big
statue at Magarac Island

and they’re planning on blowing it up.

So you can’t do both things at
once, so you have to choose.

Do you save Shaundi and stop the explosion

or go after Killbane and get your revenge?

For most players, saving Shaundi
is the obvious hero choice,

but what makes this decision difficult

is how it affects your ending.

So these two endings,
based on this choice,

are wildly different.

If you go after Killbane,
the more evil option,

you take on STAG in
their flying helicarrier.

And it’s an inappropriately
over-the-top mission,

and one of the most
entertaining in the game

in terms of pure spectacle, at very least.

If you save Shaundi, the good option,

you get the significantly
goofier final mission,

Gangstas in Space, which
puts you on the set

of the titular film.

The whole thing is a joke.

It’s almost like the
game’s making fun of you

for taking the nice option.

– But I found something…

Shit.

Damn it. Line

– Cut.
(buzzer rings)

– [Falcon] And depending on who you are,

it’s a tough choice already,

but add in the really
different final missions

and you have a legitimately
tough choice here.

And number eight is “Pokemon,”
picking your starter.

Going in a totally different direction,

not all decisions in games

have to be intense moral dilemmas.

Sometimes a decision comes
along that’s very tough,

but for entirely different reasons.

Like picking a class in an RPG

or deciding what abilities to unlock.

Depending on the game,

these kinds of decisions
might be just as difficult

as deciding who lives and who
dies, sometimes even tougher.

Maybe the ultimate expression
of these kinds of choices

can be found in the “Pokemon” series,

where you gotta make one of
the most difficult decisions

in gaming at the start
in picking a starter,

the Pokemon you start with.

Depending on what generation
you’re playing and who you are,

this can feel like a no-brainer.

One Pokemon’s clearly
better than the rest,

so it’s a simple choice.

But it’s also usually a
very personal decision.

Depends on what Pokemon
you think looks cool.

What kind of like elements

you’re interested in
building first, et cetera?

For me, the toughest decision

was always between Charmander
or Bulbasaur and Squirtle.

They’re all good in their own right,

but they also all have their downsides.

I always remember wanting
to go with Charmander

but then having to remind myself
that he’s basically useless

against both Brock and Misty.

So I had to decide if I
really wanted to grind out

a second Pokemon or just pick
one of the other starters.

You know, both of which are much better

at the first two gym trainings.

Most of the time, all that really matters

is if you think they look cool.

But when you do have to deal
with gameplay consequences,

like that with Charmander
in “Red and Blue,”

it makes a tough choice even harder.

Moving on to number seven,

“Black Ops Cold War’s”
lying or telling the truth.

Kind of a spiritual
sequel to “Black Ops II,”

“Cold War” is another “Call of Duty” game

that gives the players some choices

that are not easy to make.

There’s not as many overall,
but at least with this choice,

it completely changes not just the ending,

but the entire finale.

In the penultimate mission,
you’re given a choice,

either tell Adler the truth

about where, Perseus, the
Soviet bad guy’s heading,

or a lie and lead your
team to the wrong location.

Seems like an obvious choice.

You wanna make the good guy choice, right?

Good at very least from the standpoint

the game is giving you.

But the devil’s in the
details on this one,

and those details make this
whole thing way more nebulous.

For one thing, the supposed good guys,

who are asking you for your help,

are also responsible for brainwashing you

and basically era your old personality.

You used to be an agent for Perseus

that Adler used experimental CIA drugs on,

which turns you into Bell,

and you have a pretty good reason

not really to wanna help this guy.

Perseus isn’t a great guy.

I mean, he wants to
basically nuke all of Europe.

But the United States

put all those nukes
there in the first place.

Blowing everything up is
tough to justify for sure,

but it’s not as if your
side has no hand in it.

It’s a very complex set of circumstances.

So the choice basically boils down

to if you wanna help Adler,

who’s been screwing with your
brain the entire game, or not.

Depending on what you choose,

the final mission is wildly different.

You tell the truth, you play
through a pretty short mission

where you attack Perseus’s secret base

and stop the broadcast.

If you lie, you kill all your squad mates

in a pretty wild final mission,

which is intense, to say the least.

And then you have a final
battle with Adler, which, yeah.

And then you get to press the nuke button.

(man on radio speaks in foreign language)

– I think you deserve
this moment, comrade.

(tense choral music)

(button clunking)

(man on radio speaks in foreign language)

– [Falcon] It’s totally ridiculous,

but it actually kind of feels
more like the intended ending

than the quote-unquote good one,

even though the consequences
are pretty dire.

It’s one of those choices

where you’re really kind of
picking between the more boring

and the more interesting option,

rather than the moral and the immoral one.

At number six is “Detroit: Become Human,”

the pacifism versus violence with Marcus,

Even though it could be
pretty blunt and heavy-handed,

the consensus on “Detroit: Become Human”

is it’s probably Quantic Dream’s

most consistently good game.

There’s a lot of choices to make

and a lot of them actually matter,

but probably the biggest of all of them

is whether you choose pacifism or violence

while playing is Marcus.

For most of the story, you’re
kind of a lot of just waffle

between peaceful protest
and violent revolt.

But at the freedom march,

you’re forced to make a final choice

whether the robot resistance
is gonna be nonviolent or not.

And this is one of those damned if you do,

damned if you don’t kind of choices.

During the march, when
the police block your way,

you either stand your ground,

which causes police to fire
into the crowd unprovoked,

attack, which, of course, causes
the police to fire anyway,

or run away, which makes
you look like a chump.

Your choice here basically

determines what the rest
of the game looks like.

And it’s a major turning
point in the story

that has huge ramifications

for every single character
that you play as.

– I repeat, this is an illegal gathering.

If you do not disperse
immediately, we will shoot!

– [Falcon] And number five

is “Fallout: New Vegas’s” Vault 34.

Here’s the game that loves
its complex moral questions.

And almost nothing seems to come easy

in “Fallout: New Vegas.”

When it comes to decisions,
there’s dozens to pick through.

But probably the most
memorable to me is Vault 34.

The story starts out pretty basic.

There’s an NCR sharecropper
that needs your help.

The crops are dying

and so they want you to
investigate the water supply

for contamination.

That eventually brings you to Vault 34,

which is this hellish place

filled with ghouls and
heavy pockets of radiation.

When you get to the reactor room,

that’s when you’ve got a decision to make.

There are vault dwellers

still alive behind a flooded
section of the vault,

and only way to rescue
them is to reroute control

of the computer system to them.

Now, if you wanna help the sharecroppers,

you have to disable the reactor,

which will trap those
vault dwellers forever.

So you’re forced to choose

to either save lives of
a small group of people

or save the livelihoods of a
larger settlement of people.

Either way, one group suffers,

and you have to make a decision,

since you’re there and involved
and putting stuff in motion.

It’s a cruel choice with no easy answers

and that’s kind of how the game is.

(guns blasting)
(fire roaring)

(gun clunking)

At number four, in “Witcher
3,” killing the tree spirit.

Another game with a lot of tough choices,

without a lot of easy answers.

Probably one of the
toughest occurs in the quest

The Whispering Hillock.

There’s a lot of stuff leading up to this,

but to make a long story short,

your decision here has
a ton of consequences,

and can easily have some
pretty serious ramifications

for the villagers of Downwarren.

Also, the orphans trapped in Crookback Bog

and the Bloody Baron and his family.

There’s a lot of factors to consider.

If you kill the spirit,
the villagers are safe,

but the orphans disappear,
they’re most likely eaten,

and, Anna, the Bloody Barron’s
wife goes mad because of it.

Freeing the spirit, on the other hand,

makes it so you can save the orphans,

but the villagers are
punished and many are killed.

Anna’s fate is actually worse,

she’s turned into a water hag.

Even if you don’t know
the outcome ahead of time,

it’s just a tough choice in general.

Do you kill an evil spirit
that’s tormenting people

or do you let it live so you
can find more about Ciri?

A lot of factors.

Not a lot of good outcomes though,

which makes it a pretty
difficult decision.

(explosions blasting)

– [Weavess] He has come for you.

– [Falcon] At number three, “Infamous 2,”

making everyone conduits or
killing all the conduits.

Most of the time, the decisions

in the “Infamous” games are obvious.

If you want the evil powers,
you choose the red option.

If you want the good
powers, you choose the blue.

It doesn’t really matter
all that much otherwise,

but the ending to “Infamous
2” is, of course, different.

It’s actually kind of a
legitimately difficult decision

that has a big effect
on the final mission.

Basically, you’re given two
options, side with the beast,

spread the conduit powers
all over the world,

or kill basically everyone in New Marais,

including your new best friend,

or sacrifice yourself and
kill all the conduits.

No matter what you do,

someone who doesn’t
deserve it is gonna die.

They even subvert your expectation

because if you choose the less
evil self-sacrifice option,

the evil character, Nix,

is actually the one to side with you,

while the good character,
Kuo, tries to stop you.

It just goes to show the
final decision in “Infamous 2”

goes beyond the usual good
and evil binary choices

that happen the rest of the game.

It’s actually a really tough choice.

(explosion rumbles)

(laser blasting)

(explosion blasting)

And number two, in “Dragon Age: Origins,”

going with Morrigan’s plan
or sacrificing yourself.

At the end of “Origins,”

they drop the bombshell
that, the Archdemon,

the thing you’ve been trying
to kill the entire game,

can’t actually be
destroyed by stabbing it,

you gotta sacrifice something.

There’s a few options to pick from,

either sacrifice yourself, one
of your Grey Warden allies,

or take the third option,
which depending on who you ask

is either the obvious correct
one or a very bad idea.

I am, of course, talking
about Morrigan’s ritual.

Instead of the Archdemon
possessing the nearest Darkspawn

and coming back to life,

the ritual will make it so
it possesses an unborn child,

Morrigan’s child.

And, and yes,

to do this you have to
get it on with Morrigan.

And the eventual result

is that you created this game’s
version of the antichrist.

(laughs) It’s a bizarre
choice, to say the least,

but you’re choosing whether
you or one of your allies dies

or nobody dies.

If you’re playing a female character,

someone with a different love interest,

it makes the choice especially awkward.

If you’re into Morrigan,
it’s probably a no-brainer.

And as of this video, the actual
consequences of this choice

have yet to have been felt
with the “Dragon Age” universe.

But it’s one of the more stranger,

complicated choices
you can make in gaming.

(Archdemon growling)
(dramatic music)

(sword swishing)
(Archdemon roaring)

(Archdemon crashing)

And finally, at number one, is in “NieR,”

saving Kaine I or not.

Here’s a choice that is unique

because it’s one of the most
agonizing for the character,

as it is for the player.

If you know anything about this game,

you’ve probably heard about this,

but after playing through
the game three times,

you’re given another new ending,

but this time you have a choice.

This time around, your ally, Kaine,

has lost control of the Shade
within her so she attacks you.

After fighting her off,
you’re given a simple choice,

either sacrifice yourself to
restore Kaine back to normal

or kill her and end her suffering.

That first option seems
like the obvious one,

but there’s a huge hangup.

It’s not just the character of Nier

who has to sacrifice
themselves to save Kaine,

you, the player, have to sacrifice too

by deleting all your
save files permanently.

That’s dozens of hours of
gameplay just down the drain.

Brutal back in the 360 days
when backing up your saves

wasn’t quite as easy as it is now.

But if you get blindsided by
this choice, in the moment,

it’s a hell of a thing they have to decide

without taking some time
to think about first.

Thing is, game is over.

You don’t really need a save anymore.

But it also feels really wrong

to delete everything like that.

All that progress just gone.

Hell, if you got a secondary
save, that gets deleted too.

So if you started a new
game in between, sorry,

you’re just gonna have to
start over from scratch.

Most of the time you’re
not really losing anything

when you make a choice in a game,

but here you’re forced to delete

one of the most precious things

that a gamer can possibly
have, a completed save file.

– [Kaine] It’s like I just
found something special.

– [Falcon] And that’s all for today.

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