Mass Effect 3: What If Your Choices Really Mattered?

Gameroni editorializes on choice & consequence in the Mass Effect series, noting how many of the choices have minor consequences and proposing to take it to the other extreme. Spoilers for Mass Effect 2 in the article.

Yet what if it’s the choice that saves – or dooms – humanity?

It’d be a bold move. Presenting gamers with a no-win scenario would invite unprecedented anger and recriminations from an audience accustomed to beating the odds every time. But it could also herald the emergence of a new kind of maturity for videogames as an artistic medium. Games are unique among all creative enterprises in that interactivity and choice are a central part of the experience, yet aside from some occasionally frustrating run-ins with the reload button, the industry has never really explored what “choice” can mean. Why can’t it mean failure?

I’m not suggesting that gamers be deprived of their game, or even viciously punched in the junk. The good fight will still be fought, it’s merely the outcome that changes. The blow could be softened somewhat with a “noble sacrifice” outcome; the Earth Alliance is wiped out but its valiant efforts allow the combined forces of the other races to muster and ultimately defeat the Reapers. It doesn’t really matter, that’s just details. The important part is that you made a choice, and now you get to live with the consequences.

A novel idea but maybe taking it a bit too far. More significant consequences would be nice, though.