9 Meaningful Video Game Choices That Didn’t Actually Mean Anything
8. Wolfenstein: The New Order - Purity Test
Dealing with Nazis while undercover is always a tense situation. Look at Indiana Jones in the Last Crusade, or the bar scene in Inglorious Basterds. Experience that same chilling fear for yourself while playing through Wolfenstein's 2014 soft reboot The New Order while aboard a train travelling to Berlin as B.J. Blazkowicz - American agent and resistance fighter.
In the middle of the night, trying to lay low, B.J. makes himself some coffee, but is trapped in the carriage with Frau Engel. Forced to play along and sit beside her and her lover, Bubi, we are subjected to a high-stakes test where we are to try and prove our allegiance to the terrifyingly evil Commander.
She places her gun on the table, fully cocked and loaded, and tells you if you reach for it, you will be gunned down before you can even pull the trigger.
She also begins to place two seemingly important photographs before you, and tells you to choose between them. If you choose wrong, and it turns out you are of what she deems impure blood, then she says she will shoot you.
What excites you the most? Eyes or a smile. What makes you feel happy? A flower or a butterfly. What makes you feel disgusted? A spider or a skull.
The questions all seem meaningless and players will be terrified trying to make the correct choice.
But as it turns out, there was no correct choice, or wrong choice for that matter. The whole thing is one big sadistic joke, and Frau Engel takes great pleasure in torturing you through it.