10 Most Intense Moral Choices In Video Game History
6. Cut Off Your Own Arm? (The Walking Dead)
Telltale’s Walking Dead games are essentially entirely based around the concept of forcing the player to make impossible decisions under immense amounts of duress. Everything from branching pathways that can decide the fate of beloved characters or even small things such as the message “Clementine will remember that” popping up after seemingly innocuous exchanges will have you second-guessing yourself at every action you take.
But while most of the choices you make throughout the game can impact the way the title progresses in monumental ways, none have been quite as stressful as choosing whether or not to have your arm amputated after the player character, Lee, is bitten by a walker late in the first season.
The choice is interesting because for most of the game you’ve been deciding the fate of others - even whether or not to amputate the limbs of characters you've met on your journey – yet suddenly the tables turn to focus on you.
So what would have been an obvious yes if it were to happen to any other character suddenly becomes an impossible decision; will the amputation even stop the infection? How will only having one arm impact my chance to save others going forward? What if this causes me to lose Clementine?
As a result, a routine zombie cliché becomes one of the most stressful decisions gamers will ever make.