10 Storytelling Clichés In Video Games That Need To Die

9. Your Choices Actually Mean Nothing

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Telltale Games

Prime Offender: Wolfenstein: New Blood, all Telltale games

Video games are a vehicle for empowerment. We feel like the heroes, in charge of our own destinies and controlling what happens in the universe. Makes sense, then, to offer choices, right?

Choices, after all, are what separates games from every other type of entertainment (with the notable exception of choose-your-own-adventure books).

But so often in games, those choices turn out to mean… nothing whatsoever. They have no impact on the story, or offer differences so minor that it would’ve been easier not to give us the damn choice in the first place.

Look, it’s not easy for developers to create scenarios in which every choice you make has a genuinely different outcome – but some sort of worthwhile impact would be much appreciated.

Contributor
Contributor

Word-wrangler and video gamer on the rocks. Once completed the original Resident Evil in 1 hour 4 minutes. Prefers Irish coffee over any other kind. Former movie trailer writer, now rehabilitated. Wrote the viral videos for the movie Watchmen. Likes sarcasm, cynicism, smoking and you.