10 Ways The Gaming Industry Can Improve In The 2020s

3. Continue To Build On Impactful Choices In Games

Impactful choices in video games are beloved amongst fans of story-based, single-player gaming. Knowing that your decisions matter, stressing over tough choices and creating your own personal experience can make a game something special. This mechanic also has players yearning to replay these games after the credits roll, which increases the game’s value to the consumer.

Whilst present in older games such as Fallout and various RPGs, the mechanic was truly pioneered in the Mass Effect trilogy. Here decisions can drastically change the course of events and these choices even carry over into multiple entries. Unfortunately, Bioware infamously failed to stick the landing, but everything up to that point was done with excellent attention to detail.

More recent games like The Witcher 3 and Outer Worlds have continued to tweak this formula, with the results being mostly positive. The Telltale series also deserve an honourable mention for their fully decision-based models. May they rest in peace.

As technology continues to advance, this mechanic will hopefully keep improving. It certainly makes sense for developers to look into it, given the wide-scale popularity. Who knows what the future could hold? Maybe we’ll even get a Mass Effect series with a satisfying ending.