8 Obvious Moral Choices In Video Games You Couldn't Make
2. Mass Effect 2 – Save The Few, Or Risk The Many?
The set-up: In the quest N7: Javelin Missiles Launched a group of extremists capture an Alliance missile base on the moon of Franklin and launch two warheads at a nearby colony and spaceport/industrial district. Loose the colony and the spaceport/industrial district remains tactically viable. Loose the spaceport and the colonists live, but at the cost of having to relocate. Only one missile can be stopped.
The obvious choice: Hundreds of innocent civilians versus some vague notion of ‘tactical viability?’ No. Infrastructure can be replaced but people cannot, and even it costs them their homes, homeless is better than dead.
The reality: All is not what it seems, mainly due to – surprisingly, for a game with such stellar writing – the quest doing a terrible job of explaining itself. Franklin is a military site dedicated to the defense of the nearby populated planet of Watson. Watson is located in the extremist-infested Terminus Systems, and the spaceport/industrial district is a critical to its security. Thus the actual choice is between saving hundreds and weakening Watson’s defence, thereby potentially placing thousands more at risk, or sacrificing hundreds to keep that defence viable.
Ignorance, as they say, is bliss.