9 Meaningful Video Game Choices That Didn’t Actually Mean Anything

Telltale Games were notorious (God that past-tense really hurts to type) for including countless instances of the illusion of choice in their famously decision-heavy story games.

The Walking Dead Season 1 has by far the most examples of choices that at first appear to be hugely meaningful, but always turn out the same in the end.

Deciding whether to save Doug or Carley from their death in the drug store simply condemns the surviving party to be shot later on by a manic Lilly.

Deciding to help your friend Kenny euthanize his dying son by shooting the child in the head before he could turn into a walker has absolutely zero impact on preventing Kenny’s wife Katja from committing suicide from grief.

One particular choice feels especially insulting. In episode 4, Lee gets careless and is bitten on the wrist by a walker. You can choose whether to cut off Lee’s arm or not, in the hopes that it will slow the infection and allow them more time to rescue Clementine. Choosing to go through with the procedure only heightens Lee’s suffering, however, as he succumbs to the infection at the same point in the game regardless.

The only choice that does matter in the end, is whether you left Lee chained to the radiator to inevitably turn, or spared him of a painful, slow death by choosing to let a ten year old shoot her beloved guardian.