Decisions, decisions…

The games that used to shout loudest about their focus on player choice generally presented us with laughably binary moral decisions – the equivalent of being asked whether you want to rescue a litter of adorable puppies, or else put them in a sack and throw them into a river, with a lit stick of dynamite for good measure. Even so, there was something appealing in seeing the consequences of our responses reflected in tangible ways, though it’s clear that videogames have since grown much more sophisticated in the ways they allow us to make meaningful choices that affect both story and systems.

This issue we catch up with Larian’s Baldur’s Gate 3, as it continues to evolve in Early Access. Few games are quite so reactive, the sheer number of permutations to every decision you make evidently contributing to its lengthy development time. To pick out just one: upon being asked to herd a chicken, our barbarian hero instead opts to larrup it towards the pen. Our goblin quest-givers react in horror when they see the bird is DOA – at least until we bellow at them to back down.

Meanwhile, in Square Enix’s Triangle Strategy – and that name was certainly a choice – the next destination you pick on the world map can be the difference between breaking an archer out of prison or recruiting a defecting ice mage to your ranks.

In Fallen London spin-off Mask Of The Rose, your choice of wardrobe could be the factor that seals someone’s lips or loosens them. Or you could end up locking them: those seeking a torrid affair rather than simple companionship will be afforded more flirtatious, suggestive dialogue options. Vampire Survivors, on the other hand, makes you utterly irresistible in a very different way: here, the choices you make are all about how best to keep away advancing hordes of creatures. Now, if only you could talk to them…