I’m still bitter Morrowind vanilla didn’t let you side with Dagoth Ur if you decided to also play an evil xenophobic maniac who wants to spread a flesh-eating disease on the continent.
I’d say very few games have a lot of effort put into the evil arc.
Games often present moral choices that are too binary. e.g. kill everyone or save everyone. In that case being evil would naturally be a lot harder because most characters would try to stop you.
Would be more interesting if the moral question is more ambiguous, or maybe have some moral dilemmas. Like you thought you made a difficult decision but the right one, (perhaps even with many in game characters telling you that you are right), only to find out ultimately you were the bad guy after all.
In most of them there are many decisions that are not black and white. There are many factions you can join or antagonize, and usually you have to decide to help one or another as they are confronted.
I’ve been playing through Cyberpunk 2077 again and they’re all bad choices.
The final level of Last of Us had me hesitating, too, because the “right” choice felt wrong. Not that you really get to decide, but it was a cool gameplay moment for me.
Most western rpgs let you be the bad guy (Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Baldur’s Gate, etc.). But then most npcs will try to kill you on sight.
Also Undertale.
I’m still bitter Morrowind vanilla didn’t let you side with Dagoth Ur if you decided to also play an evil xenophobic maniac who wants to spread a flesh-eating disease on the continent.
I’d say very few games have a lot of effort put into the evil arc.
Games often present moral choices that are too binary. e.g. kill everyone or save everyone. In that case being evil would naturally be a lot harder because most characters would try to stop you.
Would be more interesting if the moral question is more ambiguous, or maybe have some moral dilemmas. Like you thought you made a difficult decision but the right one, (perhaps even with many in game characters telling you that you are right), only to find out ultimately you were the bad guy after all.
In most of them there are many decisions that are not black and white. There are many factions you can join or antagonize, and usually you have to decide to help one or another as they are confronted.
I’ve been playing through Cyberpunk 2077 again and they’re all bad choices.
The final level of Last of Us had me hesitating, too, because the “right” choice felt wrong. Not that you really get to decide, but it was a cool gameplay moment for me.
For cyberpunk 2077 I figured out the good ending. Just never take that job. You can’t leave that one part of the city or see credits roll, but hey.