Subjective List of Best Morality Systems in Video Games
Morality is like... well, everyone has their own. The morality systems in video games also come in various shapes and sizes. However, not all of them can be called interesting. Here, I list all my favorite ones.
Table of Contents
- Subjective List of Best Morality Systems in Video Games
- Demon's Souls
- Red Dead Redemption 2
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
- Disco Elysium
- Dishonored
- Mass Effect 2
- Black Geyser: Couriers of Darkness
Disco Elysium
- Genre: RPG
- Release year: 2019
ZA/UM studio took a slightly similar approach in their masterpiece, Disco Elysium – albeit on a completely different scale. There's no good and bad here either; there are only shades of gray reflecting whether the fallen cop will plunge deeper into madness or seek a better tomorrow for himself. We create the image of the protagonist through the actions we take and statements we choose to say. The game constantly monitors the attitude of our character and often confronts us with what we said or did – sometimes even using it against us.
How? For example, by making it impossible to obtain a testimony from a witness we previously offended in an ideological dispute. Here I will quote the words of my friend Carl, who stated that...
There is no such thing as a morality system in Disco Elysium, because the game constantly challenges your morality, regardless of your choices. Why is that? And because moral choices are equated there with supporting specific political options. Each decision makes you more communist, more fascist or more, well, moralist.
But the moralist is usually treated as a naïve idealist in the game, so if you play too kind-hearted a policeman, don't be surprised when the game calls you a self-pitying mourner and a hypocrite (because moralizing talk from a guy who only drank, was aggressive and lived like a bum for most his life can be worth only so much).
Karol Laska
