Multiple endings

Story & Setting
#1

Hi,
I wonder if there are going to be multiple endings available in Act I or at the end of the game (Act 2 or Act 3) depending on your character role, playing style, conversation with other NPCs and actions and decisions you made during the story part of the game.

It could be nice, if the story can shift to a slightly different direction, when you are about to make an important decision within the game. It allows us to have multiple story paths with different missions (or mission setting and goals) along the way and with such option, there is going to be a motivation to replay the game several times to see, how the other decisions we did not make will influence the overall game experience.

The good example could be The Witcher 2 game, when in some part of the game, you had to decide what faction/character you will follow and it changed a complete story a bit.

What do you think?

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#2

They’ve talked about how decisions can’t be taken back, hard core role playing and that sort of stuff so I am going to assume, as dangerous as assumptions are, that there will be lasting consequences for your actions. Will it be super different endings the way games normally do such endings? Who knows. It comes down to how the devs interpret divergent endings and what not. That and it will depend on how much influence our little blacksmith has upon the world, I suppose. Kings are kings, peasants are peasants.

#3

You can design different paths for player in the middle of game if you have enough time, resources and story can be flexible. Hardly you can do the same in the end for the future games. I can’t recall game with that option. Even games like Deus Ex counting with only one “canon” ending or endings are quite similar in sense that they lead to the same result in the end.

But KCD is not that case. Story in KCD is set by history and because of that there will be no big decisions with various consequences, just a minor ones in sidequests for example.

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#4

I think this was done quite well in Mass Effect. Anyway, I do not want to change history here, but saving some not-so-important NPCs or stuff like that would be cool. It could affect the ending slightly as well, I do not think that this is the game for having opposite endings in the grand scheme of things, but the outcome for Henry can be rather different.

#5

I think the ending is quite set because the game is “based on a true story”, but of course they’ve made a few alterations of history to make it playable. So changing the history is probably not what they want to do.

This thread holds some interesting facts about this.

#6

Maybe you can’t do big decision that affect history itself, but in my opinion there can be decisions which influence deeply the story of the main character.

At least i believe them possible,

#7

If were talking about ME 1,2 I agree it was done well.
Yes you won’t change history but that doesn’t mean that all the endings have to be the same. It doesn’t even have to be restricted to minor decisions due to history! It all depends on what the narrative of the game focuses on. If the main character cares only about the part that we know about, then yeah there is little variation possible but if the main character were for example only drawn into the historically relevant conflict because of an other personal conflict, that isn’t in history books because Henry is made up, then multiple solutions with different outcome for the original (personal) issue are very possible.

#8

I agree with the general conclusion here; the main story’s ending will probably not be changeable, but Henry’s story hopefully will be. I.e. do you live or die? What is your standing in the land? What is your reputation? How happy is your character (love, friendship, personal wealth, etc)?

I do hope Warhorse elaborates on the possibilities of Henry’s ending; the amount of endings available greatly affect the replayability for me.

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Strategy and Tactics as Functional Motivation and Barrier
#9

A numeric amount amount of endings doesn’t really say much about how different they are or how enjoyable. Remember Mass Effect 3 they claimed to have how many endings? I can only find 8 (7 of which are considered very similar) on the internet but I vaguely remember having heard an even higher number before the release. I do like the Witchers approach, where you can’t really tell anymore how many endings there are but you get the feeling of having an impact.

Edit: okay I just read the witcher has 16 endings according to the wiki, so the number does say something… But they seem to have been halved on purpose for the PC version.

#10

ME3 has only 2 different endings with the DLC. I liked how they did ending in ME2 though, your previous actions (as well as your decisions in the final mission) helped to decide who will survive and who dies.

I did not like endings in Deus Ex: Human Revolution much, they were different, but they were triggered by buttons (and who did you speak with). What I loved on the game was the replayability and differences on less-important decisions. Will you save hostages? Will you let terorist leader escape? Will you save your pilot? I especially liked the Missing Link DLC where you really could think out of the box and manage to doĂ­ things differently than you were expected.

I really like when I can choose my own path and then endings can be similar but due to my previous actions the outcome is not the same at all.

#11

By buttons, yes, but your actions had impact on the final speech (It’s kind of Fallout ending - by some action and then summary). Basicly just Good / Neutral / Evil. But don’t forget the fact that HR was prequel and how things will go in the end was already lined by original Deus Ex. So in my opinion writers did their best.

#12

[quote=“Dekssan, post:11, topic:16189, full:true”]… Basicly just Good / Neutral / Evil. But don’t forget the fact that HR was prequel and how things will go in the end was already lined by original Deus Ex. So in my opinion writers did their best.
[/quote]

Well, we are limited by history here so the situation is quite similar. And good/neutral/evil ending nased on our actions is something that could fit this game as well. I still think that instead of pushing buttons at the end the ending should be determined by other previous decisions. Probably the best rpg I ever played was Vampires - The Masquerade: Bloodlines (or something like that). And I loved how they handled ending there, it was really based on your actions and which side you took, though you made the decision at the end of the game (not the very end of game though, except of the one final decision), it was not by pushing buttons but by dialogue, it felt much less forced and more natural. I almost did not notice that I have option to experience different ending there.

#13

To be hones I haven’t finished Deus Ex:HR or Bloodlines (overrode a savegame and lost interest) yet. I don’t like the idea of the game judging your play-style in the Epilog, that’s what good/neutral/evil sounds like to me. Recently I finished Dishonored, I was really exited about the chaos-rating-system and expected more from the ending. But the narrator didn’t seem to mention any relevant consequences of the players action specifically.

So what I am saying is there should not be a good/bad morality like in ME. (but I agree that ME 2 was great) But who you side with should definitely be considered. I like the Fallout 3/New Vegas endings but the narrator my be a bit to neutral and distant. I’d be cool if the Narrator was a character from the game with his own personal opinions.

edit: I forgot the bold not in the original post and edited it in

#14

Well, DX:HR judged your playtyle (how many quest you did and how many people you killed…), I think that Bioshock did something liek that…
Bloodlines judged more your decisions, which factions did you decide to help in some key moments.

I did not play Fallout, so I can not judge that.

#15

I think the best model of ending is which Fallouts has (except 3). Where really depends on all stuff you did, but doesn’t matter how.

Well, now i’m too offtopic i think.

#16

mass effect 3 had 1 ending. witcher 2’s pc and console version are the same, story wise.

#17

When you put it like that, I do hope that there will be different endings possible.
And I hope that the ending from act 1 affects act 2 and 3.

#18
  1. Will it be like this? :slight_smile: All little choices affect how the end will play as they decided to improve on deus ex revolution because player did not like that you had to press a button to choose the ending. If it could it will be the Deus ex of medieval time! :slight_smile:

http://www.examiner.com/article/deus-ex-mankind-divided-conspiracy-choice-and-consequence

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