INTERACTIVE NARRATIVE :: Game blogging 04

How does morality influence the choices you make in the game?

This week's chosen game was The Banner Saga, which has a play style that leaves the player in a leadership position.  Between playing as Ubin, Rook and Hakon, the player needs to make decisions that will affect an entire army of characters and needs to plan their moves strategically in order to keep army morale up and casualties down.

I found myself faced with a number of moral dilemmas when playing this game, though the storyline was rather difficult to get a hold on to begin with.  In the second chapter, Alette was about to be crushed by a Dredge, and from a moral standpoint, I felt I had to step in and attempt to rescue her, even though Rook was very far away from her at the time.  The outcome of the event was not one that I was expecting, and another character died protecting her instead.  While sorrowful, it was a better outcome than I could have hoped for, and though one life was exchanged for another, I felt that preserving Alette's had more bearing to the plot.

Much smaller moral choices have appeared throughout the game as well, such as Hakon's discussions with prince Ludin, who came off as a suspicious and warmongering character to me.  Diplomacy is important when playing a game involving large nunbers and strategy, so my knowledge of this tells me not to ruffle any feathers or displease allies, but at the same time I find Ludin unbearable and feel like he could stand to be insulted a few times.

I've noticed in my playthrough that I have chosen many cautious options as a means of preserving my armies and keeping as many people as safe as possible.  One part with Hakon shows a smoke signal in the distance and I chose to send warriors to it in case it was a trap.  When they did not return I searched for them myself only to find new allies and my varl telling me that I'd missed a good battle, which made me feel pleased with my decision.  In a different chapter, Rook and his village must enter a town that has been closed to all outsiders and the options are to break down the gate and risk your ownl varl getting shot, sneak in with a food supply cart which would deny the other refugees waiting outside the town provisions if you fail, or wait to see if the gates would open by waiting for the long haul.  This was probably the most difficult decision for me, as the first two options had very harsh consequences upon failure and could lead to character deaths, while waiting meant that the dredge would only get closer and make things even worse.

In the end, I left Rook and his party to wait things out, feeling as though the death of characters I had grown attached to or the potential wrath of starving refugees would be worse than the onset of dredge.  At this point, I haven't found out what the consequence of this action has been, so while I play through Hakon's campaign and try to keep my army's casualties to a minimum, I worry about whether or not I have made the right decision.