Factions often play an important role in games that care about player choice and offer role-playing opportunities. On the side of the “good guy” faction, it's meant to offer players a way to play a role on the side of good, doing positive things, helping people, and so on. Choosing the wrong faction allows players to roleplay as evil characters, bringing destruction and mayhem wherever they go.
Great games where your decision really matters
The following games excel at forcing the player to make tough decisions that can drastically change the story.
But it's not always black and white. Games that play with nuance and subtlety ensure that the good factions aren't all sunshine and roses, and the bad factions present compelling arguments to justify their actions. In some cases, factions of the good guys even turn out to be the cause of strife, often because their good intentions begin to pave the way to hell.
Far Cry 4
Golden path
The Golden Path presents itself as the “good” faction Far Cry 4a rebel coalition that helps the player free the Kyrat region from the oppression of the Pagan Min. However, at the end of the game, it is revealed that while the rank and file members of the Golden Path may be good, the faction leaders, Sabal and Amita, are just as terrible to Kyrat. Far Cry 4albeit in different ways.
Too stuck in the ways of the past, Sabal is determined to revive the traditions, even if they do more harm than good. Amita wants to modernize Kyrat, but in the worst possible way, with opium, child soldiers, and ruthlessness fueled by a thin veneer of practicality. If players help Sabal become the leader, he will kill all those who oppose his vision on the Golden Path, saying that he will “wash away their sin in blood”. If Amita becomes the leader, she will be seen forcibly recruiting children at gunpoint to be part of her army, no better than Pagan Min was.
Storm cloaks
It's easy to see the Stormcloaks as the good guys The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrimfor on the surface they are an army of freedom fighters aiming to free their homeland from the oppression of the Empire. Led by Ulfric Stormcloak, their goal seems heroic, even noble, but the truth is far more complex.
5 open world games where you create alliances between rival factions
In these games, players can broker peace between enemies and face a greater threat together.
Leaving aside the fact that the Stormcloaks are racist towards anyone who isn't a Nord and downright antagonistic towards elves, the mere fact that they are inadvertently helping the Thalmor by weakening the Imperium is enough to prove that their actions are short-sighted at best. Ulfric Stormcloak only seems to care about getting to the throne without caring about what happens after. While it's possible to say that Skyrim might be able to fend off the Aldmeri Dominion without the Legion's help, as the Redguards did at Hammerfell, Ulfric doesn't seem to have any long-term plans to do so. In fact, a file on Ulfric found at the Thalmor embassy says that the Aldmeri Dominion considers him an “asset” because the longer the civil war in Skyrim goes on, the better it is for the Thalmor.
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Chantry
The Chantry is the dominant religion in Thedas at the time Dragon Age: Inquisition takes place and is the closest thing to a “good guys” faction in the game, except maybe the Gray Wardens. Because the Gray Wardens don't really play much of a role though DAIit's hard to think of them as a faction per se.
On the surface, the Chantry's goal of spreading the Chant of Light and the message of Andraste is a good one. However, one only has to look beyond the surface layer of sanctity to understand that the Chantry is actually the root of many of the problems that plague Thedas. Not because the Chantry is evil, but because she always thinks her world view is the most correct, and doesn't hesitate to impose her will on anything and everything. Perhaps the most visible example of how the Chantry's good intentions have turned into something terrible is the Circle of Mages, an organization given the Chantry's unilateral authority to control mages as they wish, often with tragic consequences.
Mass Effect
Citadel
With the threat of the Reapers looming overhead Mass Effectone would think that the Citadel Council, the leaders of all sentient races in the Milky Way galaxy, would help Shepard and his crew in any way possible to deal with the threat, or at least get out of the way so the heroes could do their jobs unimpeded.
In practice, however, the Citadel holds back Shepard at every turn, putting up bureaucratic roadblocks for nothing more than willful ignorance and an inability to accept that their view of the world is not the most correct. IN Mass Effect 1they dragged their feet at every opportunity until they finally recognized that Saren was a mind controlled Death Eater. Fast forward to Mass Effect 2 and the Council becomes downright hostile towards Shepard, refusing to admit that the Reapers are actually coming to wipe them all out, severely damaging the war effort. If the Citadel Council had been more accepting of Shepard's version of events and taken the warnings more seriously, they might have been better prepared for the Reapers when they finally arrived in Mass Effect 3which would save millions of lives, if not more.
Fallout: New Vegas
The New Republic of California
IN Fallout In space, the New California Republic stands for democracy, the rule of law, and equal rights for all. In reality, the NCR is emerging as an expansionist force seeking to acquire territory and resources, impose taxes, and forcefully bring people under its imperialist rule. And if they wipe out a few colonies that aren't told well what to do, then that's just the price you pay for civilization.
IN Fallout: New Vegasthe ultimate decision in the courier's hands is who they want to join in their quest to rule the Mojave. Three factions in New Vegas they are House, who only wants to focus on their business, the Legion, who is about to implode once Caesar is out of the picture, or the New California Republic, who wants the Mojave's resources for their own purposes. There is an argument to be made that siding with House is a better choice overall. Although he only cares about himself, he's a businessman at heart, and he only wants to make the Vegas Strip a successful business. He has no interest in expanding to other regions, and while he certainly won't care about the people of the region, he will at least put the needs of the region first.
Horizon Zero Dawn
GAIA
AI GAIA was the culmination of the efforts of Dr. Elisabet Sobeck in Horizon Zero Dawnwho was supposed to protect humanity on planet Earth in the aftermath of the Faro Plague, an extinction-level event where countless robots went insane and began devouring everything around them.
26 games that let you play as a villain
Playing as a virtuous hero who saves the day gets stale game after game, so it's always interesting when a game lets you play as a villain.
While GAIA succeeded in neutralizing the evil robots, an unknown virus turned its subordinate functions like HADES and HEPHAESTUS against her, forcing her to self-destruct. Without her to oversee and organize the terraforming efforts for Earth, subordinate functions became villains. By the end of the year Horizon Zero Dawnplayers will discover that the enemy machines that make the world so dangerous were actually made to be their protectors. They were to be mankind's greatest helpers to help them reach the heights of the Old Ones again. But since GAIA was infected by a virus, these good people became humanity's worst nightmare.
Divinity: Original Sin 2
God's order
IN Divinity In-universe, the Divine Order was originally created to fight against the Black Ring Cult, practitioners of dark magic and vile magic, seeking to resurrect the Lord of Chaos. Whenever the people of Rivellon were threatened by Voidwoken, demons, undead, or any other form of existential threat, the Magisters, Seekers, and Paladins of the Divine Order were the ones to deal with those threats.
IN Divinity: Original Sin 2However, most of the Magisters of the Divine Order blamed the occurrence of the Voidwoken on the Sourcerers, saying that the use of Source Magic summons these beasts, and therefore all Sourcerers must be rounded up, imprisoned, and Source-Muted. The leader of the Divine Order, Alexander, was also responsible for unleashing the fog of death into the Elven lands to clear the Black Ring, a catastrophic event that wiped out all life from the region, including the innocent.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Northern Kingdom
A major conflict is brewing in the background The Witcher 3 is a war between the Nilfgaardians and the Northern Kingdoms (Kaedwen, Temeria, Redania and Aedirn). At first glance, it seems easy to classify the Nilfgaardians as villains, as they are aggressors from the south who seek to conquer the Northern Realms just for the sake of conquest. But like everything else in Charmer space isn't quite so dry.
People in the Northern Kingdoms are extremely racist towards anyone who is not part of their society. Elves, warlocks, and any other race of sentient beings that isn't an accepted northerner is fair game. That doesn't mean the Nilfgaardians are any better, but their faults are no worse than the Northern Kingdom from an outsider's perspective. It could even be argued that the commoners of the Northern Kingdoms may even benefit from the iron fist and rule of law that define the rule of the Nilfgaardian Emperor.
