Anyone know any good Choice of Games about making interesting choices not based on stats?
I’m not really a fan of games where you need to make decisions based on your physical stats, or where there’s an optimal ‘solution’ to a given scenario. Rather, I’m looking for games where the choices you make say things about you/your character, and change your reputation
Within the Choice of Games/Hosted Games catalogue, I’ve found Fallen Hero one of my favorite games of this kind - while it does have strength of mind/subtle manipulations stats, very few of the choices are objectively good or bad, and all of them are opportunities for me to decide what my character values, rather than a simple mental calculus. The more ‘fighty’ bits are actually my least favorite part of the game.
An example of a CoG I disliked is Sabres of Infinity. While you can get through the game with basically any build, most of the choices are (or at least seemed to be when I played) either about making sure your stats are high, or making sure you’re using the right stat to succeed at what you’re trying to do, or just making one specific ‘right’ decision. I personally don’t enjoy these sorts of decisions.
An example of the sort of game I’m looking for that isn’t a CoG is any of TellTale’s post-Walking Dead adventure games. You never level up or get better in any of these games, and there’s rarely an ‘optimal’ solution to a given issue. On the rare occasion that there is a choice that’s dependent on stats, it’s usually a relationship thing, where the impression you’ve made on certain characters influences whether you can convince them to aid you.