Are there any games with conflicting goals?

[J T]

Most games have one clear cut goal: destroy all the space ships, save the princess, etc.

I'm wondering if there are any games where there are not only multiple goals, but where those goals conflict with each other and engaging in one goal interferes with you ability to complete another.

The first thing that comes to mind is Persona 4 where you have budget your time between boosting skills from work and skills from social relationships. There are tangible benefits to each skillset on the battlefield, but you can devote too much time to one and lose out on the benefits of the other.

[MrNash]

I can't think of any entire games off the top of my head. I always found some of the quests in Deus Ex: Human Revolution conflicting, like helping my pilot get revenge for her friend's death in China, then shaking down some other lady for money at the request of a shady bartender. The two quests seemed so at odds with one another, being all righteous in bringing justice for that girl's death, then demanding some other lady pay money to the local triads. Even worse, I got lazy and just shot her in the head, and my character didn't bat an eyelash despite seeming to have a conscience at other points in the game.

[Gamerforlife]

Xenoblade Chronicles, where some side quests have different outcomes that affect NPCs in different ways based on your choices. You have a lot of influence on whether certain relationships between NPCs improve or go sour. You can also lock out certain sidequests based on your choices in other side quests, so the game makes you think hard about what you want to do

Sadly though, those choices have little bearing on the actual gameplay or main storyline

Dino Crisis made you choose which one of your partners to side with at some points in the game where they would disagree on the next course of action. This would determine exactly what challenges you would or wouldn't face going forward

Viva Pinata - The game makes you want to bond with some creatures and keep them content while living in your garden. However, to acquire new creatures you would often have to sacrifice the ones you were attached to. It's all about the food chain, so you might have to throw one of your favorite pets out there as food to attract a new animal that preys on it. It's kind of cruel how the game makes you sacrifice your pets that way, but I guess it's how nature works.

Mass Effect 2 - The whole loyalty thing and how sometimes the game would force you to side with someone in an argument, potentially losing the other person's loyalty in the process.

Dynasty Warriors games - Many levels would have a variety of mission goals, and sometimes doing one would prevent other events from happening or prevent other missions from becoming available. There's a very cause and effect element to those games that I used to love. Battle events could play out very differently each time you'd played a stage depending on where you were on the battlefield, when you were there, and who you did or didn't kill. You might even affect whether or not certain characters will even show up in a stage and participate in battle. It's a shame that people bash the games for supposedly shallow combat, while completely ignoring all of the cool strategy and role playing elements.

[Xeogred]

Alpha Protocol did this extremely well. Same with the old Fallout's and probably plenty of WRPG's I haven't gotten around to. Especially in the old Fallout's, I loved how bad or accidental actions would usually hurt you in some way. You'd think that'd be annoying, but it just added to the level of immersion for me. There's no reload button in real life, lol.

[Gamerforlife]

Catherine/Katherine

Over the course of the game you had to pick one girl or the other, and then deal with the consequences of your choice. You find yourself wanting to please both ladies, but realize after a certain point that you have to make a choice, and either choice is going to have negative consequences.

Bioshock - Kill the young girls for extra resources for an easier gameplay experience, or save them to ease your conscience.

Infamous - Lots of situations where you could make a choice that would make your gaming experience easier, but screw over innocent people in the process and make people view you as a villain

[SamuraiMegas]

Infamous is a good example. Marvel Ultimate Allance had a few moments with two options. Skyrim has alot of it too.
This is off topic but where would be a good place to post a forum game?

[Razzmatazz]

Heavy Rain springs to mind, whereby an action directly affects a character and their involvement in the rest of the game. Also locking out sections of gameplay unless you start a new game and do that action differently.

[Menegrothx]

Bioshock - Kill the young girls for extra resources for an easier gameplay experience, or save them to ease your conscience.

This thing was executed extremely poorly and it's more of a moral choiche (really shallow one at that) than a conflicting goal (you can choose whether to be an asshole or nice to person A, you don't make a choiche between becoming friends with person A or person B)

[lisalover1]

I think it should be clarified that "conflicting goals" does not mean "moral choice system"; it literally means goals that are given simultaneously that both must be achieved.

[MrPopo]

DX:IW had a couple of missions where you'd get conflicting objectives from two different factions, and completing the objectives of one faction locked out the ability to do the objectives for the other faction.