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I have definitely written posts about this before and I'm positive I will again but here's the thing: games where Choices Matter in and only in the narrative aren't that interesting to me anymore. They're basically just CYOA books with better graphics. They will never be able to account for every possible choice or outcome or solution and, thus, will make someone unhappy with their execution. Even games as great at making your narrative choices matter as the good Fallout games.

This doesn't mean I think games should stop trying; one of the reasons the good Fallout games get talked about as much as they are even in 2023 is the fact that they are SO GOOD at working within their limitations to really make it feel like EVERY choice you can make in the narrative matters. Hell even Bioware games can do a pretty good job at making your choices feel Momentous. From what I've been able to gather since Mass Effect 3 came out, the reason everyone hated the game seems to be that it didn't deliver on the Choices Matter premise/promise much at all. So, like. There's still something there.

But I think more games exist in a Choices Matter space than a lot of people realize and that honestly most of them are WAY more interesting in how they approach the concept than Fallout New Vegas' ending slides.

My hot take is that where Choices Matter is an actually fun and interesting way to approach game design is when the Choices that Matter are gameplay choices, mechanical choices. This puts immersive sims smack in the middle of Choices Matter, obviously, but also most RPGs. Souls games. Fuckin Poly Bridge is a Choices Matter game.

Rather than see devs try (and ultimately fail) to account for every POSSIBLE choice a player can make in a narrative, I think it's way more fun and interesting and worthwhile for devs to set up big areas and just hand you a toolbox, pat you on the head, and send you on your way.

Narrative choices are fun and interesting, but being exposed to the consequences of choosing to specialize in one type of weapon and then coming up against a boss who is designed to be really hard for that type of weapon and having to deal with THOSE consequences is more impactful to me as a player.

tl;dr- The Choices Matter part of Dishonored that's fun isn't the Chaos system, it's everything else