Open-World Games Where You Forge Alliances Between Rival Factions

Factions are a huge part of most open world games. Sometimes they’re used for enemy variety, sometimes they’re a choice for the player offering bonuses and new endings, sometimes they’re simply set dressing for the world. Regardless, creating an open world game almost always requires a diverse range of factions and groups. Sometimes these groups are allied, and sometimes they’re bitter rivals.

It’s rare that players can change these dynamics. Games from Skyrim to Cyberpunk 2077 see players taking one side or another, sometimes to the player’s detriment. This generally makes sense; after all, in real life, conflicts are rarely solved by a single person. Sometimes, however, games let players live that fantasy. Usually, this is due to some external threat or great enemy, but sometimes it’s completely down to the player making the right choices at the right time.

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5

Mafia 3

Gangland Alliances

Released

October 7, 2016

OpenCritic Rating

Fair

Set in a fictionalized city based on 1960s New Orleans, called New Bordeaux, Mafia 3 sees Vietnam War veteran Lincoln Clay on a crusade of vengeance against Italian Mobster Sal Marcano. Following his return from the war, Clay and his friends are betrayed by the Marcanos following a bank heist. After recovering from his wounds, Clay forms an uneasy alliance with the leaders of the rival gangs spread throughout the city. These include exiled Mafioso Vito Scaletta, returning from Mafia 2; Irish boss Thomas Burke, whose son was among the Marcanos’ victims; and Haitian mobster Cassandra.

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As they take over parts of the city from the Marcanos, players will have to decide who gets what out of New Bordeaux. It is possible for the rival gangs to eventually turn on the player (and each other by association). But if the player fairly distributes territory as they go, it is possible to forge a lasting alliance between all three gangs. The result is up to the player. Does Lincoln remain in the city, replacing the man who murdered his friends? Or does he leave the gangs to run it themselves? Regardless of what the player decides, so long as there’s more than one gang remaining, the alliance seems to hold.

4

Baldur’s Gate 3

Fighting A God Together

Released

August 3, 2023

OpenCritic Rating

Mighty

An almost one-to-one adaptation of Dungeons and Dragons, Baldur’s Gate 3 affords players an extreme amount of freedom. The game can be a traditional heroic journey with the player(s) and their party, or it can be a cavalcade of carnage with the players being arguably as bad if not worse than the villains. This is all brought together in the game’s ending, with factions and allies from across the game coming to the player’s aid — even if, in any other circumstances, they’d be at each other’s throats.

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Players spend the game suffering from a parasite known as a Mind Flayer Tadpole, a small creature that threatens to turn them into one of the monstrous Mind Flayers upon reaching maturity. At the game’s climax, players must defeat the Elder Brain, a sort of Mind Flayer queen. As they do, allies they’ve made throughout the story come to their aid. They offer boons ranging from simple bonuses and abilities, to summoning a small army. The Emperor, a Mind Flayer that has broken free of the brain’s control, can team up with Githyanki warriors, sworn enemies of all Mind Flayers. The Gur, a group of nomads known for hunting monsters, can ally with Astarion, a vampire. The variety of allies available can make the final battle much easier, as long as the players have good relations with enough potential allies.

3

Fallout 4

Creating A Peaceful Wasteland

Released

November 10, 2015

OpenCritic Rating

Mighty

Leaving Vault 111 to save their kidnapped son, players might not think that the story of Fallout 4 is going to spiral into a war to decide the fate of the Commonwealth. But it’s not long after stepping out of the vault that players will be introduced to the first faction of Fallout 4, the Minutemen. Players are forced to ally with one of three factions, The Brotherhood Of Steel, Minutemen, and Railroad, to gain access to the Institute and find their son. Following their journey and the reveal that adult son is now leading the Institute, players must decide to join the Institute or to fight back alongside another ally.

Which faction the player picks will determine the fate of the others. If the player was to pick the Brotherhood, Institute, or Railroad, then they must destroy the rest. However, this is not so in the Minutemen ending. The player can ally with the Brotherhood, given that the player character can assume the rank of General of the Minutemen and then join the Brotherhood. Or they can leave the Commonwealth in a tentative peace, destroying the Institute but leaving the Railroad and Brotherhood alive. Either way, the factions will continue to exist in the Commonwealth, with the Minutemen maintaining order as a neutral party.

2

Mass Effect Legendary Edition

Survival Means Cooperation

Franchise

Mass Effect

Released

May 14, 2021

Publisher(s)

Electronic Arts

OpenCritic Rating

Mighty

Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is an anthology of all three games in the trilogy, telling one continuous story with each game’s events heavily impacting the next. Humanity has reached the stars and is now part of an intergalactic community. Responding to a distress call, protagonist Commander Shepard uncovers a hidden apocalyptic threat, the Reapers. As the series progresses, the reapers get closer and closer to invading and harvesting the sentient species of the galaxy, culminating in their invasion of Earth. They’re a threat so dire that the player must rally every military force in the galaxy to try to stop them.

This isn’t as easy as it sounds. The Reapers are simultaneously invading multiple other planets, and the people of those worlds obviously want to protect themselves first. It requires the player to maintain positive relations with as many species as possible across the series. Not to mention, they must forge alliances between rivals such as the Geth and Quarians, who have been fighting ever since the robotic Geth rose up against their Quarian creators. Another example is the Krogans and Salarians, with the Krogan suffering from a genetic infertility imposed by the Salarians. Making these alliances can be impossible if the player hasn’t made the right decisions across all three games.

1

Fallout New Vegas

Finding Friends At The End Of The World

Released

October 19, 2010

New Vegas is a sci-fi western that’s synonymous with player choice. There are four main factions, a dozen minor factions, and several companions that will all affect what ending slides the player gets. Depending on which major faction the player sides with, it will be entirely possible to ally smaller factions into the fold, even when said factions have good reason to hate each other. Meanwhile, the Legion will destroy all the minor factions in the end, even if they fought on their side. The other factions are more receptive to allies, however.

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Should the player ally with the NCR, for example, they can convince their longtime enemies in the Great Khans, Brotherhood Of Steel, and even the Enclave Remnants to fight alongside them at the climactic Battle Of Hoover Dam. While the NCR will initially want to destroy these groups, it’s possible for the player to convince them otherwise. If they side with Mr. House, the Brotherhood is the only minor faction that requires destruction, as House views their gatekeeping of technology as a threat to his Securitron army. Should they side with Yes Man, there’s no requirement for any minor faction to join them outside the player becoming friends with them.

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