Multiple endings are a somewhat common gameplay mechanic, but choose your own adventure games take it a step further. Often times, they channel the butterfly effect, a theory that suggests that something as small as a butterfly flapping its wings can alter the future.

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While some games give the impression that your choices matter when they actually don't, choose-your-own-adventure games are almost entirely based on the decisions that you make. This list includes games that actually care about what you have to say!

Updated November 8, 2022 by Jacqueline Zalace: We've updated this guide with even more choose your own adventure games. Now, you can find a wide range of genres, so you are bound to find something that you like.

18 Walking Dead

Telltale Games has been through a lot over the past couple of years. They closed down during the production of The Walking Dead's final season and almost did not get to complete it. Fortunately, the saga saw a proper conclusion, and choice remained a vital factor throughout.

By extension, just about every Telltale game makes player choice during the story an integral part of the experience. With lives often in the balance, the choices in The Walking Dead carry serious weight.

17 XCOM: Enemy Unknown

Xcom enemy unknown combat gameplay

XCOM's story is really nothing to write home about, but that's because the real story is you, the player, and your journey building up a sizable resistance to the invading alien menace. With permadeath, every move you make in a battle could have significantly negative effects on the rest of your playthrough.

Outside of the battlefield, the way you choose to develop your HQ determines what abilities and equipment you have access to. The brutal difficulty might be a putoff for some, but few games feel this rewarding.

16 Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together

Tactics Ogre Let Us Cling Together is one of the deepest games on Sony's handhelds

RPGs in the 1990s were fairly linear. The 1995 turn-based tactical RPG Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together stands as an outlier for how drastically your dialog choices can affect the outcome of the story. One wrong word can mean the death of a major character. The story is extremely grounded for a JRPG, lending to the grit.

The game is currently playable on the PSP or Vita thanks to a re-release, but many fans are hoping for an update on modern consoles.

15 The Town Of Light

Though it looks like one, The Town of Light isn't necessarily a horror game, it's a story-driven psychological thriller. It follows a sixteen-year-old girl named Renée as she works to piece together her tattered memories by exploring a rundown Italian asylum called Ospedale Psichiatrico di Volterra, where she was once a patient. As she slowly moves deeper into the asylum, she begins to find clues to her hazy past and pieces her life back together, though she may end up wishing that she hadn't.

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There are several pieces of conflicting information strewn throughout dossiers, diaries, and medical records, and throughout the game, you will be asked to give an opinion on what you believe. The choices that you make here have a direct impact on how the story unfolds.

14 Firewatch

A troubled man named Henry takes a position as a fire lookout in order to escape from his real life. In the wilderness of Wyoming, his only concern is making sure that the particularly hot, dry summer doesn't send the Shoshone National Forest up in flames - out here, he doesn't have to worry about his wife's early-onset dementia. His only contact with the outside world is with his supervisor, Delilah, via walkie-talkie, and his connection with her quickly becomes the only meaningful one that he has, especially as strange events start unfolding all around him.

The story and relationship that unfolds between Delilah and Henry is up to you. Firewatch is primarily focused on character development and exploration of the environment. Developer Campo Santo was bought by Valve in 2018, though we have no clue what they are working on.

13 Oxenfree

Alex is heading to the fictional Edwards Island for a weekend party with her friend, Ren, and her new step-brother, Jonas. On the island, they meet up with Nona, a girl that Ren is crushing on, and Clarissa, the ex-girlfriend of Alex's deceased brother, Michael.

After some tension on the beach, Alex and her two friends decide to explore the caves that are rumored to be home to supernatural occurrences. Unknowingly, they cause a dimensional rift, and find themselves working against a paranormal force to make things right again. You will be given several choices throughout the game, mostly through dialogue options, and they will directly affect the character's relationships with each other and the way that the past and future play out.

12 Monster Prom

Monster Prom Dates

Prom season at Spooky High is approaching quickly. With only a few weeks to go, you'll need to work hard at convincing one of your classmates to go with you. There are several love interests, but the ones that are actually available for you to date will be decided based off of your choices throughout the game. There are six different visible stats: smarts, boldness, creativity, charm, fun, and money, which influence the way that your potential love interest sees you.

Monster Prom might not be a typical Choose Your Own Adventure type of game, since it's a dating sim - but it has several different endings that are directly affected by your gameplay, so it's close enough!

11 The Red Strings Club

The Red Strings Club gameplay screenshot

In a cyberpunk alternate universe, a corporation called Supercontinent Ltd. provides humans with access to implanted devices that allow them to change their physical appearance and mental state at will. Their newest release, the Social Psyche Welfare system, will completely eliminate emotions like anger and depression.

However, an unlikely trio has banded together to stop them: Brandeis, a freelance hacker and enhanced human, Akara-184, an android that used to perform implant surgeries for Supercontinent, and Donovan, the implant-free human owner of The Red Strings Club. You will cycle through the three different characters and throughout the game, you will be given choices that will influence the way that your journey unfolds.

10 Creatures Such As We

You live on the moon, and it's not exactly ideal. In fact, it's emotionally taxing, mentally exhausting, and above all else, lonely. Your chosen form of escapism is video games, which whisk you away into fantasy worlds and keep you far away from all the problems of the real world, washing over everything with a joyful simplicity that you only wish you could have.

But what about when the game you're playing starts to go wrong? What happens then? Creatures Such As We is an entirely text-based game that's told through a novel. It's told in second-person, and you play both your character, and your character's character as they navigate through a game of their own. Your choices will have an effect on both of their lives.

9 Catherine: Full Body

Vincent is engaged to his high school sweetheart, Katherine, but he's having some second thoughts. Enter Catherine, a bubbly, blonde girl he meets at the Stray Sheep, his favorite bar, who's literally exactly what he wants in a woman - and who he seemingly had a drunken encounter with. He suddenly finds himself juggling two women, while he tries to figure out the meaning behind his vivid, terrifying nightmares that eerily coincide with a wave of men being found dead in their beds.

Related: Catherine Full Body - How To Get Vincent's Endings

Throughout the game, you will be presented with questions about the type of life Vincent wants to lead, which will influence which of the eight endings you end up with. In Catherine: Full Body - from developer Atlus, known for the Persona franchise - there's a third love interest named Rin, the pianist at the Stray Sheep. The inclusion of Rin makes for a total of thirteen endings.

8 Life Is Strange

Max Caulfield is a senior at Blackwell Academy in Arcadia Bay, Oregon. After witnessing the death of her childhood best friend, Chloe Price, she discovers that she has the ability to rewind time and change the events of the past. Lately, she's been having visions of a destructive town heading straight for Arcadia Bay, and she finds herself with the responsibility of saving her town.

Each choice you make as Max in Life Is Strange will have a butterfly effect - even the smallest decisions can have a massive impact on the future.

7 Until Dawn

When a prank gone wrong results in the death of twin sisters Hannah and Beth Washington, their friend group falls apart in the aftermath. A year later, their older brother, Josh, sends out an invitation to everyone who was there on that fateful night, beckoning them to return to his family's cabin on Blackwood Mountain.

Surprisingly, each of them returns, but the group quickly discovers that they're being stalked by a crazed killer. With the heavy snow outside, there's no chance of rescue until dawn - if they can survive for that long. The butterfly effect plays a strong role in Until Dawn. There's even a special menu that allows you to see which events were influenced by your choices. Character deaths are permanent, brutal, and incredibly easy to cause.

6 Detroit: Become Human

In a futuristic vision of Detroit, androids have taken on a key role in society. They're meant to serve humans with no freewill of their own, but in 2038, several have deviated from their programming and started to experience human thoughts and feelings. Those androids are known as deviants.

Detroit: Become Human follows three characters and their stories as they intertwine. Connor is an android sent by Cyberlife to work alongside humans to stop deviants. Kara is a caretaker android who deviated to protect her charge, a young girl named Alice. Markus is a deviant who wants to lead his people in a revolution for equality. The way that their lives play out is entirely up to you as a player. There are several different endings, all of which are directly affected by the choices that you make throughout the game.

5 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

The Witcher 3 Geralt talking to Letho.

The Witcher needs no introduction. This game is packed full of quests and locations for you to explore to your heart's content. As Geralt, you play as a Witcher, feared by most people that you encounter. While slaying monsters, you can roam wherever you want, and hone your abilities with your favorite weapon; the choice is up to you.

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In addition to having a large cast of characters, the decisions that you make can impact them directly. For example, choices you make early in the game can lead to the death of certain characters, which makes them unavailable later on in the game.

4 ICEY

promotional art from icey game

Icey is a hack-and-slash side-scrolling game that puts you in the shoes of Icey. Overall, the game is pretty short, but throughout the game, you will be accompanied by a narrator that describes everything that you do.

Choices come in the form of listening to the narrator. Do you want to obey his commands, or venture to new locations that aren't laid out for you?

3 The Stanley Parable

An empty office with the numbers "42" printed on the desk in The Stanley Parable

Next up, we have The Stanley Parable. This game is similar to Icey, which was inspired by this entry. In The Stanley Parable, you play as a silent protagonist, following the narrator's directions.

Like Icey, you can choose to follow, or stray from the path. In total, The Stanley Parable has 19 different endings that you can obtain. With this many endings, every decision you make is important.

2 Heavy Rain

heavy rain the lizard trial ethan has to cut off his finger

Heavy Rain is all about decision-making, as you control four characters. Throughout the game, you will need to figure out who the Origami Killer is, however along the way, your choices can lead to the death of your characters.

If you are a fan of Detroit Become Human, it's definitely worth giving Heavy Rain a try. These two games have a similar feel, as well as being developed by the same studio.

1 Undertale

Frisk crinkles through the leaves at the beginning of the game

Lastly, we have Undertale. This is another classic game, which has a very large and detailed choice tree. From the start of the game, your choices matter, and can affect how others address you.

In total, there are 93 different endings. This is a lot, but many of these endings only vary slightly from each other. Still, this is a lot, which means that every choice that you make will affect the outcome of the game.

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