Depends on how well written the evil route is. I think most people don’t like evil routes where you’re just a mustache twirling murderer, slaver, torturer, etc.
But if it’s written more like Breaking Bad where you’re doing desperate things for desperate reasons, and /or because of relatable character flaws, then they’re more into it. It’s rare that games actually have a story as deep and well written as Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul, where if you stop and think about it, the Protagonists are obviously the villains of the story, but nuanced portrayals of villainy are what work better, imo.
Someone mentioned Tyranny in this thread (which is basically Pillars of Eternity 1.5 in terms of gameplay) and while it’s not as compelling or as well written as Breaking Bad, it does have a story where you’re the “bad guy” but you don’t really have a choice in the matter. You’re doing bad things to prevent worse things from happening, and you have to do them or else worse things will happen to you.
What I like better than the “evil” route are where people do “good” things but it leads to a bad result, like in Fallout 3, where spoiler alert:
-------------Spoilers------------
You can negotiate to let Ghouls into Tenpenny Tower, only for the Ghouls to turn around and kill all the humans in there, because it turns out the Ghouls were racist against humans, and were total hypocrites.
-----------End Spoilers---------
Similar to a news story in real life I read recently, where a Taco Bell manager with a heart of gold hired the homeless guy sleeping behind the store, and allowed him to sleep in his house, only for the guy to constantly blow up and threaten his co-workers and then “repay” that act of kindness by shooting that manager dead. No good deed goes unpunished, as they say. It’s why I’m careful with my charity nowadays and prefer to let organized groups do it rather than reaching out directly. This is not the only story like this I’ve heard or read about.
Depends on how well written the evil route is. I think most people don’t like evil routes where you’re just a mustache twirling murderer, slaver, torturer, etc.
But if it’s written more like Breaking Bad where you’re doing desperate things for desperate reasons, and /or because of relatable character flaws, then they’re more into it. It’s rare that games actually have a story as deep and well written as Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul, where if you stop and think about it, the Protagonists are obviously the villains of the story, but nuanced portrayals of villainy are what work better, imo.
Someone mentioned Tyranny in this thread (which is basically Pillars of Eternity 1.5 in terms of gameplay) and while it’s not as compelling or as well written as Breaking Bad, it does have a story where you’re the “bad guy” but you don’t really have a choice in the matter. You’re doing bad things to prevent worse things from happening, and you have to do them or else worse things will happen to you.
What I like better than the “evil” route are where people do “good” things but it leads to a bad result, like in Fallout 3, where spoiler alert:
-------------Spoilers------------
You can negotiate to let Ghouls into Tenpenny Tower, only for the Ghouls to turn around and kill all the humans in there, because it turns out the Ghouls were racist against humans, and were total hypocrites.
-----------End Spoilers---------
Similar to a news story in real life I read recently, where a Taco Bell manager with a heart of gold hired the homeless guy sleeping behind the store, and allowed him to sleep in his house, only for the guy to constantly blow up and threaten his co-workers and then “repay” that act of kindness by shooting that manager dead. No good deed goes unpunished, as they say. It’s why I’m careful with my charity nowadays and prefer to let organized groups do it rather than reaching out directly. This is not the only story like this I’ve heard or read about.