sgy0003 said:
Games such as KOTOR, DA series, ME series, Wticher series, Fable series, and TTG games have branching stories, where player's decision impact what happens later in the game. This also adds replay values.
I am a fan of these games (and interestingly, not particularly of any of the ones listed above), but saying that, there are very few (one or two handfuls few) games that genuinely have "branching" story telling. The BW games in particular aren't really branching, and I'll explain why.
ME: All three games each have one over-arching story. The first for example is Shepard chasing Saren. It is linear until after the first Citadel visit and then gives the player three options. Therum, Feros and Noveria. At this point, the main story is effectively put on hold. These three objectives are distinct and each have a self contained mini-story that is itself linear. It is because they are self-contained that they can be done in any order. IIRC you need the key, the cipher and Liara to unlock the beacon's message. After all these three are done in whatever order, the main story picks up again with Virmire, then Citadel, Ilos and the endgame. It's not really branching because there's one main story that is simply paused. The only bits that are arguably "branching" that come to mind are going with *either* garrus or wrex on the citadel to find Tali and not with both (excluding the player from one of the two joining the crew), but here the player could get them both anyway, the only choice was in which order. And the other is who survives out of Ash or Kaiden (tho it wasn't a hard choice...Ash if you're Adept or romancing her, Kaiden under all other circumstances). But even here, one will always be saved and return in ME3 to take up the same slot in the crew.
ME2 and 3 were no different. One story, put on hold while the player does mini-objectives in their preferred order, then linear again. In fact, one of ME3s, main criticisms was that nothing done before made much difference to the game. You could kill Maelon, wipe his Genophage cure data AND kill Mordin at the end of ME2 and STILL have to do the mission to cure the genophage in ME3. It shouldn't even be an option at that point, but the writers only had one idea, so in it went despite making no sense; Mordin had an exact duplicate to replace him. You could send grunt out of an airlock, sell legion for scrap metal and shoot Wrex on Virmire, all three had doubles too (and Legion's double isn't even a different Geth but the same exact one, only a hologram like they didn't even try).
DA:O was similar. I must say I did absolutely love the different origins and was sad that they weren't a) more involved and b) a series mainstay used in later games. So it starts with 6 unique prologues, which are about the only bits that *are* branching. Then it's linear until after meeting Flemeth. Again, the main story is on hold until the four distinct parts are done (dwarves, elves, humans, magi). I think the only potential interconnect between them is one option for resolving the human storyline only available if magi tower is done beforehand. Otherwise again, they are separate stories that meet up again.
KotOR 1 & 2 are the same, with the four middle planets having individual arcs and being doable in any order. It makes little difference which is done first. Even BG2 wasn't branching. What it did have was a sort of open-world Chapter 2/3 where the player could do things as they chose, before a linear progression from 4 onwards. The only "branching" part here is the keeps/strongholds the player can get depending on their class. They are excluded from getting the others (without a mod anyway).
In my opinion, to qualify as "branching", a game would need to 1) offer a choice of two or more distinct ways to progress thru the main story AND 2) MUST exclude the player from taking other branches. The Witcher 2 comes to mind first, with Chapter 2 being wholly different depending on the choice at end of Chap. 1. There are two different paths that reach the same destination, or conversely, one story with two different branches.