By nature, most RPGs are highly replayable, offering branching quests, multiple factions to join, several endings to unlock, or even a custom character’s origin that can have a major impact. But how does a huge open-world RPG motivate you to commit to a full second playthrough?

To me, one of the biggest draws has always been either opposing factions that can substantially change your playthrough and let you experience both sides of one conflict, or a major story-driven choice relatively early on that splits the game into two largely independent branches — like the choice between Roche and Iorveth at the end of Chapter 1 in The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings.

Given how much work such drastic changes take, especially considering that most players won’t even replay the game, they’re relatively rare in the open-world RPG genre. Sure, these games offer plenty of choice about where to go and in which order, as well as numerous outcomes for quests. But more often than not, you can see most of what’s on offer in a single playthrough, albeit from a slightly different angle for each quest.

Today’s selection is all about open-world RPGs built around choices that offer meaningful differences throughout the game, locking you out of quests or possibilities along the way. If you really want to experience it all, you’ll need a fresh playthrough.

Drova: Forsaken Kin has become a pretty persistent open-world RPG pick lately, and for good reason. This game is a perfect fit for this angle as well, with two opposing factions: Nemeton and the Remnants.

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