History GreyAndGrayMorality / VideoGames

* ''VideoGame/CivilizationBeyondEarth'' has this in spades. None of the factions or leaders have been presented as entirely good or evil, but instead as various nations with their own traits, strengths, and weaknesses. Also true for the three Affinity choices: [[HalfHumanHybrid Harmony]], [[HumansAreSpecial Purity]] and [[{{Cyborg}} Supremacy]] all have their good and bad points, and are incredibly divisive to the point where even the ''developers themselves'' argue over them.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Suikoden}}'' series, most notably ''VideoGame/SuikodenII'', is praised for this trope, presenting the characters as humans in a compromising situation, instead of personifications of good or evil. It is very rare to find a hero who is completely morally sound (except possibly the main characters), yet it is also rare to find a villain who is purely and irredeemably evil (...except Luca Blight). While this keeps the stories from becoming too simple or cliche, it also gives an interesting human perspective to the bizarre and often supernatural happenings that occur.

** Daein and Crimea engage in this for most of ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn]]'' (taking it so far that you, the player, actually control a party from each country at different points, even when those two parties fight each other) before finally banding together against the unequivocally black morality of Begnion's corrupt senate.

* Believe it or not, [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]]'s world was like this in his debut game. In the arcade ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong'', Mario had captured the eponymous ape and wasn't very nice to him, leading to DK escaping and abducting Mario's girlfriend as revenge by proxy. Nintendo of America workers even named Mario after their landlord as a result of being mad at him, [[SpringtimeForHitler which backfired in a truly epic fashion.]] However, while Mario did mistreat Donkey Kong, he did risk life and limb to save Pauline from the rampaging ape, so he was more of a {{Jerkass}} AntiHero than a VillainProtagonist. On the other side of the conflict while Donkey Kong did kidnap Pauline and needlessly harassed Stanley in the third game, he's shown to have had a [[MoralityPet loving son]] who rescued him from Mario in the sequel.

** The fifth installment, [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]], takes place in the middle of a civil war: the Empire, after losing a war against the [[OurElvesAreBetter Aldmeri]] [[TheEmpire Dominion]], was forced to outlaw the worship of Talos and are generally viewed as cowards who oppress the citizens of Skyrim instead of resisting the Dominion's rule. They however believe it was a war they couldn't win, and [[IDidWhatIHadTo was necessary]] to save Skyrim. The Stormcloak Rebellion wants an independent kingdom, but they're also ultranationalists who dangerously border outright racism [[FantasticRacism and confine the Argonians, Khajiit and Dark Elves to slums]]. In the defense of that last point, the Argonians and Dunmer are ancestral enemies (indeed, the former recently conquered the homeland of the latter, and the latter was enslaving the former for generations), so their desire to keep the Argonians and Dunmer apart may be in the interests of preventing a race war in their capital.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', the Tenpenny Tower quest has this. On one hand, you have the residents of Tenpenny Tower, who are (mostly) a bunch of arrogant bigots... but, they have a ''point'' that ghouls are generally dangerous and unpredictable, and this band in particular are hardened raiders from the Wasteland; how do they know it'd be safe to let them in? On the other hand, you have Roy Phillips and his ghouls, ruthless raiders who do have a point that they are being held at bay from living in a safe, comfortable environment purely because they're not exactly human anymore. Both sides are perfectly willing to bribe the player into slaughtering the other for them. [[spoiler: And if the player negotiates a truce, the ghouls promptly take advantage of having been allowed inside to murder all the humans for themselves.]] It's not a very ''well-handled'' example, and has attracted a ''lot'' of scorn from players.

** The Qunari follow the Qun, a set of ideals [[BlueAndOrangeMorality wholly separate from every other nation]]. They are as confused by the way the "bas" (their term for non-Qun-followers, literally "things") run around all willy-nilly without a "purpose" in life: that "purpose" being a singular role assigned at birth with literally no deviation until you die. Even so much as wanting to retire from the life of a soldier is considered equivalent to heresy and treason rolled into one. They won't hesitate to kill if they feel it appropriate, but will also show respect to [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy people with strong personal convictions]]. [[spoiler:Act 2 ends with the Qunari holed up in Kirkwall getting fed up of the "chaos" around them and trying to take over... And very nearly succeeding.]]

* ''VideoGame/EveOnline'' has thiss--every major (and all the minor ones too) have this in droves. The [[PlayerCharacter capsuleers]], on the other hand, have BlueAndOrangeMorality as a result of being immortal spaceship pilots neurally connected into their very ships and being subjected to an unending cycle of being killed and resurrected in a clone.

** The fifth installment, [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]], takes place in the middle of a civil war: the Empire, after losing a war against the [[OurElvesAreBetter Aldmeri]] [[TheEmpire Dominion]], was forced to outlaw the worship of Talos and are generally viewed as cowards who oppress the citizens of Skyrim instead of resisting the Dominion's rule. They however believe it was a war they couldn't win, and [[IDidWhatIHadToo was necessary]] to save Skyrim. The Stormcloak Rebellion wants an independent kingdom, but they're also ultranationalists who dangerously border outright racism [[FantasticRacism and confine the Argonians, Khajiit and Dark Elves to slums]]. In the defense of that last point, the Argonians and Dunmer are ancestral enemies (indeed, the former recently conquered the homeland of the latter, and the latter was enslaving the former for generations), so their desire to keep the Argonians and Dunmer apart may be in the interests of preventing a race war in their capital.

** The fifth installment, [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]], takes place in the middle of a civil war: the Empire, after losing a war against the [[OurElvesAreBetter Aldmeri]] [[TheEmpire Dominion]], was forced to outlaw the worship of Talos and are generally viewed as cowards who oppress the citizens of Skyrim instead of resisting the Dominion's rule. The Stormcloak Rebellion wants an independent kingdom, but they're also ultranationalists who dangerously border outright racism [[FantasticRacism and confine the Argonians, Khajiit and Dark Elves to slums]]. In the defense of that last point, the Argonians and Dunmer are ancestral enemies (indeed, the former recently conquered the homeland of the latter, and the latter was enslaving the former for generations), so their desire to keep the Argonians and Dunmer apart may be in the interests of preventing a race war in their capital.

* ''VideoGame/TheTuringTest'': Depending on your perspective, you are either [[spoiler: a rational and moral being looking to TheNeedsOfTheMany by trying to keep a small number of selfish and short-sighted people from risking the well-being of all humanity just so they can go home]] or [[spoiler: a merciless VillainProtagonist whose arrogant certainty of his own superior logic is preventing him from realising that the situation has grown too complex for his BlackAndWhiteInsanity and who's willing to kill or imprison for life several innocent people rather than admit that he might be wrong.]]

** In [[AssassinsCreedI the first game]], the overarching theme (which is echoed by Lucy in the present day) is that while the Templars' goals are honorable, the methods they go about attaining them are unacceptable, and thus it's up to the Assassins to thwart them. The entire game is Altair taking out a series of Templar agents, all nasty at best and murderous at worst, each of whom, in dying, tries to convince Altair that he was in the wrong (unsuccessfully), interspersed with a series of conversations with Al-Mualim which reveal little. In the end, it turns out that Al-Mualim was secretly a double agent who had Altair kill the Templars to prevent them from recovering the Apple of Eden, which he uses to ''enslave the entire population of Masayaf''. (He ''did'' genuinely want to bring an end to the Crusades, but because he wanted the Holy Land for himself, not out of any honorable desire for peace.) In the end, none of the unequivocally evil Templars are vindicated in any way, and Altair not only fully redeems himself but completely patches things up with his rivals eventually succeeds Al-Mualim as grandmaster.
** ''Complete, catastrophic'' subversion in the [[AssassinsCreedII three]] [[AssassinsCreedBrotherhood Ezio]] [[AssassinsCreedRevelations games]]. Rodrigo is a blood-drenched tyrant, Cesare is an outright ''psychopath'', and every other Templar is a butcher, extortionist, corrupt official, thief, usurper, or shady schemer. Revelations provides a bit more grey with the more mild minded Palailogos or the more noble intended[[spoiler: Ahmet]], but both still go to extremes to get what they want. There's also mentions of how assassin noninterference with overarching politics lead to some defections, but overall not much comes of it. Meanwhile, Ezio not only proves his heroism countless times and transforms Rome from a broken-down slum to a beautiful, thriving metropolis pretty much singlehandedly, his Brotherhood becomes a force of good throughout Europe and much of Asia, promoting science and the arts, defending against invaders, and undertaking numerous public works projects.

*** This game introduces a bit of 'Black' into the mix: [[spoiler:Juno, who manipulated Assassins and Templars alike to bring about her own resurrection so she could conquer humanity.]]
** Black Flag took a step backward. At first the Templars are seen to be participating in activities that, while unsavory by today's standards, were fairly typical for privileged men of the era. (One even chides an associate who expresses disgust at his dealing in slaves, asking how subjugating black men is morally worse than subjugating all men.) Edward becomes a privateer and later pirate for the sole purpose of getting rich, and he's point-blank about this to everyone he meets. There are a few lines he won't cross...he reacts ''very'' negatively when someone asks if he's thinking of taking of slaving, for instance...but otherwise has no qualms of sacking ships, putting innocent sailors to the sword, and plundering warehouses, like any other good 'n hearty freebooter. When he meets the Assassins (whom he learns absolutely nothing about beforehand), they're portrayed as stubborn, unpleasant, highly territorial recluses. However, through a series of mutual struggles, Edward becomes sympathetic to the Assassins' cause, ultimately adding their symbol to his flag, and learns that the Templars intended to use the Sage as part of a plot to take over the English government. While far less blatant than in [=AC2=], we never get the sense that anyone with a morally sound outlook would want anything to do with the Templars, while the Assassins are at worst no threat to anyone who hasn't earned their enmity.

* ''VideoGame/MarkOfTheNinja''. Your opponent, Hessian Services, starts out attacking the Hisomu clan, leading them to send you to take out their leader, Count Karajan, in retaliation. Karajan's EstablishingCharacterMoment shows that he's not a particularly good person, showing little concern for the survival of his guards. [[spoiler: And then you find out the whole thing was a FalseFlagOperation; Hessian only attacked the Hisomu because they stole from them, and then the leader of the Hisomu used that as an excuse to send the protagonist - empowered with special [[PowerTattoo tattoos]] that would give him superhuman abilities but eventually drive him insane and force him to [[DrivenToSuicide commit seppuku]] before he lost his mind completely - to assassinate Karajan so the clan could finish swiping their technology to use for themselves. And ''then'' you find out that, as dickish a move as that was, the leader of the clan believed it was the only way for the clan to survive in the modern era, as the plant they used to create the ink for the tattoos has since gone extinct, robbing them of their secret weapon. It doesn't help that by the time these revelations comes about, the protagonist is well on their way to going insane, impairing their judgement on how to deal with it.]]

*** It's arguable that Skyrim is more a case of BlackAndGrayMorality in the case of their Civil War, as many players have noted startling similarities between the conflict and the tension and bloodshed in pre-WW2 Weimar Republic Germany--the Empire fought a losing war and was forced to accept an unfavourable treaty named for its location at swordpoint(White-Gold Concordat/Treaty of Versailles), and to accept a limited foreign occupation(Allied occupation of the Rhineland/Thalmor occupations), and give up sizable portions of valuable territory outright to a foreign power(loss of Hammerfell/loss of the Danzig Corridor), as well as giving up a central tenet of their beliefs and culture(banning of Talos worship/abolition of the Kaisership and Empire), fomenting intense civil unrest and revanchist anger among the populace. This then leads to a charismatic candidate who claims to want justice or similar rising up to lead a fanatically loyal band of rebel thugs with extremely nationalist and racial supremacist overtones(Hitler's Brownshirts/Stormcloaks), and stand in fierce opposition to a flagging government that the foreign powers that put into this mess seem to have no interest in supporting(Weimar Republic and the Allies/Empire and the Thalmor). It's gotten to the point that in some circles to admit loyalty or sympathy to the Stormcloaks is to admit the same of the Nazi Party.

* In ''{{VideoGame/Foxhole}}'', despite resembling the Allies and Axis of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, the Wardens and the Colonials are both morally grey and neither is the "hero" or "villain" of the story. If anything, the Wardens are the current aggressors in a war to retake territory from a previous conflict.

* In ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'', both the Assassins and Templars seek a peaceful world, they just apply different methods, and neither side is the good guys or the bad guys. Supposedly. The success {{Creator/Ubisoft}} had in actually implementing this has been...mixed.

** ''Complete, catastrophic'' subversion in the [[AssassinsCreedII three]] [[AssassinsCreedBrotherhood Ezio]] [[AssassinsCreedRevelations games]]. Rodrigo is a blood-drenched tyrant, Cesare is an outright ''psychopath'', and every other Templar is a butcher, extortionist, corrupt official, thief, usurper, or shady schemer. Meanwhile, Ezio not only proves his heroism countless times and transforms Rome from a broken-down slum to a beautiful, thriving metropolis pretty much singlehandedly, his Brotherhood becomes a force of good throughout Europe and much of Asia, promoting science and the arts, defending against invaders, and undertaking numerous public works projects.

** AssassinsCreedSyndicate is also grey, but in a different sort of way. The templars in this game are captains of industry, science and power.

** In the first game, the overarching theme (which is echoed by Lucy in the present day) is that while the Templars' goals are honorable, the methods they go about attaining them are unacceptable, and thus it's up to the Assassins to thwart them. The entire game is Altair taking out a series of Templar agents, all nasty at best and murderous at worst, each of whom, in dying, tries to convince Altair that he was in the wrong (unsuccessfully), interspersed with a series of conversations with Al-Mualim which reveal little. In the end, it turns out that Al-Mualim was secretly a double agent who had Altair kill the Templars to prevent them from recovering the Apple of Eden, which he uses to ''enslave the entire population of Masayaf''. (He ''did'' genuinely want to bring an end to the Crusades, but because he wanted the Holy Land for himself, not out of any honorable desire for peace.) In the end, none of the unequivocally evil Templars are vindicated in any way, and Altair not only fully redeems himself but completely patches things up with his rivals eventually succeeds Al-Mualim as grandmaster.
** ''Complete, catastrophic'' subversion in the three Ezio games. Rodrigo is a blood-drenched tyrant, Cesare is an outright ''psychopath'', and every other Templar is a butcher, extortionist, corrupt official, thief, usurper, or shady schemer. Meanwhile, Ezio not only proves his heroism countless times and transforms Rome from a broken-down slum to a beautiful, thriving metropolis pretty much singlehandedly, his Brotherhood becomes a force of good throughout Europe and much of Asia, promoting science and the arts, defending against invaders, and undertaking numerous public works projects.

*** This game introduces a bit of 'Black' into the mix: [[spoiler:Juno, who manipulated Assassins and Templars alike to bring about her own resurrection so she could conquer humanity. It didn't quite work out for her.]]

** Rogue made a huge turn to the point where it almost qualifies as role reversal. Achilles is by far the worst Mentor ever, a thoroughly wrongheaded dunce who makes one disastrous bungle after another and never shows a hint of remorse or self-awareness. The other Master Assassins are either too stupid to see his gross incompetence or too blinded by loyalty to call him out. He makes no attempt to cool off Shay after the highly traumatic destruction of Lisbon, leading to his (completely justified) defection. The lower-level Assassins have degenerated into criminal gangs whose sole purpose is to extort the populace and kill anyone who tries to root them out. Meanwhile, Shay gets won over by a wealthy Templar who seeks to rebuild parts of the Colonies ruined by war or neglect, and he takes on Christopher Gist, a charming, humorous rogue, as his quartermaster. Haytham, while cold-blooded as ever, never harms anyone who isn't already an acknowledged enemy. Not only don't we see the Templars do anything overtly evil, Shay performs some of the same tasks as Edward!
** Unity gets back on track, but largely by making both sides too ineffectual to amount to anything. The Continental Assassins are so wrapped up in arcane rules and hierarchy that they butt heads with Arno on just about everything, despite the fact that he's pretty much the only member getting anything accomplished. (In one revealing scene, he brings Belloq to justice after Belloq murdered their Mentor, for which he's ''punished''.) They completely fail to prevent a bloody revolution, protect their most powerful ally, the King, or stop any of the atrocities that happen after his death. Meanwhile, the Templars have a ludicrously complicated scheme to portray the King as an out-of-touch petty tyrant so that the people will overthrow him, which will lead to chaos and teach them to hate that, but realize that the ''real'' problem was an absolute ruler who ''lacked order'' and that putting the Templars into power was the solution...[[InsaneTrollLogic or something]]. Arno singlehandedly thwarts them at every turn, and despite the fact that he isn't popular at all within the Assassin organization and was never particularly heroic to begin with, making him the ''perfect'' candidate for a Shay-esque turn, they ''never'' even attempt to win him to their side. Ultimately their plan succeeds, ''but they gain nothing from it because Arno killed them all''. As for Arno himself, he starts out as a good-for-nothing young punk a la Ezio and gets drawn into the Assassins out of a desire for revenge, but never truly embraces their way of thinking and is motivated primarily by his love for Elise (which...doesn't end well). In the end, he's been kicked out of the Order, he's all alone in a land ravaged by war and chaos, he has no ambitions or plans for the future, and he pretty much just wants to leave France and never return.

** Hovever this gets reversed in Mists of Pandaria where the entire orcish race is given the VillainBall, while the Alliance commits no bad actions.

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'' has the conflict between [[{{Wutai}} Hoshido]] and [[{{Mordor}} Nohr]] center around this. Hoshido is a bountiful, peaceful kingdom ruled by a benevolent queen, while Nohr is a desolate wasteland ruled by a despotic tyrant. Sounds like blatant BlackAndWhiteMorality, doesn't it? Well, the [[DarkIsNotEvil "evil"]] kingdom of Nohr actually has the tyrant as a minority, and the vast majority of Nohrians are perfectly decent people, being outright [[NiceGuy Nice Guys/Girls]] at best and CreepyGood at worst. Meanwhile, the benevolent queen of Hoshido is the only one really keeping Hoshido's [[FantasticRacism massive xenophobia]] in check against the Nohrians, and when [[spoiler:she dies and]] the Avatar goes to side with Nohr, Hoshido commits a great deal of lovely acts ranging from ostracizing one of their own for having ''some'' ties to Nohr, denying medical treatment of an ill child non-combatant, and even attempting to ''sack a peaceful port town.'' It's especially telling that the Avatar's characterization in ''Conquest'' is infinitely more altrustic and considerate of all lives than their bloodthirsty Hoshido counterpart.

* Daein and Crimea engage in this for most of ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn]]'' (taking it so far that you, the player, actually control a party from each country at different points, even when those two parties fight each other) before finally banding together against the unequivocally black morality of Begnion's corrupt senate.

* In ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'', both the Assassins and Templars seek a peaceful world, they just apply different methods, and neither side is the good guys or the bad guys. Supposedly. The success Creator/UbiSoft had in actually implementing this has been...mixed.

** They finally got right in [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII the third game]]. UbiSoft carefully crafted a balanced outlook of all four factions in UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution (Assassins, Templars, British, and Patriots) in the face of widespread criticism. The British of course have their share of {{Evil Brit}}s and atrocities, but want to hold their empire together more than anything else, while it's made very clear that the Colonials want freedom, but don't really care for ''[[TheHero Connor]]'s'' freedom, and in fact Connor points out the [[{{Hypocrite}} hypocrisy]] of wanting freedom while owning slaves. Then there's [[spoiler:George Washington destroying several native villages, including Connor's home village, which is TruthInTelevision]].

* This is the theme of the ''Franchise/TalesSeries'' series. Ever since ''[[VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia Phantasia]]'', the seemingly vilest of antagonists has at minimum a lofty goal in mind, and the most noble of protagonists is either hiding something, misguided, or aiding and abetting someone who is either hiding something or misguided.

* The [[SterilityPlague genophage]] in ''VideoGame/MassEffect'' is either this or BlackAndGrayMorality, depending on who you ask. Whilst its effects are horrific, resulting in mass stillbirths, the turians and salarians point out it was the only way to bring the krogan under control without eradicating them, and it negates the reason for the Krogan Uprising in the first place. The krogan do have a point when they argue that they were virally castrated as a species, but on the other hand, the Galactic Council was forced to such a decision because the krogan decided they would rather make war on the rest of the galaxy than culturally control their ExplosiveBreeder traits, the krogan did commit their own share of atrocities in the war, and very few of them seem to have learned from their mistakes. It isn't until ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'' that we meet a krogan who will [[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch openly admit that the krogan brought the genophage on themselves]].