History GreyAndGrayMorality / VideoGames

* ''VideoGame/{{Brink}}'': The developers said they wanted to avert both LaResistance vs TheEmpire, and good cops versus evil terrorists. And did they do it well! To illustrate, their respective leaders, Chen and Mokoena, are both decent and morally dubious alike in their own way. They both have noble goals: Chen wants to send a scouting party to find land and have equal resources and rights for Guests and Founders, and Mokoena doesn't want the Ark to descend into anarchy and wants them all to work together, and is just trying to keep the ark safe. And its also made clear that the Resistance and Security have their fair share of the "I'm doing what I have to" and "total bastard" mentalities.

** The [[OneNationUnderCopyright Caldari State]] is a ruthless, hypercapitalistic society run by {{Corrupt Corporate Executive}}s where you are a citizen of your megacorporation, not the state itself. They also have this nasty militaristic tendency. However, all their militarism is motivated by their desire to reclaim their homeworld from the Gallente and they are the one true meritocracy with actual social mobility in New Eden.

** The [[TheAlliance Minmatar Republic]] are former slaves who overthrew the chains of repression and are fighting to free their brothers and sisters still trapped under Amarrian tyranny. Which would be great, if it weren't for the fact that they are a fractious, bickering group of tribal peoples with a standard of living along the lines of a third world country.

* In the story of ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'', the Tenno first seem like the saviors of a system in terrible need of them, fighting against the corrupt Corpus and the imperious Grineer. Looking closer at their objectives, however, reveals that the factions all have their reasons for wanting to succeed. The Grineer want to control the system with the rules and boundaries that fell apart after the Orokin empire's fall, while the Corpus want to revive the fallen Orokin technology and bring mankind back into prominence. The Tenno even get a case of WhatTheHellHero when it's revealed that they are the ones who destroyed the Orokin empire in the first place and so caused the system to fall into its disrepair. Later updates, however, move things closer to BlackAndGreyMorality, revealing, among other things, [[spoiler:that the Grineer are actually being lead by two surviving Orokin, that the Corpus is essentially a merchant cult whose leaders tried to murder their founder for being too nice, that the Orokin were some of the worst AbusivePrecursors in all fiction, and that the Tenno wiped out the Orokin because of the innumerable number of atrocities the golden lords committed on both the Tenno and the innocents of the Origin System]]. Furthermore, Tenno's ArchEnemy, the Sentients, are about to return to the system, and the Tenno are the only ones trying to take proactive steps toward repelling the Sentients for the sake of the colonies in the Origin System, while everyone else is instead trying to exploit the return of the Sentients for their own benefit. The introduction of [[LaResistance Solaris United]] in the Fortuna update, though, ultimately laid the moral ambiguity of the Tenno to rest - the actions taken to help the Solaris, up to and including ''freeing them from debt slavery by paying off and annuling their debts'', cements the Tenno as being true heroes. While there is still plenty of room for grey between the various syndicates in the system (all of whom want to fix things, but have clashing plans for doing so), the Tenno are firmly shown to be in the white.

* Many characters and factions in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' have morally ambiguous goals and/or means, to the point that the only unambiguously evil faction in the game is the Darkspawn army:
** The conflict that created the war between the Dalish and the werwolves. The werewolves were cursed by [[spoiler: Zathrian]] when their ancestors [[spoiler: killed his son and raped his daughter, [[DrivenToSuicide driving her to kill herself]]]]. Since they're suffering for a mistake they haven't made themselves, it's understandable they want to avenge themselves and end their curse. Their leader, the Lady of the Forest, is in favour of a peaceful resolution, but she doesn't seem to care about the fate of the elves, and she lies to you so you side with her and [[spoiler: bring Zathrian to her so the werewolves can kill him if he doesn't break the curse]]. On the other hand, even though [[spoiler: Zathrian]] manipulates you as well, his motive was legitimate at the beginning, if [[DisproportionateRetribution disproportionate]], and he has another reason for not ending the curse: [[spoiler: he can live as long as the curse is in effect, and has been able to give the Dalish the hope that he rediscovered the lost immortality of their people]].
** The dwarven SuccessionCrisis. The Dwarf origin stories give you some pretty clear reasons for supporting each. Commoners would want to support Bhelen because he fights to end the oppressive caste system and wants to open the country more to the outside. Nobles would want to support Harrowmont because it's their father's wishes and he's more "Traditional". You also have a personal reason for doing so, Harrowmont is a ''very'' nice guy and a ReasonableAuthorityFigure, as he fights ''hard'' to make sure the dwarf noble is given a fair trial. Bhelen meanwhile fights hard to get to the throne...to near sociopathic levels, as he's [[spoiler:rightfully]] suspected of killing his older brother and getting his other sibling blamed for it. [[note]]The noble even has a chance to call him out on this, during which he has almost ''no remorse'' for it unless you compliment him and say he was better at playing the game[[/note]] To a Commoner, Harrowmount is a classist asshole to you while Bhelen is not only polite and respectful, he's your sister's loving fiance (and later husband). Oh, and to keep things up, Bhelen, if chosen, becomes a [[spoiler:dictator who leads his city into a new era of prosperity]]. Harrowmont meanwhile [[spoiler:dies partly due to the stress of ruling and causes Orzammar to fall into decay while expanding its isolationist practices]].
* Just about all of ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' which [[UpToEleven manages to be even grayer than its predecessor.]] The mages, chantry, and qunari are ready to tear each other apart and all of them have good people and bad people or [[BlueAndOrangeMorality have different morals all together]]. All have good reasons to be pissed at the others and all have their own major flaws. It gets very difficult to see anybody as a major villain because there is really no white or black. Though all sides are closer to the black on the gray scale. To fully lay out the rock-paper-scissors of insanity:
** The Chantry and their affiliated Templar Order are simply executing its position of keeping mages in check, given that mages in this game have completely unpredictable degrees of power and are walking demon magnets. They do so by setting up their Circle (barracks for their [[KnightTemplar Templar Order]] and a mage prison in all but name) in the former SLAVE PITS oh so quaintly named "The Gallows". The "alternative", in their opinion, is a fate like the Tevinter Imperium, which is ruled over by Magisters who thoroughly abuse their magic to stay in power.
** The mages are rebelling against the overt cruelty of the Templars, seemingly worse in Kirkwall than anywhere else, up to and including making mages [[FateWorseThanDeath Tranquil]] for such things as ''talking about someone ELSE'S escape attempt''. Of course, halfway through the game you learn about [[spoiler:a significant mage rebellion in the works which, while in response to this abuse, is shown to be willing to sacrifice - sometimes [[BloodMagic literally]] - any number of innocents to achieve its goal.]]
** 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/FireEmblemThreeHouses'' has no entirely good or bad side. Everyone ends up doing morally ambiguous things at one point or another and any villainous character doesn't reflect the faction as a whole. The only exception is Those That Slither In The Dark, a group that everyone hates, including the more morally-grey characters. To further drive in this trope, GoldenEnding is soundly averted: every ending results in the destruction or abdication of at least 2 of the major factions.
* When it comes to player races, ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' is surprisingly nuanced in terms of morality. Not only do all of the races indulge in truly unpleasant spin-off factions that can be killed by both sides, but you'll also find yourself accidentally doing unpleasant things for your allies, who often turn out to be sadists, murderers and major, MAJOR extremists who wipe out villages, torture prisoners and murder the innocent.

* In ''VideoGame/OdinSphere'', none of the principle protagonists are evil, but many of them staunchly oppose one another for various reasons, and all of their [[NiceJobBreakingItHero assorted actions]] lead to TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.

* ''VideoGame/BattleForWesnoth'' has this in the campaign Descent into Darkness. You control a young mage apprentice who takes up dark magic (read: animating corpses) to defend his town, and is exiled. His sister, the town guard, holy knights who show up for no reason but to piss you off in the hardest mission of the campaign all wish to have him killed. He takes revenge on them. In the end, it's mostly black versus black or black versus grey (with you playing the part of a very borderline black) but until they drop an anvil on you and have you fight endlessly repeating (and rather easy) battles against random commanders, you never genuinely know who to root for.
* This is the theme of the ''VideoGame/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.

** ''[[VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia Symphonia]]'': [[spoiler:Mithos]] simply wanted to save the world [[KnightTemplar from its own racist self]] by holding back progress and running "human ranches", and everything else he does is either for this for for [[spoiler: Martel's sake]]. [[IdiotHero Lloyd's]] actions lead to much death and destruction as he changes the system, and [[spoiler:Mithos]]'s fears of technological abuse [[AndManGrewProud is proven right]], as the next 4000 years between ''Symphonia'' and ''Phantasia'' can attest to.

** ''[[VideoGame/TalesOfBerseria Berseria]]'': On the playable, good guys side, you have the AntiHeroTeam of criminals and terrorists led by Velvet Crowe, [[spoiler:the first Lord of Calamity]], who has a single minded obsession with revenge against the BigBad and is perfectly willing to kill anyone in her way but has a softer side, versus [[TragicVillain Artorius]], a WellIntentionedExtremist who wants to bring about a WorldOfSilence to save humanity from the threat of Malevolence. Neither side is truly good or truly bad.

** In the sequel, ''VideoGame/DeusExInvisibleWar'', while certain factions may come across as more or less positive, all have philosophies it's possible to sympathize with, while also being somewhat morally dubious. In the end you must pick between them, with no defined "good" or "bad" choice. You can also follow your own path and kill everybody, which backfires horribly (duh).

*** Indeed, every faction represents a rather broad philosophy, and every faction will use 'evil' strategies, particularly against a rising faction whose philosophy they see as evil. The Peacekeepers, for instance, favor diplomacy and democracy, so they're inevitably against you having any government (no matter how effective and moral) except democracy, and if you don't, they're willing to massacre your people to change your regime by force. If you're not a police state, the Hive will be against you because they think religious states are stupid and that voting power in the hands of the weak masses leads to decadence, chaos and corruption. If you're not a theocratic state the Believers are against you. If you're not using the capitalist economic model, Morgan Industries will think you're stifling economic progress and you need replacing. If you're not using a green economic model, then the Gaians will treat you like you're exploiting and destroying the oh-so-pure environment and are evil. The Spartans only respect people who value power, and the University only respects those who value knowledge. No matter what, some factions will dislike you and therefore insult, harass, threaten, and even attack you. You have to deal with them one way or another. None of the core factions are necessarily bad. Even the Hive can be very good for humanity, it's just a tightly-controlled harsh parenting sort of good. Certain factions lend themselves better towards doing particular evil things because they get better bonuses (or fewer penalties) for those things; the Hive easily can (and usually will) default to wicked self-interested tyranny rather than being some kind of ethical enlightened philosopher king. But even the most noble seeming factions can and will support their leader even when they order outrageous and evil things, and they will be an asshole to you if you're not on their side. Even the most evil-seeming factions, or the factions most dead-set against you can be peacefully negotiated with, appeased and won over through multiple non-military victory conditions.

** The [[{{Precursors}} Forerunners]] did mostly genuinely believe in the Mantle, their core ideology that revolved around protecting the galaxy and its inhabitants, but their technological superiority eventually turned them into arrogant, socially-stagnant imperialists who kept their client species weak and subservient, and when [[TheVirus the Flood]] came knocking, they could ultimately only protect the galaxy by wiping out ''all'' unindexed life in the galaxy in a desperate last resort plan -- which could be interpreted as a HeroicSacrifice or the cost of their foolishness, depending on how idealistic/cynical one is.

* In the ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriors'' series, despite the many changes in the story's overall tone over many games, one theme remains constant: no one faction is exclusively good or evil. Wei appears to be antagonistic, but Cao Cao is a pragmatic, AffablyEvil [[TheChessmaster chessmaster]] backed by warriors of laudable personal qualities. Shu is the nominally more heroic faction, but Liu Bei has done some things worth calling out, such as usurping his relative Liu Zhang BecauseDestinySaysSo as well as his assault on Yi Ling, and ''Dynasty Warriors 7'' in particular plays with AlternativeCharacterInterpretation of his strategist/chancellor Zhuge Liang. Wu is the "''opportunist''" state which takes advantage of the chaos to do as it pleases, but their royal family[[note]]father Sun Jian, sons Ce and Quan, and daughter Shangxiang[[/note]] is depicted as a tight-knit family backed by Sun Ce's sworn brother Zhou Yu and veterans from Sun Jian's days. Flaws aside, each kingdom has their fair share of heroic warriors. Even Zhang Jiao comes off pretty sympathetic, and in his ending he keeps his word in steering his new nation through the "Way of Peace". Even Dong Zhuo, the unambiguously evil FatBastard he is, is shown in his Campaign Mode to be desperately trying to salvage his rightful claim as Han emperor from the usurpers taking advantage of his realm's collapse. The ''Empires'' games take it a step further -- you start out dead-center neutral with whoever you play as, and it's entirely up to you how good or evil your reign is. Of course, part of the reason is that, historically, none of the kingdoms succeeded in unifying China (that would be some last-minute Jin opportunist named Sima Yan), so it's impossible to say who the "hero" or "villain" really was.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII''. To elaborate, on the villain's side we have the machivellian, AffablyEvil [[EvilPrince Prince]] who wants to become the emperor and restore order to the empire, the WellIntentionedExtremist MadScientist who's working with his demigod SpiritAdvisor to overthrow the JerkassGods, the Judges who bar one are well-intentioned tools devoted to protecting to law, and the Emperor himself who is trying to keep the Senate from turning his youngest son into a puppet heir while preventing the empire from collapsing into civil war. On the good guys side we have a vengeful, stubborn princess who will stop at nothing (including ''genocide'') to regain her kingdom and pay back the empire for her dead husband, and who nearly becomes the willing puppet of the aforementioned JerkassGods to achieve this, a pair of sky pirates who are just in it for the treasure (and one of them ''knows'' exactly what the princess is trying to do and where it would lead), an old soldier who's willing to do ''anything'' to protect the princess, and finally two slightly naive teenagers, one of whom is a petty thief. In between this lot we have a Marquis-cum-Resistance leader who plays permanent double agent and who's loyalties depend on who is winning, a Rebel general who's willing to sell out his own princess if it means his country will be restored even if it's in name only, an ex-Judge who destroyed an entire city and now resorts to piracy to make up for his sins, and an imperial prince who is caught between caution and preemptive assault in the protection of his nation. The only good character is really the youngest prince, and he suffers from a bad case of naivety and idealism.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics''. In the beginning, two princes are fighting each other for the throne. Since it is basically the [[UsefulNotes/WarsOfTheRoses War of the Roses]] in the form of Final Fantasy, neither side is really good. Later in the game it becomes more like BlackAndGrayMorality once the Church and [[spoiler:Delita]] start playing more significant roles in the war. [[spoiler:Delita, while he ultimately does stop the kingdom from falling into complete chaos, uses any and every Machiavellian method available to him in order to accomplish his goals. The Church is basically controlled by Satan]]. The only white to be found is Ramza and his fate is [[spoiler:[[CrapsackWorld to become a footnote in history]]]].

** Subversion in the [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII three]] [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedBrotherhood Ezio]] [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedRevelations games]]. Rodrigo is a blood-drenched tyrant, Cesare is an outright ''psychopath'', and most other Templars are butchers, extortionists, corrupt officials, thieves, usurpers, or shady schemers. There are some exceptions such as the lawyer who acted against his friends out of fear of the Medici, more humble TragicVillain, and Revelations provides a bit more grey with the more mild minded Palailogos who wants to regain his throne, or the more noble [[spoiler: Ahmet]] who was "tired of divisions". There's also mentions of how assassin non-interference with overarching politics lead to some defections in the ranks. But overall, the templars are not portrayed in a very positive light. Meanwhile, Ezio originally joined the assassins for revenge, but grew into their talks of freedom and equality over the course of his life, and 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.

*** The Assassins were KnightInSourArmor at first in the colonies, while Conner is a man of principle who nonetheless often gets accused of extreme naivete for killing first without thinking of larger context. On the other hand though, he's a generous and protective man, bringing tens of new assassins into the order with promises of safety and prosperity.
*** The Templars, meanwhile, have a variety of motives in being part of the order, but all of them end up [[VillainHasAPoint having at least something worthwhile to say]] when discussing their motives and plans. Haytham in particular is a cynical but pragmatic leader who wants to create an order under the Templars of equality and peace, but does so in so many unsavory and manipulative ways that he ends up driving his son away from him.

** ''[[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedRogue Rogue]]'' made a huge turn to the point where it almost qualifies as role reversal. Achilles is a problematic Mentor who makes an error in judgment, but who refuses to see his actions as problematic. The other Master Assassins are either too stupid to see the problem, 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 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!
** ''[[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedUnity Unity]]'' gets back on track, but in a [[BrokenBase controversial way]]. The Continental Assassins are so wrapped up in arcane rules, methodology and hierarchy that they butt heads with Arno who favors more direct actions against enemies. (In one revealing scene, he brings Belloq to justice after Belloq murdered their Mentor, for which he's ''punished''.) The Assassins 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 split into 2 branches. One branch bears some similarities to the Assassins in being more moderated in their approach to influence government, and the Grandmaster of this branch was nice enough to take an Assassin under his wing to care and then indoctrinate him gradually to their ways. The other branch creates a 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 kind of chaos. Then, once things settle down, the people will desire order above all else from structures rather than power, thus putting the Templars into power as the solution. Arno thwarts several of their plans, and despite the fact that he isn't popular at all within the Assassin organization, the revolutionary Templars don't try to win him to their side. Ultimately their plan succeeds, but unfortunately their long term success is hampered after the death of their leader. 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).
** ''[[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedSyndicate Syndicate]]'' is also grey, but in a different sort of way. The Templars in this game are captains of industry, science and power. In a sense, none of them are the VisionaryVillain of older generations, but are just trying to make their way in London area. Of course, this involves things like worker exploitation, human experiments with lethal consequences, trade monopolies, robbery, government assassination attempts and running city gangs. That being said though, their leader is a cool headed and even somewhat compassionate BenevolentBoss who loves his family, loyal underlings, and even raises wages to counter inflation during a financial crisis. The Assassins, meanwhile, have been trying to work around London for generations, while our player characters cause two kinds of problems. Jacob is a DestructiveSavior who often causes problems for ordinary people as he goes around killing Templars, but at least he's trying to move forward with generally improving the city. Evie, meanwhile, is more interested in going after the Pieces of Eden and learning more about London before helping, but her tunnel vision sometimes frustrates her brother due to her perceived lack of action. Both, however, DO want to help out the masses, and both in the end are shown to be hopeful, strong assassins who are all about saving lives, just with different ideas about how to do that. Near the end of the game, their roles even switch for a time, with Jacob wanting to sit back and wait, while Evie wants to bust heads.

*** Really, there is only one truly evil character in the whole series. Too bad that he's TheChessmaster... And even then, Alex isn't exactly evil, just self serving. He manipulates to his own ends, but he never shows any actual malice towards the characters. The only time he ever struck against a character was when they attacked him, and it was only to stop their attack.

* None of the three main factions in ''VideoGame/SinsOfASolarEmpire'' can be considered truly good or bad. The Trade Emergency Coalition appear to be just {{Technical Pacifist}}s trying to fight off the "evil" Vasari and the vengeful Advent, but the reason the Advent are vengeful is because the traders exiled them from their homeworld 1000 years before for having different ideas about social norms. The Advent may have legitimate grievances against the traders, except the ones who actually exiled them died a long time ago, so they're trying to punish people who didn't do anything to them. The Vasari used to be a vast [[TheEmpire empire]] and still follow similar policies in terms of enslavement and locking down colonies, but they're just the remains from a single colony that have been fleeing an unknown enemy that has destroyed the rest of the empire for tens of thousands of years and are conquering trader worlds only to get enough resources to be able to continue their flight.

* ''VideoGame/MightAndMagic VIII'' is full of this: It features a BigBad whose only reason for being that is that he ''can't'' stop once he has started (no matter how much he wants to)[[note]]He was programmed that way as a security measure, to keep the Kreegans from subverting him[[/note]], a conflict between dragon hunters out for profit and xenophobic dragons that see nothing wrong with eating other sentients, and a war between the Necromancers' Guild of Jadame (who, in the modern day of the game, are a fairly laid-back bunch, mostly wanting to keep to themselves) and the Church of the Sun (who came to Jadame to wage war on Necromancers without provocation, and are somewhat corrupt and self-serving).

* In ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'', the central conflict in the game is extremely lacking in details, but what details we do know ultimately make it an example of this. The conflict between Fire and Dark seems clear-cut at first, but we're shown numerous instances of how LightIsNotGood and DarkIsNotEvil throughout the games. On the other hand we're also shown numerous instances of LightIsGood and DarkIsEvil at the same time. The message of the games seems to be that both sides have their place in the world, and are capable of good things, but both can also be a destructive, corrupting influence if taken too far.
* ''VideoGame/PlanetSide''. Three factions [[ForeverWar endlessly fighting]] over a tiny ball of rock god-know-where chuck full of alien technology, using [[BackFromTheDead respawning technology]] to keep the war going. The Terran Republic established a thousand years of peace on Earth - while sacrificing freedom. The New Conglomerate rebelled for more personal freedom, but they are backed by by large [[MegaCorp corporations]] and [[PrivateMilitaryContractor mercenaries]]). The Vanu Sovereignty wants to uplift humanity to the status of the ancient [[AbsentAliens Vanu]] - but possibly at the cost of your [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul identity and freedom.]]
* ''Franchise/AlienVsPredator'': While the leaders of that big corporation are a bunch of greedy assholes, most of the employees are just people doing their work or innocent victims who haven't done anything bad. The marines are usually well-meaning if slightly hardballed with their work. The Xenomorphs are obviously nasty bastards but in the video games, it's their territories that are being invaded and their queen violated, so in all rights they're fighting a war of self-defence against the humans and the Yautja, thought with rules that aren't exactly what the Geneva Conventions would allow. The Yautja no doubt starts wars and deaths for no actual good reason but they do have standards on which things the hunters are allowed to kill; women, children, sick and old are forbidden to hunt but for the rest, it's a free game with whatever nasty and violent way they want to use.

* In spite of the very clear divide painted in the promotional material, neither of the factions in ''VideoGame/WildStar'' are not entirely good nor evil. The Exile "heroes" are basically criminals and terrorists, and sink to some serious lows to have a fighting chance, the Dominion "villains" provide a highly tolerant, well-educated, and prosperous and free society to their citizens. On the other side of the coin, many Exiles are also refugees and innocent hopefuls who want to start a new life on Nexus, while the Dominion demands unconditional servitude and obedience from it's citizens when called upon to serve the Empire.

** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall Daggerfall]]'' is full of this. About the only morally unambiguous choice in the end-game is to aid the Underking, and then only because his goal is to finally ''[[UndeathAlwaysEnds die]]'' rather than to actually use Numidium. There are several candidates for worst of the worst, and you ''will'' aid at least one of them out of your own free will, without being fooled, over the course of the main storyline. A note on ''Daggerfall'': it turns out that due to an event called a "Dragon Break", in which time flows in a non-linear fashion, somehow all the choices you're able to make ended up happening at the exact same time. This would be known as the "Warp in the West", and resulted in having every single nation in western Tamriel (there were a lot) turn into two provinces and swear loyalty to the Empire.
** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]''. Although the main quest appears to be black-and-white (though if you really dig into the backstory, the BigBad has some WellIntentionedExtremist and VillainHasAPoint aspects that can move him closer to a "dark gray", and the wannabe BigGood Azura has a ton of skeletons in her closet), the politics in Vvardenfell are very clearly Gray And Gray. House Hlaalu, for example, is open-minded but corrupted, House Telvanni is honest but elitist, House Redoran is strong but xenophobic, the Empire often ranges from oppressive to a little bit too lax, the Dunmer Temple is kind and charitable but has Knights Templar (the Ordinators) and is to some degree a CorruptChurch, and the three [[PhysicalGod god-kings]] to which it is devoted are, respectively, benevolent but pathologically dishonest, egotistically psychotic, and completely withdrawn from the affairs of mortals. House Dagoth are portrayed as evil, but still remain somewhat gray. At most the main quest is closer to BlackAndGrayMorality.
** The fifth installment, [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]], takes place in the middle of a civil war: the Empire, after losing a war against the [[OurElvesAreDifferent 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 [[IDidWhatIHadToDo was necessary]] to save Skyrim and the rest of the empire and buy time to prepare for future war with the Dominion. The Empire also use a lot of flimsy excuses for their imperialism from [[AppealToFear "The Empire is the only thing keeping the Dominion out of Skyrim!"]] to [[CulturalPosturing "The Empire is the one guiding light in Tamriel and without it the other races will fall into barbarism and anarchy, including the Nords! No wait, ESPECIALLY the Nords!"]]; they also engage in some activities that would be considered war crimes to a modern audience. The Stormcloak Rebellion wants an independent kingdom and freedom of religion, but they don't consider the possibility they might have to work with the Empire to defeat the Dominion, and are 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, even those who support their entry.]] It's not a very ''well-handled'' example, and has attracted a ''lot'' of scorn from players.

** The Expansion Pack "Far Harbor" continues with the tradition: The synth refuge of Acadia is genuinely peaceful [[spoiler: but it's leader [=DiMA=] has committed some terrible crimes to protect it and will need to commit more for a peaceful resolution to the conflict]]. The town of Far Harbor is wary of outsiders but that's mostly a product of their circumstances with them nearly being driven off the island by the fog. The local Church of the Children of the Atom is "very" antagonistic towards nonbelievers [[spoiler: and is planning to wipe the other two factions out]], but this is due to the influence of their (sincere) current leader. The majority of the cult is genuinely devout [[spoiler: and has nothing to do with the fogs' behavior.]]

** Many of the multiplayer characters are, according to their back-stories, either greedy sellswords or criminals.
** Throne claimants each have their own backstory about why they should be king/queen. The current monarchs will actually have ''their own'' sides to the story and their own reasons, so you're left to decide who's story is worth more. For example, Arwa the Pearled One of the Sarranid Sultanate claims that Sultan Hakim is an EvilUncle who illegally usurped the throne from her, but Sultan Hakim counters that she is a BitchInSheepsClothing, and that he has a more legitimate claim due to his royal heritage (while Arwa is an adopted peasant girl). The only claimant/monarch conflict where one side is ''definitely'' more sympathetic than the other is Swadia, which pits the competent and reasonable [[ActionGirl Lady Isolla]] against the incompetent and tyrannical [[FatBastard King Harlaus]]; really, when you ask for Harlaus' reason for exiling Isolla and denying her claim, his argument basically amounts to "[[StayInTheKitchen she is a woman and therefore won't rule well]]".

* ''VideoGame/TheOuterWorlds'' features this trope very prominently, as many quests have no clear-cut best outcome: many times, your choices may well screw someone over while you try to help others. An example from early in the game has you on a quest to find a power regulator for your ship so it can fly again. The leader of the town of Edgewater points you towards a camp of Deserters, who has a power regulator in their botanical lab, and instructs you to redirect power from the geothermal plant away from their lab and to Edgewater so you can safely extract it. The Deserter camp, however, is a thriving community of those who turned their backs on Spacer's Choice, the MegaCorp that owns Edgewater and regularly works their employees to death. The Deserter camp's leader proposes directing power towards their lab instead, and take the power converter in Edgewater. The leader of Edgewater is a company loyalist, but appears to have genuine concern for his workers; while the leader of the Deserters stands firmly against Spacer's Choice and everything they stand for [[spoiler:and may choose to leave any refugees from the city to the mercy of marauders and local fauna]]. Whoever you direct power away from will end up in dire straits: directing power away from Edgewater will leave a lot of innocent employees out of work, but directing power away from the Deserter camp will leave them at the mercy of Marauders and hostile wildlife. While you benefit from either outcome, you're gonna have to piss off a lot of people to help their opposition.
* ''Videogame/{{Ingress}}'': The Enlightened want to infuse humanity with the Exotic Matter coming out of mysterious portals, as they have good reason to believe it's what gave humans creativity and ideas themselves, and direct exposure would uplift them to their full potential, while cutting them off completely would lead to the end of creativity itself. The Resistance believes this is a lie, that it's truly the beachhead for an alien invasion, and that the Exotic Matter allows them to take over minds, or even breach this dimension to invade it, so it must be shut off and destroyed. Both sides believe they're doing what is the right thing to do, both resort to underhanded tactics when they must, and both have good arguments and proof that their view is correct. But never enough to truly decide who is actually ''right'' in this conflict.

** The UPR are altruistic soldiers dedicated to rescuing and protecting refugees fleeing from the Varelsi threat. However beneath this otherwise good face, the faction has a dark side, one which is steeped in bureaucracy, draconian law enforcement, and even forbidden genetic experimentation and clone soldier production. This has led them to doing some hard and questionable decisions such as an forceful attempt to set a base on Ekkunar in the past until they were driven off by the Eldrid. Furthermore, where the other factions can be characterized by their position on how to save Solus, the UPR's focus is squarely on the preservation of life, no matter the cost even if the star is lost.
** The Eldrid are firm believers of being in harmony with natural laws of the universe. They prefer to simply observe, preserve, and catalog all that they can find and be one with nature rather than impose upon it. Although that maybe the case, their beliefs at its core are more the reverence of the natural order of the cosmos itself and less of life. They believe that the universe should be left alone to run its course even if it means natural death and entropy. As such, they greatly oppose anything that would disrupt the natural order of the universe even going so far in some cases as to attack or sabotage the efforts of certain other factions regardless of whatever these factions' motives may be.
** The LLC are a aristocratic merchant class focused solely on making a profit even at end of the universe. They sell weapons and such to the other factions regardless of the cost as long as they get paid. On top of that, even the kindest of the LLC members have an air of aristocracy, entitlement, and affluence that cannot completely be shed; whether that means a daily assumption that someone is there to clean your dress, or firmware-held beliefs that all beings of lesser classes must be eliminated to raise the value of the remaining universe. While they certainly wish to preserve the universe, if it were to come to a sudden and dramatic end, the LLC would be the group selling tickets to the live stream to watch the last battle.
** The Rogues are the truest form of outcasts, rejects and wanderers from every civilization and walk of life. They are vagabonds, pirates, raiders, mercenaries, hermits –beings who value personal freedom over anything else. For some Rogues, that freedom means a life of freeing possessions from other people. For other Rogues, it just means living in isolation, free from the rules, restrictions, and conflict of the rest of the universe. While not every Rogue is a criminal, certainly there are a few who just want to be left alone, but most Rogues value freedom and pleasure, sometimes in that order. The Rogues are wild, weird, and individualistic however despite their differences, the Rogues share one thing in common: They do want to survive. They have all spent their lives trying to avoid capture or destruction, and now that their home, the Last Star, is threatened, many of them will put their criminal empires on hold in order to turn their attentions to the real enemies – Rendain and the Varelsi.
** The Jennerit are the bad guys among the five factions. They're pragmatic and ruthless, more than willing to manipulate and control anything and everything to accomplish their goals and achieve what they view as perfect. They even go so far as to bend the natural laws of the universe in order to gain things such as immortal life. What they can't control or fix to fit their concepts of perfection, they destroy. The Jennerit are in essence everything associated with a stereotypical evil empire. Despite this however, they are not necessarily "the bad guys". Although they fit the bill, not all of them are evil. It's just that they're not nice and have rather "flexible ethics". The Jennerit did ally with the other factions against the Varelsi as the strongest military force before Rendain betrayed everyone and decided to have the Jennerit switch sides. Even then though, the Jennerit are split within Rendain's Imperium between those who follow him and those who rebel against him. In fact, Rendain himself is not exactly evil as he's ultimately driven by a desire to save something of the universe from what he perceives as inevitable even if it means screwing everyone else.

* ''VisualNovel/IkemenSengoku'': Nobunaga Oda and his warlord allies are willing to kill countless people, but do it to fulfill their larger ambition to unite Japan and bring lasting peace to the country, and they also believe in modernizing Japan and eliminating class-based discrimination. Shingen Takeda, Kenshin Uesugi, and their followers all want to kill Nobunaga, but their reasons for wanting to do so are quite understandable (most of them lost many loved ones because of Nobunaga) and they [[EnemyMine join forces]] with Nobunaga's allies on multiple game routes after a third party resorts to dishonorable tactics in combat that neither of them approve of. Kennyo is the one character who comes the closest to being "black", often serving as the role of the aforementioned third party that unites the Oda and Takeda-Uesugi forces against him, but even he gets SympathyForTheDevil moments as a once-kind monk who hates Nobunaga for killing his monk friends.

** The Huana are the indigenous people of the Deadfire Archipelago, and a vibrant culture capable of creating things of great beauty. However, Huana culture is strictly caste-based, and does not respect private property. Instead, resources are owned by the tribe as a whole, and distributed by the ''ranga'' (chief) according to need. While this works well enough in the small tribal societies the Huana have traditionally lived in, the rapid urbanization brought on by increased trade have made the situation untenable for many low-caste Huana. To add to that, chiefs tend to respond angrily and violently to any attempts to offer their subjects charity, as this is a smear on their ability to distribute resources, and implies not-so-subtly that they aren't doing their job.

** The Vailian Trading Company is a profit-driven MegaCorp known for always fulfilling its contracts and will generally refrain from any too blatant abuses in favor of honest trading. However, they will enforce contracts that require them to deliver medicine to remote communities at a loss and contracts that require natives to cede their ancestral lands for a pittance with the exact same fervor, and have no problems with dealing in narcotics, slaves, weapons, illegal magical artifacts and a number of other less-than-savory goods.

** The Royal Deadfire Company is for all intents an purposes a branch of the Ruautaian navy, intent on bringing the Deadfire Archipelago to heel through a combination of cultural imperialism and military force. The Ruautai gleefully engage in every dirty trick and filthy practice engaged in by real world imperialists, and their end goal would likely mean the end of Huana culture. However, the Ruautai are not primarily out for wealth or power, but food. The Ruautai homeland is facing a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malthusian_catastrophe Malthusian catastrophe]], and without a massive increase in food supply, starvation will soon follow. Meanwhile, the Huana live in small coastal settlements on massively fertile islands mostly covered in jungle. Trade is not an option either, since Ruautai basically only produces copper, saltpeter and warriors, none of which the Huana are buying, and the Huana are mostly hunter-gatherers or subsistence farmers with little food to sell. Also, there is precious little to suggest the majority of the Huana would be worse off as Ruautai, and at least some things suggest it would be an improvement for many.

*** Among the Principi, Captain Furrante represents the Old Guard, and still considers himself to be a Vailian noble aspiring to retake his homeland. He is charming, clever, and believes in a certain ''noblesse obligé'' which also means he holds himself to a, in some ways, very high standard of honor. At the same time, he is intensely classist, and willing to skirt the edges of his code in many ways if it brings him closer to his end goal.
*** Furrante's main rival, Aeldys, represents the New Blood among the Principi. She has no connection of any kind to Vailia, and is very blatantly in it only for the money. She is rough, mean, callous, bloodthirsty and pretty much everything Furrante is not. However, she is very straightforward, hates and actively hunts slavers, and is one of few characters in the game who is always completely honest.

** The Royal Deadfire Company is for all intents an purposes a branch of the Ruautaian navy, intent on bringing the Deadfire Archipelago to heel through a combination of cultural imperialism and military force. The Ruautai gleefully engage in every dirty trick and filthy practice engaged in by real world imperialists, and their end goal would likely mean the end of Huana culture. However, the Ruautai are not primarily out for wealth or power, but food. The Ruautai homeland is facing a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malthusian_catastrophe Malthusian catastrophe]], and without a massive increase in food supply, starvation will soon follow. Meanwhile, the Huana live in small coastal settlements on massively fertile islands mostly covered in jungle. Trade is not an option either, since Ruautai basically only produces copper, saltpeter and warriors, none of which the Huana are buying, and the Huana are mostly hunter-gatherers or subsistence farmers with little food to sell. Also, there is precious little to suggest the bulk of Huana would be worse off as Ruautai, and at least some things suggest it would be an improvement for many.

* ''VideoGame/MightAndMagic VIII'' is full of this: it features a BigBad whose only reason for being that is that he ''can't'' stop once he has started (no matter how much he wants to)[[note]]He was programmed that way as a security measure, to keep the Kreegans from subverting him[[/note]], a conflict between dragon hunters out for profit and xenophobic dragons that see nothing wrong with eating other sentients, and a war between the Necromancers' Guild of Jadame (who, in the modern day of the game, are a fairly laid-back bunch, mostly wanting to keep to themselves) and the Church of the Sun (who came to Jadame to wage war on Necromancers without provocation, and are somewhat corrupt and self-serving).

** The end has a large conflict featuring Ellie. [[spoiler:Marlene planned to use Ellie to create a vaccine to cure the Infected, which would ultimately result in her dying. Joel, because he saw her as another daughter, saves her before the Fireflies perform the surgery, thus wasting the chance to save the human race. If you were in Joel's shoes, would you do the same or would you let Ellie be used for a cure to save humanity?]]

* At ''Videogame/{{Freelancer}}'' most factions except the Xenos (who are obvious xenophobic omnicidal maniacs) and the Liberty Police (defending the land of freedom and whatnot) are somewhat guilty of this, ranging from farmers turned into terrorists, tree-huggers turned into terrorists and hackers turned into terrorists to tyrannical and corrupt regimes and corporations that would sell their mothers for money -and eventually causing said mothers to go terrorist-. Special mention goes to the Corsairs and Outcasts faction, whose mothership lost contact with the others during travel, forcing them to go outlaw in a way or the other, and the other factions subsequentially shoot upon them. Apparently diplomacy is an unknown concept to this universe.

* In ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'', both the Assassins and Templars seek a peaceful world, they just apply different methods, and neither side are purely good guys or bad guys. Supposedly. The success {{Creator/Ubisoft}} had in actually implementing this has been...mixed.
** In [[VideoGame/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 Altair believed it was wrong for him to do so through the illusion of brotherhood when the assassins had spent the whole time leading him to wisdom without needing mind control.) 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 and eventually succeeds Al-Mualim as grandmaster.
** Subversion in the [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII three]] [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedBrotherhood Ezio]] [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedRevelations games]]. Rodrigo is a blood-drenched tyrant, Cesare is an outright ''psychopath'', and most other Templars are butchers, extortionists, corrupt officials, thieves, usurpers, or shady schemers. There are some exceptions such as the lawyer who acted against his friends out of fear of the Medici, more humble TragicVillain, and Revelations provides a bit more grey with the more mild minded Palailogos who wants to regain his throne or the more noble intended[[spoiler: Ahmet]] who was "tired of divisions". There's also mentions of how assassin noninterference with overarching politics lead to some defections in the ranks. But overall, the templars are not portrayed in a very positive light. Meanwhile, Ezio originally joined the assassins for revenge, but grew into their talks of freedom and equality over the course of his life. And 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.
** They finally got right in [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII the third game]]. {{Creator/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]].

*** The templars meanwhile have a variety of motives in being part of the order, but all of them end up [[VillainHasAPoint having at least something worthwhile to say]] when discussing their motives and plans. Haytham in particular is a cynical but pragmatic leader who wants to create an order under the templars of equality and peace, but does so in so many unsavory and manipulative ways that he ends up driving his son away from him.

** ''[[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIVBlackFlag 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. There's also a bit of greying in that some of Edward's pirate friends are more rambunctious than he is, showing that he keeps problematic company. And some of the pirates even defect to the templars, believing either that the templars at least would take care of them compared to the chaos of striking on their own, or that the experiment of the Pirate Republic showed that the world needed to order Templars offer. So while there are seductive points to these templars, overall Edward concludes that as bad as he's been, what the templars are doing is even worse.
** ''[[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedRogue Rogue]]'' made a huge turn to the point where it almost qualifies as role reversal. Achilles is a problematic Mentor who makes an error in judgment, but who refuses to see his actions as problematic. The other Master Assassins are either too stupid to see the problem 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 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!
** ''[[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedUnity Unity]]'' gets back on track, but in a [[BrokenBase controversial way]]. The Continental Assassins are so wrapped up in arcane rules, methodology and hierarchy that they butt heads with Arno who favors more direct actions against enemies.(In one revealing scene, he brings Belloq to justice after Belloq murdered their Mentor, for which he's ''punished''.) The Assassins 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 split into 2 sides. One wing bears some similarities to the Assassins in being more moderated in their approach to influence government, and the Grandmaster of this branch was nice enough to take an assassin under his wing to care and then indoctrinate him gradually to their ways. But their being cozy to power itself leads another branch to create a 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 kind of chaos. Then once things settle down, the people will desire order above all else from structures rather than power, thus putting the Templars into power as the solution. Arno thwarts several of their plans, and despite the fact that he isn't popular at all within the Assassin organization, the revolutionary templars don't try to win him to their side. Ultimately their plan succeeds, but unfortunately their long term success is hampered after the death of their leader. 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).
** ''[[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedSyndicate Syndicate]]'' is also grey, but in a different sort of way. The templars in this game are captains of industry, science and power. In a sense, none of them are the VisionaryVillain of older generations, but are just trying to make their way in London area. Of course, this involves things like worker exploitation, human experiments with lethal consequences, trade monopolies, robbery, government assassination attempts and running city gangs. That being said though, their leader is a cool headed and even somewhat compassionate BenevolentBoss who loves his family, loyal underlings, and even raises wages to counter inflation during a financial crisis. The assassins meanwhile have been trying to work around London for generations, while our player characters are 2 kinds of problems. The male twin Jacob is a DestructiveSavior who often causes problems for ordinary people as he goes around killing templars, but at least he's trying to move forward with generally improving the city. The female twin Evie meanwhile is more interested in going after the Pieces of Eden and learning more about London before helping in, but her tunnel vision can sometimes bring out frustration from her brother on her perceived lack of action. Both however DO want to help out the masses, and both in the end are shown to be hopeful, strong assassins who are all about saving lives, just with different emphasis on how to do that. Near the end of the game, their roles even switch for a time, with Jacob wanting to sit back and wait while Evie wants to bust heads.

** The Hylden have a single redeeming feature? Or are we just talking about freakish abominations not imprisoned in another universe?
*** Easy to believe that they were the victims until you realize that their genocide machine was in development before they got banished.

** The [[ZombieApocalypse Flood]] had killed and infected trillions of people, but their leading hive mind, [[EldritchAbomination Gravemind]], sincerely believes that he simply [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans bring peace and prosperity]] to a galaxy which simply doesn't understand the Flood due to ignorance and fear ...[[spoiler:though ''Literature/TheForerunnerSaga'' muddles this somewhat by directly noting that the Flood were created in part to be a ''revenge'' against the Forerunners by their own Precursors]].
* ''[[VideoGame/{{Langrisser}} Der Langrisser]]'' definitely falls into this trope. No matter what side you choose you'll end up fighting for peace while doing awful things in the way. There's no possible path that spares you the dramatic scene and the guilt of killing someone decent. You kill [[spoiler:Vargas, who's just had a little daughter, and get to watch Leon tell his wife the sad news]] in the Light path, and you slaughter [[spoiler:Scott and his father, in a rather cruel fashion]] in all others.

** There's a major WhatTheHellPlayer moment in C&C 3, as if you're playing as GDI (the ''"good"'' guys), on the last mission you can choose to use a bomb that will kill hundreds of millions and destroy all of Europe. For this, the rational General who seemed like a pretty stand-up guy resigns in disgust, and the slimy politician (whose incompetence was [[AllAccordingToPlan all part of Kane's Plan]]) ''promotes you''.

** Attempting to lump any of those factions into anything resembling an alignment has more to do with the player's agreement with that faction's rhetoric than actual in-game observation. Example: Lady Deirdre Sky and the (supposedly) peace-loving tree huggers actually breeding and using said mind-raping worms as a military, or Chairman Yang really just promoting social harmony. Once you've played a game where Brother Lal (leader of the so-called "Pacifist" faction) or Lady Deirdre are that game's evil empire who starts dropping planet busters on you when you start picking apart their faction (a war which almost invariably occurs because -they- declared war on you for not giving in to their extortion demands), you begin to understand that Alpha Centauri truly does live this trope.
*** Indeed, every faction represents a rather broad philosophy on human kind, and every faction will use evil strategies particularly against a rising faction who's philosophy they see as evil. The Peacekeepers for instance favor diplomacy and democracy, so they're inevitably against you having any government (no matter how effective and moral) except democracy, and if you don't they're willing to massacre your people to change your regime by force. If you're not a police state, the Hive will be against you because they think religious states are stupid and that voting power in the hands of the weak masses leads to decadence, chaos and corruption. If you're not a theocratic state the Believers are against you. If you're not using the capitalist economic model Morgan Industries will think you're stifling economic progress and you need replacing. If you're not using a green economic model then the Gaians will treat you like you're exploiting and destroying the oh so pure environment and are evil. The Spartans will only respect people who value power and the University will only respect those who value knowledge. No matter what, some factions will dislike you and thus insult, harass, threaten, demand, and even attack you. You have to find deal with them one way or another. None of the core factions are necessarily bad, even the Hive can be very good for humanity, it's just a tightly controlled harsh parenting sort of good. Certain factions lend themselves better towards doing particular evil things because they get better bonuses (or less penalties) for those things, the Hive easily can and usually will default to wicked self interested tyranny rather than being some kind of ethical enlightened philosopher king. But even the most noble seeming factions can and will support their leader ordering outrageous and evil things, and they will be an asshole to you if you're not on their side. Even the most evil seeming factions, or the factions most dead set against you can be peacefully negotiated with, appeased and won over through multiple nonmilitary victory conditions.

** The prequel, ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution'' continues the tradition by asking you to side with one of three competing viewpoints regarding human augmentation and subsequently nudge the public interest in that direction... But you also get a fourth choice where you can refuse all of them and leave the world's to decide it's own fate (of course being a prequel to the first Deus Ex, the results are pretty much foregone no matter what you decide).

** Although ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles'' averts this [[spoiler:at least once Zanza gets involved]], ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'' does show quite a few shades of it. Mor Ardain is aggressively expansionist and has a few corrupt officials running around. [[spoiler:but they're only expanding to find a new homeland as their Titan is dying and the king who runs the whole thing is a good man.]] Uraya seems to be better than Mor Ardain, but they seem unusually reluctant to cool tensions between the two nations [[spoiler:even aftr negotiations in Indol]] and the nation as a whole suffers from severe social stratification between the haves and have-nots. The people of Tantal are starving to death and their rulers (who are descendants pf Addam) [[spoiler:aren't even descendants of Addam, but they're having to pay off debts to Indol and keep Ophion in check so no one can repeat what Amalthus did and grab an Aegis.]] Torna runs the gamut from OmnicidalManiac ([[spoiler:Malos]]) to WellIntentionedExtremist ([[spoiler:Jin]]), and the good intentions of the heroes [[spoiler:are massively offset by the fact that they're purely on their journey because Pyra and Mythra [[DeathSeeker want to die]].]] The only truly good or bad groups are the heroes as the former, [[spoiler: and Amalthus and Malos as the latter, and the latter villain's case is purely because of the former.]]

* ''VideoGame/TheOuterWorlds'' features this trope very prominently, as many quests have no clear-cut best outcome: many times, your choices may well screw someone over while you try to help others. An example from early in the game has you on a quest to find a power regulator for your ship so it can fly again. The leader of the town of Edgewater points you towards a camp of Deserters, who has a power regulator in their botanical lab, and instructs you to redirect power from the geothermal plant away from their lab and to Edgewater so you can safely extract it. The Deserter camp, however, is a thriving community of those who turned their backs on Spacer's Choice, the MegaCorp that owns Edgewater and regularly works their employees to death. The Deserter camp's leader proposes directing power towards their lab instead, and take the power converter in Edgewater. Whoever you direct power away from will end up in dire straits: directing power away from Edgewater will leave a lot of innocent employees out of work, but directing power away from the Deserter camp will leave them at the mercy of Marauders and hostile wildlife. While you benefit from either outcome, you're gonna have to piss off a lot of people to help their opposition.

** This is Squall's worldview in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII''. "There is no good or evil; just two sides with different views." Although, the world this time around turned out to be more BlackAndGrayMorality.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics''. In the beginning, two princes are fighting each other for the throne. Since it is basically the [[UsefulNotes/WarsOfTheRoses War of the Roses]] in the form of Final Fantasy, neither side is really good. Later in the game it becomes more like BlackAndGrayMorality once the Church and [[spoiler:Delita]] start playing more significant roles in the war. [[spoiler:Delita, while he ultimately does stop the kingdom from falling into complete chaos, uses any and every Machiavellian method available to him in order to accomplish his goals. The Church is basically controlled by Satan]]. The only white to be found is Ramza and his fate is [[spoiler:[[CrapsackWorld to become a footnote in history]]]].
** {{Deconstructed}}: While Ramza's actions [[spoiler:are covered up by the Church for centuries, he is eventually vindicated — and his morally white actions ''do'' save Ivalice]]. Meanwhile, [[spoiler:the Church's]] power is shaken, and [[spoiler:Delita, the poster child for the game's Grey and Gray Morality, ends the game miserable, wounded, and utterly alone.]]

** ''[[VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia Vesperia]]'': Alexei wanted to use Zaude to [[spoiler:force the world to stop its reliance on blastia which is slowly killing it -- unaware that it is actually ''the'' seal to an EldritchAbomination]]. Yeager is an amoral mercenary who [[spoiler:gives his earnings to an orphanage and has adopted two girls to be his sidecicks]]. On the heroes' side, [[VigilanteMan Yuri]] is more than willing to [[NecessarilyEvil stain his hands with blood in the name of justice]], while [[KnightInShiningArmor Flynn]] believes in the power of law and order [[LawfulStupid to the point of overlooking the basics of morality]]. As for the overarching plot, it comes down to a debate between preservation of nature at humanity's expense versus alteration of nature to suit human needs at expense of other lifeforms.
** ''[[VideoGame/TalesOfBerseria Berseria]]'': On the playable, good guys side, you have the AntiHeroTeam of criminals and terrorists led by Velvet Crow, [[spoiler:the first Lord of Calamity]], who has a single minded obsession with revenge against the BigBad and is perfectly willing to kill anyone in her way but has a softer side versus [[TragicVillain Artorius]] a WellIntentionedExtremist who wants to bring about a WorldOfSilence to save humanity from the threat of Malevolence. Neither side is truly good or truly bad.

** [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIVBlackFlag 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. There's also a bit of greying in that some of Edward's pirate friends are more rambunctious than he is, showing that he keeps problematic company. And some of the pirates even defect to the templars, believing either that the templars at least would take care of them compared to the chaos of striking on their own, or that the experiment of the Pirate Republic showed that the world needed to order Templars offer. So while there are seductive points to these templars, overall Edward concludes that as bad as he's been, what the templars are doing is even worse.
** [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedRogue Rogue]] made a huge turn to the point where it almost qualifies as role reversal. Achilles is a problematic Mentor who makes an error in judgment, but who refuses to see his actions as problematic. The other Master Assassins are either too stupid to see the problem 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 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!
** [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedUnity Unity]] gets back on track, but in a [[BrokenBase controversial way]]. The Continental Assassins are so wrapped up in arcane rules, methodology and hierarchy that they butt heads with Arno who favors more direct actions against enemies.(In one revealing scene, he brings Belloq to justice after Belloq murdered their Mentor, for which he's ''punished''.) The Assassins 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 split into 2 sides. One wing bears some similarities to the Assassins in being more moderated in their approach to influence government, and the Grandmaster of this branch was nice enough to take an assassin under his wing to care and then indoctrinate him gradually to their ways. But their being cozy to power itself leads another branch to create a 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 kind of chaos. Then once things settle down, the people will desire order above all else from structures rather than power, thus putting the Templars into power as the solution. Arno thwarts several of their plans, and despite the fact that he isn't popular at all within the Assassin organization, the revolutionary templars don't try to win him to their side. Ultimately their plan succeeds, but unfortunately their long term success is hampered after the death of their leader. 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).
** [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedSyndicate Syndicate]] is also grey, but in a different sort of way. The templars in this game are captains of industry, science and power. In a sense, none of them are the VisionaryVillain of older generations, but are just trying to make their way in London area. Of course, this involves things like worker exploitation, human experiments with lethal consequences, trade monopolies, robbery, government assassination attempts and running city gangs. That being said though, their leader is a cool headed and even somewhat compassionate BenevolentBoss who loves his family, loyal underlings, and even raises wages to counter inflation during a financial crisis. The assassins meanwhile have been trying to work around London for generations, while our player characters are 2 kinds of problems. The male twin Jacob is a DestructiveSavior who often causes problems for ordinary people as he goes around killing templars, but at least he's trying to move forward with generally improving the city. The female twin Evie meanwhile is more interested in going after the Pieces of Eden and learning more about London before helping in, but her tunnel vision can sometimes bring out frustration from her brother on her perceived lack of action. Both however DO want to help out the masses, and both in the end are shown to be hopeful, strong assassins who are all about saving lives, just with different emphasis on how to do that. Near the end of the game, their roles even switch for a time, with Jacob wanting to sit back and wait while Evie wants to bust heads.

** Although ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles'' averts this [[spoiler:at least once Zanza gets involved]], ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'' does show quite a few shades of it. Mor Ardain is aggressively expansionist and has a few corrupt officials running around [[spoiler:but they're only expanding to find a new homeland as their Titan is dying and the king who runs the whole thing is a good man.]] Uraya seems to be better than Mor Ardain, but they seem unusually reluctant to cool tensions between the two nations [[spoiler:even aftr negotiations in Indol]] and the nation as a whole suffers from severe social stratification between the haves and have-nots. The people of Tantal are starving to death and their rulers (who are descendant from Addam) [[spoiler:aren't even descendant from Addam, but they're having to pay off debts to Indol and keep Ophion in check so no one can repeat what Amalthus did and grab an Aegis.]] Torna runs the gamut from OmnicidalManiac ([[spoiler:Malos]]) to WellIntentionedExtremist ([[spoiler:Jin]]), and the good intentions of the heroes [[spoiler:are massively offset by the fact that they're purely on their journey because Pyra and Mythra [[DeathSeeker want to die]].]] The only truly good or bad groups are the heroes, [[spoiler:Amalthus and Malos, and the latter villain's case is purely because of the former.]]

* ''Franchise/FireEmblem''
** Daein and Crimea engage in this for most of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn'' (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.
** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'' has no entirely good or bad side. Everyone ends up doing morally ambiguous things at one point or another and any villainous character doesn't reflect the faction as a whole. The only exception is Those That Slither In The Dark, a group that everyone hates, including the more morally-grey characters. To further drive in this trope, GoldenEnding is soundly averted: every ending results in the destruction or abdication of at least 2 of the major factions.

* In the story of ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'', the Tenno first seem like the saviors of a system in terrible need of them, fighting against the corrupt Corpus and the imperious Grineer. Looking closer at their objectives, however, reveals that the factions all have their reasons for wanting to succeed. The Grineer want to control the system with the rules and boundaries that fell apart after the Orokin empire's fall, while the Corpus want to revive the fallen Orokin technology and bring mankind back into prominence. The Tenno even get a case of WhatTheHellHero when it's revealed that they are the ones who destroyed the Orokin empire in the first place and so caused the system to fall into its disrepair. Later updates, however, move things closer to BlackAndGreyMorality, revealing, among other things, [[spoiler:that the Grineer are actually being lead by two surviving Orokin, that the Corpus is essentially a merchant cult whose leaders tried to murder their founder for being too nice, that the Orokin were some of the worst AbusivePrecursors in all fiction, and that the Tenno wiped out the Orokin because of the innumerable number of atrocities the golden lords committed on both the Tenno and the innocents of the Origin System]]. Furthermore, Tenno's ArchEnemy, the Sentients, are about to return to the system, and the Tenno are the only ones trying to take proactive steps toward repelling the Sentients for the sake of the colonies in the Origin System, while everyone else is instead trying to exploit the return of the Sentients for their own benefit.

*** In one example in the Stonetalon Mountains, you join Krom'Gar's army and work your way up through his ranks. He then murders some innocents and drops a nuke (kind of) on the land. He's executed, and you nearly get executed by Garrosh too for all the help you inadvertently gave him while questing eagerly for ranks. Whenever you realise that you've been helping a total psycho, it's something of an OhCrap moment.

* In the story of ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'', the Tenno first seem like the saviors of a system in terrible need of them, fighting against the corrupt Corpus and the imperious Grineer. Looking closer at their objectives, however, reveals that the factions all have their reasons for wanting to succeed. The Grineer want to control the system with the rules and boundaries that fell apart after the Orokin empire's fall, while the Corpus want to revive the fallen Orokin technology and bring mankind back into prominence. The Tenno even get a case of WhatTheHellHero when it's revealed that they are the ones who destroyed the Orokin empire in the first place and so caused the system to fall into its disrepair.

** Although ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles'' averts this [[spoiler:at least once Zanza gets involved]], ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'' does show quite a few shades of it. Mor Ardain is aggressively expansionist and has a few corrupt officials running around [[spoiler:but they're only expanding to find a new homeland as their Titan is dying and the king who runs the whole thing is a good man.]] Uraya seems to be better than Mor Ardain, but they seem unusually reluctant to cool tensions between the two nations [[spoiler:even aftr negotiations in Indol]], the people of Tantal are starving to death and their rulers (who are descendant from Addam) [[spoiler:aren't even descendant from Addam, but they're having to pay off debts to Indol and keep Ophion in check so no one can repeat what Amalthus did and grab an Aegis.]] Torna runs the gamut from OmnicidalManiac ([[spoiler:Malos]]) to WellIntentionedExtremist ([[spoiler:Jin]]), and the good intentions of the heroes [[spoiler:are massively offset by the fact that they're purely on their journey because Pyra and Mythra [[DeathSeeker want to die]].]] The only truly good or bad groups are the heroes, [[spoiler:Amalthus and Malos, and the latter villain's case is purely because of the former.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Furi}}'': Aside from the few unambiguously [[HeroAntagonist heroic characters]], such as [[KnightInShiningArmor The Hand]], who fights to [[PapaWolf protect his son]] and the Free World, or [[AllLovingHero The Beat]], who aspires to be [[HopeBringer a benevolent guardian of hope]] and believes in the best of others, a majority of the characters aren't truly good or evil, making them ripe for different character interpretations. The Edge becomes one of the Jailers not because he wants to SaveTheWorld, rather because he wants to find a WorthyOpponent, The Burst is an [[ArrogantKungFuGuy Arrogant]] BloodKnight, but she has shades of FriendlySniper by considering The Stranger as a WorthyOpponent, and The Song could either be seen as a BitchInSheepsClothing or a SheepInSheepsClothing. Some of the other Jailers may be AxCrazy, but they also have good reasons for imprisoning The Stranger, [[spoiler: who's actually [[ThoseWereOnlyTheirScouts an alien scout]] that's checking if the Free World is fit for assimilation. Even The Voice can be seen in a muddy light. He [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom risks the Free World's safety]] by freeing The Stranger so that he can see his daughter again. Should The Stranger succeed, doing so will doom the Free World and its populace. Whether The Stranger stays faithful to his purpose or not is up to the player, but even if The Stranger chooses to defy it, his goals may or may not be entirely selfless. The only character who can be villainous is The Star, who came up with the EvilPlan of [[AssimilationPlot assimilating]] the Free World for the survival of The Strangers' creators, but the game intentionally makes it ambiguous whether she's a genuine WellIntentionedExtremist or just a [[ManipulativeBastard manipulative]] [[PlanetLooters Planet Looter]].]]
** HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: The Stranger can choose to end his violent escape by accepting The Song's offer, or defy The Star's EvilPlan by fighting her to [[SaveTheWorld save The Free World]], but whether his actions are selfless or not is left ambiguous.]]

** 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 [[IDidWhatIHadToDo was necessary]] to save Skyrim and the rest of the empire and buy time to prepare for future war with the Dominion. The Empire also use a lot of flimsy excuses for their imperialism from [[AppealToFear "The Empire is the only thing keeping the Dominion out of Skyrim!"]] to [[CulturalPosturing "The Empire is the one guiding light in Tamriel and without it the other races will fall into barbarism and anarchy, including the Nords! No wait, ESPECIALLY the Nords!"]]; they also engage in some activities that would be considered war crimes to a modern audience. The Stormcloak Rebellion wants an independent kingdom and freedom of religion, but they don't consider the possibility they might have to work with the Empire to defeat the Dominion, and are 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.

* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: The Stranger can choose to end his violent escape by accepting The Song's offer, or defy The Star's EvilPlan by fighting her to [[SaveTheWorld save The Free World]], but whether his actions are selfless or not is left ambiguous.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Furi}}'': Aside from the few unambiguously [[HeroAntagonist heroic characters]], such as The Hand, a KnightInShiningArmor who fights to [[PapaWolf protect his son]] and the Free World, or [[AllLovingHero The Beat]], a young girl who aspires to be [[HopeBringer a benevolent guardian of hope]] and believes in the best of others, a majority of the characters aren't truly good or evil, making them ripe for different character interpretations. The Edge becomes one of the Jailers not because he wants to SaveTheWorld, rather because he wants to find a WorthyOpponent, The Burst may be a [[ArrogantKungFuGuy snobby]] ColdSniper, but she's just doing her job like her peers, and The Song could either be seen as a BitchInSheepsClothing (according to The Voice at least) or a SheepInSheepsClothing. Some of the other Jailers may be AxCrazy, but like the mentally stable Jailers, they also have good reasons for imprisoning the Stranger, [[spoiler: who's actually an alien scout that's checking if the Free World is fit for assimilation. Should he succeed, doing so would doom the Free World and its populace. Whether The Stranger stays faithful to his purpose or not is up to the player, but even if The Stranger chooses to defy it, The Stranger's goals may or may not be entirely selfless. The only character who can be villainous is The Star, as she came up with the EvilPlan of [[AssimilationPlot assimilating]] the Free World for the survival of The Strangers' creators, but the game intentionally makes it ambiguous whether she's a genuine WellIntentionedExtremist or just a [[ManipulativeBastard manipulative]] [[PlanetLooters Planet Looter]].]]

** The Vailian Trading Company is a profit-driven MegaCorp, and while it is perfectly willing to enforce leonine contracts and trade in slaves, the VTC is also known for always fulfilling its contracts, and will generally refrain from any too blatant abuses in favor of honest trading, knowing that happy customers are repeat customers.

** Queen Onekaza II of the Huana is trying to keep the peace in the Deadfire while maintaining her people's traditions. However, the injustices of the Huana caste system cannot be denied (though Onekaza is a cautious reformer), and she's happy to engage in DirtyBusiness for her people.
** Director Castol of the Valian Trading Company believes that luminous adra and animancy will change the world, but he's also an agent of the profit-driven Vailian Trading Company, which tolerates slavery (all slaves must be from outside the Deadfire, as a concession to the Huana), although there's some room to change the latter.
** The Royal Deadfire Company wants to peace and stability to the region with their advanced technology, but that will likely mean war and the erasure of Huana culture -- both the good and the bad parts.
** The Principi are a band of cutthroat pirates, but there are ideals of freedom and independence. Aeldys may be brutal, but she's been fighting against the slavers longer than anyone else.

* ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' has this, hard: The New California Republic are well-intentioned and filled with good people, but are ruthless expansionists, suffocated by bureaucracy and corruption, and would be spread way too thin to bring true safety to the Mojave Wasteland. Mr. House is genuine in his desire to rebuild lawful civilization and has the intelligence and resources to do so, but only cares about New Vegas and enforces his laws with an iron fist, ruthlessly executing anyone who opposes his rule. The Legion are a group of [[ScienceIsBad regressive]], misogynistic and violent Slavers who are held together by [[CultOfPersonality one intelligent man]], but are [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans the only group capable of enforcing genuine security within the Mojave Wasteland]] and would actually be a boon to travelling merchants. The Wild Card route allows the PlayerCharacter to take over New Vegas themselves, but this requires the murder of Mr. House and there is nothing to indicate that they can succeed where the other factions would fail.

* And, of course, the tradition continues into ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}''. The Brotherhood of Steel have reverted back to their former conservatism, becoming arrogant, xenophobic, tech-grabbing conquerors who are pushing their way into the Boston region and who are characterised by extreme FantasticRacism. However, they also dedicate themselves to wiping out real threats such as feral ghouls and mutants (as well as synths and non-feral ghouls) and actually have the military power to ensure security. The Minutemen are unambiguously good guys, but are notably inefficient, to the point of being virtually extinct at the game's start. Also, with the player character at the helm early on, ultimately the player's motivations dictate the course of the faction. The Institute are xenophobic manipulators who want to destroy all remnants of the "old world" and reshape the Commonwealth into what they want it to be -- but who prize innovation and scientific discovery, and want to create a world superior to the old one. Lastly, the Railroad seem to be good guys who oppose the slavery and oppression of Synths, who they believe are sentient beings, but they care very little for the Commonwealth as a whole and the methods they'll use and the lengths they'll go to in order to achieve their goals are a little extreme... There's also the fact that [[spoiler:the only ending in the game which doesn't involve you betraying and killing your BigBad son is through siding with the Institute, and doing so will mean you'll have to wipe out the sympathetic, helpful Railroad who helped you find him.]]

* The SuccessionCrisis in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins''. The Dwarf origin stories give you some pretty clear reasons for supporting each. Commoners would want to support Bhelen because he fights to end the oppressive caste system and wants to open the country more to the outside. Nobles would want to support Harrowmont because it's their father's wishes and he's more "Traditional". You also have a personal reason for doing so, Harrowmont is a ''very'' nice guy and a ReasonableAuthorityFigure, as he fights ''hard'' to make sure the dwarf noble is given a fair trial. Bhelen meanwhile fights hard to get to the throne...to near sociopathic levels, as he's [[spoiler:rightfully]] suspected of killing his older brother and getting his other sibling blamed for it. [[note]]The noble even has a chance to call him out on this, during which he has almost ''no remorse'' for it unless you compliment him and say he was better at playing the game[[/note]] To a Commoner, Harrowmount is a classist asshole to you while Bhelen is not only polite and respectful, he's your sister's loving fiance (and later husband). Oh, and to keep things up, Bhelen, if chosen, becomes a [[spoiler:dictator who leads his city into a new era of prosperity]]. Harrowmont meanwhile [[spoiler:dies partly due to the stress of ruling and causes Orzammar to fall into decay while expanding its isolationist practices]].

* The Deadfire Archipelago in ''PillarsOfEternityIIDeadfire'' is a mess of morally grey factions, pretty much all of whom have high ideals but ask for DirtyBusiness before they trust the player.