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Overview: The best story games
Some of the best video games are known for their action, adventure, and fantasy elements, but one of the things that makes certain games stick around is their deep, cinematic, and emotionally moving stories. Just like reading a good book or watching a great movie, you can truly connect with the characters and stories in video games.
Like other story-driven art forms, video games come in a wide range of genres, including horror, science fiction, westerns, and even romance. In fact, some games can move us to tears with their heartwarming or emotionally moving perspectives.
We've compiled a list of the best story games, including selections we've played ourselves, games nominated for or won at The Game Awards, and games rated 4 stars or higher by gamers on Amazon and Best Buy. I did. GOG.com and Humble Bundle digital distribution platforms as well. Here are our top choices.
on the article
- What are the best story games?
- Buying guide; how to choose the best story game
What are the best story games?
Ahead, there are some of the best story-driven video games you should consider playing in 2024. All picks are sold by reputable online retailers, have received positive reviews from gaming critics, have been nominated for or won major gaming awards, and feature at least 4 or 5 stars. Masu. Reviews from gamers.
1. “The Legend of Zelda: Kingdom of Tears”
With a deeply moving story, open-world mechanics, and quirky characters, The Legend of Zelda: Kingdom of Tears One of the best games for Nintendo Switch. You play as Link, a warrior and champion of Hyrule, on a quest to travel through time to find Princess Zelda. Along the way, you travel to distant regions, rescue creatures, go on side quests and adventures, and become a hero as you gain experience and combat skills to defeat the evil Ganondorf and restore Hyrule to its former glory. Discover what it means to be. A cataclysmic disaster that begins the game.
The Legend of Zelda: Kingdom of Tears While The Legend of Zelda is a masterpiece of Nintendo gaming, its pick-and-go learning curve makes it easy to play but difficult and difficult to master for beginners and Zelda experts alike. This game is also a great example of how the journey is more important than the destination, so enjoy every second.
through our play, The Legend of Zelda: Kingdom of Tears It is a dramatic improvement over its predecessor, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, in just about every way, from its emotional storytelling and open-world design to its advanced combat mechanics and impressive cast of characters. Simple or complex, your playing experience is completely up to you.
2. “Baldur's Gate 3”
baldur's gate 3 is a role-playing fantasy game with an open-world design that can be played on Sony PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows PC. Although it is a single-player game, it also offers online multiplayer cooperative mechanics.
This fantasy game offers numerous quests and side adventures for solo gameplay. You can also go online, gather your party, and hit the road. baldur's gate 3 takes place throughout the Forgotten Realms in the world of. Dungeons & Dragons, when you wake up, there is a mind-controlling parasite in your brain. The game is based on your choices. You can fight off evil thoughts and resist the darkness due to the parasites, or you can succumb to the darkness and gain absolute power and destruction in the realm.
meanwhile, baldur's gate 3 It received high praise from critics for its high-quality script, storyline, production quality, romance elements, and voice acting, which effectively combined tabletop gameplay and gaming. In fact, this is his 2023 Game of the Year award and Golden Joystick winner.
3. “Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection”
For Sony's PlayStation 5, Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection combine Uncharted 4: The End of Thieves and its expansion pack lost heritage All in one package. This adventure game follows two treasure hunters, Sam and Nathan Drake, as they chase Captain Henry Avery's long-lost pirate booty. The two set out on a journey to find the Libertalia pirate colony in the deep forests of Madagascar. The game takes you on an adventure through jungles, cities, and mountains in search of the ultimate prize: riches.
Uncharted: Lost Legacy It's another adventure in the game. However, the main character is different: Chloe Fraser, a treasure hunter who searches for Ganesh's fangs in the Western Ghats in the mountains of India. She teams up with former mercenary Nadine Ross to search for her treasure while preventing a civil war.
Both adventures were nominated for the Golden Joystick Award for Best Storytelling in 2016 and 2017, respectively.
4. “The Last of Us, Part I & Part II”
Winner of the Golden Joystick Award for Best Storytelling. The Last of Us, Parts 1 and 2 Both are playable on the Sony PlayStation 5 and elevate the post-apocalyptic zombie genre with nuance, pure emotion, and just a touch of subversion. In fact, the storytelling in the game is so skillfully told that it has now been adapted into a successful television series, winning eight Emmy Awards on HBO.
The story begins when Joel, his brother Tommy, and daughter Sarah are fleeing Austin, Texas, when a mysterious outbreak begins. However, during the frenzy, Sarah is shot and killed by a soldier. Twenty years later, the world is overrun with zombie-like creatures, but the fate of humanity rests in the hands of a young girl named Ellie. Joel must travel and protect Ellie at all costs, but the two form a bond that will either live or die.
5. “Alan Wake II”
Winner of the 2023 Game Awards for Best Narrative (also Best Game Direction and Best Art Direction); Alan Wake II The game, available on Sony PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S, is a survival horror game with elements of mystery and detective stories.
The game tells the story of Alan Wake, a horror writer who has been trapped in an alternate dimension and has been trying to escape for the past 13 years. But a nightmare about writing a story about Saga Anderson keeps him awake and stuck. In his role as an FBI agent, Anderson tracks down a serial killer in the fictional small town of Bright Falls in the Pacific Northwest. Alan Wake must solve the mysteries of the game and story to help him escape his nightmare.
Fun fact: Alan Wake II ” was released in 2023. This is actually 13 years after the first game in the series was released in 2010.
6. “Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition”
For Xbox Series X/S, Sony PlayStation 5 and PC, Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition is a Gamescom Award-winning dystopian sci-fi action game set in a fictional Night City in the distant future. You play as Character V, a mercenary equipped with a cybernetic “biochip” implant featuring the biometrics and personality of ex-terrorist turned rock star Johnny Silverhand (modeled and voiced by Keanu Reeves) To do. But once the consciousness of the Silver Hand begins to take over your character, you must do everything possible to separate yourself from the charismatic visionary.
7. Red Dead Redemption II
Set in the Wild West era of 1899, Red Dead Redemption II The game for PC, Xbox, and PlayStation is a prequel, massive open-world game that encourages you to explore and interact with the world around you to earn experience points and combat points. You play as Arthur his Morgan, one of his members of the Vanderlinde gang, and must save a family of outlaws from the invasion of law and order in order to civilize the West.
And since the gameplay depends on your decisions and actions, the longer you play, the more you become absorbed in the lives of the characters and why they want to live up to the gray morality of survival in early 20th century America. It will be.
8. “Horizon Forbidden West”
Winner of the Golden Joystick Award for Best Storytelling in 2022; Horizon Forbidden West PlayStation 5 is set in the post-apocalyptic “Burning Shores” of America's West Coast, the ruins of Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Las Vegas.
The story follows Aloy, a young hunter from the Nora tribe. She continues her journey to the “Forbidden West” with her band to find the cause of a mysterious and extremely deadly plague in an open-world adventure. Along her journey, she discovers new tribes, regions, and conflicts in her quest to end the plague and restore Earth to its former glory.
9. “Plague Story: Requiem”
Released in 2022, Tale of the Plague: Requiem is an action-adventure stealth game in which players must hide from enemies while following the story. Set in southern France during the Black Death in the 14th century, the story follows brother and sister Amicia and Hugo de Lune as they investigate Hugo's blood disease. They must sneak around to avoid the pranks of Inquisition soldiers and rats.
Tale of the Plague: Requiem The game, which is playable on Xbox Series Nominated for a Game Award.
Buying guide; how to choose the best story game
When it comes to story games, there are many factors to consider when choosing the best one. Below are some of the key points we considered when putting together this roundup.
storage: Modern games are like a double-edged sword. While it has some great things like in-depth storytelling, realistic graphics, precise controls, and online multiplayer, it also has some drawbacks like console storage space, long download times, and huge files. Long gone are the days of plugging a cartridge into a console and playing your favorite games. You have to wait a long time (sometimes minutes, sometimes hours) for the game to fully load on your system. This can be very frustrating if you just want to play video games.
It's important to be aware of file size and storage capacity. 1 TB of storage may sound like a lot, but if you have games that are over 100 GB in size, you can easily exceed that capacity.
Awards: It can be difficult to find a good story game at first glance. You know the old saying, “Never judge a book by its cover.” You won't know if the story is good until you actually play the game. However, a good indicator of whether a game is worth playing for hours is if the game has won (or been nominated for) various awards such as Game Awards, Golden Joystick Awards, DICE (Design Innovate Communicate Entertain) Awards, etc. The question is whether it has been done or not. These awards are considered the top level in the gaming industry, so it might be a good starting point for new gamers to check out the winners and nominees.