With God of War Ragnarok recently sweeping at The Game Awards 2022, storytelling proves to be just as a core factor for the success of video games: both critically and commercially. As the medium has grown, video games have provided some of the most engaging, immersive, and thought-provoking narratives. As a result, many of them have gone on to be recognized as achievements recognized through the likes of BAFTA and more.
Though games are meant to be fun, many story-driven games have taken the flexibility of the art form to provide an opportunity to experience something different.
Little Nightmares 2
Little Nightmares is precisely what it sounds like - a horrific, nightmarish experience on a micro (and simultaneously large) scale. Though the ending of Little Nightmares wasn't necessarily happy, it was satisfactory in how it played out. In Little Nightmares 2, the malevolence was taken to a new degree of darkness that provided a far-from-happy ending.
Little Nightmares 2 saw players play as Mono. Eventually, the game would introduce Six from the first title to team up to survive. By the end, however, once freedom seemed imminent, a structural collapse would see Mono holding Six's hand as she seemingly pulls him up, only for her to purposely let go and have Mono tumbling into the abyss below where he would spend his remaining days.
The Walking Dead: Season 1
Telltale's games have always provided some of the best narrative structures and paths in any game within the medium. Its Walking Dead series of games were no different in giving players a captivating and emotional experience.
In Telltale'sThe Walking Dead: Season 1, players take control of Lee at the beginning of a zombie outbreak, but upon running away comes across a little girl named Clementine. After her parents are lost due to the attack, he takes it upon himself to look after her. Unfortunately, a set of circumstances would eventually leave season 1's final moments to Lee sacrificing himself to save Clementine. This would go down as one of the most gut-wrenching moments in video game history as well as one of the saddest deaths in any Telltale game.
Life Is Strange
Much like the Telltale series of games, Dontnod created a choose-your-own-adventure series of games that has stuck with fans for nearly a decade. The series has always explored genuine emotional connections in ways other games and forms of entertainment could only dream of, with a special supernatural twist that made them as compelling as they were evocative.
At the end of Life Is Strange, after a whirlwind of forwarding and reversing time from the main protagonist Max Caulfield, she has to eventually choose whether to sacrifice her best friend, Chloe, to save Arcadia Bay from a life-threatening and world-ending storm. For the true ending, players were meant to sacrifice Chloe to restore balance to time. To many, this was a dark ending that caused many to grieve for quite some time as Chloe is seen as one of the best characters in the Life Is Strange franchise.
Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward
The Zero Escape trilogy is known for having one of the most mind-blowing and best narratives of any visual novel game within the medium, especially including the horror and puzzle genres. With a plethora of choices, paths, and scenarios that create tailor-made experiences for the player, it seems like anything could be possible within these stories presented by Spike Chunsoft.
They've always been dark, but in Virtue's Last Reward, more often than not when players reached the end of a route, they would find themselves in an unfortunate circumstance where there was truly no escape. In many cases, when a character thought they had finally escaped, they would leave the facility only to find themselves going outside to the surface of the moon with their home on Earth far into the distance. It's a dark ending that truly gave a sense of hopelessness.
The Last Of Us
Heralded as one of the greatest games of all time, The Last of Us wouldn't be what it is without its emotional gut punches, heavy topics, and incredible storytelling. The portrayal of the main protagonists, Joel and Ellie, was masterfully done, but their relationship was a tumultuous one that started with disdain for each other before reaching a father-daughter level, only for that to be squashed by the end.
Throughout the game, Ellie's blood is known to be a potential cure for the ongoing virus that's brought many cities to ruin, but it's not known until the very end that Ellie would have to be sacrificed to make an efficient amount of vaccines and antidotes that could save the world. Furious and selfish, Joel viciously slaughters everyone in the hospital where Ellie is being held, and when she later comes out of the anesthesia, he lies to her about what happened, and her face clearly shows any trust previously had to be thrown out of the window before the credits roll.
A Plague Tale: Requiem
Amicia and Hugo, siblings within the De Rune family in A Plague Tale: Requiem, have gone through a lot. The former heirs to royalty would eventually have to run for their lives throughout the two games, escaping a plague of rats that have killed and ruined many people and cities respectively. After a point, it's found out that Hugo has a connection to the rats and can control them. This spirals further when it's found out that the Prima Macula - the corruption in Hugo's blood - has been passed down through legacies but is now awoken.
Though they would constantly try to find a cure and try to fight back, after much traveling, blood, sweat, tears, and lives taken because of them, it reaches a conclusion where the only way to truly have it all end is for Hugo to be put down with it. Amicia reluctantly agrees, knowing there really is no other way, and she takes her brother's life.
Ghost of Tsushima
While there have been many samurai games in the past that have portrayed Japan's most fierce and respected warriors in different ways throughout Samurai Warriors, Onimusha, Tenchu, and more, Ghost of Tsushima was the first time we saw a cinematic portrayal with a budget that made it one of the most polished games ever made and one of the best story-driven games of all time. Following Jin dropping his code of honor and serving as a Ghost, he saves the island from the invading Mongols before having one last showdown with his uncle who raised him.
Jin's uncle, Shimura, taught Jin everything he knows, but as politics grew and tensions formed, they began to grow further apart. In the final bout, players have to choose whether to spare or finish Shimura, but Shimura's final wishes are for Jin to finish the job, leaving Jin alone and with nothing after he's saved the island at the cost of everything he knew.
Inside
After the massive success of Limbo captivated players and cemented itself as one of the best atmospheric horror puzzle games of all time, it was hard to believe that Playdead's follow-up would be able to surpass it - but that's exactly what the studio did. Inside follows a boy who escapes from a facility of mind-controlled drones and experiments, and as players try to survive, tons of supernatural events and obstacles occur.
Right when both the player and protagonist seem like they're on their way to freedom for good, however, they find themselves back in the main part of the facility only to be swallowed whole by an abomination of collective experiments in the form of a blob known as The Huddle. This collection of human flesh would be the final moments in which the player controls the former boy before coming to a stop shoreside with no escape and no identity.
Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water
The Fatal Frame series which has spanned over two decades has always been one of the creepiest and darkest games around, entering shrines, sacred grounds, and more with a spirit camera to rid of the paranormal entities that linger. Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water was no different in this regard, with the main character, Yuri, reaching a pivotal point in the story where she has to make a tough choice.
A common theme across multiple endings in Maiden of Black Water, however, is that Yuri stands at the edge of a cliff looking out into the sea during a beautiful sunset and while in front of the corrupt individual haunting her since she's been there, eventually latches onto her and falls off the cliff with her, ending everything once and for all.
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
Josef Fares has quickly become one of the most creative, popular, and eccentric minds in the video game industry thanks to hits like A Way Out and It Takes Two - both of which have won a multitude of awards including Game of the Year for It Takes Two at The Game Awards. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons was the first outing of these types of co-op puzzle adventure games that were heavily story-driven and just as emotional.
The two brothers have a very ill father, and as they near the end of their journey to receive an all-curing water from the Tree of Life, one of the brothers is severely wounded by their corrupt and evil mother. Though they seem to be reaching the end, however, the wounded brother dies in a tragic and saddening event. By the end, the father is healed, but they both mourn the loss of the brother before the credits roll.
Source:gamerant.com