Come for the Narrative, Stay for the Story

We often talk about video games not only being entertainment because they are a new way to tell stories. However, some games use narrative as the way you interact with the game. Whether you are exploring a living breathing world, making choices that impact the story or even just deciding how things are said, narrative is the thing you are working with.

We've worked with The Narrative Outlook newsletter (subscribe here) to create a list of games that focus first on the narrative genre. Their monthly newsletter is a great way to stay up to date about all things narrative gaming.

We are including games that would elsewhere be called Walking Simulators, although for us these are narratives told through exploration. We also include games that other sites might lump in with Adventures, although for us these games are more about what is said and revealed on the way through the journey itself.

We aren't including games with strong narratives if the main way you interact with the game is through Puzzles, Role-Playing, Adventuring or the other common genres. For instance The Last of Us isn't here because it is primarily a Shooting Adventure game. Celeste isn't here because it's firstly a Platform game. My Child Lebensborn isn't here because the main interaction is Puzzle tamagotchi-like. I Was a Teenage Exocolonist, not because it isn't a strong narrative, but because there is a lot of collecting and deck building front and centre too.

This list includes 67 games from the last 25 years, with 1,175 likes. They come from a range of different genres and play-styles and are all good games if you want to play with a story. We break them down into the following areas:

• Experience A Story
• Influence Unfolding
• Overhear Clockwork Stories
• Solve A Mystery