Summary
There’s simply no video game like onethat’s fully narrative-driven from start to finish, and some of the best ones are always where your story decisions for certain events and dialogue can alter the ending or your relationships with characters. Studios that do this remarkably well include Supermassive, Telltale, and Quantic Dream, but what about the lesser-known projects?
Indie developers too hit the nail on the head by giving you wonderfully original games that implement choice-based narrative design in ways that can often compete with some of the Triple-A titles. The following hidden gems in the genre offer great suspense, mystery, and story writing.
Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 Oscar-nominated film starring James Stewart and Kim Novak got itself a video game using an all-new story and cast of characters. While it still keeps Hitchcock in the title,the game has very little to do with the actual filmand sets out to tell its own original choice-based mystery that affects multiple playable characters.
All good stories start with a character who’s a writer, and here you’ll play one named Ed Miller. Ed is an author who’s recently been in a car accident that led him to develop a case of the titular condition, which affects his recollection of events.
Then comes the key mechanic – Ed develops the ability to rewind and examine moments from his past, similar to crime scenes in Detroit: Become Human.
11Killer Frequency
Platform(s)
PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Meta Quest 2
Publisher
Team17
Killer Frequency is a high-stakes slasher mystery filled with homages tothe films and horror works of the ’80s that inspired it. The town of Gallows Creek has a series killer known as The Whistling Man on the prowl, and it’s up to you, a radio DJ and late-night host at the KFAM 189.19 station - The Scream, to help potential victims evade the killer.
It’s a short and twist-filled interactive narrative game dependent on your choices, where you navigate the interior and exterior of your radio station to find clues and resources to help those desperately calling in.
Facing immense pressure, the fate of the victims rests entirely in your hands based on the directions you provide to callers during the puzzle segments, like telling them how to properly hotwire a car and successfully navigate a maze.
Twin Mirror is a game developed directly by Don’t Nod,the creators of Life is Strange, Tell Me Why, and Vampyr. However, this game seems to be the least talked about and most forgotten by the studio, and it really shouldn’t be. Granted, it doesn’t live up to the same quality as those aforementioned games, but it’s equally unique and still weaves a very compelling mystery.
You take on the role of a former investigative journalist named Sam Higgs, returning to his hometown of Basswood, West Virginia after a two-year absence to investigate his friend’s death. He’ll do this by frequently visiting his Mind Palace to allow his mirror self to review memories and reconstruct events.
If you like Alan Wake 2, Tell Me Why, and Remember Me, Twin Mirror is an excellent companion to those titles.
Dangen Entertainment
If you’re a fan of Ti West’s Pearl from the X movie trilogy, you’re able to consider Loretta as Pearl’s video game match. In this 1940s film noir-inspired landscape of the rural South, you will be playing the titular housewife who, depending on your choices, can ultimately snap and become a murderous femme fatale to enact revenge on her cheating husband and claim his life insurance policy.
It’s asdark and disturbing of a psychological thrilleras you can get, and the game’s brilliant pixel art style with added inspiration from artists Edward Hopper and Andrew Wyeth makes everything feel noir and atmospheric. Loretta will have to choose her words and actions carefully in this game that feels like a combination of Stephen King’s 1922 and Otto Preminger’s Laura.
Lake isone of the coziest games where your choices matter, and that’s because the stakes aren’t high at all and there’s no murder mystery or darker plot at play. It’s a light and easy delivery sim game set in the 1980s in the fictional lakeside town of Providence Oaks, Oregon, where you make decisions when interacting with townsfolk to forge your own relationships and get different endings.
The story will still draw you in right away. The main protagonist, Meredith Weiss, returns to her hometown and leaves life in the big city and her job in tech behind to deliver mail in Providence Oaks while her dad is away. Along the way, she may form a romantic interest which will affect the trajectory of what she wants to do with her life and whether she stays or leaves Providence Oaks.
Humble Games
Greek mythology games are plenty and fun, but have you ever seen one where the entire premise not only revolves around a branching murder mystery scenario, but a full-on musical game involving the Greek pantheon?
Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musicalis precisely that, asking you to investigate the death of a former Muse, Calliope, while romancing characters from Greek myth and singing along with them!
The cast is also extremely star-studded, featuring the likes of Rahul Kohli, Troy Baker, Ashley Johnson, Laura Bailey, and Merle Dandridge from The Last of Us, Janina Gavankar, Khary Payton, and Alyn of Hull and Bayek actor Abubakar Salim. On top of it all, Stray Gods is a roleplaying game written by none other than former BioWare narrative designer David Gaider, who’s also a co-founder of Summerfall Studios.
Did you know there was a newTronentry from Disney in 2023? No, it’s not the next film quite yet, but rather a Nintendo Switchand Steam-exclusive visual novelthat introduces a detective mystery storyline to the series.
You’ll assume the role of a program aptly named Query in a new virtual Grid environment, with the job of investigating the case of a Repository vault that’s been broken into.
Though a much lighter mystery and a more text-heavy game in the genre (with no voice acting), Tron: Identity remains atmospheric with its visuals and music.
As you carry out your investigation, most of the crime-solving will be achieved via intricate card puzzles, and you’ll be faced with many important decisions that can potentially lead to moments of combat and certain characters getting derezzed.
The Thaumaturgeis an RPG likely not on many choice-based fans' radars, but it is an exceptional gem absolutely worth playing. The game is created by Polish-based studio Fool’s Theory, founded by ex-CD Projekt Red devs who worked on The Witcher series and is a studio that assisted Larian with Baldur’s Gate 3 and Divinity: Original Sin 2 and is now working on The Witcher Remake with CD Projekt Red.
The Thaumaturge is like the Slavic supernatural spawn of Disco Elysium, BG3, Vampyr, and creature collectors. Set in 1905 Poland, you play a detective named Wiktor Szulski who’s also a thaumaturge and can collect various demons called Salutors to upgrade their skills and employ them in turn-based combat.
You have Rasputin by your side, and the characters, creatures, and isometric worldare all crafted in Unreal Engine 5.
US President George Washington, French military strategist Napolean Bonaparte, and First Secretary of State of the Kingdom of Spain Manuel de Godoy are gathered for a 1793 occult meeting on a secluded island. While this sounds like a great setup for a joke, it’s anything but, because this is the main premise and cast of characters you’ll meet in The Council.
In this five-episode game, you play Louis de Richet, a French citizen off to join the occult meeting of The Golden Order on the island in hopes of finding his mother, who’s gone missing there.
The choice-based gameplay in The Council is something else entirely. As Louis, you’re able to select from up to 15 skills to unlock different dialogue paths for strategic approaches, be they diplomatic or more questioning.
Inkle is not only a developer of video games, but also the open-source narrative design tool inklewriter, which is used to build its own interactive stories and text adventures like the 2014 award-winning hit and Time Magazine Game of the Year – 80 Days. And yes, the game isprecisely based on Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days.
Taking the themes and characters from the book and through a combination of text-adventure gameplay and management mechanics, you are Phileas Fogg’s French valet, Jean Passepartout, bound for a trip around the world by various modes of transportation, including ships, hot-air balloons, and trains.
It’s a race to the finish, with a trajectory course and real-time clock charted by the game.
