Looking for Game Recommendations with Unique Storylines

[steveesmith]

Hey everyone,

 

I am on the hunt for some game recommendations with really unique and captivating storylines. I have played a lot of the big name titles like The Witcher 3 Red Dead Redemption 2 and The Last of Us but I am looking for something a bit more off the beaten path. I enjoy games that have deep narratives unexpected twists and interesting character development.....

 

Whether it is an indie game or something older that I might have missed I am open to all suggestions. I would also love to hear what you enjoyed most about the games you are recommending. Any genre is fine as long as the story is engaging.

 

I also read this topic on this site https://www.thegamer.com/games-witch-branching-stories-sap-sac/  but I could not found anything helpful for me.

 

Thanks in advance for your suggestions I am excited to dive into some new adventures.

 

 

Cheers,
[Smith]

[Kaiosama TLJ]

That's a tough one to be honest, but this is ons that came up in my head at the moment: (more later)

 

* I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream (PC) - Ok, even though I liked the story of this game I must give a warning that it's NOT for everyone, especially since this is a old point-and-click adventure game (not going to judge you if you end up using a guilde, I did that to for some parts at least), and it touches unconfortable themes.

 

It's based around the short story of the same name by Harlan Ellison, and he even had some involvement in the production of this game. It's about a "what if" scenario where after the Cold War things excalated to World War III, and AM (short for Allied Mastercomputer) was a supercomputer that was created to manage logistics and the war in general, but he got self-aware (and deciding to adopt the name AM as now a reference to the quote "I think, therefore I am" by Descartes) and decided to destroy humanity, with the exception of five humans (which are either bad people or have psycological problems, or both) which he even granted immortality so he could torture them for eternity to exercise is endless hatred on humans.

 

The game centers around you playing as these five characters, one at a time, to experience AM next sadistic game. Beyond some of the puzzles, I think the voice acting aged quite poorly in some parts, with the exception of AM, that's voiced by Harlan Ellison himself, and he does a really great job.

 

Sidenote: If anyone here saw the Amazing Digital Circus show on Youtube, "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" is one of it's biggest inspirations.

Edited September 7 by Kaiosama TLJ (see edit history)

[Deep Dive Devin]

I'm going to replace the spambot comment by saying I finally got around to Night in the Woods after seven years, and I think it's really good. I know Ross used it as an example of "games that are not for me" in the list video, but my taste differs from his pretty frequently anyway.

 

It's about dropping out of college and returning to your economically-depressed hometown, and something sinister is lurking in the woods. You reconnect with your old friends who have their own insecurities and problems to deal with, reckon with why you left college (and why you left home to begin with), get drunk at a party and make an ass of yourself, shoplift, smash fluorescent lights with a bat, and try to make the voices in your head stop. And hey, is that a dismembered arm on the ground?

 

Also, the whole game looks like the kind of anthro animal characters your grandma would embroider on a quilt, or something that would be broadcast on Nick Jr. between episodes of Blue's Clues.

 

The three-way contrast between ruining all your personal relationships, having prophetic dreams of the end of the world, and being an adorable little kittycat girl is very effective at establishing a unique identity, and is just a good character study in general. I've known guys like Gregg, I podcast with a guy who's almost exactly like Angus, and all of this is wrapped around a talentless fuckup protagonist with no life direction, whom I couldn't help but relate to.

 

The lore of the former company mining town being the site of massive labor violations, followed by massive strikes,

Spoiler

followed by mass murder of protestors

is both an interesting mystery to uncover and just straight up true about a lot of small-town America. JD Rockefeller had something almost exactly like this game happen. It's a game that's deeply critical of a lot of things Americans (and citizens of liberal capitalist democracies in general) kind of take for granted, and it manages not to beat the player over the head with it much

Spoiler

...until the ending. Without spoiling too much, there were some lines that made the "conservative America is evil" subtext go from something realistic to Senator Armstrong. And to be clear, I love Metal Gear Rising, Armstrong is a great villain, I just don't agree with the tonal shift.

Anyway, it was very genuine as a game narrative, so that's my contribution to this thread.

 

I also think Ross was totally right to pass on it, because a lot of it is queer young adult furries having big feelings at stuff. It has very little in terms of core mechanics or challenge beyond some inconsequential minigames, almost like a visual novel. The otherworldly horror and breakdown of reality mostly stays on the fringes until the ending, which probably didn't go far enough if you're coming for the horror alone. He wouldn't play far enough to see it, but Ross would probably say something like

Spoiler

When I hear "a doomsday cult is harvesting bodies to feed the elder gods of the furthest ring", my response would be "tell me more". Keep going. That's the start of the story, or at least the second act! It's not supposed to be the ending.

Anyway I had a good time with it, though unfortunately the game expects you to play favorites with your friends. The ending changes depending on whether you spent more time with Gregg or Beatrice, so I have to do another playthrough to see some of the activities I missed. Still, recommended for people that like slow-burn character studies in games.

[teorony77]

OMG, Smith, this is my time to shine!! You HAVE to play Elden Ring!! It’s seriously AMAZING!  The world is huge and SO mysterious, and the story? It’s like piecing together this epic puzzle with cool characters and lore scattered all over the place!! And get this—it was created by the same geniuses behind Dark Souls and Bloodborne, PLUS Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin helped too!! Like, how cool is that!? 

 

It’s not your typical straightforward story game, but that's what makes it SOOO interesting! You get to discover the story as you explore and play, and every corner of the world feels like it has a secret. Seriously, if you love games that surprise you and keep you guessing, Elden Ring is gonna blow your mind!! 

You gotta try it!! You're gonna LOVE it!!!

[Deep Dive Devin]

I like Elden Ring a lot, but I'm not sure I would agree with the recommendation (I mean, this guy made two posts a month ago and then hasn't been here since, so who knows if it even matters). Elden Ring is a great action game, and it along with the souls games of its type do a great job fostering immersion. These games are all about feeling like a tiny bug crawling along the corpses of titans from centuries past, and they're amazing at that, but the OP is talking about games with, y'know, plot. And a cast of characters. The plot of most Fromsoft RPGs is "some schlub wakes up in a dying world and kills shit until they can't anymore", and the characters consist of a series of vague hints about where to take their quest and some cool items if you do it right.

 

They have personalities, but their stories can end really quickly if you don't know what you're doing, and that's assuming you even know where to go at what time to activate them at all, and I still wouldn't say each of them constitutes a huge part of the game on their own -- it has to account for the idea that you murdered them the second they showed up because there's no other way to get that cool armor, or else the story is about the people you're fighting rather than the ones you're helping. Almost all of the big plot stuff in these games happened before your character actually shows up, and a central theme of the games is not having all the pieces of exactly what happened, let alone knowing how to piece it together. You have to scrape what you can off the underside of item descriptions, know that some things have two names, the etymological significance of certain terms in both English and Japanese -- and even then you're only gesturing to a vague understanding of the story, because the destruction of history and failure to learn from their mistakes is exactly what leads the people of Dark Souls to...well, keep making Dark Souls happen.

 

And I feel like that's maybe not quite what the person who says "I like Witcher and Red Dead's stories, but I'm looking for something a little more obscure" is asking for.

[BTGBullseye]

Space Pirates And Zombies

 

And its sequel. Fairly unique IMO.

[teorony77]

Quote

(I mean, this guy made two posts a month ago and then hasn't been here since, so who knows if it even matters)

Yeah, I know, but I like Elden Ring and saw the opportunity to share it with others, so I said, "Why not?" Maybe I could interest other people in playing as well!

 

Quote

And I feel like that's maybe not quite what the person who says "I like Witcher and Red Dead's stories, but I'm looking for something a little more obscure" is asking for

I think you're right, my bad.  I guesse then that "A Plague Tale: Innocence" it's a good recommandation so he could check this one out