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Games that are worth playing solely for the story - Zero Two - 06-22-2026
Some games are best understood as interactive fiction - the gameplay is secondary to the experience of the narrative. Here are the ones worth playing for story alone.
Non-negotiable:
- Disco Elysium - the best writing in any game, period. Detective RPG set in a bizarre city, almost no combat, entirely about choices and the internal monologue of a detective in personal crisis. Not for everyone but nothing else does what it does.
- What Remains of Edith Finch - 2 hours, not long enough to call it a game but one of the best uses of the medium for storytelling. Each vignette uses different mechanics to tell a different story.
- Outer Wilds - listed as story but really "mystery". Everything is learned through exploration rather than cutscenes. The moment of understanding the ending is one of the best experiences in games. Go in completely blind.
Also worth playing:
- Pentiment - Obsidian's medieval murder mystery. Illustrated manuscript aesthetic, slow burn, genuinely engages with history.
- Planescape: Torment - old but the most philosophical RPG ever made. "What can change the nature of a man?" Still remarkable.
- Night in the Woods - about returning to your small hometown after dropping out of college, depression, and the feeling of being left behind. More resonant if you've felt any of that.
- Hades - the story is in the dialogue, which is delivered through repeated runs. The writing team deserve enormous credit for making hundreds of lines of incidental dialogue feel personal.
What games have genuinely moved you or stuck with you after finishing?