I’ve always held the belief that video games are on the same level as movies and novels in terms of storytelling potential. Now, many storytelling techniques are unique to films and novels—films excel at visual storytelling due to the director’s ability to control the viewer’s focus using the camera, and written stories are second to none when it comes to portraying a character’s inner thoughts. Video games have one advantage that no other medium does: you watch a film, you read a book, but you play a video game. In a video game, you are an active agent in the story, and the best narrative games (games that are made to tell a story) are aware of this and use it to their advantage in different ways.
1. The Stanley Parable
The Stanley Parable is a purely narrative game; all you can do is move and press an interaction button. What makes The Stanley Parable special, however, is its inclusion of the player as a participant in the story. The game begins with Stanley sitting in his cubicle. A smooth-voiced narrator says “[Stanley] got up out of his desk and stepped out of his office.” However, this being a video game, Stanley does nothing until the player provides input. The moment the game begins the player is presented with a choice that will drive and affect the outcome of the story.
Should the player choose to leave the office, they are presented with many more choices of whether to follow the narrator’s story or make their own. Upon reaching the end of one of these stories, Stanley is plopped back into his office, ready to start again. Each playthrough provides a vastly different experience than the last, and I often spent the loading screen time at the end of each game ruminating on what just happened. The Stanley Parable is the ultimate example of an experience unique to video games—a story driven by the player. This is what makes it one of my favorite narrative games to date. The witty writing and Easter eggs don’t hurt either.
2. Portal
Portal and Portal 2 are my favorite puzzle games. The narrative of the Portal game series shines because its creators manage to develop relationships between talking characters and the mute protagonist. At the beginning of Portal 2, Wheatley wakes you up and talks to you, finally saying, "Do you understand what I'm saying? At all? Does any of this make any sense? Just tell me, 'Yes'." The game prompts the player to press space to speak, which instead makes the player jump like in any other game. Wheatley replies, "Okay. What you're doing there is jumping. You just...you just jumped. But never mind."
The Portal games are filled with this type of dialogue. GLaDOS spends much of both games taunting the player and trying to make them feel guilty for things they did, even bringing up their actions from the previous game in the current one. Both Portal and Portal 2 allow you to form a relationship with its characters without ever speaking to them, which is quite a feat. That, along with the hilarious lines and unique puzzles, makes the Portal games some of my favorite narrative games.
3. The Beginner’s Guide
The Beginner’s Guide will stay with me for a long time. It tells a story in the form of a narrator guiding you in real time through a series of custom video game levels his friend has created. The levels follow the storyline, with the narrator loading you into the maps in order of their creation.
For me, The Beginner’s Guide solidified video games as a means of creative release. The narrator explains each level and attributes the ideas and themes of each level to the mental state of his friend when the level was made. The Beginner’s Guide is another purely narrative game—there is little interaction involved, and the player mainly just walks through each level listening to the narrator.
It's hard to say too much about this game without spoiling anything, but I believe everyone should play it. It’s a game that leaves you thinking—about creativity, morality and mental health, among other things. The game is an introspective experience, not only because of the story but also because of the medium. In The Beginner’s Guide, you are free to proceed at your own pace. I found myself staying in certain levels long after the narrator had stopped talking about them. At one moment in the game, I stopped my player dead in their tracks in shock. In The Beginner’s Guide, you are not an active participant but an active listener in a story that would not feel nearly as profound in any other medium.
As the generation that grew up with video games becomes adults, video games are being taken more seriously as an art form. Just like film, it is a powerful medium that can be used to create anything from a mindless cash grab to an artistic masterpiece. Narrative games are the best examples of this because their primary focus is to tell a story, which is the focus of most art. The best narrative video games are the ones that make use of what makes video games unique: the player.
