5 Best Video Game Narratives That Will Change Your Life

There are few games that have compelling and profound moments that might just make you view life differently. Games like NieR: Automata, The Last of Us, Silent Hill 2, Journey, and Deus Ex are some that come to mind for their portrayal of life and its meaning. But when it comes to games that only have a narrative to work with, well, hitting the mark can leave you with tears in your eyes and a brand new outlook on life.

Narrative-focused games often have simplistic gameplay, where you typically need to move from point A to B, and let the game guide you through its story. Exploration and simplicity are key so you can take in the whole story without any distractions. Narrative games have profound moments with realistic character portrayals and mature themes we can all relate to. But there are only a handful that deliver the best storytelling.

1) Before Your Eyes

Blink and you’ll miss it. That’s what Before Your Eyes is all about. Time flashes in the blink of an eye, where we can develop regrets if we’re lucky enough to reach old age. Other times, we find ourselves reminiscing, wondering why those minuscule things stressed us out so much when we compare them to the bigger picture. Before Your Eyes is a unique narrative experience that tracks your blinks in real time, affecting what you get to witness in the game.

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Combining the cursor with your blinks, time passes forward every time the metronome appears and your eyes close. Beautiful art design and excellent voice acting, the story-telling in Before Your Eyes is the best video games can offer, being something that cannot be replicated in another medium. Pulled out by a storyteller from a sea of souls, your life flashes before your eyes. Blinking is inevitable, so too is time passing, and life ending. Before Your Eyes‘ storytelling will stay with you for its realistic portrayal of life, showcasing all its beauty, joy, and melancholy.

The message of Before Your Eyes is much like the incredible About Time. We’re not given the luxury of a second chance, nor a way to revisit our memories. We often lose sight of what truly matters and what we continuously take advantage of—time.

2) Disco Elysium

Disco Elysium is about, simply put, never giving up. Life is full of mistakes that you have to make to learn, develop, and understand that life won’t always go your way. It’s about getting back up and pressing on, even if everything is telling you not to. Stress constantly reminds you to be better, life reminds you of death, and there’s always something that could go wrong. But there are also so many things that could go right.

There’s a reason to hold onto hope. While the game isn’t telling you to compare yourself to others or your situation from a time you can recall being the most happy, Disco Elysium tells you that there’s always a reason to continue. Everyone is just trying their best.

This story-driven game is led by fantastic dialogue and art direction, where you play as a hopeless man battling his demons. Where you go from here is completely up to you, giving you the map to his life with no set destination. While Disco Elysium manages themes of racism and fascism, we can all relate to Harrier Du Bois’ struggles (similar to Bojack Horseman). You cannot change who he ultimately is, much like how you are who you are. But you can gain depth, understanding, and self-awareness, to develop as a human.

3) SOMA

Yes, SOMA is a horror game, but it’s so much more than that. Featuring one of the best narratives ever told, SOMA is an experience filled with existential dread. You play as Simon Jarrett, a man with irreparable brain damage after a car accident that killed Ashley, Simon’s friend. With months left to live, Simon is reached out to participate in neurological research. When he wakes from the experiment, he found himself in an underwater facility, being the only human alive. But is he truly alive?

SOMA handles dark themes of self-harm and suicide, where human consciousness is placed inside robot workers, tying into Simon’s very own being. Simon works with Catherine to activate the ARK; a utopia of immortality for the human consciousness, set up in a virtual cloud (think Vanilla Sky). Questions of morality and ethics are brought up in SOMA. The concept of artificial life implies they would live on indefinitely, meaning anyone in the underwater facility would be conscious and stranded in the depths of the ocean, with no means of escape.

There’s a persistent theme of identity throughout SOMA as Simon questions his existence. SOMA is a disturbing tale with one of the worst fates the human mind could be forced to endure. SOMA asks the question: if we’re copies of a consciousness, does that mean we’re not real?

4) To the Moon

More often than not, an excellent story is all you need to create art and get the message across. To the Moon is an RPG-maker game carried by a beautiful tale and a soundtrack to match. The premise is this: Neil and Eva fulfil the wish of a dying man, John Wyles, to go to the moon. The dialogue is absolute perfection, with pop culture references and likeable characters that make you feel like you’re watching a recreation of someone’s life.

Unaware why he wants to go to the moon in the first place, the duo ventures into Wyles’ memories to uncover his real reason. Somewhere along the way, Wyles lost track of where his dream manifested. Going through Wyles’ life from end to beginning, we’re shown an incredibly poignant story of a life full of wonder, love, and loss. Wyles’ house remains a constant both in the past and present, showcasing a home full of lost memories.

A rollercoaster ride resembling life, To the Moon puts narrative and dialogue under the microscope, where each moment has intricate and flawless detail. Full of sentimental, heart-breaking moments, To the Moon evokes many emotions through the simple act of reading and listening to the soundtrack.

5) What Remains of Edith Finch

What Remains of Edith Finch is a beautiful story about a family tree. The last member of the Finch family returns to an empty home full of memories. A freeze-frame of her family’s past, the quirky residence holds onto their personalities, where every inch of the house tells someone’s story. Personalities are saved here, where Edith tells us about their life and how each mysteriously died. This walking sim’s mystery is uncovered as you slowly explore the house.

Full of surreal ideas and imagery, we play through an exaggerated version of how each family member passed (or how their death was perceived by the member). But is the family curse truly real? What Remains of Edith Finch demonstrates the power of freedom and the control you have in your life, where you shouldn’t worry about the inevitability of death, but rather embrace life in the present.

The Finch family each died doing what they loved. While some were taken far sooner than others, can you truly say this is the result of a curse, or did they just live life that day to the fullest, carefree of the possible repercussions? You are in control of your life, and What Remains of Edith Finch reminds you of that.