Hi, as it’s in my title. I’m looking for narrative driven games with good story, something I can play on my steam deck. Not something open open world but more of a on rails experience.
Things I’ve played that that should give rough idea what I have in mind:
- The last of us
- until dawn/the dark pictures anthology series
- the quarry
- new/remakes of resident evil games
- Road 96
- Alan Wake remake
I obviously have a horror/mystery preferences and I want the story to be told to me, I don’t like the dark souls approach of “guess or read all of the in game books or w/e to have a chance at glimpsing a hint of a story”
A lot of great games already mentioned here. If you want to try something a little different. Yakuza 0 has a bonkers story that is weird and wonderful, but very Japanese.
Tacoma and Gone Home are great stories and well worth a look.
I also rate the Max Payne series for some pulpy fun story with lots of shooty in between.
Point and click are not really my thing but thank you. Although, the dark anthology series is kind of point and click so I might need to reevaluate that.
I have a beef with Yakuza so no thanks :)
You might enjoy Control.
It’s by the same devs as Alan Wake and has an Alan Wake tie in DLC since they take place in the same universe. It’s fairly linear with some optional side missions. The setting is similar to SCP if you’re familiar with that. You’re in an office building dedicated to an organization that contains extra-dimensional threats and there’s been a breach that has to be contained.
Story is pretty straight forward but there are some humorous notes and videos you can find that help explain the primary story and some of the objects that are being contained in the bureau.
Prey 2017, Alpha Protocol, Deus Ex HR, Vampires the Masquerade Bloodlines, Mass Effect, Disco Elysium, FF7 Remake, Guardians of the Galaxy, Rage 1, Spec ops: the line, the witcher 1/2, all the Yakuza games
- Bioshock Infinite
- Return of the Obra Dinn (You’ll have to work to figure out the story, but that’s the whole point of the game.)
- Undertale (I know it doesn’t look so good on the surface, but it’s brilliant once you get into it.)
- Guardians of the Galaxy (Dumb fun popcorn game with a decent story.)
- Hi-Fi Rush (A little bit lighter in the story department, but an absolute freakin’ blast to play.)
How do you feel about classic adventure or walking sim type games? If you’re willing to trade in shooting for talking and puzzles, there’s some fantastic stories there.
- LucasArts’ adventure games: (Older, more comedic, but some of the greats, and many have remakes available.)
- Grim Fandango
- Full Throttle
- Monkey Island
- The Dig
- Fate of Atlantis
- Wadjet Eye adventure games: (Newer, but emulating older styles. Darker than LucasArts.)
- Unavowed
- Technobabylon
- The Excavation of Hobbs Barrow
- Other excellent adventure games:
- The Longest Journey
- Life is Strange series
- Broken Sword 1-5
- Walking sims: (All story and exploration, very little challenge.)
- What Remains of Edith Finch
- Firewatch
The nice thing about Hi-Fi Rush is that, while the story won’t blow your mind, the characters are all lovable, and it’s nice to have a Saturday morning cartoon sort of vibe where everything isn’t super grimdark.
I loved a lot of Wadjet Eye games. Technobabylon is a favourite of mine.
The now-defunct Daedelic had some decent games, my favour is Memoria. I don’t know why, but something about it stuck with me. It’s the right mix of darker fantasy with more low fantasy moments that I like.
If you haven’t played it yet, the Mass Effect trilogy. The Legendary Edition runs well on Steam Deck ( one of my coworkers is playing it now on his), and the story is really good.
Since you liked Alan Wake, also look at Control - it’s even set in the same universe as Alan Wake is, too.
If you like horror, there’s also Doki Doki Literature Club.