Everything that is consumed has a story. The movies you watch and the podcasts you listen to have a story. That TikTok someone posted has a story. Some of the best stories — besides books, of course — come from video games. These five video games have some of the best plots that will make you want the game just to understand every bit.
Resident Evil (1996-Present)
Resident Evil, developed mainly by Capcom with help from other gaming development companies, was first released in 1996. This single-player horror game changed the way horror games were viewed when it first came out. Capcom is still releasing games for this franchise, with the plot spanning across many of the games. This game holds years of story, with emotional choices, heartbreaking scenes, character deaths, and strong villains.
The Resident Evil franchise changed storytelling in video games. There are 10 main games in the story, with dozens of more spinoffs, minigames, mobile games, and more. While the 10 main games are standalone with their own stories, you should play them to understand the franchise plot. It will also heavily enhance your gameplay. Now, on to the story.
Next year marks Resident Evil’s 30th anniversary. The story starts before the first game, with a company called Umbrella Corporation. They created a virus that mutated humans into zombies, and animals and plants into monsters. The Umbrella Corporation wanted to make bio-organic weapons and started doing so in research facilities in Raccoon City, the first city seen in the game.
The main 10 games follow six main characters: Jill, Chris, Albert, Leon, Chris’s sister Claire, and Ethan. Jill, Chris, and Albert are on an elite police force investigating the Umbrella Corporation. Secrets lie within their group that lead to deaths, and plot twists appear many games down the line, decades in real life. That type of story setup is impressive, making it arguably the best. The outbreak starts to spread, and the government bombs Raccoon City, but the main characters escape just fine. They end up separated, each game following one or two of them through their story.
Ethan is a more popular character, as he is in the most recent game and was unfortunately roped in due to his missing wife. His storyline is full of heartbreaking decisions you must make, and you will find yourself emotionally connected to it as a result.
The Last of Us (2013-2020)
Content Warning: This entry contains spoilers for The Last Of Us series.
The Last of Us, developed by Naughty Dog, was released in 2013, with the second game releasing in 2020. HBO adapted the game into a show in 2023, with a new season just released in 2025. It is another single-player horror game featuring zombies, but the story is still immaculate. Though a third game was teased, it has been confirmed that it is no longer happening. The series has only two games, but you must play the games in order, as the stories are directly connected.
The Last of Us story is split into two parts — the two games — with the first following the characters Joel and Ellie. A mutated fungus has spread airborne through spores, infecting its host and turning them into zombies. The first part mainly follows Joel as he finds Ellie. He finds her infected, but she tells them that she is immune. Once that comes out, Joel and Ellie are determined to find the Fireflies, a rebel group going against the government and trying to find a cure. When they do find it, Joel cops out. Joel had lost his daughter to the infection, and saw Ellie as a daughter. He stole her back, refusing to let her die for a cure and lie to her. That type of human emotion and human decision can only come from a strong story.
The second part follows Ellie mainly, as at the beginning of the story, a new character, Abby, killed Joel. Leaving her small life with her girlfriend Dina and Dina’s kid, Ellie sets out on a revenge hunt to find Abby, losing part of herself along the way. Though this blurb does not do the story justice, play both games to get the entire experience, and you will cry at the end each time.
Silent Hill (1999-Present)
Silent Hill, developed by Konami, is another horror game on this list and another franchise that spans years. The first game was released in 1999 and is available on PS3. You can also use an emulator to play it on a PC. The other ones are more easily available.
There are eight main games in the story. While most games are standalone, the third loosely follows the first; they all take place in the weird town of Silent Hill. The first game introduces Silent Hill, while the other games go into the bizarre anomalies that happen to the people in this place. The developers are set to release more games in the future, so the stories are not over yet.
There is absolutely nothing normal about the town of Silent Hill. With a drug problem circling the streets, impacting people’s psyches, the city is riddled with rumors. The residents themselves are weary. Not only that, but the town is a magnet for the supernatural, almost switching between different realms. The “Fog World” and “Otherworld” often collide with the town’s realm, inviting horrible creatures of unimaginable horror.
While Silent Hill is multiple stories, minus the connections between the first game and the third, the story expands beyond the characters, using the world instead of the characters as its storyboard. The deep psychological horror in the second game, together with the supernatural creatures from a different world, makes the story so incredible. It doesn’t rely on familiar characters to continue the story; it is within the world the developers built. The real world, “Fog World”, and “Otherworld” are intricately constructed. In the second game, the supernatural is seen as psychological problems and hallucinations, whereas in the other games, the supernatural seems very real. This unreliable narration creates a fantastic world in which to build such a great plot, and since each game doesn’t to be played chronologically to understand it, a wide variety of gamers are welcomed into the scary world of Silent Hill.
Life is Strange (2015-2024)
Square Enix developed the extraordinary franchise Life is Strange, with seven games in the franchise. The first game was released in 2015, with the most recent and likely last game being released in 2024. The franchise has multiple stories, all surrounding kids with strange abilities trying to live a normal-ish life. This single-player adventure game is a choose-your-own-adventure, with each choice impacting the ending you’ll receive. Though there are different stories, one spans over three games, making it the longest storyline in the franchise and the story that is arguably the best one.
Life is Strange, Life is Strange: Before the Storm, and Life is Strange: Double Exposure can all be found on the former link, and follow a storyline containing the characters Chloe and Max. In the first game, you play as Max, a young girl living with the power to turn back time. Max finds out that her town, Arcadia Bay, is going to be hit with a hurricane, and on top of that, her old best friend Chloe has been murdered. Using her power, she must go through the week leading up to the disaster to discover what has happened and somehow escape this storm that may or may not be connected to her powers.
In the second game, you play as Chloe, a troubled girl going through a hard time in her life and turning to bad decisions and ultimately bad girlfriends. You play as her before she dies, but it is a spinoff meant to be fun. The third is back to Max, years after the incidents in Arcadia Bay. Whether or not Chloe is alive in the third game is based on your choices in the first game. The way you control the story makes it such a fantastic plot. You get to be the writer and the gamer.
Fallout (1997-Present)
The Fallout franchise spans many games and was also adapted into a film by Prime Video. Bethesda developed it, with the first game released in 1997 and the most recent in 2018. Like Silent Hill, each game is standalone and based on the same world. The worldbuilding in this single-player adventure game makes this story superior, as there is so much going on outside of what you can fully see. There are plans for future games and a new season for the show.
After a nuclear war, the world has entered a post-apocalyptic state, with mutated creatures wandering the dead land above. However, amid all the chaos, a company called Vault-Tec created fallout vaults underground in the United States. They were commissioned by the government and built to protect everyone, including the civilians.
Vault-Tec had a different idea, though. Hundreds of years have passed since the war, and Vault-Tec kept the people in their vaults, each containing a different human experiment that the participants had no idea they were a part of; they assumed it was everyday life. In every game, you play as a Vault Dweller, someone who has lived their whole life underground. Each character has a personalized mission that they must accomplish, which requires them to leave and explore the world above for the first time.
Many components make up a good story; characters, emotional choices, and worldbuilding are all necessary. Each of these five video games holds powerful stories that invoke powerful emotions, and that is just the reactions that show a strong story.
Want to know about the history of video games? Click here!
Check out the team’s top book recommendations here.
