All games offer you agency. You can win or lose. You can complete them or stop at any time. But there are some games that offer a story that genuinely branches. Where you end up will be different from other players. This not only makes your actions really matter but also gives you a reason to play them again.Setting aside games that evolve through simulation, or games where once you die it's game over, these branching narrative games tell a story that ends in a certain way because of the choices you made.
This list includes 7 games from the last 24 years, with 17 likes. They come from a range of different genres and play-styles and are all good games if you want to control how the story ends.
We have other digital stories lists of games:
Grand Theft Auto V
Rating: PEGI 18+, ESRB MATURE 17+
Release Date: 01/01/1997, updated in 2019
Platforms: Android, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Portable, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One and iOS
Genres: Action, Adventure, Fighting, Narrative, Open World, Role-Playing and Shooting
Developer: @RockstarGames
Players: You can play this with 30 players online
Grand Theft Auto is a series of action-adventure game where you travel around one large location taking part in different criminal activities: pulling off heists, with lots of shooting and stealing and driving a variety of cars and other vehicles.
Beyond: Two Souls
Rating: PEGI 16+, ESRB MATURE 17+
Release Date: 08/10/2013, updated in 2019
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4
Genres:
Developer: @Quantic_Dream
Players: This is a single player game
Beyond: Two Souls is from the same developer as Detroit: Become Human and Heavy Rain. Although not a series, they follow a similar style and approach. They provide a filmic interactive experience of a story that branches in substantial ways depending on...
Dishonored
Release Date: 09/10/2012, updated in 2017
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One
Genres: Action, Adventure, Fighting, Narrative, Puzzle, Shooting and Simulation
Developer: @ArkaneStudios
Dishonored is an adventure game series set in the fictional, plague-ridden industrial city of Dunwall. You play Corvo Attano, bodyguard to the Empress of the Isles. But you are framed for her murder and forced to become an assassin.
Mass Effect
Release Date: 20/11/2007
Platforms: Nintendo Wii U, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Xbox One and iOS
Genres: Action, Adventure, Narrative, Open World, Role-Playing and Shooting
Developer: @Bioware
Mass Effect is a sci-fi adventure where you role-play a soldier named Commander Shepard, who must save the galaxy from a race of powerful mechanical beings. The series started in 2007 and has fourth substantial instalments that take you from that first...
Chroma Squad
Rating: PEGI 7+, ESRB TEEN
Release Date: 30/04/2015, updated in 2019
Platforms: Mac, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita and Xbox One
Genres: Action, Fighting, Strategy and Turn-Based
Developer: @BeholdStudios
Chroma Squad is a strategy game themed around the The Power Rangers TV show. Rather than the heroes, you play the stunt actors who quit the show to start their own Power Rangers-inspired series. Rather than kill enemies in the turn based encounters,...
Heavy Rain
Release Date: 06/10/2010, updated in 2019
Genres: Action, Adventure and Narrative
Heavy Rain is from the same Quantic Dream studio who made Beyond: Two Souls and Detroit: Become Human. It preceded these games but shared the same branching narrative and photo-realistic aspirations.
The Walking Dead
Release Date: 24/04/2012, updated in 2018
Price: Free-to-start
Platforms: Android, Mac, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and iOS
Genres: Action and Narrative
Developer: @TelltaleGames
Walking Dead is a survival adventure game series. You explore locations and gather a ragtag group of survivors. How you interact with each of them and make decisions about various dangers results in a branching story where no one is guaranteed to survive.
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