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 42 games from the last 24 years, with 147 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:
The Forest
Rating: PEGI 18+, ESRB MATURE 17+
Release Date: 30/05/2014
Platforms: PC and PlayStation 4
Genres: Action, Adventure, Fighting, Open World, Role-Playing and Simulation
Developer: @EndNightGame
Players: You can play this with 4 players online
Forest is a survival horror game where you are the only passenger to live after a plane crash. You explore a mysterious forest to find food, shelter and safety but soon have to battle strange cannibalistic people.
Five Nights at Freddy's
Rating: PEGI 12+, ESRB TEEN
Release Date: 23/07/2014, updated in 2019
Platforms: Android, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and iOS
Genres: Narrative, Puzzle and Simulation
Developer: @SteelWoolStudio
Players: This is a single player game
Five Nights at Freddy's (FNaF) is a series of puzzle horror games. You play the night-guard at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza and have to survive the night while in your office, checking the cameras and closing the doors, or make repairs, all while being hunted...
Biomutant
Release Date: 25/05/2021
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One
Genres: Action, Adventure, Fighting, Open World and Simulation
Developer: @Experiment1O1
Biomutant is a role-play game where you play a Raccoon mammalian warrior in a world filled with mutated animals. Exploring this living breathing world has the feel of Zelda Breath of the Wild, but in a broken down steampunk aesthetic and with political...
Coffee Talk
Release Date: 29/01/2020
Platforms: Mac, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One
Genres: Adventure, Creative, Narrative and Role-Playing
Developer: @TogeProductions
Coffee Talk is an interactive story about a barista working in a coffee shop in Seattle. You listen to customer's concerns about life and love, in a retro pixilated world back with lo-fi chilled hip-hop music.
Grand Theft Auto V
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.
Twin Mirror
Rating: PEGI 16+, ESRB MATURE 17+
Release Date: 01/12/2020
Genres: Adventure and Narrative
Developer: @DONTNOD_Ent
Twin Mirror is an narrative adventure where you play Sam, a 33-year old man recovering from a recent break-up who returns to his hometown for the funeral of his best friend. As you explore the world and interact with different characters, a twisting,...
Undertale
Rating: PEGI 12+, ESRB EVERYONE 10+
Release Date: 15/09/2015
Platforms: Mac, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita
Genres: Adventure, Role-Playing and Turn-Based
Developer: @TobyFox
Undertale is a 2D adventure game where you don't have to kill anyone. Providing you unique ways to avoid combat from dancing with a slime to whispering your deepest secret to a knight. However, you could just ignore this option and rain destruction...
Lake
Rating: Not rated by PEGI or ESRB
Release Date: Coming soon
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One
Developer: @WhiteThornGames
Lake is a narrative adventure where you play Meredith Weiss on a career break in 1986 while she returns to her hometown and ends up delivering the mail. As you talk to locals, meet up with old school friends and even fan a few romantic flames from your...
Monster Prom
Release Date: 27/04/2018, updated in 2020
Developer: @BtflGlitch
Players: You can play with 4 players in the same room
Monster Prom is a role-playing game set in a high school for monsters where you are looking for love. You make choices about the dating-focused narrative by exploring the campus and talking to different monster characters. It has some light...
Assassin's Creed Odyssey
Release Date: 05/10/2018
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Stadia and Xbox One
Genres: Action, Adventure, Fighting, Narrative, Open World and Simulation
Developer: @UbisoftMTL
Assassin's Creed Odyssey is an action role-playing game set in the years 431–422 BCE during a mythological history of the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. You play as a male or female mercenary fighting on both sides and attempting to...
Unto The End
Expected Rating: PEGI 16+, ESRB TEEN
Release Date: 09/12/2020
Genres: Action, Fighting, Platform, Role-Playing and Simulation
Developer: @2TonStudios
Unto The End is a cinematic combat-adventure where the fighting is modelled in a read-and-react style. It requires time to master the unusual system but offers many ways to take on foes. Tactics and intelligent decisions are as important for survival as...
Green Hell
Release Date: 05/09/2019, updated in 2021
Developer: @Creepy_Jar
Players: This is a single player game. You can play with up to 2 players online
Green Hell is an intentionally hard open-world survival game. You are abandoned in the Amazonian rain forest with no equipment or food, just your wits. In order to survive, you must utilize real-world survival technics to build your shelter; start...
Frostpunk
Rating: PEGI 16+, ESRB TEEN
Release Date: 29/03/2018, updated in 2019
Genres: Strategy
Developer: @11bitstudios
Frostpunk is a city-building survival game set in an alternate 1886 with a devastating winter setting in. You are tasked with running a city by managing resources to ensure the city’s survival. Your choices can have negative and positive consequences.
Beyond: Two Souls
Release Date: 08/10/2013, updated in 2019
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4
Genres:
Developer: @Quantic_Dream
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.
Forgotton Anne
Release Date: 15/05/2018
Platforms: Android, Mac, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and iOS
Genres: Adventure, Narrative and Platform
Developer: @ThroughLineGame
Forgotton Anne (Forgotten Anne) is a hand-animated adventure that combines cartoon (Ghibli-inspired) storytelling with running and jumping puzzles. You play as Anne, the enforcer who keeps order in the Forgotten Lands, as she sets out to squash a...
Outward
Rating: PEGI 12+, ESRB MATURE 17+
Release Date: 26/03/2019
Genres: Action, Adventure, Fighting, Narrative, Open World, Role-Playing and Simulation
Developer: @NineDotsStudio
Players: You can play with 2 players in the same room and up to 2 players online
Outward is a fantasy adventure focused on an ordinary character surviving against the odds. There's a focus on realism rather than superpowers or magical abilities. You have to look after your warmth, hunger, fatigue, illness, and thirst as well as the...
Nier: Automata
Release Date: 23/02/2017, updated in 2018
Genres: Action, Adventure, Fighting, Narrative and Shooting
Developer: @NieRGame
Nier: Automata is a role-playing game, that span off from the Drakengard series. It's set in an alternate future where there is a war between alien machines and human androids. But this isn't a game about winning the war. It's more focused on the plight...
Detroit: Become Human
Rating: PEGI 18+, ESRB TEEN
Release Date: 25/05/2018
Platforms: PlayStation 4
This is a branching narrative game from Quantic Dream, the studio behind Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls. This is the third game in the series and offers a more refined version of the filmic branching experience.
Heaven’s Vault
Rating: PEGI 7+, ESRB TEEN
Release Date: 16/04/2019
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PC and PlayStation 4
Genres: Adventure, Narrative and Puzzle
Developer: @InkleStudios
In Heaven’s Vault you play an archaeologist translating an ancient alien language whose decrypting weaves through an unfolding drama. While doing real linguistic work you interact with companions and locals. Your choices can open or close vast swathes...
Omensight
Platforms: Mac, Nintendo Switch, PC and PlayStation 4
Genres: Action, Fighting, Narrative and Strategy
Developer: @SpearheadMtl
Omensight is a brawling adventure game where you play the role of Harbinger, a mythical warrior who only appears in times of crisis. As night falls, you witness this destruction of the world at the hands of a dark God but can relive this final day to...
Goodbye Volcano High
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5
Developer: @KOOPMode
Goodbye Volcano High is a high school coming of age adventure set in a world of anthropomorphic dinosaur characters. You play as band members, non-binary Fang and best friend Trish. Then there's student council president Naomi, and Fang's brother Naser....
Ord
Rating: PEGI 3+, ESRB EVERYONE
Release Date: 05/06/2019, updated in 2020
Genres: Adventure, Narrative and Role-Playing
Developer: @JoniTweetsGames
Ord is an unusual text adventure, rather than one grand story, you embark on a series of distinct quests. Whether it's defeating an evil warlock or creating your own world as a god, Ord tells stories through simple series of words and word associations...
Outer Wilds
Rating: PEGI 7+, ESRB EVERYONE 10+
Release Date: 11/12/2018, updated in 2018
Genres: Open World and Simulation
Developer: @Mobius_Games
Outer Wilds is an exploration space mystery about a solar system trapped in an endless time-loop. After 20 minutes of game time, you must start again – but each time brings a new opportunity to learn how you ended up on the planet and solve the...
The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit
Release Date: 26/06/2018
Price: Free
The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit is an adventure game set between Life Is Strange and Life is Strange 2. You play Chris Eriksen, a young boy who creates the superhero alter ego Captain Spirit to deal with the loss of his mother.
The Stanley Parable
Release Date: 31/07/2011
Platforms: Mac, PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One
Developer: @HelloCakebread
The Stanley Parable is an interactive drama with no combat or action to speak of apart from walking around and interacting with everyday objects. You guide a silent protagonist, Stanley, while discouraging narration plays in your ear. As you discover...
Five Dates
Release Date: 17/11/2020
Developer: @WalesInter
Five Dates is an adventure game about finding a partner. You play Vinny, a millennial from London, and join a dating app for the first time during the coronavirus pandemic. The game offers five potential female matches that you must pluck up courage to...
Disjunction
Release Date: 28/01/2021
Genres: Action, Adventure, Narrative and Role-Playing
Developer: @ApeTribeGames
Disjunction is an intense cyberpunk stealth-action game set in 2048. You take on missions as one of three characters that lean towards different skills. Use lethal force, hide in the shadows or distract for non-violent ways to reach your objective.
Backbone
Expected Rating: PEGI 12+, ESRB TEEN
Release Date: 24/04/2019
Genres: Adventure, Puzzle and Role-Playing
Developer: @EggNutGames
Backbone is an adventure game inspired by film noir where you role-play as a human-like raccoon detective. As a detective, you search for clues and evidence, talk to witnesses, and choose which leads to follow.
The Talos Principle
Release Date: 11/12/2014, updated in 2019
Developer: @Croteam
The Talos Principle is a narrative driven puzzle game, praised for its cerebral and philosophical nature, where you play an android with a human conscience. You explore environments to complete complex brain-teasing puzzles to collect "sigils".
The Banner Saga
Release Date: 14/01/2014, updated in 2016
Platforms: Android, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and iOS
Developer: @StoicStudio
The Banner Saga is a beautiful fantasy adventure where your strategic choices directly affect your personal story and the world around you. You play as two characters, each with their own related story.
This War Of Mine
Release Date: 14/11/2014
Platforms: Mac, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and iOS
Genres: Narrative, Role-Playing, Shooting, Simulation and Strategy
Developer: @11BitStudios
Inspired by the 1992–96 Siege of Sarajevo, this is a war game where you play the civilian trying to survive during the fighting. You face tough decisions on how to spend time and resources each day to maintain health, hunger and mood levels until a...
Infernium
Release Date: 05/04/2018
Genres: Adventure, Narrative, Open World and Puzzle
Infernium is an adventure horror game where you need to carefully consider your strategy to progress through the non-linear interlocking chapters. Exploring the world, avoiding getting caught by the ethereal enemies and solving puzzles uncovers a story...
Far From Noise
Release Date: 14/11/2017
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4 and iOS
Genres: Narrative
Developer: @GeorgeBatch
Far From Noise is a narrative game where you play a car balancing on the edge of a cliff. You meet multiple animals that act as spiritual guides and discuss what it means to balance between life and death. When talking, you get the choice of two phrases...
Recompile
Rating: PEGI 12+
Platforms: Mac, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S
Genres: Adventure, Narrative, Platform and Puzzle
Developer: @phi6
Recompile is a platform game about hacking and exploring an expansive virtual world. Drawing inspiration from the Tron film, It's a combination of classic platform games where you slowly get more powers to advance further, and branching narrative games....
Chroma Squad
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.
Zero Escape
Release Date: 10/12/2009, updated in 2016
Platforms: Nintendo 2DS|3DS, Nintendo DS, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita and iOS
Genres: Action, Narrative, Puzzle and Role-Playing
Zero Escape, is a series of adventure games that follows a group of nine individuals, who are kidnapped and held captive by a person who goes by the name "Zero", and are forced to play a game of life and death in order to escape.
Freedom Finger
Release Date: 27/09/2019
Genres: Rhythm and Shooting
Developer: @widerightgames
Freedom Finger is a tongue in cheek game where you pilot a hand that can shoot from its middle finger. Along with the shooting, the game is music driven as you punch, grab, and pound enemies to smithereens. It takes the classic, Gradius and Nemisis...
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.
HyperBrawl Tournament
Release Date: 11/06/2020
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and iOS Apple Arcade
Players: You can play with 4 players in the same room and up to 4 players online
HyperBrawl Tournament is a sports combat game. Played in futuristic arenas you must smash, brawl and score your way to victory in relentless, high-adrenaline player versus player battles. It's like an updated version of the classic Speedball or...
Disco Elysium
Release Date: 15/10/2019, updated in 2020
Platforms: Mac, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Stadia and Xbox One
Genres: Adventure, Narrative, Puzzle and Role-Playing
Developer: @StudioZAUM
Disco Elysium The Final Cut is a role-playing game set in the fictional city of Revachol where you play Harrier "Harry" Du Bois who must solve a complex murder. Unusually, your choices and actions not only determine how the story unfolds but affect...
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