15+ Best Story Games to Play in 2024: Groundbreaking Narratives

Story games are as important and impactful as ever in 2024, with players searching for single-player experiences that will stick with them long after the credits roll. While RPGs make up many of the best story games of all time, a wide array of different, incredible stories are available to dive into whatever your genre of choice.

We’ve rounded up the top 15 best story games to play right now, from bite-sized brilliance to epic RPG sagas. You’ll find many widely celebrated titles here, as well as a few that could do with some more attention from story-hungry players.

Table of Contents Table of Contents

1. Key Takeaways
2. 15 Best Story Games to Play in 2024
3. More of the Best Story Games to Play in 2024
4. The Bottom Line
5. FAQs
6. References

Show Full Guide

Table of Contents

1. Key Takeaways
2. 15 Best Story Games to Play in 2024
3. More of the Best Story Games to Play in 2024
Show Full Guide
4. The Bottom Line
5. FAQs
6. References

15 Best Story Games to Play in 2024

15. The Wolf Among Us

Many players point to the first season of The Walking Dead as Telltale’s magnum opus. While few can argue that it stands among the best interactive story games, The Wolf Among Us is where Telltale really got to flex and develop a standout story that rises above its source material.

Detective games may have had their heyday in the point-and-click era, but Bigby Wolf and co keep their spirit alive in this noir-styled fable. What’s more, there’s finally a sequel in the works which is rumored to be released at the end of the year.

14. Until Dawn

Not all narratives are highbrow masterpieces, and not all story games need to be either. Until Dawn perfectly captures the schlocky thrills of slasher movies, putting the power to save or damn its cast of trope-filling teens down to your reflexes and decision-making.

As a strange, twisted cousin to Telltale’s style of interactive storytelling, Supermassive’s Until Dawn spawned a whole series of successors, and it’s easy to see why. Starting as a tense, dread-filled affair, Until Dawn eventually pumps the gas and doesn’t let up until its thrilling finale. It’s one of the best story games on PS5 and is soon to receive a remake for the hardware and PC in October 2024.

13. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy

While James Gunn’s iconic Marvel trilogy will come to define these characters for some time yet, this version of the Guardians deserves serious credit for finding a balance between the characters’ comic and film personae in one of the best story games on Xbox.

While the musical focus and MCU-inspired style are prominent, this overlooked gem proved that Gunn doesn’t need to be at the helm for a Guardians project to soar, with excellent character beats, laugh-out-loud moments, and emotional depth all in play.

12. Night in the Woods

Night in the Woods’ story is small-scale and intimate, touching on mental health, purpose, and belonging. There are spirits here, too, and a faint touch of myth and the supernatural overlays its flesh-and-blood community. It can be considered among the best indie story games you can play right now.

While some may wish for this story game to be a little longer, Night in the Woods serves as a perfect snapshot of a life at a crucial juncture. Few stories in games come with as keen a sense of place as this, a small-town existence conjured in a handful of frames and a set of incredible characters.

11. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

Many excellent RPGs and other story games build a world from scratch, but Thousand-Year Door earns its stripes as one of the very best story games on Switch by working with an established household name and making something fresh and funny.

The Thousand-Year Door balances its wicked sense of humour with a surprisingly dark – by Mario standards – tale and fully fleshed-out, loveable companions. With chapters in fully unexpected locales like a wrestling arena and cursed village, this is one of Nintendo’s best story games by far.

10. Transistor

Supergiant Games’ second outing is fascinating, flawed, and a deeply affecting experience that places it among the studio’s very best story games. Where its predecessor Bastion picked up in the immediate aftermath of a cataclysm, in Transistor the end of the world is very much still in progress.

Transistor can be oblique to the point of frustration, never quite granting a satisfactory answer before spinning out dozens of new threads and questions. But its world is so intriguing and unique, its emotional core and characters so solid and strong, that you remain tethered to its story nonetheless.

9. Dragon Age: Origins

BioWare carved out a name for itself by making some of the best story games of all time, and this dark fantasy RPG is among the studio’s most beloved entries. With The Veilguard’s 2024 release, this is the perfect time to dive into the storied series’ first entry, ready to reunite the Grey Wardens and fall in love with some of the genre’s best-ever companion characters.

While the PC version is both mod-friendly is widely celebrated, console games will find Dragon Age: Origins to be one of the best story games on Xbox game pass by far.

8. Alan Wake 2

Alan Wake 2 marks a triumphant return for Remedy’s tortured writer. What started as a loving Steven King homage becomes much fuller and more rewarding.

This much-anticipated sequel is both a game with an excellent, engaging story and a game that is, crucially, about stories. Detective stories, horror, screenwriting, poetry, novels, TV, photography, and more are all on display here.

Alan Wake waited quite some time to return, but it was well worth it, making this one of the best single-player story games available.

7. Persona 4 Golden

The Persona series shot to worldwide acclaim with its 5th mainline entry, but Persona 4’s tale of killers, fog, shadows, and a hidden world inside the TV makes for one of the best story-based games around.

While it can’t quite match its successor’s grand, hand-crafted dungeons, the characters and social links in Persona 4 remain a series highlight, with even more story content and updated gameplay available in the Golden edition. While Golden might have spent years locked away on the Vita, its Steam release makes this one of the best story games on PC.

6. The Last of Us Part 1

HBO’s smash-hit adaptation shows that Naughty Dog’s classic remains one of the best single-player story games of all time, losing none of its hard-hitting power in the years since release.

While the original is still a fantastic game, The Last of Us Part 1 works wonders as an update, providing even more graphical flair, accessibility options, and brutal combat to a story that was barely beginning to show its age.

These characters are among the most beloved and nuanced in gaming, and their stories deserve to be experienced by as many players as possible.

5. God of War (2018)

God of War’s first Norse entry was a breathtaking reinvention for one of gaming’s most iconic characters, granting Kratos new levels of depth and a deeply personal story to match. If you’re looking for where to start, check out how to play God of War in order.

The one-shot camera angle lends the game a cinematic air, but also succeeds in grounding the player firmly in its unforgettable journey, as a family juggles grief and reconciliation on a quest to the world’s highest peak. God of War not only claimed a new benchmark for the series, it easily earned its place as one of the best story games of all time.

4. Outer Wilds

The real triumph of Outer Wilds is not necessarily the story itself – though that alone deserves plenty of praise – but in its delivery. What starts as a simple jaunt to the moon soon becomes a genuine voyage of discovery. Outer Wilds is a puzzle box begging to be opened and explored, standing tall as one of the best indie story games to play.

Nothing is handed to you in Outer Wilds. It’s up to you to strap into your rickety, low-tech spaceship, narrowly avoid crashing into the nearest planet, step out (without forgetting your spacesuit and instantly suffocating, one of the game’s hilarious, pitch-black death scenarios) and discover this story for yourself.

3. NieR: Automata

In NieR: Automata, what seems at first like another of Platinum’s excellent, spectacle-first action games soon evolves into an incredibly thoughtful, philosophical, and heart-wrenching sci-fi showcase.

NieR: Automata is right up there among the greatest stories about artificial intelligence ever, with multiple perspectives and playthroughs building up into one of the best story-driven games you can play in 2024.

2. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

The Witcher 3 took a series that had already delivered two excellent story games and injected some real heart into its initially cynical storytelling, exploring complex, layered family dynamics without losing any of its flair. It’s one of the best story-based games ever made.

While Geralt of Rivia may claim to be a simple monster-hunter, cleaving through the pomp and bloat of the fantasy genre as easily as through a kikimora’s limbs, the White Wolf has often found himself at the centre of epic quests and destinies.

The Witcher 3 provides a fix, keeping the story’s emotional core as simple as a father ensuring his daughter feels valued as a person, beyond the world-changing role she has yet to play. It’s also one of the best RPGs ever made.

1. Baldur’s Gate 3

An epic (suffering from a little bloat in its final act) that never forgets to prioritise its small details and incredible characters, Baldur’s Gate 3 combines the best of story games and tabletop RPGs to create a generation-best experience.

For more than a year, Baldur’s Gate 3 has been untouchable, a genuine giant from a genre many industry bigwigs considered outdated. It’s the best story game to play in 2024 for good reason.

For lovers of RPGs and video game storytelling in general, seeing a game so packed to the seams with narratives, from deeply satisfying character arcs to compact sidequests that can be completed within five minutes, is deeply satisfying.

More of the Best Story Games to Play in 2024

The Bottom Line

Despite an industry pivot towards multiplayer titles and live-service games in recent years, the best story games are alive and well in 2024. Our list includes many of the most celebrated titles in the medium, with both big-budget cinematic experiences and expertly plotted indies available to keep players enthralled.

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