This year has been a largely transitional one for the video game industry as we look toward the next console generation, but there have still been some exceptional games worth celebrating. As part of Twinfinite’s annual award ceremony, we’re today reflecting on those with the best stories and writing of 2019 and crowning one overall winner. The following games have been voted by our team of editors as having the most compelling narratives and engaging writing.
Best Video Game Stories & Writing of 2019
Honorable Mention: Death Stranding
Senior Editor Alex Gibson: Death Stranding was an enigma from the very first time it was showcased. The return of Norman Reedus and Hideo Kojima’s collaboration, the strange beached whales, the downright bizarre baby strapped to Sam Porter Bridges’ chest — Death Stranding was seemingly a collection of disparate, totally bonkers ideas.
Things only got stranger from there, and we then spent the next three years trying to work out how celebrity cameos, historical battles, and anti-matter ghosts could possibly come together to create a single cohesive story. Now, just a month after its release, we have our answers.
Death Stranding’s story is heavy stuff. Political ideologies, social commentaries, and the exploration of themes like love and friendship mean you’ll have to be concentrating during the game’s many lengthy cutscenes to have any idea what’s happening. It’s not always vintage stuff, sometimes more confusing than compelling, but its overall story is certainly very ambitious and totally unique.
Even despite the story’s wonky pacing and the writing’s tendency to get bogged down in technical jargon, the uniqueness of Death Stranding’s story is engrossing in a way that always has you wanting to push forward and uncover more. It’s just a pity there’s so much clutter in between each revelation.
