The Best Video Game Narrative of 2016

Honorable Mention: Inside

It’s award season here at Twinfinite! Starting with a few runner ups, let’s look back at the games that had the best story and narratives from this year and our 2016 winner! See the full list of award categories here.

Note: Minor story spoilers exist for this entire article. Developed by Playdead, the folks who brought us the fantastic Limbo, Inside tells a pretty darn horrifying story – something you might’ve already expected just from looking at its dreary minimalist visuals. Inside doesn’t rely on spoken dialogue, and instead encourages you to glean and infer its plot and messages from what is presented onscreen.

There’s a dark kind of humor to be found in Inside, and it’s all (relatively speaking) fun and games right up until you reach its shocking ending. The game’s method of storytelling and ambiguous ending might not be for everyone, but Inside appreciates subtlety above all else. There’s something to be said about a video game with a plot that sits with you for days without the need for any words at all.

Honorable Mention: Mafia III

Mafia III’s story and themes are pretty controversial, to say the least. After all, touching on sensitive issues like racism and oppression is never easy. Still, Mafia III presents its story tastefully and with so much gusto by opening the game with documentary-like cutscenes that give you a hint of what’s to come. These characters feel real, and jumping between events as they actually happen and courtroom scenes that discuss the aftermath of said events is superb presentation.

Lincoln plays his role in the story convincingly enough, and the journey to taking down the mafia gangs of New Bordeaux feel weighty and important every step of the way.

Second Runner Up: Oxenfree

Oxenfree starts off simply enough; you’re in control of Alex, who’s on her way to an old island for a beach hangout with a few friends. Oh, and her new stepbrother Jonas is tagging along too. Oh, and her biological brother recently passed away, so things are more than a little awkward between her and the new stepbro right now. Oxenfree is a horror game, but not in the way you’d expect. Its story unfolds through dialogue choices that you make for Alex, and what seems to be an estranged group of friends quickly unravels to reveal all of the fears, sadness, and anxieties these characters harbor beneath their social facades.

Perhaps the strongest aspect of Oxenfree lies in its decision-making system. Players are given two or three seconds to choose a dialogue option, and conversations flow naturally as a result of that. Isolated conversations between characters will continue on with or without you, and this lends the characters of Oxenfree a great degree of realism.

Edwards Island has strange powers; by the end of the night, you and Alex will have made moral decisions that call your own values and beliefs into question. But if you play it smart, you might just make it out of there unscathed.

First Runner Up: Uncharted 4

As the concluding chapter to Nathan Drake’s story, Naughty Dog went out with a bang by raising the stakes, and making the adventure feel more personal this time around. As expected from any Naughty Dog title these days, Uncharted 4 boasts incredibly beautiful graphics, lending the game a more cinematic and movie-like quality. The gunplay is solid, that’s for sure, but it feels like filler compared to the exciting set pieces and story cutscenes the game has to offer.

The introduction of Sam, Nate’s long lost brother, also increases the story’s drama tenfold. Will our favorite treasure hunter return for one last adventurer to save his brother? How is he going to explain any of this to Elena? Uncharted 4 signifies the end of a major story arc for Nate and his friends, and we can’t think of a better ending for the brave adventurer than the one we got in this satisfying and emotional final entry.

Winner: Firewatch

Needing an escape from his dead-end real life, Henry takes up a job in the Wyoming wilderness where he’s tasked to look after the gorgeous forest, making sure errant hikers don’t cause any trouble there or set fires. The solitude that the job offers is just what Henry needs, but things get complicated for himself as his supervisor, Delilah, when they realize they’re not alone in the wild.

Firewatch’s ending might be divisive, but it ends its story with a strong message, reminding players that escapism isn’t always the solution to your problems. Even in the game’s opening minutes, players are offered the illusion of choice when it comes to deciding how Henry reacts to various watershed events that have occurred in his life. Your options are never perfect or flawless, and with that design decision, Campo Santo creates a main character of Henry who feels more real and like us than many other video game protagonists out there. It’s not just Henry either; after spending an hour or so with Delilah, you begin to realize that she’s more than just a potential romantic interest for the player character. Delilah is her own person, complete with her own complications and personal woes. Both leads carry the game’s story well, thanks in no small part to the stellar voice work here.

Not only is the game’s forest absolutely breathtaking when bathed in the warm sunlight and fresh colors, the story also hooks you in with its tantalizing mystery, and use of shadows to keep players on the edge of their seats in the latter half.  Firewatch never offers up any concrete and physical human interaction throughout its four-hour story, but it provides you with just enough to keep you looking around every corner in suspicion.

Congratulations to Firewatch, the winner of our Best Story and Narrative category for 2016! Be sure to visit back this week more award announcements including the big one, our game of the year for 2016! For the full list of award categories for 2016, visit our nomination page here.