13. Stories: the Path of Destinies

Stories: the Path of Destinies let’s play from Wanderbot

You have been chosen by Destiny to defeat the Emperor, get the girl, and save the world. You just have to live through it. It’s oaky if you don’t, Destiny will make you try again.

Stories: the Path of Destinies, follows a branching path through a story of love, rebellion, and heroics. As you reach important junctions in the story you make choices. Make the right choice and it sets you towards helping a friend. Make a wrong choice and you’ve doomed the world.

Every time you pass through the story your actions could open new paths and options. Find the right one and it will become a focus of the story as a whole.

With 24 different endings, you can keep coming back to Stories just to see how else things can change. Even after getting the true ending I kept returning just to see what else would happen.

Bright colorful settings and enemies fill the screen as you travel the different paths of the story. Even combat is filled with beautiful effects that keep things interesting.

The storybook map of endings that shows all of the pieces in play as they are uncovered allows you to return to previous stories to see how they went.

12 Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines let’s play from Cryaotic

You have become the undead. Based on the popular World of Darkness tabletop Role-Play setting from White Wolf. Vampire the Masquerade throws you into the deep end of court intrigue, diplomacy, murder, betrayal, and madness.

The world building in this game is top notch. There are seven vampire clans to choose from each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Each clan has its own distinct look, weapons, missions, and outfits. Other vampires in world the react differently to you based on what clan you’re from.

Even the story options are different based on clan. Toreador’s are able to flirt their way past problems. Nosferatu are physically stronger but their appearance makes it impossible to travel the streets. Malkavian’s are cursed with insanity but get to have informative conversations with a singing fish.

While the core plot and missions are always the same, how you get past them changes based on your clan. This gives the game a lot of replay value. It also helps that you get to see things from one clan that you didn’t get to see while playing another.

Vampires aren’t the only thing that go bump in the night in World of Darkness. All you have to do now is figure out if it’s friendly.

Vampire abilities are great to have and use in the Masquerade. But power uses your energy reserves and forces you to feed. Guns just use bullets.

11. Injustice 2

Injustice 2 let’s play from Rage Select

What is the aftermath of a world where the Joker tricks Superman into killing Lois Lane? This is the heart of Injustice. Superman kills the Joker and begins a campaign to destroy criminals and anyone who stands in his way. The story then asks where everyone else falls. And what happens after the fighting is done. That’s the premise of Injustice, an alternate dimension take on the classic DC superheroes we all know and love.

Everything I’ve explained so far is from Injustice 1. It’s all you need to know to get into Injustice 2. The idea is solid and fascinating. Unfortunately, the first game didn’t fully realize the story. They crowbarred in the original Earth DC heroes and gave everyone nanites to make Batman and Green Arrow stand toe to toe with the Flash and Superman.

Injustice 2 abandons that. Inserting story reasons for these fights to work and ignoring the difference in favor of fun visuals and interesting fights. The story is mostly on rails, but does a good job of looking at DC heroes and villains in a new light.

We get to see Harley Quinn in a world where there is no Joker. We watch here redeem herself and start working for Batman to help save people. We see heroes who stood with Superman in the first game try and become heroes again. We see villains pushed to their wits end.

As Brainiac attacks the Earth, what does batman do when he needs the help of Superman to save the day? What about the other factions that formed during the previous war? We get to see all of these things in a fun, exciting, and compelling story with some deep moments of heart.

Powerful attacks and special abilities give the game a dynamic sense of wonder. Even moments like this where Superman and Batman battle over the fate of humanity feel spectacular.

New heroes added to the roster keep the game and the story feeling alive. The addition of Supergirl groundes the story while at the same time giving it much needed heart and hope.

10. Batman: Arkham Series

Batman: Arkham Asylum let’s play from TetraNinja

You are Batman. You’ve arrested the Joker and taken him back to Arkham Asylum. Unfortunately, that’s all part of his plan.

The Arkham series starts with a simple premise and an enclosed location. Everything in the first game takes place at Arkham Asylum. The Joker has organized a prison break and released all of the inmates. You now have to go around the island and recapture some of Batman’s greatest foes.

The game manages to fit in some tight surprises and decent plot twists. The immersion is helped by the inventive mechanics that were so good they’ve been become industry standards. The invention of detective vision, the combat system, and the way the game implements health have been copied over and over.

Following Asylum the story expands to Arkham City where a section of Gotham is walled off and used as a prison. The final game in the series, Arkham Knight, allowed you to play through all of Gotham. Each story raised the stakes, created more story opportunities, and built on the stories told from the previous games.

One of the major reveals in the final moments of the last game revolve around a minor event that occurred in the first game. What makes this series great is that even if you have never played any of the other games, they built the story in a way that you never feel lost. Everything is explained in a way that lets you follow the story.

A well-built stealth system allows for Batman to pick off enemies one by one. This makes dealing with large groups of well-armed enemies with guns until they are at a much more manageable level.

By Arkham Knight a growing combat system allowed for larger fights with more types of enemies. The combat system was improved with additional gadgets and move sets. This gave the combat a more satisfying crunch.

9. Bioshock Series

Bioshock let’s play from Alyce Rocha

A steampunk noir detective story set in an underwater city. Bioshock keeps you guessing by giving you a mix of magic, science, and horror.

What makes Bioshock special is the twists in the story. There are things that happen that get dropped on you and in a lesser story would feel forced. In Bioshock they come with a sense of awe. Every time a twist occurred it was followed with the realization that I should have seen that.

This is taken to another level in Bioshock: Infinite, the third game, where an early reveal plays on one of gaming’s biggest troupes. It appeared out of nowhere and yet once it was pointed out it was obvious that it had been there the whole time. Bioshock made me feel uncomfortable with myself and decisions in the best way possible.

Big Daddy and Little Sister are some of the iconic enemies that show up in Bioshock. Dealing with them helps fill the game world with deep sense of character.

Changing the setting from the undersea base of the first two games to the flying city of Columbia gave Bioshocks Infinite a safer feel. It made the first plot twist and reveal of the darker side of the society more of a shock.