That is one of the many thematic ideas explored in Silent Hill 2. As Harry Mason, you follow a letter from your seemingly dead wife into the depths of the town of Silent Hill. There, you will experience a truly masterful blend of pre-set and dynamic narrative concepts.
Silent Hill 2 doesn’t make Henry Mason a blank slate. He has his own personality, his own story, and his own fears. Indeed we watch those fears manifest themselves throughout the town and take the form of various monsters and other horrors. However, Silent Hill 2 is very much our own story. How you choose to play the game is reflected in the story in subtle ways that most players will never realize during the course of the game. Thoughts of suicide, sexual repression, a desire to undo the past…it’s so difficult to untangle the knot that binds Harry Mason to the player that some may find more peace in accepting that the connection is too strong to properly be broken. – MB
2. Chrono Trigger
At its core, Chrono Trigger is a surprisingly straightforward story about time travel and saving the world, but it’s just so incredibly well told that it has carved out a special place in gaming history.
Part of the game’s magic is in the eras you visit, which range from the prehistoric and the medieval to the far-flung future, and, eventually, the very end of the world. Through it all, we come to know and love Chrono Trigger‘s incredible cast of characters. Frog is just such a tragic hero, and then there’s the completely optional Magus redemption arc.
And then the whole thing wraps up with one of 13 different endings; an impressive accomplishment for the time that has lost little power over the years. Regardless of which ending you get, the story feels like it’s come to a satisfying conclusion. It’s rare for a game to include so much optional content, and for it all to be so well written and tied together so perfectly. And that’s really the ultimate genius of Chrono Trigger. Even with its lofty narrative goals, it remains incredibly well-paced and focused, ultimately resulting in a masterpiece of a story that appropriately stands the test of time. – CF
1. The Last of Us: Part 1
The greatest testament to the power of The Last of Us’ story is that the very best scenes from the mega-hit HBO TV adaptation were ripped shot for shot, word for word, directly from the game. The fact that a video game story from 2013 has been proven, without a shadow of a doubt, to be as good as, if not better than, any prestige drama you’ll find on TV or the big screen a decade after its initial release is astounding.
All of the franchise’s success is thanks to Neil Druckmann and the team at Naughty Dog, who crafted a timeless lone-wolf-and-cub tale that explores the most grotesque yet relatable aspects of human nature in the most poetic way. Joel and Ellie are the most layered, psychologically complex, fully-realized video game protagonists ever created. As their relationship develops over the course of their odyssey toward “the light,” we get to know them and their deepest fears so intimately that, when the game’s tragic finale comes, we’re shocked, but we also understand precisely where they’re both coming from.
It’ll be hard for any game to top The Last of Us’ story, but what’s exciting is that it has raised the bar for the medium and will influence and inspire the evolution of storytelling in games for years to come. – BB
