Most stories in video games are generally straightforward,starting at the beginning and flowing straight on to the end. Sometimes, a story might start in the middle to create intrigue before flashing back to when the story actually begins, but even stories like that aren’t too hard to follow.
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Sometimes, however, video game stories take a non-linear approach that is a little harder to put together. Non-linear stories don’t necessarily start in the beginning, and events are shown out of order, leaving it to the players to put the pieces together. Here are some of the best video games with non-linear narratives.
8Beyond: Two Souls
Since birth, young Jodie Holmeshas had a strange psychic connectionwith a mysterious being called Aiden, which is able to telekinetically affect the world. As Jodie learns to control Aiden’s power, she becomes wrapped up in the intentions of those who would use her powers for their own benefit.
Beyond: Two Souls’story is not chronologically ordered, with scattered parts of Jodie’s past and future cropping up at random. The scattershot way of viewing Jodie’s life can be confusing, but it does provide an interesting presentation compared to doing it chronologically.
7Zero Time Dilemma
9 people are trapped in a vicious game by the mysterious Zero. They are grouped into three teams and forced into a series of deadly choices and puzzles, many of which will leave a violent bloodbath behind. Is there a way for all of them to get out alive, or do they have no choice but to sacrifice others?
Zero Time Dilemmais the third game in theZero Escapeseries, featuring characters from across the franchise. The game’s story is not just broken into non-linear segments of time, but also alternate timelines based on decisions the player makes. Putting together the game’s timeline is just as interesting asthe game’s many escape puzzles.
6Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number
Hotline Miami 2is a heavily expanded sequel to the originalHotline Miami,with more characters, more scenes, and more mechanics from the previous game. The game continues the story of Jacket, while also focusing on the backstories of other characters.
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Despite being a sequel,Hotline Miami 2takes place not just after the first game, but also before and during. Jumping between the years, 1985, 1989, and 1991,Hotline Miami 2provides a bizarre non-linear approach to exploring the stories behind the characters ofHotline Miami.
5Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth
This special spin-off of theAce Attorneyseries follows Miles Edgeworth as he encounters a collection of cases involved with the mysterious thief Yatagarasu. Accompanied by the well-meaning but incompetent Detective Gumshoe and the self-proclaimed Great Thief Kay Faraday, Edgeworth seeks out the truth by any means necessary.
Ace Attorney Investigationsis a game with five cases that don’t actually occur in order. The first case is a flash-forward case that happens right before the final case, while the fourth case is a flashback case that happens years before the rest. While it’s not as complicated as other games can be, it’s certainly more convolutedthan the usualAce Attorneygame.
4Odin Sphere
Odin Spheretells the tale of the war between the kingdoms Ragnanival and Ringford, who are fighting for control of the Crystallization Cauldron. The story is told through the perspectives of five different characters, who each experience the story of the war in different ways.
Because of the way the story is told, the books often cover the same events from different perspectives, despite each book being unlocked one after the other. It takes all five books to understand the full story, which won’t necessarily be clear without a full analysis.
3Return Of The Obra Dinn
Return of the Obra Dinnis a unique game in which you play as an investigator looking into the bizarre disappearances and deaths that happened aboard the Obra Dinn. Using the magical Memento Mortem, the investigator can see a corpse’s moment of death, allowing them to uncover the truth behind the ship’s voyage.
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Return of the Obra Dinn’s story is largely pieced together by exploring these death scenes. As more corpses are discovered and death scenes are found, more and more of the story is put together. The way the whole story comes together is incredibly unique and thrilling.
2AI: The Somnium Files - NirvanA Initiative
Tokyo is struck by the bizarre and horrific Half Body serial murders which leave a human body perfectly bisected down the middle. The case is tackled by two detectives: Kuruto Ryuki, who takes on the case as soon as the first body is discovered, and Mizuki Date, who delves into the case six years after the case goes cold.
WhileNirvanA Initiativeseems to be following a chronological order at first,it is soon revealed that is anything but. The events are not as they seem, and withAI: The Somnium Files' focus on psychology and perspective, things are not necessarily as they seem.
113 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
In 1985, Ashitaba City is suddenly attacked by a swarm of massive kaiju. Coming to the city’s defense are thirteen teenagers who all have the ability to summon and pilot Sentinels, giant machines with incredible weaponry and strength.
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rimis both a tower defense game and a visual novel adventure,with the story being told through the eyes of the thirteen protagonists. Their stories take place all over the timeline, and with time travel in the mix, it makes for one of the most intricate and intriguing stories in modern video games.
