Spider-Man, a Jedi, two groups of adventures and a writer and an FBI agent make up the main characters in these narratives. What a collection of stories 2023’s video games bought us, and these are only five, and there were so many exciting stories told in games this year. And what’s more exciting is that there’s a real variety in how the stories in these games are told, from the straightforward AAA to the tabletop-inspired.

Here are our picks for the best video game narratives and stories in 2023.

5. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (Jon Paquette, Walt Williams, Benjamin Arfmann)

With the history of Spider-Man to draw from you would believe it to be hard to fall short in writing a plot for a Spider-Man game, many Spider-Man games throughout the years have failed in this endeavour but Insomniac finds success for the second time. Bringing Venom and Kraven the Hunter onto the streets of New York while building on the foundations of the previous instalments in the franchise. Where Insomniac may miss a beat or two with Peter Parker, they have been able to find the heart of the series with Miles Morales following on from his own story and continuing the character growth to new heights when Spider-Man 2 comes to a close.

– Ciaran

4. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (Aaron Contreras, Danny Homan, Pete Stewart, Cheyenne Morrin)

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, in a lot of ways, is classic Star Wars done right. It carries you through a story of highs and lows, memorable characters, and locations, making it an entertaining ride throughout. On top of this, it presents a narrative with thematic depth, asking Cal Kestis why he fights and presenting him with the dangers of obsession and how that leads him down the path to the dark side, and contrasting this with those further down the path. Cal’s journey can be neatly summed up in the Obi-Wan line from A New Hope: “You can’t win, but there are alternatives to fighting.”

– Wil

3. Octopath Traveler 2 (Takashi Hino, Kakunoshin Futsuzawa)

Octopath Traveller 2 takes its own unique pathway in its narrative structure, offering up eight anthologies that intertwine and grow together as the game progresses. These are all strong individually, as each character’s arc explores completely different character archetypes and situations. I just loved exploring these different, well-written characters through their individual stories that were all thematically strong and how this slowly led to them coming together to confront the ultimate evil in the game. The slow reveal of the background to this evil and how it is peppered throughout eight different stories was a great way for the narrative to unwrap for the player. 

– Wil

2. Baldur’s Gate 3 (Adam Smith, Adrienne Law, Gavin Jurgens-Fyhrie, John Corcoran, Kevin VanOrd, Stephen Rooney)

To me, the most impressive element of Baldur’s Gate 3’s narrative is the scale. The number of narrative branches and directions that are available in this game is insane given the large cast of characters, all whom can die at any moment and yet the story still continues as if that was always meant to happen. Each level of the story is impressive, from the overarching story of the Cult of the Absolute to each of the party member’s own individual stories. So much care and imagination has been put into each story beat and moment that you can’t help but struggle to fathom how they pulled this off.

– Ashley

1. Alan Wake 2 (Sam Lake, Tyler Burton Smith, Clay Murphy)

Alan Wake 2 is a superbly paced horror mystery that explores horror fiction as a meta-narrative and can leave you feeling like you’re playing Inception but the spooky version. The cross-narrative between Saga Anderson and Alan Wake is perfectly paced, especially when the player can choose in what order to play through the game’s events, and each side is just as exciting as the other. While Saga’s story feels more like a typical horror story in a small town with a mysterious cult performing rituals, Wake’s story follows him attempting to escape a never-ending loop in the Dark Place. How art can influence the Dark Place leads to some super-intriguing twists of typical horror themes and plot beats. Can you explain everything that’s happening in Alan Wake 2? No. Is it one of the most exciting narratives in recent video game history? Most certainly.

– Dylan