Watching a feature-length movie on a Saturday night is everybody’s guilty pleasure. A bucket of popcorn in one hand and a bottle of coke in another just amplifies the experience. But why is that? Is it that the narrative isn’t enticing enough to leave you paralyzed in amazement?

The same cannot be said about video games. They flesh out their material with such precise calculations that you do not really need a sequel to make people fall in love with the storyline and the characters. Sure, they get days to flesh out their material, as opposed to the movies, which have just under 2 hours. 

But the ultimate objective of the two remains the same: to deliver to the audience a brilliant story.

These are just some of the games whose narratives can easily trump most of the Hollywood blockbusters.

1. Ori and the Blind Forest’s 10-minute intro hooks you in with such sheer force that by the end of it, you will be left crying. 

Nibel, a young spirit of the forest, travels across the land to bring back balance to the elements in order to save his forest. Saving the forest, however, comes at a cost, the cost of a mother who was just trying to save her babies and wasn’t necessarily evil. The simple and heartwarming story of Nible and Naru will leave you in tears.

Warning: The prologue will leave you in tears.

2. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt proved that a simple story around a missing pan can get you hooked, as long as the narrative is set out right.

Geralt is supposed to be a ruthless killer, but he goes out of his way to help those in need. He’s on a grand objective to put an end to the Wild Hunt, and a search for Ciri. But even the stories of smaller optional objectives are so well built that they will have you craving for more.

The story of Bloody Baron is quite possibly the Witcher 3’s best. 

3. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare gave the war in the middle-east an honest makeover. 

The average war movie will explore just one character and his journey as he blazes through flying bullets. Modern Warfare, however, explores the other side of the narrative as well. There is a reason that the ‘supposed’ enemies want to blow you up to pieces. The narrative, therefore, is unbiased.

4. Telltale’s The Walking Dead took just one episode of the ‘interactive movie’ to evoke a cloud of emotions as Lee and Clementine brace through the zombie infested land.

What took the series 7 huge seasons, Telltale’s The Walking Dead did in just one. Clementine and Lee leave us all teary-eyed and heavily affected by the end of season 1. The meaning of survival for both Clementine and Lee was different. And it is this meaning that puts their individual actions into motion- Lee wants to save Clementine, and Clementine wants to see her real parents again. The fabric of morality is often ripped, and mended, shoddily, as they try to brace through the end.

Watch this for the most tear-jerking moment in the series.

5. The Last Of Us sees a relationship that is built at the outset of a zombie outbreak and delivers a better father-daughter relationship than most family drama.

Ellie wasn’t Joel’s daughter. His daughter had perished. But he took care of Ellie as his own, and she, of him. The duo tries to brace through the wasteland, often breaking the then-ineffective law. The bond they build during their journey across the merciless land, and the unfortunate end they encounter is stronger than any father-daughter relationship you will have witnessed before.

6. Far Cry 3’s world of pirates, death, and a moral compass which tips towards the unexpected shows just how fragile the ice globe of ‘the right thing’ is.

You think that you’re helping the island and that you can escape your frivolous life, but you can’t. The evil you left behind will find a way to crawl back to you. The narrative is set around the thin line between doing the right thing and insanity, and when faced with a difficult situation, that line gets broken.

The brilliance of Vaas’ character, and his definition of insanity is something that has managed to stick with everybody

7. Alan Wake and the physical manifestation of his inner evil which plagues him is not like your everyday horror flick.

Alan Wake is a horror novelist. The horrors and evils that he writes about in his book, surprisingly, come to life. The ghosts, however, in the movie do not stem from a traumatic death, but the dark mind of the novelist. The unconventionality of the narrative and the way they approach their characters is what makes the storyline so great.

8. The Mass Effect trilogy sees races from across the galaxy trying to settle their differences to save the galaxy from perishing.

Humans and aliens joining forces to ensure the survival of the galaxy, intricate and complex relationships, and a captain who puts his life on the line to ensure that everyone else sees another light of day, is what makes the lore of the Mass Effect trilogy impressive.

9. The way Life Is Strange explored the repercussions of tampering with time, had more dimensions than your average time-travelling blockbuster.

Life Is Strange had overarching themes, ones which transcended beyond the ‘save-your-own-ass’ formula that every time-travelling movie contains. The shocking reveal at the end and Max, tampering with time to prevent that from happening had consequences, one which made an entire town disappear overnight.

Max and her attempt to save Kate accounts for one of the most powerful moments in the narrative.

10. The Curse Of Monkey Island answers the question about the lengths that one would go to, to revive their loved one. The journey to find the answer gives you more than 6 hours of pure story joy.

Guybrush accidentally gives a cursed ring to his girlfriend which turns her into a gold statue. He journeys across the seas to breathe her back to life. The people you’ll meet along your journey will at times appear insignificant. But the little interactions that you’ll have with them adds to the rich experience and the key to bring her back to life.

What do you think? Have you been convinced yet?