GOTY 2016: Narrative

Honourable Mentions

Quantum Break

Remedy's time twisting thriller Quantum Break was actually the first game ever shown on Xbox One. It's easy to see why. The hybrid of video game and TV show was the perfect game to introduce alongside Microsoft's initial vision for Xbox One, an all-in-one entertainment platform. Things have changed since then, and while the console is now very much a traditional video game console first, Quantum Break stuck with its ambitious format even as Microsoft abandoned their plans for TV shows to go with their video game offerings.

Quantum Break serves up the story of Jack Joyce (played by Shawn Ashmore) and his best friend Paul Serene (played by Aidan Gillen), caught on opposite sides of a fracture in time that threatens to bring about the end of time. You may mistake this for a story of the hero going up against his former best friend who's built an empire on the knowledge he's gathered travelling back and forth in time, but there's more to Quantum Break. The nuances of the story are left up to the player to interpret and work out on their own, and there is some seriously good writing involved.

Time travel narratives typically come with plenty of plot holes and logical somersaults, but even if Quantum Break isn't completely free of those, for the most part the fiction holds up. Wonderful acting along with a multi-layered approach to storytelling unlike any we've ever seen or experienced before, makes this into something truly special in terms of narrative. It's just too bad the game fails to really engage in the same way elsewhere.

We applaud Remedy for their ambitions, though, and for how well they managed to pull this experiment together. It may give us a glimpse at how media may further merge in the future, or it may offer a path that nobody will walk down again. Regardless, it stands as one of the most memorable narrative experiences of 2016.

Virginia

When it comes to narrative, most people think of games with long scripts of dialogue eloquently performed by professional voice actors, but Virginia ambitiously broke that mould and delivered something different to most story driven games. It's an experience that's enjoyable, but not always straightforward.

Set in a small town with a secret, this first-person thriller sees you take control of graduate FBI agent Anne Tarver, as she tries to uncover the mystery of a missing boy (Stranger Things comes to mind, and there's shades of Twin Peaks in there too). Experiencing the scenes without dialogue, you transition through the game using real-time cinematic editing, with cuts and dissolves occurring as dictated by the story.

Due to the omission of spoken lines, much of the game's intense moments are punctuated by a musical score for dramatic effect ,and the player is almost entirely reliant on the characters' performances to relay the story. The cel-shaded visuals mean that body language is thrust to the forefront in place of dialogue, but that doesn't mean anything is lost. If anything, something is added.

In this sense Virginia is a very experimental game, building on ideas memorably explored by Blendo Games in Thirty Flights of Loving (which they prominently credit at the end), herein pushing the boundaries of interactive narrative, choosing to convey its story through the physicality of its characters, the carefully constructed and evocative imagery, and the soaring soundtrack that held it all together.

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End gets top spot on this list because in narrative terms it took the series in new directions. Whereas in the first three games Nathan Drake was your standard charismatic treasure hunter, albeit with limited depth, Uncharted 4 showed us a side of Drake that we hadn't seen before: the family man, the retired fortune hunter. Of course, we're eventually made to look for treasure again, but things are different this time around.

This is helped by the fact that Drake is reunited with his older brother, Sam, and they team up to find a treasure they had both looked for in the past. The emphasis on family is new for the series, and produces some touching moments as Drake and his brother work together with old friend Sully to go on another adventure.

The dialogue is fantastic in this game too, and there's more than just the witty quips that Nathan Drake has produced in past games. What isn't said is often as important as what is, and there's way more character depth than we've ever seen here. Relationships are well-portrayed and we felt attached to all the characters, although we won't spoil what happens to them here.

Overall Uncharted 4's story is a great conclusion to one of the biggest series in gaming, and it was so good because it took the series in new and interesting directions without losing what made it Uncharted in the first place. With a brilliant finale as well, we couldn't help but give it the top place on our list. A fitting conclusion to the story of Nathan Drake, and a worthy winner of Best Narrative in our little celebration of 2016's finest.