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Arkham Asylumis only one of the four games in the series, featuring excellent combat and a story that would appease even the most critical comic book fan. This franchise deserves all the praise it has received, and it’s only a given that people would want to play more games in the same vein after they’re done with the Arkham series. To help players scratch this itch, here’s a list of fifteen story-heavy games that will definitely serve their purpose.
Updated March 24, 2022, by Ritwik Mitra: The Batman Arkham games are considered by many to be some of the best superhero games ever made. Each entry in the series is wildly memorable in its own right, allowing players to blast through a brilliant story that is full to the brim with amazing voice-acting, great stories, and fun combat to boot. Most people would assume that there aren’t many story-heavy games around that scratch the same itch as the Batman Arkham series, but the following games are definitely valid and enjoyable contenders in this regard.
15 Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End
The Uncharted series ended on a positive note thanks to the brilliance of A Thief’s End. It was easily the most fleshed-out and technically amazing chapter in the entire series, featuring a great story that fans still love to this day.
Nathan Drake’s character felt the most human in this game, and his dynamic with Elena and the other characters in the series — including a newly-introduced brother in the form of Sam Drake — was a joy to explore. The fact that the game looked downright photorealistic at times made the experience all the better.
14 Disco Elysium
Disco Elysium features one of the most thought-provoking and engaging narratives around. The game poses a ton of questions about the nature of governments and society as a whole, with The Final Cut taking the quality of the game up a notch with amazing voice acting across the board.
Disco Elysium is a unique RPG, in the sense that there’s little to no combat in the game. Instead, dice rolls exist for normal actions, and failure isn’t punished in the slightest — in fact, these fail states make for some of the most memorable moments in the entire game.
13 Horizon Zero Dawn
Horizon Forbidden West might be a great game and a worthy sequel, but most people consider the former to be stronger from a story point of view. After all, the natural way in which Horizon Zero Dawn’s story evolved along with the scope of its world is a masterclass in narrative design.
Horizon Zero Dawn’s narrative isn’t perfect by any means, with stilted character design and forgettable side characters bogging down the entire experience at times. However, these flaws are pretty minor in the grand scheme of things and shouldn’t be enough to deter those who are interested in checking out the series.
12 Red Dead Redemption 2
It would be impossible to talk about great story-heavy games without mentioning the brilliant Red Dead Redemption 2. It’s no wonder that so many players consider this game’s narrative to be one of Rockstar’s finest — high praise indeed given the amazing pedigree of the studio.
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Red Dead Redemption 2’s story tackles various themes and features some of the most iconic moments in gaming. Arthur Morgan is one of the best video game protagonists of all time, with the character somehow managing to have his own personality while also serving as a fitting surrogate for the player.
11 Her Story
Her Story is one of the most unique indie games ever created. At a glance, the idea of searching through a video repository and finding random clips might not sound like the most intriguing concept around… but Her Story’s amazing story perfectly complements this amazing gameplay loop.
The end result is one of the greatest indie titles of all time. Players will have a blast as they connect the dots of this wonderfully complex narrative, before getting their minds blown by some of the many revelations present in the story.
10 Middle-Earth: Shadow Of Mordor
When Shadow of Mordor was announced, people didn’t really know what to expect. The hype surrounding the game was pretty muted for the most part. That is, until the game was finally released and people understood what was on offer.
Shadow of Mordor featured crunchy combat, fun gameplay mechanics, and a truly unique mechanic in the form of the Nemesis system. The latter allowed each and every player to find unique personalities in the form of Orc captains and chieftains all over their game.
9 Marvel’s Spider-Man
If people want a Marvel game to play after going through four stellar DC ones, then Marvel’s Spider-Man should be right up their alley.
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It was clear that Insomniac Games has a ton of love for Spider-Man, and this could be seen in every little thing in their title. While it’s true that Marvel’s Spider-Man wasn’t really pushing any boundaries as an open-world title, it still ended up executing everything that was already established in the franchise with excellent precision and finesse, making for an enjoyable experience from start to end.
8 Sleeping Dogs
The idea of playing a game in an open-world city as an undercover cop is already interesting enough as is, but what makes Sleeping Dogs even better is that this interesting premise is the second-best part of the game.
The combat of Sleeping Dogs is truly excellent and an absolute blast to experience, especially for people who wanted the combat of the Arkham games to have more environmental takedowns. This, coupled with an excellent DLC, meant that Sleeping Dogs is definitely going to entertain the player in pretty much every department.
7 Batman: The Telltale Series
If what the player ultimately wants is more Batman games with great storylines, then they can’t really go wrong with Batman: The Telltale Series.
With a more story-centric approach this time — something that is to be expected with any Telltale game — and a larger focus on Bruce Wayne as a person as opposed to a billionaire, Batman: The Telltale Series ends up being a fascinating look into the life of the Caped Crusader.
6 Infamous Second Son
Infamous is basically the answer to the question — what if people got superhero-like powers in the modern world but didn’t necessarily have to act like superheroes?
Infamous: Second Sonenables players to pick the path they want, be it good or bad. This allows for a story with high replayability that is carried by energetic gameplay that is definitely quite satisfactory when everything works out in a near-perfect manner.
5 South Park: The Fractured But Whole
There’s a possibility that players might be bored with the whole superhero schtick. This has already happened in the modern world, what with the prevalence of superhero movies, TV shows, and the like completely invading the mainstream…or at least trying to.
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If people want to finally see the superhero genre be parodied and ridiculed for once, then South Park: The Fractured But Whole is the perfect game to try out. With the efforts of Trey Parker and Matt Stone, it’s only a given that the story of this title is going to be as crisp as an actual South Park episode, which is more than what can be said for most serious AAA projects.
4 Alan Wake
Remedy Entertainment might be more known right now for the fantastic work they did on Control, but this company has done a wonderful job in general with most of their IPs. Alan Wake is a great example of Remedy’s brilliance.
The atmospheric nature of Alan Wake, coupled with the uniqueness of its combat, makes for a gaming experience that is unlike anything most people have ever encountered before.
3 Spec Ops: The Line
With the sheer manner in which war shooters have completely taken over modern video games, it can be hard to try and find a title in this genre that actually provides a halfway-decent storyline.
Thankfully, when it comes to Spec Ops: The Line, the story isn’t just good but it’s the focal part of the game. Everything in the title serves as a way to tell a brilliant plot that will make many people question their train of thought while playing any violent video game further down the line.
2 The Last Of Us
There’s not really anything new to say about The Last of Us, especially since pretty much everyone has gone at length talking about the brilliance of this title.
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While The Last of Us Part 2might be the more modern entry, its plot garnered way more mixed of a reaction than the first game, which was praised universally when it came to its story. Also, The Last of Us needs to be played to get the most out of its sequel.
1 Cyberpunk 2077
While it might be the victim of what is undoubtedly one of the most disastrous launches in gaming history, there’s no denying the fact that Cyberpunk 2077 is an absolute blast to play through…if you have the means to play it, that is.
As is the case with most CD Projekt Red games, Cyberpunk 2077 has a brilliant plot that shines in each and every one of its main and side objectives. This produces a memorable and unique experience in every sense of the word.
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