Video games are an excellent medium for storytelling, taking narrative-driven adventures to new heights with their immersive world-building and intriguing characters. Some plots can become overtly convoluted, with the player only being able to trust the narrator's guidance to point them in the right direction.
However, a common trope in modern video games is the unreliable narrator, twisting the game's tale to great effect. Often, the player may even struggle to diverge fiction from reality. Here are some games where players should not trust the narrator, and should take their words with a pinch of salt.
6 Dear Esther
- Platforms: PC, PS4, and Xbox One
Dear Esther is an immersive first-person exploration game where the unnamed player walks across an isolated island towards its mountainous peak. As the player begins to make their first steps, a spectral voice reads aloud a letter beginning with "Dear Esther." It becomes clear that Esther is dead, and the narrator is confronting their feelings about the deceased.
Dear Esther abandons all notions of traditional gameplay in favor of an emotional walking-simulator-based narrative, as players may find that nothing in this game feels real. At times, the unreliable narrator discusses irrelevant events that do not make sense, as the symbolic narration and the visual atmosphere devolve into incoherence and a sense of delirium. Even after several replays, gamers may still struggle to piece together this intriguing narrative as they discover different fragments of dialogue each time.
5 The Beginner's Guide
- Platforms: PC
Can video games offers a window into the minds of their creator? The Beginner's Guide attempts to answer that question, and is a thought-provoking inner monologue that delves into some complex themes of the human mind, like loneliness and lack of motivation. It also tackles dishonesty and unreliability, especially between friends. The narrator of The Beginner's Guide is Davey. He discusses his friend Coda, a video game developer who has stopped creating games, and investigates his past work to analyze what caused Coda's mental decline.
Davey mentions he created The Beginner's Guide a way to coax Coda into creating games again. However, not everything is at it seems. The game's conclusion is open-ended but suggests that Davey was the one that caused Coda's decline. There are breaches of the fourth wall, as Davey inserts himself into Coda's original work, adding his own flourishes, like the lampposts, without Coda's permission.
4 Lone Survivor
- Platforms: PC, PS3, PS4, and Nintendo Switch
As the title suggests, players believe they are the last human standing in the post-apocalyptic game Lone Survivor. The world is rife with mutated creatures as an unknown contagion has infected the world. The player is stationed in an apartment in the center of the ruined city, with a dwindling sense of hope and feeling more alone than ever.
Every day could be their last, as the player must venture from their safe space to scavenge for food and other helpful supplies for day-to-day existence. As they progress through the game, the player realizes that their mysterious playable protagonist does not have the tightest grip on reality, with frequent hallucinations and strange encounters. It becomes difficult to discern what is real to the survivor, and what is a figment of his imagination. The player may not be the Lone Survivor after all.
3 Portal
- Platforms: PC, PS3, Xbox 360, and Nintendo Switch
Portal places the player in control of the last remaining human test subject in the Aperture Science Laboratories. They are guided through a series of puzzles by the disembodied voice of the witty yet caustic A.I, GlaDOS. The protagonist, Chell, is armed with a portal gun to get through the tests, with the promise of a cake when she completes all the puzzles.
As Chell progresses through the facility, GLaDOS becomes steadily more passive-aggressive in her commentary, even calling the player fat at one point. The reasoning behind the lack of human facility staff later becomes apparent, as GLaDOS is the catalyst behind the facility's destruction. GLaDOS had led the protagonist Chell to die by neurotoxin, but Chell outsmarts her. The cake is a lie; one of the many lies revealed in Portal.
2 BioShock Infinite
- Platforms: PC, PS3, Xbox 360, and Nintendo Switch.
In BioShock Infinite, players may struggle with differentiating fabrications from reality and truth from lies, putting players in a quandary of confusion as they try to piece together the games' events. No players would be ever able to predict the ending, leaving their minds boggled.
BioShock Infinite players may initially believe they are aiding the player character, Booker Dewitt, with settling his gambling debt. The games main objective is for Booker to find Elizabeth in Columbia and give her to an unknown employer, to fulfill the "give us the girl and wipe away the debt" he constantly hears. However, this is not the case, as Booker's own recollections are not to be trusted. In fact, Booker sold his daughter Anna to settle his debts and subconsciously manufactured his memories to justify himself and absolve himself of his guilt.
1 The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe
- Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch
The Stanley Parable is one of the most mind-bending games in history. The player embarks on a journey, never knowing if the decisions they make are of their own free will or entirely predicted and dictated by the omniscient narrator. The Ultra Deluxe edition includes several new endings for the players to work towards, with the cynical narrator following their every move.
Taking on the role of the titular character, the protagonist, Stanley, investigates his office after a power cut. He discovers that he is alone and his co-workers have all mysteriously disappeared. A disembodied voice tells Stanley to investigate what has happened, giving directions along the way. It is entirely down to the player if they want to follow his instructions or ignore them entirely and do the opposite.