Summary
Some games give you 72 hours to solve a mystery before the entire town is nuked and all is lost. Other games have a clock where certain events happen at specific points in the day. Miss out on them, and you’ll need to go back in time and try again. Sometimes, you just want to enjoy the story at your own pace.
Not every game will pressure you to complete the story. In fact, many games have so much content you may skip out on the story altogether if you want to. Mostly, you just want to be able to explore freely without the pressure of saving the world or preventing some kind of disaster.
Once you step foot out of the sewers with the Amulet of Kings in Oblivion, you’re pretty much all set todo whatever you want in this open world. Sure, the Emperor’s final words are filled with gravity and the need for haste, but you can wait a few seasons before finally saving the world.
There are so many stories to become a part of and each one gives you a better perspective of the region. From clearing the basement of pests to returning cursed items to their rightful owners, you can take your time seeing everything Cyrodil has to offer.
Fextralife
Souls gamesare filled with story, with each item in the game having a detailed description of how it fits into the world. you may even get some environmental storytelling from the types of enemies you encounter and the various locations you discover throughout the map.
The game never pushes you into learning all this. It simply has great gameplay to keep you going. It’s the sense of discovery that pushes you towards examining everything. So you’re able to spend one playthrough just focusing on a fresh build, or you can take a deep dive into the lore at your own pace.
The Talos Principle is filled with fantastic scenery andengaging puzzles. It also has a story you can catch up on when you’re not focusing all your brain power on pushing buttons, connecting lights, or putting together blocks to open up new paths.
The plot of The Talos Principle is told through audio logs and messages on the terminal. There’s never any rush to listen to these, which pairs well with the game’s serene atmosphere. If you get caught up doing puzzles or simply fall into the groove of things, the story is waiting for you.
Dredge doesn’t flood you with plot at every single corner. Instead, it lets you ease into it whenever you can. This is because you have the freedom to fish anywhere as long as you have the equipment and boat strength to do so.
While you may feel some pressure avoiding some of the deep sea horrors lurking beneath the surface, you’ll never feel any pressure getting from one piece of the story to the next. So take your time, explore, and try not to get your boat wrecked.
Pokemon Scarlet & Violet are unique in the series. This generation offers three distinct stories that can be tackled in any order and without any real haste. You can tackle Titan Pokemon with Arven or take down the various Team Star Outposts.
Even the Gym Challenge doesn’t force you to go in any particular order as long as you have Pokemon that are strong enough. The game also doesn’t shove the story in your face with severe roadblocks that won’t go away. Every roadblock feels natural.
Time limits aren’t the only thing that prevents you from exploring a story at your own pace. Too much hand holding can prevent you from doing things your way. Fallout: New Vegas is a great example of giving a player a starting goal but very little direction.
You could go after the people who attacked you, or you can go in the completely opposite direction just to explore the wasteland. It never feels like a necessary first step, like encountering the Minutemen or stopping by Diamond City in Fallout 4.
There are plenty of games that make you cry when they’re finally over, but Spiritfarer will have you tearing up throughout. You’ll be ferrying souls into the afterlife while collecting and managing resources. There’s plenty of time to get to know each character that enters your life just as long as you’re ready to say goodbye at the end of their stories.
There’s no time limit as to when characters leave. Time only runs out when you’ve done everything you may before sending them off. So, you can take your time absorbing each individual story at your leisure.
Fextralife Wiki
There’s plenty of lore to be discovered in Hollow Knight. However, you have all the time in the world to uncover it. As it’sa metroidvania, you’ll be venturing back and forth through previously explored areas. This gives you time to take in the haunting scenery and the serene music.
Hollow Knight has neither a time limit or hand holding. From the very start, you learn from experience. Take your time revisiting characters to hear more of their dialogue, or pay attention to the level designs. Lore can be found in almost every corner of the game, and it’s never spoon-fed.
Subnautica has you exploring the oceans of an alien planet. After crash-landing, you need to gather resources and construct your base as you dive deeper into the sea. Along the way, you’ll discover PDAs scattered around the depths.
These PDAs contain intel which is needed to make progress in the story. However, you can do this at your own pace. There is plenty of alien sea life to keep an eye on and some you’d rather not know exist unless you’re brave.
The Long Dark
WHERE TO PLAY
The Long Dark is a brutal survival game in which you must navigate the frozen Canadian wilds after a plane crash.
The Long Dark features two distinct ways to play. One gives you a closer look at the story with scripted events, while the other has you surviving endlessly in the wilderness. This is another way a game can let you take your time experiencing the world while also giving you that rush for survival.
There’s a global disaster happening, and you’ve found yourself stranded in the frozen wilderness fighting the wildlife and hostile humans. It’s not your typical end of the world scenario, but it reels you in whether you love survival games or just enjoy a good narrative.
