Narrative is reason. Narrative is drive. Narrative is feeling; feelings of happiness, sadness, curiosity, pleasure, and pain. It gives us the motivation and meaning behind the actions we take in games. It provides essential context, transforming gameplay and the world into something more. Narrative is the air that games breathe, pressing players farther into the wild untamed lands that wait and provoking every button press we make. Here are the PlayStation LifeStyle nominations for Best Narrative in 2019.
Best Narrative 2019 Winner
Death Stranding
Death Stranding’s narrative is an essential piece of what makes it such a phenomenal game. Contextualizing the arduous actions and journey that players must take, gameplay and narrative are interwoven in such a way that the story drives the adventure and the trials the player face give more weight and meaning to its ultimate conclusion. Video games are special in that they allow a special kind of immersion in the story, and Kojima’s exploration of how to get players to care through a deep intriguing mystery and unique gameplay elements made Death Stranding stand out to us for how that narrative was constructed.
Reader’s Choice Winner
Death Stranding
Death Stranding may be divisive, but our readers overwhelmingly selected it for best narrative. It;s the kind of story that’s best told in full to completion, with the journey in the middle lending a weight to the conclusion that you can’t get from simply reading a synopsis or even watching it as a film. Going on this journey with Sam allows the narrative to intertwine itself with how we played the game, and our readers agreed that its narrative was a special force that’s really stuck with them.
Don’t miss our full lineup of nominees for the PlayStation LifeStyle Game of the Year awards. We’ll be revealing more winners all throughout the week, leading up to the Game of the Year on Friday December 20.
