10 Powerful Video Game Stories Told Without Words

At its core, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is about family.

The journey the two boys must undertake is a sizeable one: a trek across a varied landscape to save their dying father. It’s as sad as it is engaging. Even its start-up screen, a boy kneeling beside a lone gravestone sitting atop a cliff, adds to its dark tone and wastes no time pulling the player into its tale.

Unlike Gris, the story can’t be enhanced by its choice of art direction, as graphically it’s nothing to write home about. Instead, the character animations, choice of environments and emotional voice acting (even if it is jibberish) do well to elevate its story.

Its gameplay design is tricky to get used to, as each brother is controlled using the thumb sticks, but its obtuse controls display the differences between each of the sons. It almost feels like a Kratos-Atreus dynamic at times, where the boys are bound by a journey they must complete, despite their obvious differences.

The brothers’ struggle doesn’t need words to be a powerful story, instead it takes contrasting characters and powerfully reiterates the sacrifices made for family.