20 Best Video Game Stories Ever

12. TellTale's The Walking Dead Season 1

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Telltale Games

TellTale's reputation ending in irreparably total disaster is one of the things that keeps this once legendary series from cracking the top ten, but I couldn't in good conscience leave it off completely.

The first few seasons of The Walking Dead game - helped by the insane popularity of the TV show at the time - still stand as one of the greatest gaming stories ever written, with memorable characters and a realistic depiction of a world that's fallen apart. What's always made TWD's depiction of post-apocalypse so raw is that it knows that it takes a LOT to make a society completely go away.

People, by and large, will only turn to things like, say, cannibalism if there genuinely is no other option. Otherwise they will hold on as much as they can to what they've known to work all their lives. Which of course makes the moment where everything truly falls apart all the more harrowing because then you get to see how the truly desperate behave.

And as Lee and Clementine's journey continues down bloodier and bloodier paths, where every choice feels like the end of the world, you will be glued to the screen every step of the way.

Contributor
Contributor

John Tibbetts is a novelist in theory, a Whatculture contributor in practice, and a nerd all around who loves talking about movies, TV, anime, and video games more than he loves breathing. Which might be a problem in the long term, but eh, who can think that far ahead?