From Storytelling to Strategy: How Different Game Genres Deliver Player Immersion
Though the importance of titles like Super Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog can’t be understated, it is also worth noting that gaming has come a long way since those original platform games. Their influence may remain as a towering shadow, encompassing the rest of the industry, but a lot of gamers today have moved on from simple platformers. They want strategic gameplay, and a deeper level of storytelling.
That isn’t to say that older games did not focus on the story telling aspect of the medium. Even Mario and Sonic were heroes in their own tale, as basic and simple as it may have been. Of course, the RPG genre is no stranger to deep lore and thrilling yarn. Titles like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy, were just as much about strategy, as they were about stories.
Story-Driven vs. Gameplay-Driven
The important thing to note is that not all games benefit from including a deep or complex story. In fact, many are better off just focusing on the gameplay. An excellent example here would be the iGaming market. It isn’t difficult to see the correlation between iGaming and video games. The industries continuously borrow from one another. For example, the success of roulette online has almost certainly had an impact on the gaming market. Think about how many games nowadays feature a gambling mini-game or mechanic.
But, when it comes to iGaming, incorporating a narrative in any of the games is a fruitless endeavor. There aren’t many gamblers who pay attention to the background of a roulette game, let alone any story that might be tied to the gameplay. All they really want is to see the wheel spin, and hope that they’ve called it right. That is why, it is not hard to deduce that iGaming is largely a gameplay-driven market, with developers and players focusing solely on strategy.
But, gameplay-driven video games are not solely tied to gambling. The strategy genre, for example, thrives on the idea. Strategy players rarely seek out games with an especially good story. That is why, developers focus mostly on the strategic aspect of gameplay. Immersion here is tied to the game’s difficulty, and the ways that the gamers overcome the challenges laid before them. So, in this sense, strategy serves to bolster the immersion. But, often, players want to lose themselves in a game’s world as well.
Story-Driven Gaming is on the Rise
It wouldn’t be fair to say that most game developers focus on gameplay, and totally forego storytelling, at least not in 2025. In fact, there are plenty of excellent adventure/action games for the PC, that manage to seamlessly combine the two, creating an epic, interactive experience. But, it doesn’t end there. Lately, we’ve seen a shift in gaming away from strategy-focused mechanics, and towards telling a deeply thought-through story, that audiences can connect with. As an example, we need look no further than The Last of Us.
The zombie-survival game, and its sequel, came out during a time when the zombie crazy was at an all-time-high. Unlike most zombie games, however, The Last of Us chose to focus, not on fast-paced, shoot-em-up gameplay, but on an incredible, touching, and poignant relationship between a man and his adopted daughter, who are just trying to survive the post-apocalyptic, undead-ruled world. The game forces players to make hard choices, eventually culminating in one of the most controversial endings in games, which is still being discussed years later.
On the other hand, visual novels have always been big in Japan, but recently, they’ve also managed to attract a western audience. For those who may not be aware, visual novels see the player take control of a character, who is experiencing a story. The player can make some choices along the way, which usually results in different endings, lending an incredible re-playability value to these games. When discussing visual novels, the two main titles to bring up are the Fate franchise and Umineko.
We can see a western spin on the visual novel in the success of Telltale Games. As the company’s name suggests, their goal is to combine storytelling and gaming. The most popular titles released by the studio include The Wolf Among Us, an adaptation of a creator-owned comic named Fables, The Walking Dead, which most will be familiar with because of the television show, and Batman: The Telltale Series, which naturally needs no introduction. Gameplay is a miniscule part of these games, with the goal ultimately being following along with the story, and experiencing it through the character’s eyes.
A Blend of Strategy and Story
At the end of the day, the focus of a game will depend on the genre, and the target audience. It is certainly true that, in 2025, the games that are often lauded as the best of all time, are those that seamlessly blend the two, and give the player an unforgettable experience. An example of this would be the Red Dead Redemption duology. Though the two games’ stories are unrelated, both are incredibly immersive. However, at no point did Rockstar Studios sacrifice gameplay in order to elevate the adventure.
Another excellent example would be the Dragon Age series, spanning from Dragon Age: Origins to Inquisition. Each of the games focus on a different character, however, are vaguely related by lore. The developers clearly had an epic story in mind when creating the franchise, and the way they chose to tell it remains embedded in the minds of fans the world over. All the while, the game boasts some impressive gameplay, that gets better from game to game.
Finally, in a conversation about games and story-telling, we would be remiss if we did not bring up BioShock. The retro-futurism aesthetic of the game already elevates it in terms of originality. However, the games also tell a unique, politically-charged, and immensely effective horror yarn. The gameplay itself may not be impressive, but the game’s difficulty all but necessitates some level of strategy. Unlike in most games, guns in BioShock don’t have limitless ammo, and the player has to rely on their skill to take out enemies effectively and quickly.
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