Stories you play rather than scroll
A phone suits a story game better than it suits most genres. Text reads comfortably in portrait, touch is a natural way to choose and point, and a chapter fits a commute. The games below are here for their writing, their characters or the way their puzzles tell a story, and none of them asks for fast fingers.
The kinds of story game, and where to start
| Kind | What you actually do | Start with |
|---|---|---|
| Interactive fiction | Read and choose | 80 Days, Sorcery! |
| Choice-driven drama | Play episodes whose choices carry forward | The Wolf Among Us, Life is Strange |
| Stories told through messages | Answer texts from a character in real time | Lifeline, Bury me, my Love |
| Wordless stories | Solve puzzles that tell the story | Florence, Gorogoa, Machinarium |
| Detective and deduction | Work out the answer yourself | The Case of the Golden Idol, Papers, Please |
| Classic adventures | Point, click, combine objects | Broken Sword, Thimbleweed Park |
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Stories told in words
80 Days. A race around the world inspired by Jules Verne, with a huge amount of branching writing. Every journey is different.
Sorcery! An adaptation of Steve Jackson's gamebooks, with a map you move across and a surprising amount of freedom.
Lifeline. An astronaut stranded on a moon messages you for advice, and the story unfolds in real time through notifications.
Bury me, my Love. Follow Nour's journey from Syria towards Europe through the messages she sends her husband. Quiet and affecting.
Reigns. Rule a kingdom by swiping left or right on your advisers' requests. Funny, short sessions, and every reign ends badly in its own way.
The Wolf Among Us. A noir detective story set among fairy tale characters in New York. Free to start, with later episodes bought in the game.
The Walking Dead: Season One. The choices-with-consequences drama that defined the style. Free to start, and a large download.
Life is Strange. A student discovers she can rewind time. The first episode is free and the rest are bought inside the game. Over a gigabyte installed.
Choices. Many romance, fantasy and thriller stories in one app. Free, with the best options often costing premium currency.
Oxenfree. Teenagers, an island and a radio that picks up things it should not. Natural, overlapping dialogue. Included with Netflix.
Stories told through puzzles and deduction
Florence. A first love told in short interactive vignettes, with almost no text. Finished in an evening, remembered much longer.
Gorogoa. Hand-drawn panels that you slide and combine to reveal the story. Unlike anything else on a phone.
Machinarium. A small robot in a rusty city, a wordless adventure with beautiful hand-painted scenes.
The Case of the Golden Idol. Examine a frozen scene and fill in who did what. Real deduction with no hand holding. Included with Netflix.
Papers, Please. A border inspector in a grim fictional state, where checking documents slowly becomes a moral problem.
Rusty Lake: Roots. A strange family tree told through surreal point and click puzzles. Unsettling in the best way.
Broken Sword: Director's Cut. A classic adventure that begins with an explosion in a Paris café, and still one of the best written.
Thimbleweed Park. A murder, a strange town and five playable characters, from creators of the classic point and click era.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. A full role-playing game with dialogue choices and dozens of hours of story. Needs over two gigabytes of space.
Getting the most from a story game
- Use headphones Voice acting and sound carry much of the atmosphere, and most of it is lost through a phone speaker.
- Do not reload after a bad outcome The story you get from your own mistakes is the one worth telling. Save the second playthrough for later.
- Play a chapter at a time Most of these games are written in chapters or episodes. Stopping at the end of one keeps the thread.
- Check the space before buying Text games are small; several of the adventures and role-playing games need more than a gigabyte.
- Check how saves move to a new phone Before switching phones, find out whether progress syncs, or the story starts again.
Pick by the kind of story you want to be inside, pay once where you can, and play with headphones on.
Frequently asked questions
Which of these are free?
The Telltale games and Life is Strange are free to start with later episodes bought inside the game, Choices is free with premium choices, and the two Netflix games come with a subscription. The rest are paid once. Check the current listing, since pricing changes.
Will they run on an older phone?
The text-led games run on almost anything. The larger adventures and Knights of the Old Republic need more storage and a reasonably capable phone.
Do the paid games have advertising?
No. The paid ones and the Netflix ones have no advertising. The free ones make their money from episodes or premium currency instead.
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