Games are a fantastic but sometimes underutilized tool for telling a story; unlike a book, TV series or movie, gamers can inhabit the characters themselves and personally guide them on their journey. Becoming immersed in a gripping story in which you control the protagonist is a feeling that cannot be matched by other, less interactive forms of media.
What I like even more, however, is when I can shape my own personal story within the game; imagine if, when watching a movie, you could make choices for the main character. My love for personalised, branching storylines began as far back as playing BioWare’s Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic games, where your dialogue choices would affect the outcome of the story and the fate of the characters, this formula was then improved in ‘Mass Effect’ which was BioWare’s first foray into RPG’s but with their own IP.
There is, however, another way to experience a unique and personalised story within a game, a way that doesn’t involve branching dialogue or binary player choices. A way in which the story isn’t restricted by limited narrative branches. A way in which the mechanics of the game itself worked to create an entirely unique story that organically reacted to unrestrained player agency, a game where the narrative that is produced for the player is created dynamically by the sum of its parts.
This is where emergent gameplay gets its name, the narrative ‘emerges’ from the gameplay, and emergent gameplay can result in some staggering replay ability and unique player experiences.
This non-exhaustive list details some games that I’ve played that are well worth a look for those interested in emergent gameplay.
Grand Strategy:
Crusader Kings 3
The king of all games when it comes to feudal politics and political intrigue, Crusader Kings 3 lets you play as a member of a dynasty from any family across Europe, Asia Minor, Africa and all the way over to India. There is no overarching narrative, aside from vaguely following history and the world quickly descends into a chaotic ahistorical sandbox and the player is given full agency to do whatever they please. For instance, you could successfully defend England from William the Conqueror and keep England in Anglo-Saxon hands or take Harald Hardrada’s invasion one step further and claim England for the
Vikings, this will kickstart a completely new version of history for you to experience. Or if you want a slightly more grounded story, you could create your own character and start as wandering monk, or mercenaries for hire*. You can start at the top as a King or work your way up from a lowly Baron. The possibilities are endless. No matter what character you begin with, the stories this game creates are fascinating and lead to some truly Game of Thrones-Esque moments.
Characters all have personalities and skills that will influence how they act, and the AI will seek to further its own ambitions and won’t hesitate to backstab you or your promising heir. Permadeath for all characters means no one is safe, and kingdoms can rise and fall on a whim. But getting killed is not the end, after your death you choose a new family member to take control of. It could be an estranged uncle, or a neglected child; you could march on the very kingdom that you established with your last character or leave your homelands and seek fame and fortune elsewhere. If you don’t want to get involved in the intrigues of the state, you can spend your time hunting boar and hosting feasts, or maybe you just want to build churches and focus on gardening, each character that you play will lead hugely different and fascinating lives. The choice of what to do is overwhelming and every single game will be vastly different, the potential for emergent gameplay is truly staggering. Crusader Kings chucks you into a huge medieval sandbox and with so many characters to play, and different lifestyles to pursue, not to mention an array of mods for popular IP’s (Check out the ASOIAF mod) the stories you can create are seemingly endless.
Stellaris
This is another paradox IP, but instead of medieval Europe, Stellaris presents you with a galactic backdrop. Create your own unique species and design how their society functions. Cyberpunk tech dealers? Black-hole worshipping death cult? Mushroom zombies? Imperial machine cult (yes just like that one)? The AI will then also fill the galaxy with other unique empires, as well as primitives, cosmic anomalies and even sea-faring space fauna. By choosing civics, species traits and societal traits, you (and your AI opponents) can create highly unique space faring empires that will behave and interact differently depending on their traits. There are so many options, that you will never run out of empires to create, and thinking up a new alien species is half of the fun, I’ve spent a lot of time on this game simply creating aliens to fill up the galaxy on future playthroughs. You can also tailor the galaxy to suit the type of game you want; do you want a few empires sharing a large galaxy, slowly evolving separately from each other before a huge clash of titans at the end? Or maybe you want loads of warring states from the get-go, slowly swallowing up neighbours and forming alliances, if you wanted, you could make yourself
the sole cosmic level empire in the galaxy and spend the whole time uplifting all the primitives in your own image. Stellaris is an old game now, and countless DLC’s and updates later there are now an overwhelming number of ways to play. You can vie for control of the galactic senate and sanction your political rivals until their economy is crippled, or you could focus on being the galactic trade hub and influence galactic politics with your cold hard cash. Of course, there’s also good ol’ fashion brute force if politics don’t interest you: you can simply enslave and destroy all your rivals. Stellaris also features multiple end game crises that will challenge the whole galaxy, will you save it and be the hero, uniting the bickering empires under a common cause? Or close your borders and wait for it all to blow over, and then recolonise an empty galaxy? In recent DLC’s you can now even become the end game crisis itself. Once again Paradox give you an empty map and a toolbox of mechanics and set you free in a chaotic sandbox, the options are so vast you can create any kind of alien empire you can imagine and let them loose into a unique galaxy, the sci-fi tales that this game can are epic, and a shining example of emergent narratives on a grand, galactic scale.
RPG: Mount and Blade Series
An RPG without a questline feels like it wouldn’t work, but the Mount & Blade series does just that. Upon beginning a new game you will be thrust into the world of Calradia, a fictional version of Europe, and it will be up to you to forge your own destiny. The Mount & Blade series does a great job of making you a very small fish in a very big pond, there are hundreds of other characters in Calradia, also vying for fame and fortune. They all belong to one of five factions, and it’s up to you to decide which faction you’ll join and how you will ascend through ranks of their nobility. You will need to befriend influential nobles, impress and marry their daughter’s and prove yourself in battle if you want a chance of penetrating the noble circle. All your actions will have consequences, and what might win the favour of one king may earn the disdain as another, so you need to choose your allegiances wisely. The lack of scripting means that you’ll develop your own unique enemies and friends throughout the course of each playthrough, and the power of each realm can shift drastically depending on the outcome of its many wars. Gain loyal followers and take them with you to form your own kingdom, become a mercenary with no allegiance, or just be a trader. Every game will be different due to the ever-shifting political landscape, relationship system and ambitious NPC’s who are striving for the same power and influence that you are. Aside from troop management this game also has a robust trading system, fief management, politics and even some real estate management. As well as the campaign map, there are also the field battle, which are second to none, you will command hundreds of troops and fight shoulder to shoulder with your own personal soldiers that will become stronger with experience, these battles provide brilliant punch in an incredibly satisfying gameplay loop, and each battle feels like its own cinematic master piece. The battles, politics and ambitious NPC’s combine to create some incredible stories, I’ve had games where I’ve become the King’s right-hand man and all the benefits and power that come with it, and I’ve also had games where I’ve been a neglected lower tier noble, defending a the borderlands of an ungrateful nation, no matter your destiny, the unpredictable political landscape and epic wars that unfold keep things fresh, each game tells a different tale.
Outward
Unlike most games on this list, Outward does have its own narrative to follow and a clear main quest line, and it might seem like a bit of an outlier on this list. The emergent gameplay here, however, arises from its deep survival mechanics, time sensitive missions and lack of manual saving. Although there is questline present, it is largely up to the player to make their own way in the world. After the prologue, which merely serves to introduce the player to the very basics of the game, you will be thrown out into a harsh and unforgiving world, and you will also be put into crippling debt. Straight off the bat you will need to decide where to go and how to start working out how to pay off the debt, this is where the emergent gameplay will begin, and because there is no way of rolling back to a previous save, every little decision you make on your journey will be final. Even death is not the end, when you “die” you will be greeted with one of the many end game scenarios, you might be saved by another adventurer, dragged back to the den of the beast that killed you, or maybe you will wake up 24 hours later, cold, in darkness and alone. Even though you won’t “die” time will advance and this is when the time sensitive quests come into effect, time will pass and quests can either disappear or become impossible to complete if you leave them for too long, and the very state of the world can change if you neglect the quests too much. All these things combine and quickly begin to mould a unique story for the player. Outward features deep survival mechanics which can force players into a multitude of different situations, especially if they are not prepared, such as hunting for food, searching for water, or trying to search for a rare ingredient to create a vital antidote, these small little situations that the game throws you into create little stories in themselves or serve as platforms that can launch you into some unexpected hijinks, and set the stage for yet more adventures. Outward has some great emergent gameplay and is perfect if the player doesn’t want a pure sandbox, and a little bit more direction but still wants to experience a playthrough that is unique to them.
XCOM: Turn Based Strategy
XCOM is the other game on this list that does feature a main quest line, in fact XCOM has a very linear story, there aren’t even multiple endings. So how is it that XCOM can make this list? XCOM 2 takes place in a world where earth has been successfully invaded and occupied by extra-terrestrial invaders and it’s up to you, “The Commander” to rally the nations of earth and liberate our great green planet; to do that you’ll need soldiers. While there are a host of supporting characters that serve as your advisers, there isn’t one named character that gets their boots on the ground. Instead, you will need to recruit and train men and women from all the nations of the world to take up arms and fight for the freedom of our planet. Fighting on the frontlines of the Alien War is unsurprisingly, a risky business, and for every engagement you send your troops on, there is always a risk that some don’t make it back. You can expect quite a lot of death in XCOM, especially when you start out, the aliens are better trained, have superior technology and overwhelming numbers. XCOM has permadeath, and not one of your soldiers is exempt from that, no one has plot armour, and a stray plasma bolt, friendly fire incident or a collapsing building can cut short even the most decorated career. You will lose rookies, who, without any experience of war, will panic if things start to turn south, but you will also lose the veterans, your own personally moulded steely heroes who have been stalwarts of every mission since the beginning. Death can be painful in XCOM, not just for you, for their comrades, soldiers will form bonds that are forged in the heat of battle and will break down if their brother in arms gets annihilated. You will grow attached to your soldiers, only to see them gone in a cruel instant. No game will get you so attached to a randomly generated squad of characters like XCOM will, and those deaths can be truly heartbreaking. But for every tale of tragedy, there are also moments of heroism, a rookie could hold a flank against all odds, giving the squad precious time to evacuate civilians, your sniper might save the life of his sergeant with a one in a million shot, maybe your heavy gunner holds the line by himself, buying time for others to complete the mission and escape, sacrificing himself so that the hopes of a free
Earth live on. Watching the stories of all your soldiers unfold is enthralling and you never know which of your soldiers will rise to become heroes, or which will become another statistic. The stories that emerge can be both epic and tragic, XCOM is a grim war drama, disguised as a turn-based strategy game.
Battle Brothers
In a similar vein to XCOM, Battle Brothers has you playing as an intangible force that controls a cohort of soldiers and guides them through their many battles. In Battle Brothers, instead of a human liberation force, you will manage a mercenary company in a bleak and unforgiving fantasy world. Battle Brothers has the same permadeath as XCOM, and any of your ‘Brothers’ can die at any time. Unlike XCOM however, this game is a lot more freeform, every time you start a new game you will be able to experience brand new procedurally generated world for you to ply your trade as a mercenary in. So, from the get-go each playthrough is going to be unique, as the distribution of nations, cities and topography will be vastly different each time, so straight away the emergent branches set out in a new, unseen direction upon beginning new playthroughs. As well as dying, your Brothers can also be brutally maimed, they can lose arms, legs and eyes, and can be rendered incapable with a severe enough injury, whether you keep them around or just throw them into the frontlines to die, less they be a drain on vital resources, well that just depends on what kind of commander you want to be. Also, like XCOM there are hit chances, so your best laid plans can completely fall apart due to unlucky dice rolls, this can be frustrating but is also a good way of simulating the chaos of battle. Without the linear story of XCOM, Battle Brothers is more free form; the places you go, the quests you take, and the factions and nobles you can impress all add their own unique element into the story of your company, and in the same vein of Stellaris there are scenarios that can spice up the end game, and completely shake up the world. Battle Brothers can produce some fascinating emergent tales not just of your own company, but of a unique fantasy world.
Colony Sim: Dwarf Fortress
The one true king of emergent storytelling in video games; every new game begins with the formation of an entirely new fantasy world, centuries of topographical, cultural and societal evolution simulated in minutes. So, before you even click the mouse for the first time, the entire backdrop of your story is completely unique. Dwarf Fortress is a game about overseeing a Dwarven mining expedition, I say “oversee” because in Dwarf Fortress you don’t have direct control over your Dwarves, instead you act as more of a guiding hand. You can outline where you want them to build, dig or farm, and you can command them during combat; outside of this however you will be unable to give them direct orders. Instead, the Dwarves will decide what to do based on their wants, needs and personality. This might sound frustrating, and it can take a while to ‘click’, but stick with it and eventually you will begin to understand that playing Dwarf Fortress is like having front row seats to witness a doomed mining expedition, it feels like watching (and subtly influencing) a live ‘Mines of Moria’ experience. Because of the lack of control, playing Dwarf Fortress can feel a bit more like watching an ant farm, and I mean that in the best way possible. All the Dwarves have unique personalities that are dynamic and altered by the experiences that they have, they can form relationships with other Dwarves and these relationships evolve organically, they can form friendships, marry, have children, fall out and break up. Their relationships will affect their mood, and this can affect their working life, there are multitude of professions that they will have to take up for the good of the company. Miners, sculptors and carpenters will all contribute to the building and conservation of the colony. The way that all the inhabitants of your colony act is fascinating; I’ve had a sculptor become obsessed with an ancient relic, he quickly descended into madness and would not stop making sculptures based on said relic until it drove him insane, he died, exiled and alone in the caves beneath the colony, unwound by his obsession. There was also the time that two spurned lovers started drawing slanderous paintings of one another after a bitter divorce. I remember these little moments, they enrich every playthrough with small little subplots that are a joy to witness. There are also the grandiose tales of heroism as well, I have witnessed many Dwarves die protecting their loved ones, and many others who have taken up arms to protect the colony sometimes successfully and sometimes not. The depth of the relationship and character system runs as deep as the systems that create the world itself. The tagline for Dwarf Fortress is “Losing is fun!” and it’s easy to see why, even when everything is falling apart in spectacular fashion, whether it be due to flooding, starvation or an awakened Cave Dragon, watching how all the Dwarves react to the end of days is like being a fly on the wall during the last days of Rome. After the end, you can start a new expedition in the same world, or you could create a character in Adventure Mode: a separate game mode which allows you to roam the world as a lone adventurer. Or you could start a whole new world all together, the learning curve is so robust that starting again feels satisfying as you will learn something new with each playthrough, and every single game will take you on another journey filled with love, heroism and tragedy.
RimWorld
Rimworld is fundamentally a Dwarf Fortress clone, however the developers have expanded upon the story telling elements. While Dwarf Fortress is more of a clinical simulation, Rimworld, a self-described “Story Generator” really leans into those more personal stories that made everyone fall in love with Dwarf Fortress. It is more accessible than its inspiration, the UI is much easier to navigate, and all the information is more presentable and easier to digest, especially for the newer player. Keeping track of your colonists is a lot easier thanks to the graphics and much improved character screens, this means you spend less time trying to learn hotkeys and navigate menus and can instead enjoy the gameplay more. While the world simulation is a bit less complex, the character system is still just as robust and the drama that unfolds is just as thrilling. This isn’t to say the world generation isn’t present, instead of a fantasy world, Rimworld will create a brand-new planet consisting of different factions for you to crash-land on, instead of Dwarven Colonists you will oversee survivors of crashed ship. Unlike Dwarf Fortress, there is an endgame goal: you can eventually build yourself a ship and escape from the planet. This gives players little more direction than in Dwarf Fortress, further direction is given by the ‘Narrators’; I mentioned earlier that Rimworld is tailored more towards telling stories, the mood of these stories can be adjusted by picking a different narrator, so you could have the mood of the game be grimdark, noble bright, or utterly random . Unless you pick an easy narrator and start in a safe biome, Rimworld can be brutal, but this doesn’t detract from the experience because just like in Dwarf Fortress, losing is fun. New narrators, as well as a plethora of other game changing mods can be downloaded from the Steam Workshop, which gives Rimworld some incredible flexibility in what kind of experience you want from it. The biggest difference between the two games is the theme, but the underlying systems are so similar and either is worth checking out in order to see emergent narrative as its finest, newer players might lean towards Rimworld as it is easier to get to grips with, but the new edition of Dwarf Fortress on Steam is perfectly easy to learn, no matter which one you choose, both will hypnotise you and make the days disappear with the deeply human stories they tell.
Honourable Mentions:
Kenshi: Probably would have made the list if I had played it, but I haven’t got round to it yet, so cannot accurately comment on it. Like Mount and Blade but instead of a medieval realm it takes place in a post-apocalyptic wasteland and features the ability to build your own settlements.
Football Manager: Didn’t make the list as is very inaccessible for non-football fans. A fully simulated football world, you have complete control over the management of a football club, each game will quickly diverge from reality as players, managers and teams compete for football glory and every game quickly becomes your own unique football universe.
Shadow Of War: Like XCOM, this game has a main campaign and a linear story, but the nemesis system means you will have some heated rivalries that will evolve differently depending on how each fight plays out and the personality of the Orc nemesis in question, the Orcs of Mordor will hunt you, bait you and challenge you anytime and anywhere, and they will remember every confrontation, whether you ran away, spared them, or were defeated. Interactions with these nemeses create some fascinating little emeergent stories as you roam the wastes of Mordor.
