RPGs Are The Best Alternate Reality Stories
by Frank Martin
Alternate universe stories are tough to pin down. There have been great examples across all mediums, but because the audience is put into a passive position, they never get to experience the nature of diverging timelines first hand. “Choose your own adventure” novels show a glimmer of what this could be like, but video games are really the ultimate medium in terms of showcasing what branching timelines can be like. Open world RPGs are especially noteworthy for the freedom of choice they allow the player and the consequences of those choices.
This phenomenon can be seen firsthand in Prey, published by Bethesda. The general story of the game centers on a scientist aboard a space station who must deal with an alien force that broke containment and killed many people as it assumed control of the complex. The game offers players an abundance of choices, including rescuing certain people or allowing them to die, adopting alien physiology to use their powers, and even bypassing optional missions all together. But these decisions don’t exist in isolation. There’s a cascading effect to every choice that opens up new missions and possibilities. Some of these possibilities have so many prerequisites that two players may have two completely different experiences while playing the game, almost as if they are existing in two different realities.
This experience becomes especially effective when players play the same game multiple times. It allows them to perform multiple choices in different orders to see what kind of new avenues in the story open up. This is, effectively, how alternate realities work. Individual choices lead to branching story lines and take individuals in different directions. In the beginning of the video game industry, it must have been hard to imagine a game that allows players so much freedom of choice that it perfectly resembles how ultimate realities are built, but it’s a pleasure for storytelling aficionados to experience.
Prey is now available on Xbox Game Pass
