Story and characters
Do you want to know what happens next? Do the characters change over the course of the story, and do supporting characters have desires of their own? Living characters hold your attention better than spectacular explosions.
How to judge
How to judge a story game yourself
There are no scores or best-of lists here. Instead, we offer questions you can bring to any story-driven game, whether you're already playing it or have only heard about it. The answers will help you decide whether a story is worth your time and explain to friends what hooked you or let you down, without retelling the plot.
A strong story gives itself away not by its length but by what you still remember about it a week later.
How this section works: no scores, rankings or titles. Only questions and signs you can check for yourself.
Questions to ask a game
Ask yourself these after the first few chapters.
Weight of choices
Do your decisions affect events, relationships between characters, or at least the tone of scenes? An honest game doesn't have to branch endlessly, but it also doesn't pretend a choice matters when it changes nothing.
Drama in games (in Russian)
Pacing
Do tension and breathers alternate? Do important moments get lost in long stretches of travel and repetitive tasks? You can feel good pacing when the evening goes by without you noticing.
Game thrillers (in Russian)
Accessibility
Can you adjust subtitles, sound captions, quick-time events and camera shake? A considerate game adapts to the player and doesn't demand perfect hearing or lightning reflexes.
Length
Does the length of the story match its ambition? A short game can feel complete; a long one can drag. What matters is that every chapter adds something to the story.
An honest payment model
Is it clear what's included in the purchase and what's sold separately? Does the story stop mid-sentence just to offer you an expansion? A plot cut up for the sake of sales is obvious right away.
Good signs and warning signs
| What you're judging | Good sign | Reason to be wary |
|---|---|---|
| Story | Characters change, motives make sense | Events hinge on coincidences |
| Choices | Consequences show, even if not right away | Every answer leads to the same scene |
| Pacing | Tension gives way to breathers | Long transitions between rare scenes |
| Accessibility | Font, sound and button presses are adjustable | Tiny text and no settings at all |
| Payment | It's clear what the purchase includes | The story breaks off to sell an expansion |
Why we do without ratings
How a story game feels is deeply personal. A scene that moved one person to tears will seem drawn out to another, and an ending that sparked arguments will strike someone else as the only one possible. Reducing all that to a number means losing the most interesting part.
Questions are more reliable than other people's lists: they work for any game, including one that hasn't come out yet, and they help you figure out not only whether you liked a story but why.
- Mechanics
Cutscenes and skipping them, quick-time events, branching dialogue, the journal and notes, saves and accessibility.
- Updates
New chapters and expansions, photo mode, improved subtitles and translations, and where to find out what changed.
- Questions
Answers about this reference, story and choices, accessibility, age ratings and family agreements.
- Genres
Interactive drama, dialogue-driven adventure, investigation, story-driven horror, the "walking sim" and wordless stories.
What we rely on
- Accessibility settings in game menus (in general terms)
- Kinokorol editorial materials
We describe mechanics and settings in general terms. Every game has its own menus, option names and set of accessibility features, and they can change after an update, so check the game's own help pages and settings for exact details.