Video games are an excellent medium for escapism and entertainment, especially during life in quarantine. From popular remakes like Final Fantasy VII Remake to social MMOs like Destiny 2 or Club Penguin Online that allows players to play together or even games used for staying in shape, the medium remains an important escape from everyday life. But there is one thing that a lot of people often forget about video games, and that's their great storytelling.

Not all video games are stories about saving a princess from a fire breathing boss. Some of them have stories that appeal to more basic and human elements. People want to feel emotions when consuming media, whether it is an engaging book or a dramatic television show. If that's what you're looking for, then these video games are sure to be real tearjerkers.

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Life is Strange

The Life is Strange franchise published by Square Enix is a well-renowned game for being a roller coaster of emotions. The episodic adventure games often alternate darker, scarier, and sadder scenes with scenes filled with warmth and happiness. All while using their award-winning soundtracks to emphasize the feeling of the scenic atmosphere and making player choices matter. But by far one of the saddest and most shocking moments in the franchise would be in the first game Life Is Strange

In this game, the player plays as Max Caulfield, a young 12th-grade girl aspiring to be a photographer. She tends to keep to herself and is often bullied by the more popular students in her school. She also used to live in the area before moving out as a child, returning because of the school's art programs. Suddenly Max discovers she has the power to rewind time and therefore affect the future. With this, she saves one of her childhood best friends, Chloe Price, from getting shot, and the two spend days together rebuilding their friendship after losing touch.

In one part of the game, Max accidentally rewinds too far back into the past and prevents a fatal car accident for Chloe's dad, hoping it would relieve future pains for Chloe. Sadly, while this does save Chloe's father, it alters the future so that Chloe suffers a devastating car accident and becomes paralyzed from the neck down.  Seeing Chloe in her current state sinks player's hearts as they are the ones to blame for Chloe's current situation. But what's even worse is that Chloe begs Max to kill her with a morphine overdose, admitting that she knows her medical bills are too big for her parents to pay off and that her death is inevitable.

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The Walking Dead

Lee comforting Clementine in Telltale Walking Dead game

Telltale Games' The Walking Dead is another episodic adventure game where player choice matters and is based on the once very popular television series and comics. Although the game takes place in the same fictional world of The Walking Dead franchise, their characters and events are original to the game. Now tossed into a world full of zombies and a distrust of other humans, players must survive as Lee Everett during the beginning of the zombie outbreak. After surviving a car crash from the back of the police car, Lee struggles to get away from a zombie horde in the forest with his injured leg. He eventually meets a little girl named Clementine after taking refuge in her house. Her parents had gone on vacation and left Clementine to be babysat. Luckily, Clementine managed to survive long enough in her treehouse on her own for Lee to find her.

The two survivors immediately click with Lee doing everything in his power to protect the young Clementine and Clementine doing what she can to help Lee. With both of them thrown into the apocalypse together, players immediately hope for both of their wellbeings. Down the line, the two get separated, and Lee gets bit by a zombie. The infected Lee does his best to find Clementine before it is too late and ensure her safety, and while he does manage to do so, the infection manages to take him. A heartfelt moment passes between the two as Lee reassures her that she will be just fine without him. He then either prompts Clementine to shoot him before he turns or to leave him to die.

Either way, Lee's death is the death of both characters, as this forces the young Clementine to grow up fast for her own survival. The franchise has a lot of twists and surprises for players, all tied in with the struggle for survival, so be prepared to have some heart-wrenching experiences.

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The Last of Us

A deeply emotional experience, Naughty Dog's The Last of Us focuses on the relationship between characters Ellie and Joel. Players try to survive as both Ellie and Joel as they travel west across the ruined United States to find a cure for a fungal plague threatening the human race. Meanwhile, Ellie is being hunted as she is immune to the plague, and they wish to use her for experiments. With the experienced Joel doing his best to keep both him and young Ellie safe, players can't help but appreciate their growing father-daughter relationship. With Ellie eager to help Joel and prove herself and Joel reluctantly teaching Ellie the ropes to survive from how to shoot, how to fight, and how to watch his back.

Too attached to Ellie to let her die in the process of an experiment to find a cure, he saves Ellie, carrying her unconscious body in his arms as he tries to escape with her. At this moment, people can't help but feel responsible for the well being of Ellie and feel worse about themselves as they realize they potentially doomed the human race and lie to Ellie about her no longer being needed to find a cure.

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