Visual Storytelling

[LITTLE LEVEL]

I have recently been playing all the games from the creator of Limbo and it has been really fun. He is created Limbo, Inside, and now Cocoon and each game has its own unique story but unlike most games where they hand the the story or give it to you through collectable lore hidden throughout levels Limbo, Inside, and Cocoon do something called Visual Storytelling. Now what makes this so special is visual storytelling is usually left for the audience to figure out what it is about and sometimes you may never find the true meaning but the community collaborates together to find what they think the best interpretation is. By leaving subtle hints towards the bigger picture the audience has to figure it out themselves and though this may seem lazy it is brilliant.

Take Inside for example. At first glance it just seems like a kid going through a country that is so oppressive that they mind control their citizens. That in itself teaches a lesson about oppressive leaders but when you look at the bigger picture you see that you yourself may be  under mind control too and you are just a test subject who is being used for an experiment about creating a human hive mind. Though you don't learn that unless you explore the world and turn off generators that power the mind control and when you turn of the last one you enter the same pose the other hypnotized slaves enter when the mind control is shut off. 

Visual storytelling is a great way to tell a story and convey a message or lesson to the audience through the game environment. Whats even crazier is simple games like these have better messages or lessons then huge triple A games. Cocoon shows the evolutionary journey of a beetle, limbo shows a brothers journey to find his sister in the afterlife but may possibly be going to hell without his sister (very heavy I know), and inside show what a corrupt government can do to a country.  All of these stories packed in games less the 5 GB.

Now here I am close to beating the last game on the list LIMBO and I gotta say these games really changed my mind on what defines a good story. 

[Accessing]

I have to sit down and really give games like these a chance. I have had my eyes on Limbo for awhile now and having been a member of the Ultimate Game Pass for so long I really want to play more games where time allows. Hell, I downloaded Starfield even asked the forums a week back ago for tips for beginners and yet to start on the game. With the Halo Infinite update out too I don't know when I'll play other games but I'll try to make time for this one. 

To me reading how you feel makes me think of the earlier games on Xbox One and even when the Xbox One X released they also had a slew of single player games with great storylines to follow.