Best story-driven games to get lost in this winter

Winter is the season for a game you can sink into: the kind where you look up and realise it’s midnight because you just had to see what happened next. These are our picks for big, story-led games to fill the long evenings – a mix of recent hits and one brand-new arrival. Dates are worldwide unless noted.

The modern classics

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

The French studio Sandfall Interactive’s debut, released on 24 April 2025 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, became one of the most talked-about games of its year. It’s a turn-based RPG with real-time timing, set in a Belle Époque-inspired world where a painted number on a monolith decides who dies each year. Beautiful, melancholy and properly gripping.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II

Out since 4 February 2025 on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. A huge, grounded medieval RPG set in Bohemia in 1403, where your choices shape the story and nobody is a chosen one. It’s slow and demanding at times, but few games make a world feel this lived-in.

Ghost of Yōtei

Sucker Punch’s follow-up to Ghost of Tsushima launched on 2 October 2025 on PS5. You play Atsu, a mercenary on a path of revenge across the far north of 17th-century Japan. Gorgeous to explore and easy to lose an entire weekend to.

Strange and memorable

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach

Hideo Kojima’s sequel arrived on PS5 on 26 June 2025 and on PC on 19 March 2026. It’s a game about delivering cargo across a broken world – which sounds odd, and is – but its story of connection lands hard.

Silent Hill f

For anyone who likes their stories unsettling: set in 1960s Japan, on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC. A psychological horror with a mystery that rewards close attention.

Brand new for winter

Final Fantasy Resonance – from 22 October

The first HD-2D Final Fantasy launches on 22 October 2026 on Switch 2, Switch, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, with the Steam version on 23 October. It’s based on the first story arc of the mobile game Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, rebuilt as a full console RPG – a comforting, turn-based story for the dark evenings.

How to pick

• You want the best story of recent years: Clair Obscur.
• You want a world to live in: Kingdom Come: Deliverance II.
• You want spectacle: Ghost of Yōtei.
• You want something genuinely different: Death Stranding 2.
• You want classic comfort: Final Fantasy Resonance.

Long stories need a comfy spot: our cosy gaming corner guide has ideas. And if the backlog is getting out of hand, try our realistic backlog guide.