Every day, we are faced with choices. These can be big, life-altering events or as simple as deciding what color shirt to wear. Choices, big and small, are one of the core aspects that make us human, a truth that As Dusk Falls captures in its well-realized and branching storylines, regardless of its less gameplay-heavy design. It's not the first game to do such a thing, and it won't be the last.
After finishing As Dusk Falls, you may find a hole in your heart in the shape of story-rich games. But, fear not, there are plenty of games where decision-making is at the center of gameplay, and even more with deeply impactful plots and characters.
Updated December 28, 2022 by Keitha Sims-Korba: After its recent win at 2022's The Game Awards in the "Games for Impact" category, As Dusk Falls has proven its ability to get people talking and, more importantly, thinking. Emotional, intellectually stimulating games are thankfully not a rarity, so if you're not completely emotionally wiped out after finishing As Dusk Falls and you're on the hunt for more thought-provoking works, you've come to the right place. With all that in mind, we've updated this list to bring attention to similarly impactful games. Games that scratch at our minds - and pull at our hearts.
15 Pentiment
The truth is a fickle thing, prone to sway. No game understands this quite as Pentiment does. As Andreas, an artist working in the monastery of the small, alpine town of Tassing, you find yourself embroiled in the results of a complicated local history — a murder.
Like As Dusk Falls, Pentiment takes place over decades. It features intricate relationships, not to mention its similar commitment to a striking art style — and its availability on Game Pass. Both games are about people, their actions, and the following ripple effects.
14 Undertale
Undertale, available on Game Pass, is less about branching choices and more about your personal journey. Three paths lay before you, with lingering effects. Not just for the characters but for you.
Like As Dusk Falls, Undertale is about dealing with the consequences of choices you weren't part of — the fallout of decisions you never made. Undertale is cute and often hilarious, yet beneath it all, there's this melancholy, a nostalgia for an unknown home.
13 Valiant Hearts: The Great War
An adventure game set in Europe during the First World War, Valiant Hearts grips your emotions. Its adorable art style betrays its intense atmosphere - sure, you get a cute dog to hang out with, but you're also dealing with the first instances of chemical warfare and the civilian cost of war.
The path you walk is set; there are no choices. No way to avoid what's coming. As Dusk Falls is dynamic, where Valiant Hearts is static. Still, both tap into something deep with their respective ensembles — a solid emotional core with compelling, relatable characters.
12 Life Is Strange: True Colors
Life is Strange, as a series, has always toyed with the ideas of choice and branching narratives. Life is Strange: True Colors is the only game in its series on Game Pass, and it's a good jumping-in point for those fresh from As Dusk Falls.
Despite the serious matters it deals with, True Colors feels cozy due to its forest-dense setting. Like the cast of As Dusk Falls, Alex Chen is a profoundly human protagonist, one you want to lead to the brightest possible future.
11 Kentucky Route Zero
There's something about long journeys that can feel slightly surreal. Watching the flora and fauna change around you, shifting timezones and finding that the day seems too long, too bright. Kentucky Route Zero is a ghost of a game, a story of Southern Gothic folklore and the too-familiar consequences of overstretched economies, more feeling than anything else.
Despite its surreal nature, it feels close, a reality we know but don't see. There are no puzzles - you, your dog, and the unknowable road. As Dusk Falls couldn't be more different from it in terms of its actual content, other than its adventure game mechanics, yet they both have this strange longing lurking beneath - one that has no name but endures all the same.
10 Until Dawn
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Supermassive Games' Until Dawn lives and dies (joke intended) on its "Butterfly Effect" system. With it, you can see how every one of your choices may affect the outcome of the game — misunderstand Ashley in a crucial scene, and she may let you get your head lopped off.
Luckily, the characters of Until Dawn weren't crafted with realistic scenarios in mind, unlike in As Dusk Falls. As such, if you want a decision-based game without the far-too-real stakes, Until Dawn is ready and waiting for you to pick it up.
9 Heavy Rain
Heavy Rain, upon its initial release in 2010, was acclaimed for its moody atmosphere and intense focus on narrative. It was a focal point in the early 2010s debate about whether video games could be art, like literature or films. Heavy Rain was dark, not just in its dreary, cloud-covered setting, but in its content. You play as four different characters, all tied together by the search for a mysterious serial killer that's targeted the son of the main protagonist, Ethan.
It was a smash hit for a reason, though not without its problems. Playing the game now, you may notice the violent sexualization of its female protagonist. But, if you can stomach it, it's worth a playthrough, if only to see how far cinematic, choice-based games have come in such a short time.
8 Life Is Strange 2
Any of the Life Is Strange games would make a great game to play after As Dusk Falls, but the mood of Life Is Strange 2 is probably the closest. The story is magical realism, which contrasts starkly with As Dusk Falls, but they share similar cores: they're games about family and, more accurately, family trauma.
Sometimes, Life Is Strange 2 feels like a sweet story about two brothers on a weird road trip. And sometimes, it punches you in the gut. It's not difficult to map the Holt brothers, especially Jay, and their trials through As Dusk Falls, onto Sean and Daniel. There is a strange kinship between these two games that goes beyond just choice-based gameplay. But you'll have to see that for yourself.
7 Night In The Woods
Night In The Woods is a story-focused platformer centering on college dropout and cool cat Mae as she returns to her dying hometown. Despite its pleasant art style, this game hits hard when it comes to emotional beats and the lingering effects of past actions and traumas. Sure, you get to play in a garage band with your high-school buddies. You get to talk to them about their lives and try to rekindle your friendships. Meanwhile, in the shadowy forest, a terrifying local mystery unravels around you.
Like As Dusk Falls, Night In The Woods is about the realities of simply being and reckoning with the actions of a former "you." It may be packaged in an almost cutesy aesthetic, but make no mistake: if you want to have a lot of feelings, play Night In The Woods.
6 The Quarry
The Quarry has you taking control of nine campers as they try to survive a night of horrors. While whether it exceeds its predecessor is a question only you can answer for yourself, the fact is that The Quarry is much more accessible than the Playstation-exclusive Until Dawn.
Thankfully, for those who are horror-averse, The Quarry is relatively tame, no more frightening than some of the more tense moments of As Dusk Falls. As such, if you're looking for a game that can give you all that choice flowchart goodness, you don't have to look much further than this spooky adventure in Camp Hackett. Just be ready to hear a lot of bad jokes about bears.
5 Gone Home
Short and sweet, Gone Home is what it sounds like — it's about going home. It doesn't share many direct similarities with As Dusk Falls, though something is compelling about its storytelling and focus on family secrets. There are no narrative choices to make, and no flow charts to follow. Instead, it is a journey of discovery and internalizing the small things that define a person.
In a strange way, Gone Home feels like a micro-version of As Dusk Falls in its clear desire to make you understand the characters you're exploring and their motivations. As a result, Gone Home is well worth your time if you have an hour to kill.
4 Oxenfree
Oxenfree centers on a girl named Alex, her step-brother, and her group of friends as they explore an abandoned island and unwittingly unleash a dimension-breaking force. A coming-of-age story wrapped in the banner of a supernatural thriller, Oxenfree plays with choice, time loops, and inevitability. So if you wanted a little more strange in As Dusk Falls, Oxenfree has your back.
The decision of how to treat people in Oxenfree, especially the antagonistic Clarissa, is where the story places its main thrust — like As Dusk Falls, treating people in specific ways can lead to better or worse outcomes.
3 Detroit: Become Human
Detroit: Become Human is a frustrating game with potential and aesthetics oozing from every frame. But when it's bad, it flounders with in-your-face metaphors that developer Quantic Dream cannot engage with thoughtfully or sensitively. Still, there's something very alluring about its setting. The way characters weave into one another's stories can be compelling, and there's no denying that it looks incredible, even years later.
With the use of a flowchart at the end of each section, you can see your choices and their consequences - enticing you to play levels over again just to see how things could have been. Like As Dusk Falls, it uses numerous playable characters whose actions can impact one another's storylines. If you're willing to deal with some on-the-nose metaphors that are (apparently) not political at all, Detroit: Become Human can help you fill that empty gap.
2 Firewatch
Firewatch is a lonely, emotional game. It's just you, the vast expanse of forest, and the voice of a woman stationed at another tower crackling through the radio. After dealing with so many different characters in As Dusk Falls, it's nice to be one solitary guy.
Unlike As Dusk Falls, Firewatch doesn't care much about your choices. The ending will be what it is, regardless of what you said and did. Still, after a game like As Dusk Falls, where it feels like everything is on your shoulders at all times, a game where you are on a set path is refreshing.
1 The Walking Dead: Season 1
Telltale Games existed long before they released The Walking Dead, but this is the game that catapulted them into mainstream success. Available on Game Pass along with two of its sequel seasons, The Walking Dead is, at its core, an adventure game. Your apocalyptic exploration of a zombie-filled southern United States is peppered with quick-time events, as is to be expected when dealing with the undead. Be prepared to make many choices, some of which are deeply uncomfortable.
As Dusk Falls may seem comparatively mundane in its tragedy and choices compared to an apocalyptic setting like the one in The Walking Dead, but the trauma is no less real in either game. Assuming your heart can take it and your eyes aren't blurry from overwhelming emotions, these two games make a surprisingly good pair.