Mobile gaming has boomed in recent years, seeing a host of incredible indie games, along with console favorites, move from the big screen to the portable. With such an array of games to choose from, whether it be solving difficult puzzles or setting foot inside a digital open world, it seems the mobile gaming market really does have something for everyone.

As mobile memory has increased, the library of games has only grown bigger and better, so for those looking for a story to get well and truly lost in, here are some of the best storylines within mobile gaming — all available to play right now.

Updated on March 10, 2024, by Dennis Moiseyev: As hard as it might be to believe, Apple has finally found a way to bring some of the most graphically demanding games from PC and console onto mobile. Combine that with Netflix's endeavors into mobile gaming, and there's now a plethora of critically acclaimed games that deliver fantastic storylines to your phones and tablets like you could never have imagined. This list has been updated with the latest!

1 Death Stranding Director's Cut

Read our 5/5 star review of Death Stranding Director's Cut!

• Only available on iPhone 15 Pro with iOS 17 and A17 Pro chip, or iPad with the M1 chip or later.

It's 2024, and you don't need a PS5 or an expensive gaming PC to play the director's cut of Death Stranding anymore. Now also capable of running this post-apocalyptic delivery game with cutting-edge graphics is an iPhone 15 Pro. Not even Hideo Kojima could've predicted this, and he's predicted a lot of things in his games that came true.

Death Stranding has one of the most original and inventive narratives and mechanics you'll find in the adventure game genre, filled with so much lore and strange characters that it's all often hard to grasp, but it'll still leave you in awe. It's also a game that features an all-star Hollywood cast and director cameos from Guillermo del Toro and Nicolas Winding Refn.

2 Resident Evil 4 Remake

Read our 5/5 star review of Resident Evil 4 Remake!

• Only available on iPhone 15 Pro with iOS 17 and A17 Pro chip, or iPad with the M1 chip or later.

You'd think that the iPhone 15 would start with older and smaller Resident Evil games like Resident Evil 2 or 3 Remake, but Capcom went right for Resident Evil 4 and brought Leon, Ashley, Ada, Luis, and the lovely Los Iluminados villagers and bosses from rural Spain to iOS. Now literally everyone gets to go to bingo!

Leon must once again save the president's daughter in a reimagined story that contains some of the classic humorous moments along with some new twists. The remake is hauntingly gorgeous from the very starting area, with graphics, cutscenes, and gameplay miles better than its 2005 predecessor.

3 Resident Evil Village

Read our 4/5 star review of Resident Evil Village!

• Only available on iPhone 15 Pro with iOS 17 and A17 Pro chip, or iPad with the M1 chip or later.

While Resident Evil 7: Biohazard may have the more terrifying atmosphere with the Baker House of Horrors, Resident Evil Village has an overall more in-depth story that answers a lot of the questions from the first Ethan Winters chapter. If Resident Evil 4 was first-person and set in a more snowy Lycan-infested European village, this would be that game.

The ominous Mother Miranda controls her Cadou experiments and has Ethan's daughter Rose. They make up the main Lords, or bosses, that Ethan will have to get through to save his child, each within their own section of the map. It's a harrowing and Gothic adventure, with Chris Redfield also there with you for the ride.

4 Max Payne

• Available On: iOS, older Android models

Max Payne is one of the earliest games developed by Remedy Entertainment and is also expecting a remake for modern consoles, but for now, you can play the original version on mobile. Gameplay-wise, this game is most famous for the John Woo bullet dodge-bullet time shootouts that inspired it.

Story-wise, it's perfect for a small-screen mobile setting, as it's a mix of detective noir and graphic novel-style storytelling, with the dialogue and character narration cutscenes presented as comic panels. The first game follows the titular detective on the run in a gritty action-packed adventure where Max will have to clear mobsters in order to clear his name.

5 Spritfarer Netflix Edition

Read our 3.5/5 star review of Spiritfarer!

• Available On: iOS, Android (Free with a Netflix subscription)

A heartwarming management sim with a gorgeous hand-drawn art style and a cozy story you can indulge yourself in from the comfort of your couch is what you'll come to love about Spiritfarer. As Stella, your goal is to keep making upgrades to your boat while ensuring your animal spirit passengers are comforted on their way to the afterlife, which will be through the Everdoor.

You can fish, cook, platform, and even glide with the help of Stella's star-shaped hat. The only feature missing in the mobile version is the co-op option for another player to become Stella's pet cat Daffodil, which would've made for another great cat game to play on mobile.

6 Immortality

Read our 4.5/5 star review of Immortality!

• Available On: iOS, Android (Free with a Netflix Subscription)

Immortality is an FMV game from Sam Barlow, creator and writer of interactive movie games like Her Story and Telling Lies. The game is presented through a collage of video clips compiled from fictional behind-the-scenes footage, TV interviews, and actual movie scenes, which you must comb through to unravel a sinister mystery surrounding lead actress Marissa Marcel.

After starring in the Gothic thriller Ambrosio, Marissa went on to be in the noir thriller Minsky and a Lynch-inspired Two of Everything. You'll be able to see the entirety of these three films once all the footage is collected (by clicking on various items in the current scene and jumping to the next). But, when you rewind the footage, unexplainable and disturbing phenomena occur, and Marissa is not who she seems.

7 The Walking Dead

• Available On: iOS, older Android models

Unsurprisingly viewed as one of the best Zombie games ever created, Telltale's The Walking Dead puts you in the middle of an all-out zombie apocalypse as the recently arrested Lee, a man trying to survive the undead infestation alone before coming across a young girl named Clementine alone in her house.

Being a game where you're constantly surrounded by flesh-eating zombies, it's unsurprising to learn that no one in this game is safe and that your quick actions could have very real, and very severe consequences. So, get ready to kill some zombies, make some difficult decisions, and end up sobbing and throwing your phone across the room, especially after that horrendous cliffhanger ending.

8 Life Is Strange

• Available On: iOS, Android

The undisputed queen of your choices mattering in the gameplay, Life is Strange has you play as photography student Max Caulfield, who realizes she possesses a time-reversing superpower after saving her ex-best friend Chloe from being shot. From here, Max decides to put her powers to the test, helping Chloe to locate the missing girl Rachel Amber, and uncovering the dark truths hiding beneath Arcadia Bay.

It's a beautiful game with a simple message and perfectly challenges you with some of the toughest decision-making in gaming history. In a world of action-packed games and dark, twisted narratives, it's refreshing to see a game as simple and beautiful as Life is Strange continue to make an impact on the gaming industry.

9 Oxenfree: Netflix Edition

• Available On: iOS, Android (Free with a Netflix subscription)

If you're looking for something altogether more spooky, Oxenfree explores that classic horror trope of a bunch of unruly teenagers wanting to make the most of those last summer months, all for everything to go horribly, horribly wrong.

After the group accidentally opens a ghost rift at an overnight beach party on an old military island, the night takes a terrifyingly more supernatural turn. Playing as Alex, you must unravel the island's multiple mysteries, aware that how you play and the choices you make could have a more lasting impression on the story's outcome and the fate of your friends than you might think.

10 Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals

Read our 3.5/5 star review of Oxenfree 2!

• Available On: iOS, Android (Free with a Netflix Subscription)

Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals takes the atmospheric branching narrative experience of the first game and comes up with an even better storyline to top the original. It's set five years after what happened to Alex and her friends on Edwards Island and follows new characters — Riley Poverly and Jacob Summers — as they help with planting transmitters to record data on the strange phenomena.

After the first transmitter is operational, Riley and Jacob are soon pulled into Camena's eerie supernatural hold and go up against a new group of teens wreaking havoc with interdimensional forces seemingly tied to a cult called Parentage. The characters in the sequel are just as compelling and extremely well-developed, and the story shares a major connection with Oxenfree.

11 Alien: Isolation

• Available On: iOS, Android

You won't find a more story-driven and frightening sci-fi horror experience on iOS or Android than Alien: Isolation. It may not feel as immersive as the original game on a console or PC, but its story is arguably as good as any Alien movie, if not better than some.

Alien: Isolation follows the story of Amanda Ripley on a quest to find answers as to where her mother, Ellen Ripley, is. The flight recorder from the Nostromo ended up at Sevastopol Station, where Amanda is headed. But that's not the only thing that awaits her, as she has a Xenomorph chasing her around the station and rogue Synthetic androids on the attack.

12 Thimbleweed Park

• Available On: iOS, Android

If you're looking for a story like Twin Peaks featuring a small town with a murder mystery and a quirky cast of characters but with incredible 2D pixel graphics, Thimbleweed Park is sure to glue you to your screen. It's a point-and-click adventure where you can play five different characters intertwined in the mystery, and it's a narrative told by none other than Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion developers Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick.

You have federal agents named Angela Ray and Antonio Reyes, an aspiring video game developer Dolores Edmund, her father's ghost, and a clown character called Ransome the Clown, who has a lot of comedic moments with his constant swearing getting purposefully bleeped out. And there's some really terrific voice acting to go along with the atmosphere and story.

13 Twelve Minutes

Read our 3/5 star review of Twelve Minutes!

• Available On: iOS, Android (Free with a Netflix subscription)

No, Deathloop and Returnal will not be found on mobile devices, but one narrative-driven indie game that also uses time loops as a core mechanic in its story is available on phones and tablets, also courtesy of Netflix. It stars James McAvoy, Daisy Ridley, and Willem Dafoe and is called Twelve Minutes.

The story has the atmosphere of an A24 movie. An unnamed husband comes home to celebrate his unnamed wife's pregnancy with a nice romantic dinner, which soon gets interrupted by an intimidating police officer who kills them and resets the loop. As you get farther and farther into the loops of this mystery, plenty of shocking twists come to light.

14 Grand Theft Auto Series

• Available On: iOS, Android

GTA 3, Vice City, and San Andreas now have a Netflix version available that makes them free-to-play with a Netflix subscription.

It may be a little obvious that the GTA series has a wonderful storyline, but a lot of mobile players end up overlooking it in favor of other mobile story games. Nevertheless, the Rockstar series makes some incredible games that have all been brought to Android and iOS.

They each have a lengthy storyline with loads of side missions. There's so much to do you'll end up clocking in more hours than you ever thought you would.

15 The Wolf Among Us

• Available On: iOS, older Android models

Telltale is an undisputed master of 'choices matter' storytelling, with one of its best being the episodic mystery drama The Wolf Among Us. Here, investigator Bigby 'Big Bad' Wolf is given the task of looking into a string of mysterious murders, before quickly becoming embroiled in the mayhem himself.

Set in a fantasy land of myth, legend, and folklore, The Wolf Among Us features a vast array of characters from popular fairy tales and a mysterious storyline that has made it a firm favorite in the Telltale library. It's a great starting point for the Telltale un-initiated, and with it now being available for mobile, there's no excuse for not picking it up for your next lunch break or long train ride.

16 Ministry Of Broadcast

Read our 3.5/5 star review of Ministry of Broadcast!

• Available On: iOS

Ministry of Broadcast is a platforming game set in a dystopian future with a bleak but humorous storyline. You play as someone separated from their family by an intimidating wall dividing the country. The only way to cross is to participate in "The Wall Show," performing in all sorts of challenges in hopes of freedom. But, of course, it isn't that straightforward.

The pixel art graphics are stunning, and the theme and tone of Ministry of Broadcast will keep you engaged throughout its puzzling gameplay. It is quite a cinematic experience, with plenty of humor and mystery included too.

17 This War Of Mine

• Available On: iOS, Android

This War of Mine is a gripping, tragic tale about a group of civilians and their struggle to survive life during a horrific war. It is a harsh survival simulator game, as you send scavengers out for supplies and do whatever they can to help your group get through this horrible experience. Throughout this game, you'll learn more about the world and the people trying to get by within it.

In This War of Mine, you are constantly making tough decisions, such as where you should attempt to loot from. Your choices will shape the narrative of your characters, as they are often caught between a rock and a hard place. You won't find a more immersive and impactful portrayal of a wartime civilian struggle than in this game.

18 Bully

• Available On: iOS, older Android models

Bully was the PlayStation 2 brainchild of Rockstar back in 2006, seeing a swell of popularity that quickly saw it released on mobile. Playing as 15-year-old teenage rebel Jimmy Hopkins — the newest student at Bullworth Academy — you must take part in missions around the school to rise through the social ranks.

Your ultimate goal is to try to unite the high school cliques and pass your classes. With some shocking twists and betrayals, as well as some trademark Rockstar comedy, Bully is a game that's stood the test of time and is well worth trying out, or even going back for another playthrough, if you've picked it up before.

19 Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons

• Available On: iOS, older Android models

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is the emotional adventure of two brothers Naiee and Naia and their journey to the Tree of Life to find the cure for their dying father's illness, having just recently lost their mother. It's not a game to be taken lightly, trading in the action and drama for an emotionally charged narrative of love, family, and above all else, trust.

It's a definite tear-jerker, but a game well worth your time nonetheless. In addition, the development included storyteller Josef Fares as the game's director, who's since founded Hazlelight Studios and made amazing story-driven co-op games like A Way Out and It Takes Two.

20 When The Past Was Around

• Available On: iOS, Android

When The Past Was Around is a beautiful puzzle game that also explores themes of love and the need to let go. It follows the story of Eda, a woman in her early 20s who is a little lost. You help her along her journey, exploring a mysterious world where memories and time blur together.

​​​​The art of this game is beautiful, even on mobile devices. It feels whimsical, with atmospheric music and intricate puzzles for you to solve. But, a sometimes bittersweet story remains throughout the experience that you will not forget anytime soon.