10 Best Choose Your Own Adventure Games of All Time, Ranked

Free will has for a long time been a subject of discussion in our mortal lives. However, in the gaming world, players have the choice to direct the outcome of their own lives in the choose-your-own-adventure games genre. Here, you get to branch through different storylines and bear the consequences of your own decisions. The genre holds a wide assortment of titles suitable for players of all ages. In this article, we dive deep into and rank the 10 best games in this genre that you can enjoy alone or with friends.

10. Not For Broadcast

The title sets players as a studio director in the production control room of a prominent news channel. He is in charge of producing live casts, playing advertisements, censoring swear words, and avoiding any interference. As you advance in Not For Broadcast, you can add sound effects such as applause and laughter. Additionally, the game has an audience meter that relays feedback on your performance. Mistakes such as poor editing will lower the viewership. If the meter falls to zero, you lose on that level.

9. The Walking Dead

The game follows the incredible story of a convicted criminal who takes a young girl under his care during a zombie apocalypse. In it, you follow on-screen prompts for the quick time events. That helps keep your character alive. However, there’s a mode that allows you to disable the choice notification feature. Doing that, however, affected the game’s progression. Generally, players get to direct this game’s narrative based on the decisions they make and the actions they take. The match will leave your skin crawling long after you have finished playing it.

8. The Wolf Among Us

In this classic adventure match, you embody a detective wolf on a mission to investigate a series of suspicious murders. Players move to many locations, such as apartments and a bar, trying to solve the cases. During exploration, players must find objects they can interact with. Afterwards, you move the cursor over the object so you can select and examine it. Any item you find of interest can be stored in an inventory and used later in the game as you progress. Additionally, you can hold a conversation with the non-player characters featured in the title.

7. Red Dead Redemption II

Set in a fictional US in the eighteen hundreds, players immerse themselves in the life of an outlaw who is also a gang member. He faces a lot of challenges in the game, including surviving government forces, enemy gangs, and other enemies. Players go on shootouts, rob areas, and go hunting, as well as horseback riding. Aside from that, they can mingle with non-player characters and get honor ratings based on their deeds. You can choose to play the game as a single player or in online multiplayer mode. 

6. The Last of Us

You’d think there are no restrictions to entering a desolate and infectious land, but game challenges that perspective. In it, players control a smuggler who is charged with escorting a teenage girl across a post-apocalyptic land. It is an action-adventure that transports you to many distinct environments where you face hostile humans. Aside from that, you also fight off beings infested by a dangerous, mutated strain of a fungus. However, you get access to many powerful weapons, including firearms, to help you survive.

5. Baldur’s Gate 3

Here, a group of people is trying to get a cure for a parasitic tadpole that is infecting their brains. You start the game by selecting a class, species, and backstory for your avatar. If your class uses magic, you will also have to choose their starting spells. Finishing tasks such as exploring areas, combat, and solving puzzles earns you experience points. They help you to upgrade your character and receive new and better abilities. Nevertheless, players can only play up to level 12 in Gate 3. However, in the tabletop game, players can get to level 20.

4. Gone Home

It follows the tale of a young lady who returns from a trip to find her family missing. Furthermore, she discovers that her house is completely empty, leaving her to figure out what happened while she was away. The title is an exploration game that follows a non-linear progression. Players move around the house collecting random items, such as journals, as they gather clues about the event that transpired. It doesn’t have any set goals per se, but you get rewards for getting to new areas in the place and searching for new messages.

3. BioShock

Discover the turmoil in an underwater city designed to be an isolated utopia in this title. The discovery of a genetic material that gives humans access to superhuman powers led to the city’s demise. The protagonist now attempts to escape the area while battling mutated and mechanical denizens. Additionally, he uncovers much about the city’s past as he tries to find the last sane survivors in the land. In BioShock, players get to use several weapons and plasmids that give them special powers to destroy their foes.

2. Until Dawn

Players control eight young adults trying to survive a treacherous mountain in this survival horror match. You course through several dark areas, looking for clues that will help you survive. Additionally, the choices you make affect how the story ends. Based on these choices, all the characters can either survive or die. On your journey, you collect totems that allow you to get a precognition of what may happen in the narrative. Aside from that, this title contains a system that tracks the clues and secrets that you discover across many playthroughs.

1. Detroit: Become Human

Explore the beautiful tale of three androids that live out their lives in three different ways. The first escaped from her owner to explore her newfound sentience and protect a young girl. The second is a dangerous character whose life mission is to hunt down sentient androids. The last, on the other hand, has taken on a mission to free all other androids from servitude. You play the game from a third-person perspective, featuring eight playable characters. Interestingly, a character’s death does not discontinue the gameplay, so essentially, there is no game over.