One of my favorite video games that I’ve played is Assassins Creed Black Flag. I don’t usually play narrative driven games, but the Assassin’s creed series is one that I’ve followed for a while, and Black Flag is one of the strongest stories that I’ve experienced. There are parts of the story I personally feel are irrelevant, like the Animus storyline which shows that you are a scientist visiting the past through the blood of historical or important figures associated with the “Brotherhood.” What I think is strongest about this story is when we follow and experience the life of Edward Kenway, a poor man turned privateer, and then turned pirate, during the1600s. The story starts with his backstory, about how he dreams of being rich and wants to sail at sea with privateers. The story uses this flashback over the course of the game because it shows his love interest, and to show someone who he would fight to get back to. Something we see over the course of the game is that he doesn’t want to go back. There are hundreds of side quests once you become an Assassin, and most of them add to the game in a narrative way, as well as an excuse for strategic gameplay. The overarching narrative for Edward’s part of the game is there is a machine that can see everything in the world, and the fight between men over who gets to use this machine is what this game is about. Even combat adds to the narrative. When you are in combat with important characters, there may be information that they say or show to you that adds to it. Something else that adds to the worldbuilding is the fact that you can interact with npcs, like at a shanty or bar. There might be people who want to pick fights with you, or you can sit down and play a game with someone.