I play a lot of games. It is so hard to narrow down one to talk about, but I have recently been playing Mass Effect again so I’ll use that! There are three games in the series, but they all work and play relatively the same. Their story is arguably the most important part of experiencing them. Bioware, the developer of the game, have multiple gaming series, including Mass Effect, that are all about exploration and story in a roleplaying game. Every single quest usually has a small puzzle aspect to it, like talking to the right person or outright making a choice from a list of dialogue options. All of them, without fail, add to the overarching narrative of the story. I would not say they are an excuse so much as an essential part of the game and the story they are trying to get across.
The games are some of the best when it comes to choose your own adventure style gaming. There are so many options for the player to choose from- from which characters you save or kill, who to take with you into battle and missions, how much you personally care for all the entangling stories, to every last bit of dialogue you can choose for your character and their backstory. It is an individual experience in a huge universe which of course evokes a lot of emotion for the aspects you personally get attached to. The world building allows you to create your character first and learn who they are before setting you on a mission to become a special military operative. From there the game thrusts you into interesting places like a thousand different planets, alien species, and cities to explore in. It all depends on how much you want to invest, and I invested a whole lot.