Interactive Fiction hidden gems on Steam
Every game here is tagged Interactive Fiction on Steam, sits between 1,000 and 5,000 reviews, is rated at least 80% positive, and carries a catch drawn from its own negative reviews. All 37 of them, most reviewed first. How these pages are made.
A narrative roleplaying game where choices drive a musical story. Players make dialogue and song choices to uncover a mystery in a modern fantasy world.
Games like Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical →
This is a story-driven arcade game where players stop falling blocks to experience an AI's first game creation. It features simple block-dropping gameplay interwoven with dialogues about life and dandelions.
Games like Press Any Button →
This is a narrative-driven personality test game with a simple exploration and interaction loop. It offers a short, reflective experience about self-discovery.
Games like Refind Self: The Personality Test Game →
A narrative exploration game with van upgrades and community interaction. It's a peaceful, hopeful post-apocalyptic road trip.
Games like Caravan SandWitch →
Narrative adventure game with dialogue choices and exploration. Features a Star Trek story with a focus on crew interaction and problem-solving.
Games like Star Trek: Resurgence →
This is a narrative investigation game where players explore a found smartphone's contents to uncover a person's life and disappearance. Its core loop involves searching messages and apps within a realistic phone interface to build empathy.
Games like A Normal Lost Phone →
This is a narrative-driven sci-fi noir point-and-click adventure game where player choices have permanent consequences. Players investigate a murder, gather evidence, and make difficult moral decisions that shape the story's outcome.
Games like Lacuna – A Sci-Fi Noir Adventure →
This is an analog horror telephone operator simulator where players diagnose household threats from a catalog. It features a core loop of listening to callers and providing correct advice under pressure.
Games like Home Safety Hotline →
A dual-protagonist visual novel with combo-based combat and relationship building. Explore a fairy-tale world, fight monsters, and uncover a mysterious story.
Games like Noctuary →
This is a dark visual novel where you read ship logs with an AI to uncover a mystery. It features branching narratives and multiple endings exploring transhumanism and loneliness.
Games like Analogue: A Hate Story →
This is a narrative mystery adventure game where players uncover a murder through dialogue choices and social media mechanics, set in a cinematic, atmospheric style.
Games like BURIED STARS →
This is a first-person, live-action interactive visual novel. Players make choices to navigate relationships and unlock multiple endings.
Games like Love is All Around: Echoes of Yesterday →
Narrative text RPG where players make choices to alter a predetermined destiny in a medieval world. The core loop involves reading journal entries and making decisions that shape the protagonist's skills and plot.
Games like The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante — Chapter 1&2 →
This is a free, short point-and-click adventure game with 90s graphics. It features puzzles and a mysterious, unsettling atmosphere with horror elements.
Games like A Date in the Park →
Interactive sci-fi novel where you design robots and make choices that shape their development and the world over thirty years. Your decisions determine robot sentience, their relationship with humanity, and your personal life.
Games like Choice of Robots →
A hand-drawn narrative adventure where players manage distractions to meet a deadline. It features multiple endings and a free, extended story chapter.
Games like Endless Monday: Dreams and Deadlines →
This is a point-and-click adventure game where players control character facial expressions to drive dialogue. It features a surreal, dither-punk aesthetic and a mystery narrative.
Games like Whos Lila? →
This is a narrative detective game where players connect memory fragments to solve a cold case. It features a jigsaw-like reasoning system and a melancholic, investigative feel.
Games like No Case Should Remain Unsolved →
Courtroom detective game with evidence-based trials and witness interrogation. Features unique locations and a deep narrative.
Games like Trials of Innocence →
This is a hand-drawn, point-and-click adventure puzzle game about love and loss. Players solve puzzles in surreal memory rooms to uncover a bittersweet story.
Games like When The Past Was Around →
This is a narrative adventure game where players make emotional choices to uncover a Cold War love story. It features cinematic storytelling and environmental puzzles.
Games like South of the Circle →
Psychological horror game with interactive cartoon elements and environmental exploration. Players interact with a character and explore to uncover a dark story.
Games like Amanda the Adventurer 2 →
A narrative-driven point-and-click adventure where you play as a cat exploring a family's past. The game features cat-inspired mechanics and a melancholic, observational feel.
Games like Cats and the Other Lives →
This is a visual novel mystery game where players investigate murders, gather clues, and interact with characters to uncover the truth. It features branching narratives and relationship building with female characters.
Games like Misty Judgment →
This is a text-based adventure game where players make choices for the protagonist, Kyle, to reach one of 117 unique endings. The core loop involves guiding Kyle through his day, preventing him from making disastrous decisions.
Games like Kyle is Famous: Complete Edition →
This is a narrative-driven point-and-click adventure game focused on investigation and puzzle-solving. Players explore, gather clues, and make dialogue choices to solve a murder mystery in ancient China.
Games like Detective Di: The Silk Rose Murders →
This is a narrative-driven RPG where players make choices impacting character stats like Rage and Willpower. It features a unique collage art style and explores themes of nature versus destruction.
Games like Werewolf: The Apocalypse — Heart of the Forest →
A suspense visual novel with branching storylines and a unique suicide ending mechanic. Players collect clues across multiple playthroughs to uncover the truth behind a criminal case.
Games like Suicide Countdown: 7 Days →
A visual novel where you brew drinks to influence fantasy characters' stories in a lo-fi, urban fantasy setting. You mix ingredients and create latte art to change lives.
Games like Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus and Butterfly →
This is a hand-painted 2D point-and-click adventure game where players solve puzzles and interact with characters to uncover a conspiracy. It offers a classical mystery feel with a focus on investigation and dialogue.
Games like Unforeseen Incidents →
This is a narrative investigation game where you explore a found phone's apps and messages to uncover a mystery. It's a relatable story about a young woman's life and disappearance.
Games like Another Lost Phone: Laura's Story →
A narrative adventure game where players investigate a psychological mystery by exploring multiple timelines and character perspectives. It focuses on uncovering a disturbing truth through exploration and deduction.
Games like Alfred Hitchcock - Vertigo →
A narrative adventure game where you talk to souls on a train to understand life and death. It's a heartwarming, comedic, and philosophical journey of self-acceptance.
Games like What Comes After →
This is a story-driven dark comedy game where you use persuasion to make animals scavenge for resources. You'll bargain, trade, and gamble to survive the zombie apocalypse.
Games like Scheming Through The Zombie Apocalypse: The Beginning →
First-person soccer exploration game. Kick a physics-based ball through Quito, experiencing a semi-autobiographical story and a city's World Cup fever.
Games like despelote →
This is a visual novel with Live2D animations and minigames. Players navigate a branching story about two vampires adapting to modern life on a deserted island.
Games like Vampires' Melody 2 →
This is a sci-fi narrative TRPG where you make choices to guide alien civilizations, developing your character's attributes. The core loop involves observing alien life, making decisions, and impacting their fate.
Games like Lightracer Spark →
Or skip the lists entirely.
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