Sometimes, everyone needs video games featuring the most lore-rich universes, so here you’ll find the best of them all!
Lore-rich games let us truly invest ourselves in their epic universes. With their believable worlds and intricate storylines, we can feel deeply immersed in every encounter, battle, discovery, and event, ultimately enjoying an authentic experience instead of just raw gameplay. And if that wasn’t enough, secrets and surprises await around every corner!
| Game | Release | Genre | Developer | Video | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim Anniversary Edition | 2021-11-11 | Role-playing (RPG) & Adventure | Bethesda Game Studios | |
 | Mass Effect Legendary Edition | 2021-05-14 | Role-playing (RPG) & Adventure | BioWare | |
 | Dark Souls III | 2016-04-11 | Role-playing (RPG) & Adventure | FromSoftware, Inc. | |
 | The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt | 2015-05-18 | Adventure & Role-playing (RPG) | CD PROJEKT RED | |
 | BioShock The Collection | 2016-09-15 | Adventure & Puzzle | 2K Australia | |
 | Horizon Zero Dawn | 2017-02-17 | Shooter & Role-playing (RPG) | Guerrilla Games | |
 | Dragon Age Origins Ultimate Edition | 2010-09-29 | Adventure & Strategy | BioWare | |
 | The Witcher 2 Assassins Of Kings Enhanced Edition | 2017-11-05 | Role-playing (RPG) & Adventure | CD PROJEKT RED | |
 | Horizon Forbidden West | 2024-03-21 | Adventure & Role-playing (RPG) | Guerrilla Games | |
 | Mass Effect Andromeda | 2017-03-23 | Shooter & Adventure | BioWare Montréal | |
 | The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion GOTY | 2007-09-11 | Role-playing (RPG) & Adventure | Bethesda Game Studios | |
 | BioShock Infinite The Complete Edition | 2016-09-13 | Adventure & Shooter | Irrational Games | |
 | Elden Ring | 2022-02-22 | Role-playing (RPG) & Adventure | FromSoftware |
Doesn’t that sound great? If so, here you will discover the best games with expansive and compelling lore-rich universes to play right away!
The Elder Scrolls
| Release date: | 2021-11-11 |
| Genre: | Role-playing (RPG) & Adventure |
| Developer: | Bethesda Game Studios |
Each installment in the Elder Scrolls series features a vast and rich world filled with contrasting regions, cultures, and stories – perfect if story-driven games are your thing!
Travel to the continent of Tamriel to explore diverse provinces, each with its unique architectural style, mythology, history, and politics. The lore of the series dates back thousands of years, documented in hundreds of books, notes, and letters, so there’s always something new to discover! And the best part is that you decide how to shape this land’s story.
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Mass Effect
| Release date: | 2008-05-28 |
| Genre: | Shooter & Role-playing (RPG) |
| Developer: | BioWare |
Like TES, Mass Effect is famous for its rich lore, but features a unique sci-fi universe.
When creating Mass Effect, BioWare managed to develop a world that tells its story through encounters, conversations with NPCs, quests, and setting. This space opera features iconic alien races, plenty of emotional plot twists, and challenging moral choices that can invest the player on an extraordinary level of engagement.
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Dark Souls
| Release date: | 2016-04-11 |
| Genre: | Role-playing (RPG) & Adventure |
| Developer: | FromSoftware, Inc. |
Unlike our other recommendations, the Dark Souls series allows players to explore its rich lore, but doesn’t explain anything directly.
In the Dark Souls series, players must discover the story on their own, as these games don’t offer hand-holding. The more you explore and fight, the more bits of lore emerge. This feature, paired with the dark mythology and omnipresent symbolism, makes it unbelievably captivating!
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The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
| Release date: | 2015-05-18 |
| Genre: | Role-playing (RPG) & Adventure |
| Developer: | CD PROJEKT RED |
Based on Andrzej Sapkowski’s books, the world of The Witcher 3 delights with its unique depth and story unfolding in a setting inspired by Slavic folklore.
The Witcher 3 develops Sapkowski’s universe to make it as interactive and accessible as possible. Unlike other games on our list, its lore revolves around characters and their relationships, which players can discover by completing quests.
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BioShock
| Release date: | 2007-08-21 |
| Genre: | Shooter & Puzzle & Role-playing (RPG) & Adventure |
| Developer: | 2K Australia |
It’s a combination of RPG and FPS, focusing on utopian ideologies, the fall of humanity, and the consequences of one’s choices – perfect if you crave philosophical depth!
BioShock doesn’t shy away from tackling more complex topics regarding extreme views and emotional conflicts. In this game, players discover most of the lore through audio logs, unraveling the fate of an underwater city from the perspective of ordinary people. Therefore, every playthrough feels like discovering it anew!
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Horizon Zero Dawn
| Release date: | 2017-02-17 |
| Genre: | Shooter & Role-playing (RPG) & Adventure |
| Developer: | Guerrilla Games |
Horizon Zero Dawn’s unique lore tells the story of humanity’s fall, where powerful machines and wilderness took ultimate control over the Earth.
HZD presents a post-apocalyptic world in which humanity has returned to its prehistoric origins. Exploring the ruins of the old world and completing quests, you can learn more about how this situation became a thing and what your heroine’s role is in this story. It’s one of the most fun and engaging games on this list!
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Dragon Age: Origins
| Release date: | 2009-11-06 |
| Genre: | Role-playing (RPG) |
| Developer: | BioWare |
It’s one of the most extensive RPG games, offering a rich world of brutal conflicts, mythology, magic, secrets, and personal dramas.
The world of Thedas is a unique place where your choices matter and influence the future of this magical reality. You may need up to a hundred hours of gameplay to fully discover its lore! Like in The Elder Scrolls series, the best way to learn its history is to interact with NPCs and conflicting factions.
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Games with rich lore lure players with more than just action or breathtaking graphics. Instead, they captivate with gameplay, where players can truly feel like part of these detailed worlds. It’s like a full dive into this reality, encouraging learning, reflection, and the creation of unforgettable memories!