The Beginner's Guide, Fallout New Vegas, Disco Elysium, Professor Layton series, Mother series, Bioshock series, 999, Virtue's Last Reward, Portal, Vampire the Masquerade, Arcanum, Death Stranding, Silent Hill, Kid Icarus Uprising, there are so many.
I think you should be considering the number of games matching the criteria against the total number of games available. You will see that even 100 is a drop in the ocean of hundreds of thousands of games.
I'd further argue that while Citizen Kane might have been an important movie for moving the genre forward, it certainly does not fit the criteria of "a movie everyone should watch".
Someone wrote they think Portal/TLOU/Bioshock have one dimensional characters and stories but deleted (maybe fearing downvotes), but I wanted to know:
What games do you think excel at story/character?
The average perspective of literary studies presents characters in media as often not made to simulate humans but be symbols for ideas, conflict, groups, emotions.
I'm not sure I would agree with TLOU, but I completely agree with Portal and Bioshock.
Portal is a puzzle game with a bit of a silly story to move the puzzles along. I didn't care about the protagonist, in the same way that I don't care about the art work in a chess game. It's lovely but I'm not emotionally invested in it in the same way I'm not emotionally invested in Fast and Furious.
Bioshock 1/2/Infinite was similar. The world had been lovingly crafted, the antagonists and enemies had backstories but the main character was not anyone I cared about. Having a backstory is completely different to having a relatable protagonist that I want to see succeed.
For every Logan there are 6(?) X-Men films that are just explosions.
I am loving the depth and richness of Baldur's Gate so far, but I will be honest. The storytelling, as creative as it is, feels very flat due to how it seems to be presented. I almost feel like a sociopath while playing the game, due to how little I feel invested in the overall plot and its characters.
For example, there is a high degree of ludonarrative dissonance, and quite regularly an emotional or otherwise important event will take place, to absolutely zero fanfare or reaction from the party. You just get dropped back into the game.
I know it is a matter of scope and available resources, but it reminds me a lot of how one might compare the narratives of GTA: San Andreas vs GTAV. Many prefer the overall plot, scope and worldbuilding of GTA: San Andreas vs GTAV. But due to time crunch and constrained resources, parts of the game had to be cut and it really shows.
More typically of games of its time, San Andreas can very abruptly take you in and out of the narrative experience, to the point that some emotional cues are lost. Red Dead Redemption 2 on the other hand excellently bridges this gap, possibly in the most organic fashion to date from any video game.
I hope Larian can look toward recent games such as Red Dead Redemption 2 and Cyberpunk for guidance on how to handle a narrative-heavy experience more organically and holistically.
Lots of great recommendations here, I'd add in Spec Ops: The Line.. although perhaps that's cheating since it's inspired by a movie that's based on a book. I won't say which so you can find out for yourself:)
Dead Space series (specially 2), Max Payne, Metal Gear Solid 3, Silent Hill 2, Rule of Rose, Mass Effect 3 are the ones I remember that I enjoyed its story and cared about the characters pretty much.
Last of Us and God of War tend to get a lot of recognition, but it depends on what you’re looking for. Like film, you have to be open to the experience.
These were characters I thought a lot about, as I was playing the game through my exit out of the military. Leaving your gang behind while trying to stay positive and be the best you can in a quickly changing world made me feel human after years of never feeling like I could be myself. That game is a 10/10 story and video game experience. Anyone who thinks that a game couldn't be that compelling as a story has a bias against games, and should give games like this a try.
It is a masterpiece. I've played many games but RDR2 is on another level. It's like taking control of a character in a book and take him until the last page.
Check out This War of Mine or Papers, Please. These don’t exactly fit the bill, but strongly counter the popular claim that video games can’t be or aren’t Art.
I tend to think that the LCD game is no different than the equivalent movie.
Is there an obvious “everyone should play ___” recommendation, that has story and characters with depth and believable motives?
Edit: I realize that was kind of a lazy question so thanks to everyone for the answers!