The Last of Us challenged the views of Nintendo's Miyamoto and God of War's Jaffe

In a recent discussion with 28 Days Later screenwriter Alex Garland, Neil Druckmann provided more insight into the challenges of breaking through the prevailing conceptions about video games. He highlighted some of the inspirations, doubts, and successes that came along with it.

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Credit: Sony

Garland pointed to BioShock and The Last of Us as examples of games that fully demonstrated the capability of narrative in gaming. Rightfully so - both titles delivered an experience that transcended gameplay mechanics, baking storytelling into every aspect of the game's DNA.

"They had proper narrative twists within them, as well as themes and a sort of political discussion about Ayn Rand and stuff like that," Garland highlighted.

However, prior to these titles, narrative was often viewed as secondary, or even as an obstacle, to the nature of gaming at the time. A view, that according to Druckmann, may have even been held by the legendary Shigeru Miyamoto - the creator of Mario.

"There were people, even within the game industry, who said narrative is just an obstacle to what games truly are. I think Miyamoto might have even said it - he's one of these people I admire."

This sentiment was also echoed by the original God of War creator, David Jaffe, who over time, recognized a conflict between gameplay and storytelling.

"I believe David Jaffe, who created God of War, gave a talk where he said he came to the realization that games are just not a good vehicle for really emotional storytelling."

But in 2025, this notion has been completely disproven, with narrative-driven experiences now widespread across every genre of gaming. We're also seeing something of a video game renaissance in Hollywood, with popular franchises like Fallout, The Last of Us, and The Witcher finding success on the silver screen. Even classic franchises like Mario, Sonic, and soon - Minecraft are finding homes at the box office. This isn't to say classic-era games lacked riveting, emotionally impactful narratives - it just took a while for the mainstream to pay attention.

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Credit: Valve

Druckmann also reflected on his early inspirations for narrative-driven games. Monkey Island 2, he said, has one of his favorite endings to any story, whether in film, gaming, or literature. He also cited Half-Life 2 as a game that triggered a lightbulb moment for him.

"That game had a terrific story. And it was doing, I thought, sort of literary allusions within it as well. It had a kind of literary sensibility, and it trusted the player to put the pieces together."

He described a moment in Half-Life 2 where he was walking alongside Alyx Vance's father. As he turned the camera, the character winked at him. Though a seemingly small detail, the moment stuck with Druckmann.

"There's something really special about that-the fact that I could have missed that wink. It made me connect with that character in a way that's very difficult for a passive medium to do. A passive medium has to do a lot more heavy lifting to achieve what this little moment did."

A small, fleeting detail - but one that perfectly illustrates what makes storytelling in games so powerful.

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