This is more of a random personal observation than a true “what am I playing”, but it is based on both the game I’m currently playing (SOMA) and the discussion elsewhere regarding the newest Assassin’s Creed game.
Often times it seems like I end up caring more about the narrative of the framing device than the actual story the game wants to tell. As noted with Assassin’s Creed, I’ve never really cared about the actual adventures going on compared to what is going on in the modern day. Backwards as this is, those are just memories I am reliving while the current day stuff is yet to resolve itself, even though functionally both are equally predetermined.
With SOMA the divide is less blatant, but the literal opening of the game is about some guy with a brain disorder that causes it to randomly bleed to the degree that said blood is leaking out of his head. The game then shifts directions dramatically to examine more philosophically deep ideas… and yet even as I am probably about to approach the beginning of the end run I really do care less about all those then I do about whatever the hell was wrong with him initially. Forget the meaning of life, I want to know how and why his brain was bleeding like that!
…I may be the wrong audience for these things.