Preface: If a discussion isn’t wanted, I’ll happily delete this post.
I haven’t played every game in this list, so perhaps I can’t be entirely comprehensive. But my picks were Teahouse of the Gods, NOLA is Burning, and The Martian Job.
Teahouse has such a delightful, meditative atmosphere. There’s a sense of mystery and wonder that is very well executed, and the characters pop out of the page. From a bemusing setup to the interplay of ancient traditions and hypermodern trends, this story and its invocation of time and fate made me think about my own.
NOLA also has such a unique storyline. We start almost at the end of a narrative arc, left to write the conclusion - except it’s only the end of the first act. As the description says, death is just the beginning, and our hardboiled Mafia enforcer very quickly ends up in situations that the initial chapters don’t even begin to hint at. The way that characters react to you, the dialogue, and the tonal shift in this story stand out to me.
And The Martian Job is a work that has always been a favorite, and not just for my fascination with the Red Planet. It deftly threads between noir and sci-fi, and the way the writing flows is out of this world. The different plotlines and options so elegantly packed into its wordcount make it a game with great replay value, even despite the relatively small length.