In gaming, one of the most common themes is a story based around the ‘rags-to-riches’ model. It’s where the protagonist either starts at the bottom of the ladder or experiences a dramatic downfall that leads to an irresistible need to build back up or become something truly remarkable. It’s popular because it works very well, and players love nothing more than starting with nothing and ending up with the entire world in their possession.
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It’s a trope that can be applied to almost any genre - racing games, fighting games, open-world adventures, and sci-fi titles. There’s no doubt that the rags-to-riches model works incredibly well in the world of gaming, but which games have emerged in the last two decades or so that follow that model as perfectly as possible?
10Fable III
InFable III, the story opens up with the player assumingthe role of The Hero, a well-to-do individual with a seat in the royal house of Albion. However, within a relatively short period of time, an inevitable downfall arrives in the form of the protagonist’s older brother, a tyrannical ruler by the name of Logan.
Before the player knows it, they’re thrust out of the royal household and into exile, bound to scrape a living, survive, and raise funds to build up a rebellion effort that will overthrow Logan and end his murderous reign.
9Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreasis one of theultimate rags-to-riches storiesin gaming. When it opens up, players take control of Carl ‘CJ’ Johnson, a down-on-his-luck young man who escaped the gang-ridden, crime-filled streets of Los Santos, only to be tragically pulled back into them following the death of his mother.
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InSan Andreas, players start at the very bottom of the ladder, cast out by CJ’s friends and family, with no money, and no assets. By the end of the game, they’ve built an empire, they own businesses (including a casino), they’ve bought properties all over the state, and they’re surrounded by rich and powerful people.
8Scarface: The World Is Yours
In 1984, theScarfacemovie was released, and in 2006, an adaptation and non-canonical expansion to the franchise was introduced in the form ofScarface: The World is Yours. In this game, the original story is re-written, with the main character, Tony Montana, surviving the assassination attempt that left him dead, face-down in a hot tub, in the movie.
However, Tony Montana, once a cocaine kingpin, is now left without a scrap of money, his confidants have been murdered, and his empire has been snatched out from under him. InThe World is Yours, players mustrebuild Montana’s empire, once again becoming an icon of crime and ill-gotten gains.
7Mafia III
Mafia IIIcomes crashing down dramatically fast - in one moment, the protagonist, Lincoln Clay, is celebrating with friends and family following a successful gold heist. In the next, he’s laying on his back in a burning building with a gunshot wound in the head, with his people dead around him.
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This begins the story of Lincoln Clay as he goes into hiding to recover, only to emerge with a voracious desire for revenge. He sets his sights on the criminal organization running New Bordeaux,the game’s setting, and, starting with nothing, works his way up to become a terrifying vigilante figure complete with his own empire.
6Fallout 4
Fallout 4is one of the bestFallouttitles of all time, but it starts in themost dramatic, tragic sensepossible. It’s mere minutes after creating a character that the player is plunged into the nuclear apocalypse, witnessing the death of their spouse and the kidnapping of their young son before their very eyes.
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There’s a two-hundred-year period where the protagonist is cryogenically frozen, and when they emerge into the wasteland, they realize that they truly have lost absolutely everything. That’s when the journey begins - the fight to seek revenge for the death of the protagonist’s spouse, to track down their missing child, and to take the wasteland by storm and stack the bottlecaps high.
5The Sims
The Simswas released on PC in 2000, but in 2003, it debuted on thePlayStation 2platform differently, introducing a linear story to the already extremely successful franchise. In this version ofThe Sims, players started their life in ‘Mom’s House’, with no money, no job, an absence of friends, and basically no aspirations or future prospects.
However, once the player gets their act together and starts putting in a little work, they move out, and from there, it’s an onwards-and-upwards type of story. By the end of the game, the player will be married with children,living in a mansion, mere steps away from realizing their lifelong dreams of owning a massive yacht.
4Minecraft
InMinecraft, the player enters a procedurally generated world with quite literally nothing in their possession. It’s then a desperate battle to claim resources, craft survival tools, and build a shelter, all before night hits and the mobs come out, hungry for blood.
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It’s not that intense, but it can feel like it, especially if the difficulty has been ramped up. It can be said thatMinecraftis one of the ultimate rags-to-riches stories, with players going from having flat-out nothing in their pockets to carrying stacks of diamonds, gold, and other valuable resources and assets.
3No Man’s Sky
WhenNo Man’s Skyopens up, the player finds themselves stranded on a random, desolate planet with a broken ship that they must repair, or ultimately, they’ll die very fast. However, once that step is completed, the universe is the player’s oyster, and they can go wherever they so desire.
This leads to a vast journey of exploration that takes the player to distant, unimaginable worlds,rich with resources. It rewards them with massive freighters and wonderful ships, countless bases on dozens of planets, and the ability to jump thousands of light years across the universe. That’s a rags-to-riches story if there ever was one.
2The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
InSkyrim, the player wakes in the back of a cart alongside a ragtag bunch of criminals, assumed to be a criminal themselves. Within minutes, their head is on the chopping block, until the untimely arrival of a dragon creates a chaotic enough sequence to allow them to escape.
It’s a very long journey, but within a few hundred hours, the player can be a legendary figure in the land ofSkyrim, the savior of the world and the owner of an impressive fortune. They’ll be heralded far and wide as the most capable warrior to ever grace the realm,with the ear of kingsand the powers of a god at their disposal.
1Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
Black Flagtells an impressive pirate-themed tale, with players assuming the role of Edward Kenway, pirate assassin. WhenBlack Flagbegins, Kenway, a privateer, finds himself thrown overboard, and washed up on a desert island - that typical trope, of course.
However,his story doesn’t endthere, as following a fight with an assassin, Kenway secures a sloop and some equipment, and that’s where it all kicks off. Before long, Kenway has his own ship, and then another, and another, and before long, he’s commanding an entire pirate fleet, boasting the ownership of private islands bursting at the seams with riches, and wearing the title of Assassin.
