
The basic foundations and reward of creating deep narrative games.
What is a "deep narrative" game? At its core, it is "story driven" and "choices matter" but it is also more. While "choices matter" often mimic choose-your-own-adventure books, deep narrative uses variables (something only the game medium can achive) to weave multiple previous choices together. For example, if you bring something up in dialog that may not seem very important now, later in the game, a deep narrative will reference those choices and reveal more about the world or story because of it. Had you not choosen that option, you likely would have discovered something else instead. Large swaths of narrative are opened or closed based on choices throughout the entire game. The only way to explore them is to replay the game, often repeatedly.
The best AAA example of a deep narrative game in recent memory is The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings (2011). At the end of the first act, the game forces you to choose Vernon Roche or Iorveth. Depending on your choice hugely changes your perspective throughout the second act: either from the perspective of royalty attempting to gain more territory or from natives trying to defend themselves from them. The knowledge gained from both sides converges to inform the player in the third act. Based on what happened in the second act, options are available or unavailable in the third act. The only way to view both perspectives is to literally replay about 70% of the game. Players that don't miss out on a lot of context at the end of the game.

The Anais and Phillipa paths are only available based on the choice you made very early in the game. To see the alternative, you have to replay most of the game. This compared to Deus Ex: Human Revolution (2011) which has a very simple end game choice and reward.
The indie game CONSORTIUM (2014) is a deep narrative but, unlike The Witcher 2, it didn't have much in the way of filler: this leads to a game that is relatively short. CONSORTIUM is, however, more layered than Witcher 2 which, to fully explore the narrative web, requires far more play throughs than just two or three.