i think the single greatest example of environmental storytelling in video games is in Unpacking. it’s a game with no dialogue that consists entirely of unpacking your stuff out of moving boxes and placing it into the correct places around the place your character is moving into. there are a lot of subtle storytelling beats, like the same stuffed animal coming with you through every single move, but there’s one level in particular that takes place right after your character graduates college and moves in with her boyfriend that goes normally at first.
but then you get to your framed diploma.
you go to hang it on the wall in the kitchen, but there’s a bigass painting already there that you can’t move (presumably your boyfriends) that takes up the entire wall.
you go to hang it on the wall in the living room, but there are already a bunch of posters there - again, presumably your boyfriend’s. there’s clearly space for your diploma if the posters were scooched closer together, but again, you can’t even move them.
with a growing sense of dread and desperation, you move to the bathroom. this room has the only wall space in the apartment for you to hang your diploma: directly over the toilet.
but if you try to place it there, it gets a red outline, indicating that it’s in the “wrong” spot and the level won’t finish.
you go to the bedroom.
there is no wall space.
you click under the bed.
the level finishes.
the next level has you moving back into your childhood bedroom.
