Disco Elysium.

The ones that are based on a novel in the first place. Like the Witcher.

Whatever the hell is going on in:

• Factorio
• Magic Survival (mobile game)
• SimEarth
• Battle Chess

OpenTTD is an eco-thriller.

Skyrim is a bit of a gas station page-turner, unless you do side stories.

Cities Skylines is a novel about traffic jams.

Civilisation is a historical drama.

I suppose any of the games with a good plot and not-so-exciting gameplay - I'd probably go for "To The Moon" and the other ones from that series.

It's the "RPGmaker" one where the two scientists can go into the mind of a dying person, then change the person's memories so their dreams were fulfilled and they die happy... assuming the scientists get it correct.

If not the full plot, the premise behind it would make a great series of novels or a TV programme.

Some of the Fallout games maybe? The world would allow for a variety of protagonists and timeframes if you don't directly follow a particular game storyline.

To flip the question around, I don't recommend Alien: Isolation. While they're are some interesting back story points about Amanda Ripley's past and her mother, the rest of it feels like a descriptive text of someone playing the game.

Considering its merits as a meaty scifi story (involving realities, personas, and other relevant technological aspects) nestled within a 4-key rhythm game, I think vivid/statis would fare decently as a standalone novel, along with some tweaks to adapt and interpret the ARG-esque bits whenever possible.

Kind of a cheating answer: Lost Odyssey. Sakaguchi brought on a novelist for the game, and a big chunk of it is already in novel form. It's great stuff, too. Easily the highlights of the game for me.