I can understand where you're coming from but the 'background story' stuff never really works for me because you're only getting the parts of the story that you find, remember, and put in their context.

Dead Cells is a good example here - great game, story that's hard to comprehend because it's locked behind so many expansions, difficulty levels, and randomly generated rooms, plus it makes tons of references to other games, meaning if I don't get the reference I might think it's relevant to the plot.

On the other extreme is games that force the story on you, be it unskippable cutscenes, moments during those where suddenly you need to hit a button, or playable memories, all are unsatisfying ways to make the player stop what they were doing and follow a script.

I loved the PS5 Spiderman game and like many disliked the Mary Jane levels. But my reasoning was that my girlfriend is telling me about her day and I AM FAILING.

That makes no sense, I can't fail at her memory. It's just an obstacle that keeps me from getting back to the game.

I love story in games.

But it has to be done right.