Games with good stories

[me_in_japan]

As I mentioned just now in another thread, I just this evening finished Deus Ex: Human Evolution for the PS3. Now, while this game has many fine qualities (looks good, smart gameplay, good voice acting) the thing that really makes it work is the story and setting. It borrows heavily from the original Deus Ex (to which it is a prequel, btw) in terms of feeling and mood, but the story connects to the original very smoothly and subtly, and it's only at the end where you start to go "oooooooh, so that's where we're going, is it"

I think this is something which is sadly lacking in most modern movies. Fair enough, though - your average video game has 20 ~ 40 hours to tell a story, while the average movie is more like 2.

So, what I was wondering was:

What video games do you reckon are outstanding for their story or setting?

To start the ball rolling, may I humbly suggest:

Deus Ex (the original PC game, and the new un for the PS3. I never played DE2: The invisible war, so I cant comment on that.)

Half Life 1, 2 Ep 1, 2 - superb story throughout, and some ace set pieces to boot. Where's ep 3, huh?

Final Fantasy 7 - Yeah, I know. It's a no brainer, but still. Frickin ace story. I played it when it first came out, and I still remember the bit where the bad guy does the thing that he does to the good girl at about the 20hr mark. The girl in pink. My jaw hit the floor, lemme tell you.

Silent Hill (all of em taken together) - Dark? Yes. In bad taste? Sometimes. Engrossing? Yup.

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver - there is far more depth to this game than first appears. When you throw in the continued story in the later games, it is humungously epic indeed.


What say you fine folks? You got any better ones?

[Primarch]

Fallout New Vegas - Multiple routes through the game with a choice of at least 4 alternate endings as well as a 'highlights reel' showing how you affected the game world. Plus you get to play with a grenade machine gun which is as fun as it sounds.

[job]

GTA4: great story. It really takes the possibility of games and their stories further. It partially redeems the atrocious violence of the game.

Morrowind: the game had a gigantic backstory

[Tenorikuma]

I don't play a lot of games, but I loved the stories, world and overall ambience of the Myst games and the Thief games.

[AndrewGPaul]

The only games I've played where the story unfolds during the game, as opposed to being the reason for the game, are the GTA games (3, Vice City and San Andreas) and the Discworld game.

I'm not averse to a good story in a game, but it should be there to support the gameplay. I have no idea what Dave's talking about in regard to FF7, since the one time I played it, there was half an hour of walking from cutscene to cutscene before anything happened. Not even a random encounter! That's not a game, that's walking through someone else's novel.

[ashmie]

Broken Sword The Shadow of the Templars. An old point and click mystery rpg where you play as George Stobbart an American tourist in Paris on the case of a killer clown with sexy Nico Collard a French journalist as your assist.

It was a huge hit back in the 90s and is still very popular today. Revolution Software made this and were recently awarded an MBE for services to the computer games industry.

Check it out: http://revolution.co.uk/

[The Underdweller]

Well, I can't think of many where I remember the story as much or more than the game play, but here are a few:

Fallout series
Monkey Island series
Dark sun the shattered lands
A mind forever voyaging (text adventure)

[Tenorikuma]

Broken Sword The Shadow of the Templars. An old point and click mystery rpg where you play as George Stobbart an American tourist in Paris on the case of a killer clown with sexy Nico Collard a French journalist as your assist.

It was a huge hit back in the 90s and is still very popular today. Revolution Software made this and were recently awarded an MBE for services to the computer games industry.

Check it out: http://revolution.co.uk/

The iPad/iPhone version is actually pretty decent.

That reminds me of the old Gabriel Knight games (voiced by Tim Curry!). Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned was also about a Knights Templar/Holy Grail conspiracy and was actually the last adventure game Sierra produced.

I don't know how I could have forgotten my favourite games of all, though: the Zork series.

[me_in_japan]

I have no idea what Dave's talking about in regard to FF7, since the one time I played it, there was half an hour of walking from cutscene to cutscene before anything happened.

hah! half an hour! the game is about 40~70 hours long. half an hour aint squat. You just lack patience, is all. If you want quick thrills, play call of duty or summat.

I'm finding skyrim to be very good, but Im not sure I would call it story driven. The same applies to fallout, actually. Sure, its theyre very very good games, but I dont see exploration as a substitute for story. Theyre different things, I reckon. Also, fallout's setting is pretty standard post-apocalytpic (altho its a fine example fo its type.) I think there needs to be more depth to a game for one to really relate to it. For example, character development. There are lots of characters in fallout 3, but theyre all pretty one dimensional. I dont mean to knock fallout (or skyrim, for that matter), theyre both ace, but I dont see em as story games.

[AndrewGPaul]

Nah, I'm crap at Call of Duty.

Half an hour with nothing happening is too long in a film, too. Personally, when I did play games it was only for an hour or so at a time. Having half a game session being a tedious walk through the stuff that should have been in the manual wasn't a good first impression.

if it takes 2-3 days to tell its story, frankly I'd rather read the book - takes the same amount of time and the special effects are better (fewer random encounters, too! )