We all love to play games, but some of us enjoy the stories that come along 
with the game even more. Myself, if a game has a good story, its a bonus. Rarely do I get caught up in the plot and characters. I try not to skip the cut-scenes, but I find myself getting impatient sometimes. Other people live for the cinematics and can’t get enough of them. This is a generational thing, I believe and I plan to delve into more in a future post. Before I can do that, I want to know what game stories you guys like.
Personally, I have a few that I really love: Bioshock’s twists and atmosphere really drew me in to the world of Rapture. I enjoyed the first Halo for its simplicity, but the other games tried too hard to be clever, while also rehashing the original’s story. RPG’s are my passion and Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana and the Final Fantasy series have all rocked my world. Final Fantasy IV, VI and XII are my favorites with Tactics right up there. Tactics had a rough translation, so its hard to get all the little nuances, but the sheer epic feel of the world won me over.
What games had a story that you really enjoyed? Did any blow your mind? What about them did you like? Was it the plot, the characters, the setting and atmosphere? Don’t hold back! Be as specific as you like.
Kotor probably has the best story of any game I’ve ever played. The Revan twist, the romance, brilliant! It was even better than the movies!
Jade Empire was good for similar reasons, but unfortunately the story was all the game really had going for it.
I’d also like to mention that Kotor II was impressively deep, and – had it been properly completed the way it was supposed to (rumours indicate that the game’s conclusion was cut short) I would place it above, or at least on par, with the original. Still, Kotor II was a superb game.
Mass Effect’s was amazing, along with Halo and Bioshock. Gears is coming into it’s own now too.
Mmm my favorite.
If you havent played The Longest Journey (PCkids), its fantastic. I usualy really dislike fantasy/magic stuff, but this story was well worth it.
Deus Ex: Blew my mind. Fantastic conspiracy theories that are a lot closer to home than most players probably realize
MGS – I’ve only played 1 and 2, that was when my console career ended; but im strongly debating going back for 3 and 4. Absolutely stunning story.
Fallout 3 is shaping up nicely thus far. Of course, you tell your own story along the way; but the pre-determined main plot has been a great ride.
Most successful story with only 1 human throughout the entire game? Portal! Short, Simple, yet brilliant.
Usually when I play a game, the story is of little consequence to me – I’m only worried about gameplay. However, if it is superb enough, it only makes it better.
Final Fantasy X is the first game that comes to mind. I won’t give away the end, but I pretty much cried buckets. 🙁 One of my favorite games, and has the best story of any game I’ve played.
Mass Effect was fairly awesome as well – the only game I’ve ever played that developed their characters well enough, that when the time came to, you know, sacrifice one, it was really a struggle to decide – even though I already had it set in my mind who I wanted dead.
Bioshock has a great story that really influences the atmosphere as well. It was just a fantastic game with a terrific story, through and through.
Well I really liked portal’s “Story”. It was so epically done with just that robots voice and your assumptions. You didnt need minor characters or even a main character as you barely knew who you were playing as (apparently your parents hated her and she is adopted lol)
MOTHER 3 has an excellent story. I also like the Ace Attorney games. Each case has it’s own interesting plot with many twists.
I also think the story of the Half-Life series is brilliant. Especially Half-Life 2 and it’s episodes.
I’m sure Eddy will talk about it when he comments this post, but dude, what about Half-Life?
An awesome,but silent hero like Gordon Freeman (which leaves you a lot of space to imagine what he is thinking), an addictive story, the mysterious and sinister appearance of the G-Man,the jokes the rebels tell, despite being in a constant fight for their lives… everything is just so awesome, and the characters are so life-like, which makes it hard to see one of them die or getting injured. Valve is one of the greatest storytellers of the gaming industry, if not the best. HL rules!
I’d have to say that, while not the best story, Tales Of Symphonia’s story was a pretty memorable one, if you had the patience to play the game through (It’s a 72 hour game. & thats if you DON’T do any of the at least 50+ extra things you can do in the game to get 100% completion I clocked out at 212 hours of gaming time before I finished, & I still didn’t get the summon spirit Maxwell =[ ) . I’m not sure what the best would be, since different stories instill different emotions in me but that one was a good one. I really liked the beginning to FFTA. One of the most memorable beginnings to a story. They should have expanded it more, made it more epic, but it was good as it was. The music actually provided more of the epicness, but the idea of your world being transformed into a fantasy world with all your friends/family transforming along with you, literally diving into a game world, was amazing to me at the time. Kind of like .//hack. Most of my favorite stories came from Handheld games, since I grew up in the 1990’s with the gameboys & explosion of handheld gaming.
I always thought Tales of Symphonia on the Gamecube had an amazing story. The betrayals, the twists, the ending…all great.
Also, the Warcraft universe has a great storyline for those willing to look for it. The RTS’s was layed out pretty clearly but you have to do some serious digging in WoW to learn all of the lore. It’s totally worth it though, as the story is fascinating.
I personally liked Halos story, especially if you read the books. They answer alot of the questions you have in the games, like how they got started, and what happened to the other spartans. The story in the game though was good as well.
Mass Effect had another great story, I truly liked how it ended… or at least one of the ways it ended.
I liked Rainbow Six BOOK by Tom Clancy, the stories in the game felt bland to me though.
Half Life I think is my favorite story. An everyday scientist turned into a super-soldier. And it actually make some sense in how he became that way.
*SPOILER ALERT* I loved how half life 2 ended with Gordon and the girl (cant remember her name) are in the reactor-core thing and it explodes. Yet somehow the aliens save the girl, and the mysterious Blue-suit-man saves Gordon, basically saying to him your time isnt up yet. And if you notice, that guy pops up a good amount of times in the games, just got to look.
Halo, Half-Life, and I know this is debatable but I’m gonna toss it out there, EVE Online. Its got the whole space-theme, its got the whole players have influence bit, so if there isn’t exactly a linear story, that’s fine. The concept is the plot. And the concept is good enough.
Perfect Dark, Advent Rising, KOTOR, KOTOR 2, WarCraft3, Fable, Breakdown, Assassins Creed, Max Payne, Dead to Rights, XIII, Half -Life, Portal, World In Conflict, Morrowind, Splinter Cell:Chaos Theory. All have great story, if you don’t know some of the games on the list it’s because these were some of the rare games that were good but not great and overshadowed by other games.
FFTA’s story was ok, it just so was lacking compared to the first game. After this amazing epic struggle, you get kids in a fantasy world…it just didn’t pop for me.
Fallout 3 engrossed me with its environment, had some really deep and interesting characters, and overall had a unique story in which you begin as just another kid in a Vault (aka suburbia), but as your life unfolds, you become involved in a much larger-scale plot, partially because of your father. Liam Neeson was perfect for Dad, and I don’t think anyone by Qui Gon Jin himself could have pulled off the flavor of Dad quite so well.
I loved the Halo series’ story, and therefore read all the books and got into all the mythos. There’s so much to discover in Halo’s universe that the games almost don’t do it justice. What’s nice about Halo Wars is that people who read the books will nod their heads and grin as they recall the names of ships or the locations of battles referenced in Halo Wars.
I also liked Halo 2’s story, particularly the Arbiter’s story. The tale of a rather naive character uncovering all this deception and corruption in his religion (which is a nod to the Catholic Church during the Renaissance) was awesome and it was really lost in Halo 3, which for the most part stripped down the story to get to point A to point B. Now that I really think about it, Halo 3’s story was…pathetic. Compared to the amazement of Halo 1 and the intrigue of Halo 2, Halo 3 was too shallow.
Mass Effect…I didn’t beat. I got fed up with the game around the part where you had to negotiate with the processor about the most minute of errors with the Mako’s controllability. The infantry combat was fairly awkward and just wasn’t good. You might find this to be nit-picking, but every time I try to pick Mass Effect back up again, the gameplay issues really conflict with the story. I loved the story! It was epic, the dialogue was omgasmic – I just couldn’t get to it. I found myself dreading the gameplay and wanting just to skip to the dialogue and story.
Call of Duty 4 did something that few people have done. They took the stereotypical “terrorists and ruskies” storyline and turned it into a realistic, gripping, and intense story. Some people thought the characters were a bit bland, and yeah I suppose you could easily overlook the characters, but through all the action, the characters aren’t stereotypical badasses, they’re soldiers.
In terms of baddies, Imran Zakhaev is one mean sunuvabitch, and letting the player actually take a shot at the asshole makes it worth crawling through Chernobyl (beware of Super Mewties; yeah, I got tons more Fallout jokes). The story may be predictable, but it’s delivered in a cool way. Plus, it’s Infinity Ward. They’re right up there with Valve. Well, maybe a close second.
That’s the best-of-the-best for me. Honorable Mention goes out to Assassin’s Creed. If they had skipped the whole Animus crap, the story would have been much more streamlined.
[quote comment=”5248″]I’m sure Eddy will talk about it when he comments this post, but dude, what about Half-Life?
An awesome,[b] but silent hero like Gordon Freeman (which leaves you a lot of space to imagine what he is thinking)[/b][/quote]
I believe Ross Scott fills in that area quite well 😀
ZOMG HALO!!1!! haha ya, ima fanboy :). personally your right in halo 1 was the best game, halo 3 was alright and halo 2 sucked in my opinion. but the story! there is so much that can be said about the halo universe. the spartan II’s, the spartan III’s, the forruner, although most of it alone is kinda mediocre, when you put it all together it becomes something awsome. the cinematics for halo wars are really good i think because halo is a story that lends it self to greatness. the games are average, and a little overhyped. but i think that to truely apreciate halo, you have to read the books, because they realy did not try hard to be clever at all, its just so deep and interwoven that by scratching the surface it revels so much that you would think its to convoluded, but dig a little deeper and it ties together so perfect. for ever minor thing that happens their is a rich history of how it became. but it stays simple at the same time. easy to follow yet so much to know. it really does walk that line perfectly. i have avoided many other games simply because i felt that i was thrown into a story where i had no idea what was going on and i felt like i had no hope of ever knowing, and on the other side some games have little to no story (which most of the time ruins it for me) but no matter where you start in halo, it feels like there is a lot to know, but its easy to manage. wich is really good in a saga. they call it halo but really thats just a location. there is a whole univers out there!
@FNHeartofFire and Bit: I didn’t actually think anyone would mention Tales of Symphonia. Yeah, I thought ToS had a great story as well. A bit tired now, after so many playthroughs, yes, but still memorable. One of these days i’ll get to play the spinoff/sequel, but for now i’m content with bashing Abyssion’s head in every so often. ;P
Hal Life (Original): It starts out nice and normal (average day at work), goes staight to hell, and the story of the Xen invasion unfolds.with a protagonist that says absolutely nothing, very limited interaction with security/science team (think about it. you realy dont talk to them much), the random HECU conversations that pop up while you play the game (3 I think); It all really adds up with the environment, as it slowly gets beaten down into a ruined facility. yay to story telling that uses the environment and enemies to convey its point. Plus the Gman sightings help add some mystery.
Halo (Original): simple, great plot twists (Halo=weapon? holy hell; the whole deal with the Flood? brilliant). Great ride and tons of fun.
Fallout 3: Loved the main story, plus the fact that you make your own story as you play (always loved sandbox RPGs, cant beat that freedom to do whatever floats your boat).
Cant think of anymore at the moment…
Ori,
you are right, the Flood in Halo were awesome.
In Halo 2…not so much.
[quote comment=”5265″]Ori,
you are right, the Flood in Halo were awesome.
In Halo 2…not so much.[/quote]
I agree that Halo 2s flood parts were… old… by the time they started to show up.
With the first halo, it was one of the few “Holy S*@T” moments. Never saw that one coming.
No doubt. Very cool.
I’m a sucker for most stories, no matter how good or bad! I just love to watch how characters develop and how close my guesses were! Oblivion and Fallout’s I really loved. I really want to play Mass Effect seeing as that’s one of the main driving points behind it.
Mass Effect for the character development, and the choices you’re offered that allow you to make the story your own.
GTAIV and The Lost and Damned, for their modern epicness, and TLAD different take on the same world.
FFVII and Dirge of Cerberus for the epic characters and scenes.
Half Lifes 1 and 2 for the epic alien dominion.
Probably my favorite story, though has to be the Kingdom Hearts series. The development of the characters was great, and the subtleties hinted between the three main ones was great. There were so many mysteries following through that you came closer and closer to solving, all the while building ideas on who the villains were and how it would end. Then, at the last moment, everything you know changes when someone who you met in the beginning but had forgotten returns. You realize who the true villain is.
Chain of Memories was also a very interesting game. Traveling through your own memories, being given warnings of what to expect, but even though you know the original story, you get suckered into the fabrications and the mysteries until once again, you’re blown away.
And finally, II had more of an epic feel than the previous two, with massive war on the brink, old villains returning, and the truth behind who’s been orchestrating things from the beginning being revealed. More mysteries are presented that baffle you. More subtle hints are dropped. And when you lose someone, or think you lose them, you are hurt, you feel for them and the unfairness that takes them. And finally, the happy ending and cliffhanger are both presented to you.
[quote comment=”5259″][quote comment=”5248″]I’m sure Eddy will talk about it when he comments this post, but dude, what about Half-Life?
An awesome,[b] but silent hero like Gordon Freeman (which leaves you a lot of space to imagine what he is thinking)[/b][/quote]
I see what you did there… 😀
Freeman’s Mind is awesome… when is the next one coming out?
I believe Ross Scott fills in that area quite well :D[/quote]
2 Words : Grim Fandango
[quote comment=”5262″]@FNHeartofFire and Bit: I didn’t actually think anyone would mention Tales of Symphonia. Yeah, I thought ToS had a great story as well. A bit tired now, after so many playthroughs, yes, but still memorable. One of these days i’ll get to play the spinoff/sequel, but for now i’m content with bashing Abyssion’s head in every so often. ;P[/quote]
lmao at the head bashing. My Devil’s Arms were so ownagely powered up after playthroughs that he ate so much sword/mana.. I haven’t played the sequel either =/
[quote comment=”5257″]FFTA’s story was ok, it just so was lacking compared to the first game. After this amazing epic struggle, you get kids in a fantasy world…it just didn’t pop for me.[/quote]
Yeah. I mean, I played FFTA first before I played tactics. And I was probably..like 13- or so when I played FFTA. Just..the idea of even kids..having to go through the sht that kid..whats his name..Prince whatever..went through. Like being in school & being a nerd (lol?) I connected with that. & his dad being such a sucktastic hobo but trying so hard & failing..& the big decisions/drama in the fantasy world too (Ritz hair thing..& Doned being crippled and not wanting to go back to the real world..even if it meant killing his own brother. That was fricking awesome stuff to me.) I guess it was so amazing to me because I was a kid noticing semi-serious issues, the same as the characters in the story.[quote comment=”5269″]Mass Effect for the character development, and the choices you’re offered that allow you to make the story your own.
GTAIV and The Lost and Damned, for their modern epicness, and TLAD different take on the same world.
FFVII and Dirge of Cerberus for the epic characters and scenes.
Half Lifes 1 and 2 for the epic alien dominion.
Probably my favorite story, though has to be the Kingdom Hearts series. The development of the characters was great, and the subtleties hinted between the three main ones was great. There were so many mysteries following through that you came closer and closer to solving, all the while building ideas on who the villains were and how it would end. Then, at the last moment, everything you know changes when someone who you met in the beginning but had forgotten returns. You realize who the true villain is.
Chain of Memories was also a very interesting game. Traveling through your own memories, being given warnings of what to expect, but even though you know the original story, you get suckered into the fabrications and the mysteries until once again, you’re blown away.
And finally, II had more of an epic feel than the previous two, with massive war on the brink, old villains returning, and the truth behind who’s been orchestrating things from the beginning being revealed. More mysteries are presented that baffle you. More subtle hints are dropped. And when you lose someone, or think you lose them, you are hurt, you feel for them and the unfairness that takes them. And finally, the happy ending and cliffhanger are both presented to you.[/quote]
Wow. Kingdom Hearts. That’s all there is to say. I mean, just the name says it all. “Kingdom Hearts”. You don’t even have to play the game. Just watch the videos at khvideos.net and you’ll get all emotional over the story. Everything just matched perfectly for that game, sans the actual game play. Which was..okay for me. But you had to get used to it. Half-Life. Man valve should be left out of this for cheaply telling of the most simplistic yet complex stories ever. Not many can compete with valve today.