Am I the only one? Hate games with a lot of dialogue

pcslookout

Lifer
Mar 18, 2007
11,926
146
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Does anyone else hate games with a lot of dialogue ? Like cut scenes for example.

That is why I like Battlefield 1, Left 4 Dead, and Left 4 Dead 2 so much. Very little or no dialogue. Yes the characters say stuff but you don't have to listen to it if you don't want to.
 
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pcslookout

Lifer
Mar 18, 2007
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Thanks!

What I am really asking does anyone have a list out there with these types of games ? Games without a lot of dialogue (Almost no cut scenes) ?
 

BSim500

Golden Member
Jun 5, 2013
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What I am really asking does anyone have a list out there with these types of games ? Games without a lot of dialogue (Almost no cut scenes) ?
I highly recommend Planescape: Torment... :D

Obviously it's going to depend on the genre. "Old school / run & gun" or multi-player FPS's, puzzle games, racing games, flight simulators, sports games, RTS's, etc, are going to have a lot less "dialogue" than many RPG's / point & click adventures or fewer cutscenes than "Call of Duty" style FPS's or action-adventures like Tomb Raider. And there are far too many of those to list.
 

shortylickens

No Lifer
Jul 15, 2003
82,854
17,365
136
I dont mind a good story but if its my 10th playthrough I'd really like the option to skip it.
 

BFG10K

Lifer
Aug 14, 2000
22,672
2,817
126
Fallout New Vegas: Old World Blues. Before you could play you had to endure 15-25 minutes of spoken dialog. You could actually level up several times because of all of the speech checks in there.

Ridiculous, in a bad way. I want gameplay, not a talking simulator.
 

Zenoth

Diamond Member
Jan 29, 2005
5,189
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There's plenty of games to fill that criteria.

Practically all racing, fighting and puzzle games ever made barely have dialogue or are limited to simplistic descriptions of characters, items and gear and so on (and if there's a 'campaign' mode, just ignore it). There's also good ol' Beat 'em Ups, Shooters, and other arcade-style, usually fast-paced or simple / straightforward games that barely ask anything else from your brain other than to just look at the screen and press buttons on your controller. There's literally thousands of games like that out there. Heck, in recent years we've even got some games that are primarily single-player with a long campaign also have a multiplayer mode where you can just kill stuff that moves that isn't you or your teammate when there's one, such as Mass Effect 3's MP mode, or Dragon Age Inquisition's, to just name those two (or Uncharted 4, etc).

But to answer your question: mostly no. I'm not bothered by games with a lot of dialogue if it's good (well-written, directed, etc).

I do, however, sometimes get bored of too much text-based stuff to read especially when there's absolute zero voice to accompany said text. For example, those bazillion books we can read in the Elder Scrolls series, I'll never read all of them nor do I care to. I did read a couple of them even if most of them are "just" a couple of pages-long; I just can't care enough to literally read all of them or have the actual interest in doing it (but all the honest props go to whomever took the time to actually write that stuff during development). When it comes to text-based adventure / action adventure / American, European or Japanese RPG games I've given enough to the cause during the early-to-mid 1990s when I was into that stuff and had enough attention span to care about each one of those games.

Nowadays I can only care enough to read a few paragraphs at most, otherwise I start to nod off as my brain demands way more stimuli to even function. I need on-screen motion and voice for story-telling or I'm practically out of it, unless the context for reading long texts fits with the situation very well.Games like Witcher 3 or the Mass Effect series, for example, those I'm fine with (or Elder Scrolls, Fallout 3 and 4, etc), only because the dialogue (voiced, or text-based) is usually short-term. I don't mind and do enjoy hearing or reading for an NPCs story or quest-giving dialogue, maybe reply to him/her with my character and just move on to the "action", that's fine. I'm only referring to games where dialogue is predominantly featured and walls of text or even very long-lasting conversations drag on for a century. Now, those games... nah, usually not my stuff at this point.

So yeah and no kind of (voice acting dialogue, sure thing; long-lasting text-based stuff, ain't got the time or the patience for that anymore).
 
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[DHT]Osiris

Lifer
Dec 15, 2015
14,004
12,070
146
I love story, however, ffs add an obvious option to pause cutscenes if you're going to use them. Games like HL1/2 bypassed this by keeping everything in-game, but if you're using a cutscene, especially extensive, 10 minute long epic cutscenes which include massive amounts of lore with no way to repeat, don't present a situation where I have to potentially lose out on some measure of story that I might care about because something is happening irl.

Make it obvious, like a 'esc to pause' in the corner or something.
 

mikeymikec

Lifer
May 19, 2011
17,577
9,268
136
I can't think of a game I've played that was simply too heavy on cut scenes. I re-played Tomb Raider 2 (1997 IIRC) recently, and the game allows you to plod on for hours without any kind of plot development, which IMO makes the game far more tedious than it ought to be. I'm re-playing Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, which provides decent plot progression.

Apart from a pure-and-simple FPS or some kind of traditional (arcade-style) spaceship shooting game, IMO every game needs dialogue and plot progression.

Non-skippable cut scenes suck, especially if you have to go back to a save game, then watch the cut scene again, die again, loop.
 

bystander36

Diamond Member
Apr 1, 2013
5,154
132
106
I like cut scenes. I like RPG's which are full of them. Once I've played through one a couple times, I do tend to start skipping them, but they are needed. However, every once in a while, a game will get out of control. I think I recall Neverwinter Nights had one that lasted 10-20 mins once you got to the main town. No game should take that long in a cutscene. If you really want to say all you need to say, break it up into smaller more manageable chunks.
 
May 11, 2008
19,300
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I do not mind if it is a good story. I like cut scenes that add more background explanation to the story.
 

Red Storm

Lifer
Oct 2, 2005
14,233
234
106
There are way more games that don't have lots of dialogue and story telling than ones that do. Multiplayer games aside, I have to wade through all the junk to find games with good stories and dialogue.
 

SlitheryDee

Lifer
Feb 2, 2005
17,252
19
81
Generally I'm ok with games that have a lot of dialog, especially if I'm getting invested in the story. I definitely like games with good stories and I seek them out, so I know I'm going to be in for some cut scenes regardless, but if I find myself wishing the dialog would finish so I can get back to the game that usually means I'm not going to be playing much longer because I don't care about the story enough.
 

Thump553

Lifer
Jun 2, 2000
12,651
2,393
126
I could probably count the games that I've watched the cut-scenes all the way through-even the first time played-on my hands. I consider it a lazy man's devise in order to convey the story. If it's essential to the story it should be revealed through game play.
 

MagnusTheBrewer

IN MEMORIAM
Jun 19, 2004
24,135
1,594
126
I could probably count the games that I've watched the cut-scenes all the way through-even the first time played-on my hands. I consider it a lazy man's devise in order to convey the story. If it's essential to the story it should be revealed through game play.
Then, you'd complain about lengthy npc dialog or, why you can't kill a character that's needed later. Some folks just have no patience.
 

mikeymikec

Lifer
May 19, 2011
17,577
9,268
136
I could probably count the games that I've watched the cut-scenes all the way through-even the first time played-on my hands. I consider it a lazy man's devise in order to convey the story. If it's essential to the story it should be revealed through game play.

Ideal example?
 

bystander36

Diamond Member
Apr 1, 2013
5,154
132
106
I could probably count the games that I've watched the cut-scenes all the way through-even the first time played-on my hands. I consider it a lazy man's devise in order to convey the story. If it's essential to the story it should be revealed through game play.

There could be times where dialog isn't needed, but part of almost every story involves talking to someone. If your character never interacts with another soul, how much of a story is there?
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
110,512
29,098
146
I used to like dialogue if the story was worth it, and interesting, and clever.

Then I played this "Xenogears" game for PS1. I think it came on 4 discs, maybe 3? I thought the game was fun enough, then the entirety of the final disc was basically a dialogue screen with sprite characters running around between the letters as some type of distraction. That was, as I recall, the entire x # of hours to open that disc. Maybe the game ended that way, but I have no idea. After 2 hours or so enduring that, after the previous I dunno, 30+ hours of the game leading up to that, I quit.

I learned with Xenogears that long, tedious dialogue can certainly ruin a game when it is weaponized by idiots to destroy your fun.

Also as I've gotten older, I do have less and less tolerance for it. The tedious bits, anyway. I actually don't mind it at all in ES games or Witcher or stuff like that....but those Dragon Origins games or whatever, the team-based isometric RPGs that are newish...I can't last in them. I don't really care to hear the life story of some meaningless wench and her stupid jokes just to get to the part where she needs to give me the key to a stupid cellar to unlock some chest that I need. That stuff grates on me.
 

mikeymikec

Lifer
May 19, 2011
17,577
9,268
136
Tomb Raider: Legend is a game that I wish didn't have any dialogue. My god, it's awful.