Are there any good linear, story driven games right now?

[mwmorph]

I figured out I need a extremely good story for me to finish a game, something with a premise to hook me in, characters to keep em interested and a good ending to get me to finish.

I actually breezed through Mass Effect, COD4, RE5, NWN2, etc because of the clear cut objectives.

I get bored if it's just free roam game play, with just a smattering of story as an afterthought. Prototype, Red Faction Guerrilla, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. etc would bore me because the thing is, gameplay doesn't really change. I'm tired of pressing the same buttons and doing the same thing for 20 hours.

Is there any strong narrative based games or clear objective based games out or coming out soon? How is Risen or Borderlands?

 

[Kromis]

How about The Witcher? Awesome game!

 

[brblx]

how is the witcher a story driven linear game? from what i've read, it plays like an mmo, with 'bring me twenty boar tusks' quests and stuff like that.

i honestly can't think of anything to add besides half-life 2 and expansions. maybe bioshock. or psychonauts even. GTA IV, despite being 'sandbox,' also has a pretty linear story with realtively simple mission progression.

edit- after googling around on the witcher, maybe i just read one shit review. quests still seem boring, though.

 

[Zenoth]

The "free roam" games are story-driven, you're simply not obliged to go anywhere if you don't want to, you can complete Fallout 3 in just about seven hours or so before you reach high levels if you just get some basic items and follow the main quests, it's far from being a tough game. But if you actually need to be guided on-rails by story and scripted events I highly suggest the Half-Life series, but chances are that you've already played that.

If you like RTS games there's plenty of them with single-player missions supported by narrative, CGI or in-game engine cut-scenes, I can think of the original Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War's single-player for instance, or most of the Command & Conquer titles, but there's so many others. I haven't played it but I've read only good things about Dead Space, I guess that's recent enough. There's also The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, which received good critics overall, and is quite linear.

The list can go on and on, I recommend that you take a look at Metacritic.com, I myself go there occasionally to take a look about the games I might have missed or am not sure about.

 

[CurseTheSky]

Quests in The Witcher range from boring to humorous to edge-of-your-seat waiting to see what unfolds next. The dialog, while sometimes lame or immature, tends to add a lot to the overall experience as well. And while you are given choices as to what you want to do in several situations, the overall game play is VERY linear compared to a sand-box game like GTA, Oblivion, or Fallout 3.

After playing Oblivion for so long, The Witcher actually pissed me off at first; I couldn't stand not being able to go cross-country wherever I wanted. After playing it for a while I finally just accepted that that's not what the game is about; you're MEANT to do such-and-such when they tell you to, and I'd be the first to say that it's damned fun. You're not playing as a representation of yourself, you're playing as Geralt of Rivia.

Half-Life 2 and the episodes also get my vote. While you are free to move about within an area, the overall objective is pretty much "go here, do this." I didn't like Episode 1 so much, but I loved the original HL2 and especially Episode 2.

 

[s44]

Originally posted by: mwmorph
Mass Effect [...] NWN2

If you liked these then I assume you've already preordered Dragon Age.

 

[DaveSimmons]

how is the witcher a story driven linear game? from what i've read, it plays like an mmo, with 'bring me twenty boar tusks' quests and stuff like that.

Nope, only for the money-making sidequests. And many of them can be done as a side effect of the main quest -- you have to go to the swamps anyway, and while working on the main quest you can collect x undead body parts for the alchemist.

 

[dguy6789]

If you haven't played the first FEAR, give that a try. Gameplay is exceptionally fun(The game would still be a great game if everything else about it was poor). It's linear. Excellent graphics, excellent atmosphere. The story is pretty nice and it requires you to pay attention and think for yourself a bit to figure everything out from the tidbits and clues you get.(Or read Wikipedia after you beat it) The game's also scary.

 

[mwmorph]

I've already played so many games.

Let me put it this way, I go to basic training Nov 10th so I have a lot of time on my hands, all I do on a daily basis is nef and work out.

I've played
Mass Effect
NWN
NWN 2
Fallout 3
WH40k DOW
WH40k DOW2
COD4
Crysis
Crysis Warhead
Homeworld & Cataclysm
Homeworld 2
Witcher
FEAR 1
Half Life 1 & 2 & EP1


STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl + Oblivion lost mod (Hated it, thank god I only paid $5 on Direct2Drive)
Oblivion - didn't like it nearly as much as fallout 3, probably because of repetitive, kill the same mobs in the alternate dimension quests

So basically this puts any game not released this week or next week or thereabouts off my radar, I'll be gone for 9 months soon after that so no point even thinking about Dragon Age. Is Risen heavily RPG like with a strong narrative? Is Borderlands supposed to be like that too?

 

[Via]

I think FEAR is a pretty good choice as well.

Loved the game, loved the atmosphere - and the story was intriguing to beat IMO. Plus - any system that's relatively new nowadays can play it maxed out, which is a treat most gamers didn't have when it was first released.

If you played FEAR on an old system years ago and haven't played it since, dig out the CDs and play it again. It's a totally different game with all of the graphics options cranked up.

 

[Lonyo]

Deus Ex. Even if you've played it, play it again.

 

[dguy6789]

If you liked Crysis, you should give Far Cry 1 a try.(It is a lot harder than Crysis though) Bioshock is good too.

 

[GullyFoyle]

Originally posted by: mwmorph
I've already played so many games.

Let me put it this way, I go to basic training Nov 10th so I have a lot of time on my hands, all I do on a daily basis is nef and work out.

Not to hijack the thread, but WTF is "nef"? My standard internet slang resources don't have a consensus. Thanks.

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: GullyFoyle

Originally posted by: mwmorph
I've already played so many games.

Let me put it this way, I go to basic training Nov 10th so I have a lot of time on my hands, all I do on a daily basis is nef and work out.

Not to hijack the thread, but WTF is "nef"? My standard internet slang resources don't have a consensus. Thanks.

It's a AT Offtopic thing.

Nef
Created in the Anandtech forums, it was a member who posted useless crap to increase his post count. Hence, the term eventually branched out in to other forums and became a popular term among forum goers. Lifers are usually a harmless bunch, not as vicious as trolls. All they care about is the postcount..

It's become more commonized now to just mean wasting time on ATOT during the day time when you should be doing something productive.

I think I'm going to pick up The Witcher and maybe Farcry off of D2D.

 

[Mike Gayner]

Play Bioshock. I've been playing it, and it's decent. Definitely not as good as people make out, but a decent story driven FPS.

 

[HunterDT]

RISEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So far, one of the best story driven, RPGs Ive played.

 

[NYHoustonman]

Batman: Arkham Asylum has some pretty good story/character moments, although it's not entirely linear.

 

[Cheesetogo]

How about Mafia? It's pretty old, but it's probably got one of the best storylines I've seen on PC.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Deus Ex. Again and again and again.

 

[9mak9]

2 of my favorite games are Indigo Prophecy and Beyond Good and Evil which are both pretty straightforward and are awesome games. They are a little outdated but along with Dues Ex are worth playing over and over again. I would also look into The Longest Journey (classic) and Max Payne as well.

Bioshock is def worth getting for $5 off D2D.

 

[Martimus]

Originally posted by: brblx
how is the witcher a story driven linear game? from what i've read, it plays like an mmo, with 'bring me twenty boar tusks' quests and stuff like that.

i honestly can't think of anything to add besides half-life 2 and expansions. maybe bioshock. or psychonauts even. GTA IV, despite being 'sandbox,' also has a pretty linear story with realtively simple mission progression.

edit- after googling around on the witcher, maybe i just read one shit review. quests still seem boring, though.

No, the Witcher actually is pretty linear and story driven (although it does change depending on your actions throughout the game, so it isn't that linear). I didn't see the quests being that generic that they broke the immersion like the side quests in Mass Effect did for me.

I think you are thinking of Stalker with the MMO type side quests. You probably mixed up the reviews, since the games were released around the same time, and both were famous for taking a long time to develop. As well as both being developed in Eastern Europe. (I linked the two together during development at least, and TBH I enjoyed both.)

I am trying to think of a newer story driven game that I have played, but I think The Witcher is the last one I have played. I heard the original had a lot of issues with bad translations, and performance issues, but I played the Enhanced Edition version and noticed neither of those issues. (I am pretty sure the translations were redone in the EE version, but I may be wrong.)

 

[Sureshot324]

Originally posted by: Cheesetogo
How about Mafia? It's pretty old, but it's probably got one of the best storylines I've seen on PC.

+1

 

[RedShirt]

This is an older game, but if you are looking for a linear game with great story, check out Beyond Good and Evil. You can pick it up for cheap on Steam and is well worth a play.

 

[mwmorph]

Thanks for all the replies.

1. Far Cry: Damn this is much harder than Crysis.
2. The Witcher: On chapter 3 now, I like it. Can't figure out why every woman in the city wants to have sex with the guy, but otherwise story is going well.

I'll check B G&E and mafia next.

 

[coloumb]

Originally posted by: mwmorph
Thanks for all the replies.

1. Far Cry: Damn this is much harder than Crysis.
2. The Witcher: On chapter 3 now, I like it. Can't figure out why every woman in the city wants to have sex with the guy, but otherwise story is going well.

I'll check B G&E and mafia next.

Because he's sterile! and supposedly knows how to please the ladies better than anyone else in town.