Great games / Game stories

[jjones]

I've been reading a couple of the Bioshock threads and it got me to thinking about great games and their stories, and not so much the story itself, but how gameplay and interaction draw you into the game.

Three of the most entertaining games I've ever played were Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines, Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, and Knights of the Old Republic (original). The stories and game interaction were excellent and kept me involved and immersed in the game. These games made me impatient to get to the end to see how things work out, but at the same time, never wanting to finish the game and have it be over.

Some big name "good games" but notably disappointing in the ability to get me fully immersed:

HL2 - Good story, good interaction, but lacking an undefinable something. Maybe it's just from killing the same old bad guys over and over.

Doom 3 - I liked the game probably more than most because I never really got into the Doom experience before this, so the history of Doom itself intrigued me. Monster killing was repetitive.

Far Cry - One of the best in this category but the mutant thing was a bit over the top and wasn't integrated very well. Loved the environments though.

Quake 4 - Okay for this type of game, better than Doom 3 in it's use of outdoor environments, but the story barely kept me going.

FEAR - Kind of like HL2 but more boring. Hasn't kept me the least bit interested. Can't even finish the game. I'm really disappointed in this game.

What are your great games?

 

[TecHNooB]

Final Fantasy 7
LOZ: Ocarina of Time
LOZ: Twilight Princess
Metal Gear Series

 

[Fenixgoon]

baldur's gate 2 = /thread

 

[mundane]

Deus Ex and Anachronox both had killer plot arcs.

My problem with the plot HL2 is twofold. First, Gordan Freeman is a non-entity - take a beautifully created and scripted world, and the main character pretty much takes up space and moves from point A to point B. Second, the authors decided to introduce more questions than they answered

I agree with you on Far Cry.

 

[jjzelinski]

I recently finished Vampire: Blodlines, The Masquerade (twice) and enjoyed its story quite a bit. Bioshock I thought was excellent as well, but I enjoy the persistence of V:BTM more.

 

[Thebum]

Ugh, im having trouble finishing FEAR as well, just not really much interest left in it for me.


Id suggest no one lives forever (older pc game) it had some great spy story.

Shooters these days are getting lighter and lighter on the story (even though they started with basicly 0 story) I find its hard to get into them like I used to.

The last game I really felt like I cared about the characters was either FFX or KOTOR1

 

[Schadenfroh]

Some of the best stories in video games that I have come across:
PlaneScape: Torment
Baldur's Gate series
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 1

 

[jjones]

I've played BG 2, but it's been so long ago, I can't remember too much other than it was a great game. Of the same type, I enjoyed Nox as well, but I think the story was better in BG. Another fun game was Sacrifice that, while not the same game type, gave me the same kind of feeling.

I've played NOLF, lots of fun, and started on NOLF 2 but never finished it. Max Payne was another fun one, but the dream sequence part was out of place.

Tried the original Metal Gear Solid, could never get into it though. Deus Ex, I wish I could like this game, and I've tried to play it recently, but I didn't play it when it came out and now I just can't seem to enjoy it. I understand the story is great, but the graphics are so dated now that it really takes away from the fun factor.

One surprisingly good game was Warhammer 40,000: DoW. I really wasn't expecting to enjoy that too much but it was a lot of fun.

Still, to me though, it's the story and the way that you can interact more deeply than just killing things that makes the games for me. I remember years ago I played Syberia, and I don't think you kill even one person in that game, but the story was so rich it was amazing.

 

[bamacre]

For me, I'd say these games, in no particular order,...

HL1 and HL2
GTA3
Mafia
Far Cry
FEAR

 

[Schadenfreude]

NO one mentioned Fallout yet? for shame . . ..

 

[Piuc2020]

Bioshock

 

[jjzelinski]

I'll toss my hat into the FEAR bashing camp, it was NEAR diversified enough. You fight the same 3 or 4 enemies in dozens of different cubicles for hours on end and that's supposed to maintain it's entertainment value? Nope. If I wanted to duke out the same scenario over and over I'd do it online against other people, at least then it's a little less predictable.

 

[cputeq]

baldur's gate 2 = /thread

Close. But I'll call your BG2 and raise you Planescape: Torment. If you don't think that's a cool story, I'm sorry. It's probably the one game I know of (semi-modern that is) that actually places story and character interaction above combat.

 

[Maximilian]

Chronicles of riddick EFBB
Starcraft
C&C Tiberian - series
C&C Red alert - series
Star trek armada I & II
Warcraft III
GTA: Vice city
Star trek elite force
Half life 1 & 2
Metal gear solid I

 

[Capitalizt]

Final Fantasy 7
The original Resident Evil

 

[LookingGlass]

For those that haven't tried Vampire Bloodlines, and you want a different gaming experience, with a rich plot, try it!

 

[toughwimp11]

Kotor
gta san andreas
jk2 jedi outcast
loz windwaker

 

[Dethfrumbelo]

Ultima 7
PS:T
Fallout

Anachronox (noteworthy for its humor)

 

[Oyeve]

Alone in the Dark. The first game from waaaay back.
Legend of Kyrandia
U7

 

[ForumMaster]

i actually liked the story in GTA:SA.

but yeah the KOTOR games rocked. (yes i admit i liked the second one two. it was cool!)

 

[exdeath]

I'm sure I'm missing all kinds, but these are the ones I can think of right away:

PC:
==

Deus Ex - only the first one

System Shock 2 - "Look at you hacker, a pathetic creature of meat and bone" one if not the best PC games ever

Quake 3 - especially instagib rail Q3DM17

UT2004 - speaks for itself, most polished game ever...

Half-life - played it in A3D 2.0... I looked under my bed for shotgun shells from time to time just to be sure I heard them landing behind me...

CONSOLE:
======

All pre Final Fantasy 7 games from Square back before they sucked, ie:

Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana...

Final Fantasy 2 (IV JPN) - "One to be born from a dragon, hoisting the light and the dark"...

Final Fantasy V and III (VI JPN) - also great, all FF games from 7 on suck my left nut, except for maybe X.

Xenosaga I-III - only current production RPG worth anything as far as I'm concerned (see my sig link for a taste) Nice to see a game that has heart and story these days and isn't shallow and brimming with guns, tits, and CGI *cough Square cough*

Metroid series, currently playing Corruption, so far so good.

Zelda series, especially Ocarina of Time and Link to the Past.

Metal Gear series - anyone remember the cardboard box and bomb blast suit?

Resident Evil series (except the run and gun shootem up fests like RE2, etc)

Dead Rising - the only thing that is sorely SORELY missing is co-op.

AND BEST GAME EVER:
==============

Xenogears -

"It was the hull of a colossal spacecraft... judging by it's condition we estimated it must have been about 10,000 years old..."

"That woman isn't just a mouthpiece for Deus, she is the core of the system, why can't you see that!"

"Did you really think you were acting on your own free will? You are all just part of the system."

Dreaming...
I was dreaming... Perhaps it may have been but a long forgotten memory...
A dream.... A memory...
Things remembered when one is asleep... Things forgotten when one is awake...
Where the deepest layers of memories become the outmost layers of one's dreams...
Which are reality? Which are illusions? One cannot tell until one awakes...
Or perhaps they are, at the same time, both truth and fiction...
A vast nebulous... With no boundaries...
An emptiness equivalent to my own existence...
I dreamt such a dream...
A long... never-ending, dream.

Dreams...
A life of a man named Lacan... And the lives of countless other men...
All but dreams...
Now that I am awake, those countless numbers of long, heartrending dreams are almost impossible to remember at all...
In those dreams, I loved one woman... no matter the day, no matter the era... That did not change...
Nor did her name...

That dream changed me...
That dream was the catalyst for me to resolve what my purpose was.
I think I know now... what I have to do...
That long, long memory of a dream... Perhaps it was the memory of my soul...

 

[theprodigalrebel]

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - kickass game that the Mike Toreno character takes to a whole other level. :thumbsup:

If the Max Payne games were movies, they would be the kind where the Direction overshadows the script. The way the dream sequences, the TV shows and the narration tie the games together - it's over-the-top and incredibly melodramatic but in an extremely gripping and captivating manner. There are only so many ways to tell the story of a badass cop fighting crime, driven almost entirely by personal reasons, but Max Payne did it brilliantly. The romantic subplot from the second game was awesome. There's a brilliant WTF moment in the standoff with Winterson and you really feel for the guy when Lem takes out Sax. In the first game, you want to avenge your family's killers. In the second game, yes, there is a story but it's almost irrelevant because what you really want to know is how things end with Mona Sax.

It also helped that Mona Sax was hot.

Half-Life 2 was awesome (except for the crappy ending), though Freeman's messianic persona started to bother me. I mean c'mon, even Barney kicked ass on his way out of Black Mesa in the first game. The 'Follow Freeman' chapter was amazing but the game lacked something that HL 1 had.

I dunno much about RPGs and Adventure games so I can't comment on those.

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: theprodigalrebel
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - kickass game that the Mike Toreno character takes to a whole other level. :thumbsup:

Yup, James Woods and Samuel Jackson took the rolls of great characters, and did a good job with them, too.

There were a lot of good characters in the game, even OG Loc was hilarious. "I'm gangster!" :laugh:

The gameplay was great, and after playing through the game a couple of times, I did enjoy the exceptionally huge area. I know some complained it was too big, but it allowed you to figure out ways of getting around quicker, i.e., using planes and helicopters, hitting the highways, or even driving on the train tracks.

There were a lot of great missions, too. Some pretty challenging, but none so much that I dreaded. I also liked the fact that many missions allowed you to complete them in different ways.

I don't think there are many games that I would consider as fun as the GTA series. Other games may have better stories, better graphics, and whatnot, but as far as pure fun goes, GTA is way up there.

 

[CP5670]

not so much the story itself, but how gameplay and interaction draw you into the game.

Apart from what was already mentioned, Freespace 2 fits this description perfectly.

Deus Ex - only the first one

The second one may not be comparable to the original, but it's still quite a good game and well above average.

 

[Oyeve]

Originally posted by: bamacre

Originally posted by: theprodigalrebel
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - kickass game that the Mike Toreno character takes to a whole other level. :thumbsup:

Yup, James Woods and Samuel Jackson took the rolls of great characters, and did a good job with them, too.

There were a lot of good characters in the game, even OG Loc was hilarious. "I'm gangster!" :laugh:

The gameplay was great, and after playing through the game a couple of times, I did enjoy the exceptionally huge area. I know some complained it was too big, but it allowed you to figure out ways of getting around quicker, i.e., using planes and helicopters, hitting the highways, or even driving on the train tracks.

There were a lot of great missions, too. Some pretty challenging, but none so much that I dreaded. I also liked the fact that many missions allowed you to complete them in different ways.

I don't think there are many games that I would consider as fun as the GTA series. Other games may have better stories, better graphics, and whatnot, but as far as pure fun goes, GTA is way up there.

I play this game (PC version) pretty much everyday. Great stress reliever and fun to boot! So much to do even after the main game is over. I have hit 99% completion and am still aiming for 100%!