Best Original Videogame Lore?

[seris]

definitely the Halo series. the books and games have so much back story and lore behind them that theres so much information about everything in the games, like how master chief is essentially the essence of a clone of the didact before the rings were fired the first time. halo 5 is probably going to do a lot to tie everything together and set us up for future games

 

[Silvanus]

For the best use of lore, I would vote Mass Effect. It really effectively weaves it into the storyline and keeps it relevant.

For the best lore itself... perhaps Guild Wars, or one of the Final Fantasies.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

Depends on what you call orginal
Myth would be it for me but it's really just "black company" the game by not glen cook.
But it's really damn nice and well maintained.

I can't believe I got Ninja'd on Myth!

Anyway, I've always found the term 'lore' to be a little vague, but I liked Myth's world a lot. It was fantasy but managed to avoid a lot of the usual fantasy tropes: there were no Orcs, Trolls, Dragons, or Elves, and even the Dwarves weren't like most fantasy Dwarves (they are exceptionally tiny and basically useless in a melee fight). I'm honestly not even sure they had horses in the Myth world.

Even though it's light on actual lore and backstory, I'd also nominate 'Rise of Legends' for sheer creativity. 3 wildly different factions, including a Steampunk/Leonardo Da Vinci faction, a "1001 Arabian Nights" middle eastern magical faction, and a Mayan-themed "Chariot of the Gods" faction. I don't think I've played a game with such interesting sides, except maybe for "Universe at War: Earth Assault".

 

[AT God]

I would argue in favor of Fallout. I am sort of hit and miss on a lot of the stories in the games but it took me a week to read through the wikia about the massive backstory behind the games. Every little incident mentioned casually by NPC's usually has some insanely elaborate and well thought-out backstory.

I personally think that Half-Life has the best backstory, but it is fairly thin, I like the stuff about the 7 hour war and the effects of the resonance cascade but I can't say it is the best because it is not very in-depth, and almost none of it is really ascertained in the games.

 

[cleric of the order]

I can't believe I got Ninja'd on Myth!

Anyway, I've always found the term 'lore' to be a little vague, but I liked Myth's world a lot. It was fantasy but managed to avoid a lot of the usual fantasy tropes: there were no Orcs, Trolls, Dragons, or Elves, and even the Dwarves weren't like most fantasy Dwarves (they are exceptionally tiny and basically useless in a melee fight). I'm honestly not even sure they had horses in the Myth world.

Even though it's light on actual lore and backstory, I'd also nominate 'Rise of Legends' for sheer creativity. 3 wildly different factions, including a Steampunk/Leonardo Da Vinci faction, a "1001 Arabian Nights" middle eastern magical faction, and a Mayan-themed "Chariot of the Gods" faction. I don't think I've played a game with such interesting sides, except maybe for "Universe at War: Earth Assault".

Weird eh, but Myth is one of those cult classics.
I personally love the style, kinda dark without being grim-dork, heroic and dramatic in the write ways and has a whole story telling method that's different then most of the other rts I've played.
On that note homeworld might be another good candidate.
Oh hey rise of legends, I liked that game.
I always liked playing the Vinci myself, they had my favorite ratio of economy and aggressiveness.
Also how can you say no to the land leviathan.
It was always some good fun, I was kinda sad how many leaders actually made the multilayer cut, I would have loved to play as the crazy mech fellow.

 

[Erttheking]

*Inhales*

I'll call on Dark Souls, because you can bet your ass someone will. I do hate when people think a lot of lore means it being good, I'd rather have a short, simple story that encapsulates the world rather then shit load of text which is just a mix of christian lore, stuff from warhammer 40k and tolkein (Dragon Age).

DAMN IT!

Well then, Shin Megami Tensei. A world where all the gods and mythical beings in every religion ever are all real and YHVH got pissy and cast them down and out of power? Yes please! The exact lore can change from game to game, and there's question on whether it takes place in the same universe as each other, but you can still feel this overwhelming feeling of something far greater going on behind the scenes in every last game.

 

[laggyteabag]

My votes go to Halo and Warcraft. Do they have the best lore? Well that is certainly debatable, but I certainly spend the most time researching their lore in my spare time compared to any others.

 

[Tayh]

That said as it stands in current lore only NA really counts because china basically got carpet bombed, and the rest of the world lacked Vault-Tec Vaults.

That's just an excuse the writers used so they wouldn't have to leave their comfort zone.

 

[Xeros]

I just got around to finishing the second Prime title, so I'm gonna have to say

Metroid Lore.

Then there's anything to do with the vaults throughout the

Fallout series.

And everything about everything in the

Half-Life

universe; Portal included.

 

[BoogieManFL]

Fallot, WarCraft and Mass Effect. Dragon Age in some ways, less so in others..


Was tempted to say Elder Scrolls, but despite their openness the games feel kind of lifeless and static so the lore doesn't have the same impact as others who present it more effectively.

 

[KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime]

That said as it stands in current lore only NA really counts because china basically got carpet bombed, and the rest of the world lacked Vault-Tec Vaults.

That's just an excuse the writers used so they wouldn't have to leave their comfort zone.

You have to remember that Fallout is also the spiritual successor to Wasteland which took place in the USA too. Either way the established setting is the US and I have difficulty understanding why people are so adamant about ones outside the USA. Since the Fallout aesthetic is the 1950s and 60s retro futuristic Americana. Outside NA would probably clash with the feeling of the whole series.

 

[Tiger King]

I quite like the Fallen London/Sunless sea Lore. It's kinda crazy but interesting.
Wish I could find a decent wiki to read more up on it.

 

[someguy1231]

IMO, "original lore" should imply non-Earth settings. Creating a whole new world/universe from scratch is far more original than taking the real world and making some tweaks here and there.

Anyway, my choices:

Elder Scrolls - one of the most detailed fully-fictional worlds not just in gaming, but media in general, alongside Tolkien's Middle Earth and GRRM's Westeros.

Dishonored - an incredible fusion of Victarion England, the Industrial Revolution, Steampunk, and probably many other "punks". Resulted in one of the most unique and impressive worlds ever created.

World of Warcraft - I'll be the first to admit that Blizzard has a stupid habit of suddenly having major characters turn evil so players can fight them, but other than that, the sheer scope and size of the game's world deserves commendation.

 

[Tayh]

You have to remember that Fallout is also the spiritual successor to Wasteland which took place in the USA too. Either way the established setting is the US and I have difficulty understanding why people are so adamant about ones outside the USA. Since the Fallout aesthetic is the 1950s and 60s retro futuristic Americana. Outside NA would probably clash with the feeling of the whole series.

Maybe because not all of us are Americans, and that the American setting grows very stale after a while?
The 50's and 60's happened in the rest of the world too.
Also, because a lot of the time, people arguing for the NA-centric lore come off a bit defensive, as if there was nothing else of interest going on in the world during this time, why no, NA is the only region worth spending any time and effort on!

 

[DoPo]

Since the Fallout aesthetic is the 1950s and 60s retro futuristic Americana. Outside NA would probably clash with the feeling of the whole series.

Would it? I'm from outside the USA. Do you know how much the feeling and aesthetics of 50's-60's USA means to me? Nothing. Nada. I "get" that setting but only in an intellectual manner and only rather vaguely, and also only after spending time in order to understand it. It's a cold emotionless understanding, as I've never really been exposed to this naturally. All in all, it doesn't add anything for me, I just mostly ignore those throwbacks to "the olden times".

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

Doh, I was going to say War Hammer 40K (no interest in the tabletop game, but the lore is insane), but then I noticed the title was "Best Original Videogame Lore."

I guess I like the Jak and Daxter's, typical technologically advanced, lost, ancient civilizations aside. The eco representing difference elemental attributes was neat, and I wish they expanded on that instead of the dark future.

The Zelda series is also interesting (minus the human-headed chickens in Twilight Princess). Nintendo always seems to add more to many of their IPs, without explaining much. Doing that answers enough questions to satisfy, while making the fans ask more questions. Even the chronologically earliest entry in the series has robots from a industrial complex lost to eons in the desert sands.

And to be contrarian:

*Metroid (having just subjected myself to the misery of 'Hunters', I'll have to say, "no." Of the Metroid games I've played, it's a rare case of the gameplay being THE selling point for me, with all other factors being secondary, and even that's only been limited to a select few games)

Metroid as a series has done amazing things with setting and environmental story telling. Which is part of the lore. Especially if you see the destruction and degradation in the final areas of Metroid II: Return of Samus.

I kind of agree with you both on Metroid. The game play should come first, with good lore backing it up. That is where Other M failed and the Primes (especially the first two, with no one chatting you ear off about missions) shined. The story was there in the Primes, but you were the one uncovering it, piecing it together. Super Metroid perfectly explained what was going on with the space pirates and the baby metroid, with only one intro dialog and key visuals throughout the game. The 2D games also had the hints of the old Chozo empire decorating the background, another time where Nintendo keeps you thinking by giving you more questions than answers. I prefered Zero Mission's quick, speechless cutscenes, over Fusion's mass of dialog (little won't hurt, but Fusion needed a skip scene button). Though, I would like a title that explains what happened to the Chozo, through subtle storytelling methods of course.

 

[Elfgore]

I've always enjoyed Fallout's lore. I've spent many a night reading over the factions and timeline.

I also enjoy TES's, Mass Effect's, and Dragon Age's lores.