Deepest Game You've Played (no pun intended)

[Spektre41]

Ristar, once you realize the whole game was actually a battle in Ristar's mind over his crippling freudian issues and his inability to commit to a relationship.

 

[John Smyth]

But for depth of gameplay there is no beating Oblivion.

I thought Morrowind did

Currently For story depth I'm favouring is The Path, I'm still not 100% certain what the heck is going on.

Although the deepest most sinister plot in a game ever has to be the one in lemmings but you really have to work to find it and allot of it is left to interpretation

 

[Sviests]

Story - Deus Ex
Gameplay - UT2k4
'nuff said.

EDIT: maybe not so deep, but you should try Crayon Physics Deluxe and Ballance (they`re quite casual)

 

[pigeon_of_doom]

Tie between The Longest Journey and Silent Hill 1-2 so far. Much as I like MGS, it's too overbearing to be my preferred choice.

While Bioshock was fairly good, it got by mostly on its incredible atmosphere and aesthetic. It had much more depth that is usual, but I don't think its the intellectual masterpiece that some fans claim it to be. I'm biased though, can't stand Ayn Rand.

 

[karloss01]

Legact of Kain series, perfect story telling. loved the whole story but we still don't have an ending to the tale. just the whole subject of life,death and fate it had.

 

[StarStruckStrumpets]

Silent Hill 2.

Very philosiphical. (Is that how you spell it?)

This. In fact, i've never played any game quite like it. A masterpiece. Really, it's concepts are astounding.

That or Kingdom Hearts; the original one, not the second. It's story had me torn up so much, it was beautiful.

 

[Lonely Swordsman]

Mass Effect.

Or maybe Kotor. I liked how the good jedi guys were hypocritical to the point they believed they werent.

KOTOR and KOTOR 2 were both incredible misanthropic in the portrait, but they did leave you with a more interesting choice then good or evil. Were you gonna follow the creed of a power-hungry dictator, or those of a group of hypocritical power-hungry dictators.

Oh, and as much crap as KOTOR2 gets, Kreia is still my favourite character from the series.

 

[LordCraigus]

Penumbra: Black Plague had a very deep and interesting story with the most genuinely thought-provoking ending I've seen in a game.

 

[p3t3r]

any game on this website has a very deep story for a flash game http://www.ludomancy.com/blog/

 

[UnearthedArcana]

Story: Silent Hill 2.
Gameplay: Nethack.

 

[Kajt]

The Fallout games, I got sucked in to all three of them.

 

[neo34]

I say either Mass Effect or KOTOR. Mass effect was awesome, and KOTOR is my favorite RPG of all time. Call me stupid but I did not see the twist coming,which made it that much better.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

I thought Bioshock was deep story wise, Fallout3, Final Fantasy7,9,6 and 8, Mass Effect also I thought the Sims games were pretty deep .

 

[1ronJ4m]

Mass Effect.

Or maybe Kotor. I liked how the good jedi guys were hypocritical to the point they believed they werent.

KOTOR and KOTOR 2 were both incredible misanthropic in the portrait, but they did leave you with a more interesting choice then good or evil. Were you gonna follow the creed of a power-hungry dictator, or those of a group of hypocritical power-hungry dictators.

Oh, and as much crap as KOTOR2 gets, Kreia is still my favourite character from the series.

Are you mad? Kreia? Sure she's got some big wurdz, but HK-47 is simply the best.

Edit: I also think Kotor 2 was pretty good (tho the 1st one was much better)
And the twist in Kotor 1 was obvious and the effects were rather... shallow.

 

[Aerodynamic]

Fallout, so deep

 

[Fightgarr]

Killer 7.

Now that plot was so convoluted you had to interpretite it in your own way

So what you're saying is that pretension automatically makes a game deep? That's a stretch.
I mean I haven't played Killer 7 so I have no way of knowing whether or not the plot was actually deep or not but if pretence is what makes a plot "deep" then count me out. I mean like Chrono Cross a helluva lot but its plot is so convoluted and so pretentious that I had to play through it a couple of times just to figure out what the fuck really happened.

In terms of "deep" plots, I've always enjoyed the politics and backstabbing nature of the plot in Final Fantasy Tactics. Sure its not that deep in making you think of current events and philosophy and all that, but it was a solid plot that was certainly better than most in gaming.

But if I'm really going to plunge into what makes a deep game, it shouldn't just be a good story it should involve thinking on level that is relevant to the real world. Take environmental overtones in games like Okami as an example. Sometimes it can be wildly misinterpreted. For example, Final Fantasy has always had some pseudo-hippy bullshit tying many of their games together, but if you look at Final Fantasy VII they're encouraging people to move away from nuclear power and back towards oil to "save the planet". Now I'm sure that's not the evil mastermind intent of Square to get everyone using oil like some kind of Esso propagandists, but those misinterpretations are there.

Now that I've completely lost sight of my point due to tangental thinking I'm going to shut the fuck up.
I like the games where the message is "dragons are fucking awesome".

 

[Cheesebob]

Killer 7.

Now that plot was so convoluted you had to interpretite it in your own way

So what you're saying is that pretension automatically makes a game deep? That's a stretch.
I mean I haven't played Killer 7 so I have no way of knowing whether or not the plot was actually deep or not but if pretence is what makes a plot "deep" then count me out. I mean like Chrono Cross a helluva lot but its plot is so convoluted and so pretentious that I had to play through it a couple of times just to figure out what the fuck really happened.

In terms of "deep" plots, I've always enjoyed the politics and backstabbing nature of the plot in Final Fantasy Tactics. Sure its not that deep in making you think of current events and philosophy and all that, but it was a solid plot that was certainly better than most in gaming.

But if I'm really going to plunge into what makes a deep game, it shouldn't just be a good story it should involve thinking on level that is relevant to the real world. Take environmental overtones in games like Okami as an example. Sometimes it can be wildly misinterpreted. For example, Final Fantasy has always had some pseudo-hippy bullshit tying many of their games together, but if you look at Final Fantasy VII they're encouraging people to move away from nuclear power and back towards oil to "save the planet". Now I'm sure that's not the evil mastermind intent of Square to get everyone using oil like some kind of Esso propagandists, but those misinterpretations are there.

Now that I've completely lost sight of my point due to tangental thinking I'm going to shut the fuck up.
I like the games where the message is "dragons are fucking awesome".

Ah now if you think backstabbing politics and thinking which is relevant to the real world, Kilelr 7 is all about the politics and backstabbing, nukes, terrorism and america.

So yeah it is pretty fucking deep

 

[Aunel]

I loved the bioshock ending, it just left me dazed with awesomness.

 

[tehweave]

As odd as this may seem, the deepest game I ever played was Final Fantasy 9. The gameplay, combat, and leveling systems were kinda crappy, but I truly found myself immersed in the storyline.