Games with lots of plot?
- Thread starter Aurora Firestorm
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I'm partial to Tales of symphonia on GC. It really wants to get into some more mature concepts, but keeps going back under the kiddie tree. I got really involved with the plot and have run through it about 6 or 7 times. If you can deal with things after-school-special type concepts thrown in, I highly recommend.
All suggestions so far are good. I suggest Fire Emblem too. I also suggest Half-Life 2 and all its episodes. You need to pay attention to EVERYTHING though. What characters are wearing, newspaper clippings, the positions of objects. The game shows you the plot and only tells you the basics of the story. If you pay attention, you'll find a game that has a plot so developed that it's beautiful.
Halo, though the games themselves are only a small piece of the plot and not a very well told one at at that. However, if you truly immerse yourself in the universe with all the games, the books and other expanded fiction, it has one of the best plots and universes in gaming.
Ngh, Alpha Protocol. I own it, and was sad when I realized stealth was not the correct way to win the game. It's much easier just to blow everything up. (In Metal Gear, if you're on the right difficulty, this is patently false.) The enemies seem to have super-senses; maybe I'm spoiled by Metal Gear. I didn't see much story, but maybe I didn't get far enough?
Baldur's Gate...tried it, found out how fracking hard it is, fled. It's got all the problems D&D has with low-level characters...I hear it has great plot, but it makes me tear my hair out.
Baldur's Gate...tried it, found out how fracking hard it is, fled. It's got all the problems D&D has with low-level characters...I hear it has great plot, but it makes me tear my hair out.
I'm not sure if you're at all into adventure games, but they tend to have a pretty heavy focus on plot. The Longest Journey, in particular, is not only one of my favorite games of all time, but also one of my favorite stories. I swear, I could watch that game being played while eating a bowl of popcorn and have just as much fun as if I were playing it.
A lot of people have said it, but Final Fantasy. VI's story aged poorly, but it might be worth a shot. VII is probably the best in terms of plot. I'm currently playing VIII so I can't comment there. IX has another great story that can get pretty sad - I would have cried at the ending if I hadn't beat it with a friend nearby. X has the best setting and atmosphere with a particularly good battle system, narrative, and JECHT. XII doesn't have a good plot OR good characters. XIII's plot isn't as great as others, but it has a really strong character story and boasts the best battle system in the series.
Lot of great recommendations in this thread, and I'm sure The Madman will come along sometime soon and post some 5 paragraph essay on great games that will change your life, but until he gets here let me add some that have been forgotten:
Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura = A steam-punk meets high-fantasy, and when I say meets I mean they are duking it out for supremacy. Seeing the standard fantasy races in industrial aged setting with interesting characters and plot to boot is just something so unique you can't pass it up.
Longest Journey = Adventure game with a non-stereotyped and interesting female protagonist. It's rough, emotionally, but well worth it. Quite the.. pardon me, adventure. One of the best stories in gaming, still.
Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines and Redemption = These two games (Bloodlines and Redemption) play VERY differently, but both are set in the bleak yet fascinating world of darkness, through the perspective of the (duh) vampires. Redemption is a little heavier on the story as opposed to reveling in your vampire badassitude like Bloodlines, as its the story of one vamp over a few centuries trying to get his girl back and stake the son of a ***** who screwed him over. I still think Bloodlines has an interesting plot to it though (plus a great ending)
Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura = A steam-punk meets high-fantasy, and when I say meets I mean they are duking it out for supremacy. Seeing the standard fantasy races in industrial aged setting with interesting characters and plot to boot is just something so unique you can't pass it up.
Longest Journey = Adventure game with a non-stereotyped and interesting female protagonist. It's rough, emotionally, but well worth it. Quite the.. pardon me, adventure. One of the best stories in gaming, still.
Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines and Redemption = These two games (Bloodlines and Redemption) play VERY differently, but both are set in the bleak yet fascinating world of darkness, through the perspective of the (duh) vampires. Redemption is a little heavier on the story as opposed to reveling in your vampire badassitude like Bloodlines, as its the story of one vamp over a few centuries trying to get his girl back and stake the son of a ***** who screwed him over. I still think Bloodlines has an interesting plot to it though (plus a great ending)
DON'T OPEN IT!
1) Any and all Bioware RPGs (including the Baldur's Gate series, Mass Effect series, Dragon Age: Origins, Jade Empire, SW: KotOR)
2) Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
3) Red Dead Redemption maybe? It's a good mix of story and gameplay, though not story-based to the extent of the above.
4) Heavy Rain (pretty much entirely story-based)
5) I will also add to the above posters and say The Longest Journey. It has a storyline that sucks you in, and you really start to care about April, the protagonist.
2) Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
3) Red Dead Redemption maybe? It's a good mix of story and gameplay, though not story-based to the extent of the above.
4) Heavy Rain (pretty much entirely story-based)
5) I will also add to the above posters and say The Longest Journey. It has a storyline that sucks you in, and you really start to care about April, the protagonist.
The Penumbra trilogy by Frictional Games. It's a first-person puzzle stealth horror game with lots of plot. And I mean LOTS of plot. You will be left thinking. Confused, maybe, but definitely thinking.
Half-Life doesn't really have as much plot as people credit it. It's plot could be summed up with "You kill aliens" but it does it very well. People will bring up the G-man as proof of substantial plot, but let's face it, he's just a plot device to speed up the story.
Half-Life doesn't really have as much plot as people credit it. It's plot could be summed up with "You kill aliens" but it does it very well. People will bring up the G-man as proof of substantial plot, but let's face it, he's just a plot device to speed up the story.
