Has there ever a game with a really amazing story?

[.Ricks.]

If you put it like that, sure there are no AMAZING stories, but there are some pretty good ones, MGS could well be the AMAZING one we could hope for if Hideo hadn't started with the "Long Live evil-fore-arm-blonde-twin-brother-with-brit-accent" segment of metal gear, it makes you think of the direction the world might take if war continues to emerge from reasons only known to the ones that start them.

Bioshock for one has the mood and story that appeal to me, basing a game around men and their never ending lust for knowledge and power and ultimatly showing the consequences of doing so is satisfying, also the game runs on logic and not spiritualism which pleases me immensely ^^.

Of course sometimes stories like, final fantasies, fables and other fantasy driven games tend to show us the "what if" that resides in the lone corners of our minds they present us with magic and youngfull glee at shiny objects and lands filled with dragons and giants that make you want to live there... then again I might be talking only for myself seeing as I have a never ending imagination xD.

 

[newguy77]

My favorite story is the one from PoP:SoT trilogy. It truly is a modern classic
[/Edit] Am I the only one that thought Warrior Within was great

Seconded. That was a pretty intruiging and in depth story

I'm okay with Warrior Within, but I also think it's the worst of the three.

 

[almo]

God of War
Starcraft + Brood War
Warcraft III + Frozen Throne
Star Control II

 

[Telekinesis]

Ugh, you call MGS' clutstermess and Final Fantasy UBER cliche and repetitive stories "excellent"?
I guess MGS, with HOURS UPON HOURS of cutscene just HAS to be at least good, but Christ, final fantasy?

Anyways, for me, I don't think so, at least if you count visual novels out.
I like a few stories [Mother 3, Persona 3, Phoenix Wright, MOTHER 3, Mother 3, and once more, Mother 3] but I wouldn't compare them to a good book's.

Some of the nominations here are awful, though.

 

[.Ricks.]

Psychonauts. Nuff said

With this one I can aggree, although not tottaly relatable and leaving you thinking about the matter it's cleverly written with greatly developed characters in a Tim Burtonesque style that's awe inspiring it really has one of the best stories out there =D.

 

[vader111]

I'm going to have to jump on the Planescape: Torment bandwagon. There are so many damn choices in the game, you write your own identity.
The Metal Gear Series. Oh so convoluted, oh so good.
But I feel that Ever 17 ~The Out of Infinity~ exceeds them both.

 

[Moloch-De]

I have another kind of thought:

Fantasy and imagination

I don't refere to the fantasy genere but to the spark in everybodys head that gets the imput of a book, a movie or a game and turns it into a story.
The task assigned to the fantasy changes largely when comparing these differend medias:
-Books: The fantasy has to visualize everything, fill in all senses but in return the book is not fast paced and provides detailed informations to help the reader.

-Movie: You get the pictures but you have to figure out other stuf that a book might gives away; In many books you can read what a person thinks, you read what a character notices and your atention is focused on the importend details. In a movie your imafgination has to jump in to guess what the main character thinks or if it is important that the strage dude in the background smiling when you wouldn't expect him to.

-Games: In a game there are differend approches to tell a story but what is more important is WHAT YOU DON'T tell. If you have a free world the fantasy of the player is responible to fill in what your character thinks about, wether he should act in a given way and so on.
A linear game can still get into lands unknown to books or movies. for example Max Paine 2, where you played through a dream of the character and you interpreted the surreal surroundings for yourself AND for the Character and thus gained an experience DIFFEREND from what other medias can offer.

Fact is that most movies AND games AND a whole lot of books (look at love novels, most fantasy ripoffs or cheap detective storrys) have a poor narative because they sell anyway. New media needs time for artists to find the potential and exploit it. A problem with videogames is that bad mechanics ruin the game anyway but to develope a game needs time and resources in such an extend that diminisches many experiments.



Edit: Another thought: I read graphic Novels ( a.k.a Comics) but the tipe for adults and even though the majority of people dosn't know there are such things as serious comics i belive many of them tell storys no step short of the best books and movies i experienced. If anyone is interested start with "the watchman" comic or Nail Gainmans "Sandman" if your more into mystery.
What i want to point out with this reference to comics is that they hanvn't manage to mature fast enugh and now they are mostly looked down upon and we sure don't want that to hapen to games now do we? So support games with good stories and they will improve storytelling in games, its easy as that.

 

[Composer]

since im an anime/manga fan i loved the TWEWY story. it touched me deeply.
also GUITAR HERO!!!!!jk
edit: oh bioshock has one of the best stories ive played through in awhile
edit2:wooooo i got people looking at this thread again! note the time dif between me n the poste before me

 

[Hiphophippo]

Adventure games have a good history of stories that are par with great books/movies. The Longest Journey, Grim Fandango, Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers. However, I agree that, for the most part, even a game with a great story would be a cheesy movie or heavy genre book at best. One of my most beloved games, Deus Ex, has a great story... for a game. But try turning it into a book or movie and you end up with a Universal Soldier or Johnny Mnemonic type of thing in all likelyhood.

Man there's a game I haven't thought about in ages. Did you ever play the third one? I never got around to it.

 

[Obrien Xp]

Guild Wars had a great story to it, next the books come out to explain some lore between eotn and gw2. I personally like the story in Civ or Total War alot.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Mass Effect, of course.

And Bioshock.

 

[Korten12]

There have been loads of games with excellent (not really amazing) stories, off the top of my head I can think of MGS and Final Fantay. There have, I think, been a lot of games on the pc, but I Don't play that much.

But games never have reached the level of a lot of films and books. I recently saw 'the lives of others' and 'Good bye Lenin', and they both have really powerful, amazing stories that make you think. Oryx and Crake, a little known novel by Margaret Atwood, made me think about the direction the world is taking with it's apocalyptic view of the future.

But video game stories never rose to this level. If a story is not cheesy, but a decent story, mabye with a few cool twists, then it's lavished with praise. In the other entertainment industries, this level of story would be so-so, nothing special.

will video games reach the level of books and films? Does it really matter, is it all about gameplay? Or do you think their stories are already as powerful as films and books? Your thoughts.

uncharted 2's story wasnt very original but it is an amazing story still that is on par with the classic adventure movies.

 

[Layz92]

Together the Legacy of Kain series had a pretty impressive storyline (you soughta have to lump them together because its one story broken up over several games)

 

[Dark Knifer]

My favorite story is the one from PoP:SoT trilogy. It truly is a modern classic
[/Edit] Am I the only one that thought Warrior Within was great

I thought warrior within was great to.

OT: I can't really think of any game that had a mind blowing story. I liked metroid prime's way of telling the story (scanning things to find out what is happening) but the story itself wasn't mind blowing.

EDIT: Oh and I forgot KOTOR, good story with a huge selction of choices to make.

 

[sylekage]

In my personal opinion, Halo has a badass story. And Half Life 2 does too.

 

[God's Clown]

Knights of the Old Republic. I love Revan, malak was a good baddie, Bastila is a hottie. Star Forge is pro. What is not to love about the story?

 

[Katana314]

I wonder if have ever topic complete sentence.