Personal favorite plot in a videogame.

[SomeBritishDude]

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time.

The entire game is just a story being told by the prince (except for the final battle), and in the end, nothing happens between him and Farah, or at least it never happened after that big rewind.

So you actually really feel disappointed as if you were the prince himself.

I second this. SoT is my faviourite story line in a game, and my faviourite game. People will tell you that the main story is about The Prince and Fara trying to shut away the sands of time and stop it from speading all over the world. Buts thats not it at all. Its a love story, one thats told in a simple, funny, cute way.

Its not awequad or annoying, as its not long sinfully boring speaches or anything. Its a believable relationship in a bizarra fantastical situation. Its only helps that Fara and the Prince are both very well characterised, the prince especially, the lovable prick. One of the few situations in a game where the main character is twat and you love him, because he's very humanly flawed.

 

[masterblaze0]

The original KOTOR. Some of the best characters ever, and the plot was outstanding.

Oh! Nearly forgot that one!

 

[masterblaze0]

Link's Awakening. Back in 1994, it made us think, like, hard, about the consequences of our actions.

Damn... forgot this one as well.

I cried a little at the ending... it's an amazing game for being on the Gameboy.

 

[MonkOfDoom]

ORiginal KOTOR, before KOTOR 2 when when their wasnt a a story, it was almost like original trilogy quality

 

[D_987]

Bioshock, Fable 2, Portal, Gears 2 and Mass Effect.

 

[Fingolfin High-King of the Noldor]

I would definitely go with Fire Emblem 7 because of the immensity of it all and that all characters have a back story and they are all unique!!!

 

[masterblaze0]

Stubbs the Zombie: Rebel Without a Pulse has a cute storyline. I smiled at the ending

 

[OnlyWonderBoy]

I recently fell in love with Persona 4. It's nice to play a JRPG where I'm not saving the world for a change of pace.

 

[XxFear ItselfxX]

Halo. Super soldier, aliens and stuff.

Halo's story was good until the second game. After that it went downhill.

Mass Effect, Bioshock, KotOR, and GTA 4 all had great plots. It won't get much better.

 

[Erana]

Link's Awakening.
I mean, seriously. The whole thing could actually have been solved by Navi yelling, "Hey, listen!" like in the beginning of OoT.

 

[PirateKing]

I'll say the Metal Gear series.

 

[Ursus Astrorum]

I've honestly found Fallout 3 to have an amazingly deep and immersive story, especially considering that I tend to role play in most games anyway. GTA IV also has a great story, something quite rare for a GTA game.

And yes, KOTOR was awesome as well.

 

[The_Toe_Bighter98]

Baldurs Gate 2: Shadows of Amn.

 

[boholikeu]

I don't care what Yahtzee says: I still think that the plot in the Metal Gear Solid series is the best EVAR!

I'd have to agree that the basic plot to them is great. However it's the complicated filler and poor writing that pollutes an otherwise fantastic story.

Poor writing?

Actually I find it quite fun trying to figure out what the whole point of "the complicated filler" is.

Many consider the dialogue and such to be poorly written. It's been documented in detail in other threads so it wouldn't make sense to write it out now. The main point is that it takes an hour to explain something that could have only taken a few minutes, and the player isn't really allowed to discover the plot for themselves, they have to run around until another cut scene tells them everything. For most though, "the complicated filler", like having every character in the series make a cameo in MGS4, isn't fun for most people. I sometimes enjoy following it, but it can seem so oppressive. The one knock people can honestly give Metal Gear Solid is that its plot is overly complicated and twisted, and it's like that because of poor writing. If Hideo Kojima would stick to the main plot and keep it clean, throw in a few twists, and boot the 90 minute cut scenes out the door the game would have been more approachable by new players.

You forgot to mention the fact that gameplay is totally divorced from the plot. In my opinion, this is what truly disqualifies the MGS storyline from being the "best video game story" category. There's no thematic reason why it should have been a game as opposed to a movie or tv series.

Contrast this with a game like Bioshock and you'll see what I mean. Player interactivity was vital to the story of Bioshock, and it's what made the twist in the second part of the game so effective.

Edit: Nevermind, I fail at reading comprehension =)
"the player isn't really allowed to discover the plot for themselves, they have to run around until another cut scene tells them everything"

 

[Mr0llivand3r]

that game idea in the beginning of the Saints Row 2 Zero Punctuation review about being a Batman villain

 

[ArcWelder92]

Halo. Super soldier, aliens and stuff.

Halo's story was good until the second game. After that it went downhill.

Mass Effect, Bioshock, KotOR, and GTA 4 all had great plots. It won't get much better.

I don't necessarily think that the story for any of the actual Halo games were all that great, but I loved the universe that they created. It was essentially the Starship Troopers game that I'd been secretly wishing for. (Based off of the book, not the horrible movies.)

 

[Stewie Plisken]

Personal favorite? Metal Gear Solid 2. It's convoluted, the pacing is awful and it requires sitting through Rose's BS, but it's the one I enjoyed the most in recent memory. All four times it took me to get everything out of the story and completely wrap my head around it.