Poll: Can story save a bad game?

[EmperorSubcutaneous]

According to most people Spec Ops: The Line had gameplay that was generic bordering on bad. But the story was so amazing that it ended up on many people's top-games-of-2012-so-far list.

It's arguably the point that the gameplay feel like a subpar shooter because it's being critical of shooters, but I guess it's a rare thing that you see a big budget game make it's game play a certain way in order to mean something rather than just trying to make the most enjoyable to play game outside of super artsy indie games.

True, however the story was critical. If it just felt like a subpar shooter without having a fantastic story, it would have been ignored completely. If it had had the same story but had excellent gameplay on top of it, well, the story might not have had as much impact (I'm not honestly sure on this one) but it would have still been considered a great game.

Also, with my Silent Hill 2 example, all of the terrible gameplay actually enhanced the story for me. It made me feel like I was weak and powerless and terrible at games and terrible at everything I do and oh god James why am I relating to you so much right now

But that doesn't mean the gameplay was actually good. It was pretty unarguably clunky, awkward, and unfun.

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

No, it cannot save a BAD game. If the gameplay is truly unenjoyable then a good story will not make me want to play, it'll make me want to watch the game on Youtube.

However, context can make gameplay more enjoyable. I won't spoil it, but there's a bit near the end of Sleeping Dogs that's cathartic as all hell, even though the gameplay is essentially the same. The events that just transpired in the story make you really want to hurt those bastards.

Story can also make largely forgettable gameplay bearable. Progressing through the game doesn't feel like a chore, because you're progressing through the story. Planescape: Torment is like this; the gameplay is functional, but not amazing yet I kept playing because the story had me hooked. If the gameplay was outright bad, however, I wouldn't have been able to continue.

 

[Hawk of Battle]

legacy of kain: defiance.

after Soul Reaver 1, the gameplay got worse and worse, but the story got better. So i would say yes a good story can save a game.

Yeah, I was going to mention the LoK series. The story is brilliant, but the gameplay after SR is... lacking, somewhat. Unfortunately I mostly got the story secondhand because I found trying to play SR2 almost unbearable, so I never finished it.

 

[Trivun]

Not that the 'gameplay' in visual novels is bad, per se, but rather that it doesn't really exist save for clicking repeatedly to move the text onwards. Visual novels account for some (obviously not all) of my favourite games at the moment, and they as a medium are held up purely by story. So yes, I'd say so.

Otherwise, it depends. I couldn't get into the latest Prince of Persia game at all purely because of the gameplay (the demo, admittedly, was all I played of it, but it was still enough to put me off getting the full game), whereas I greatly enjoyed exploring the storyline of the first Assassin's Creed game even though the gameplay was exceptionally reptitive and rather boring (the parkour was all that kept it going in gameplay terms, and even that was slower and clunkier compared to the sequels, which thankfully improved obscenely well to the point that the series is one of my favorite current game franchises)...

 

[Kilo24]

It depends.

How much of time and effort does getting through the gameplay require? If it's a quick cakewalk or optional, then you can easily just breeze through it to get to the story. If it's a tedious grind or forces many replays due to cheap difficulty, then suddenly the story needs to be a lot better to justify the effort.

The reverse is true for good gameplay and bad stories (especially pertinent if cutscenes are unskippable.)

 

[DrunkenMonkey]

Deadly Premonition is a game that comes to mind. Had a very interesting story coupled with the most atrociously bad mechanical gameplay to ever grace the current gen platforms. I literally couldn't get through the story as fresh as it was because of all the stupidity of the action sequences, driving, animations, etc. Also when you have detailed graphics together with some of the worst animation jobs ever, it tends to leave a bad taste in your mouth. This is one of those cases where gameplay was supposed to drive the story (not the other way around), but it just kind of blew up at the outset leaving the story nowhere, if that makes any sense.

 

[neonsword13-ops]

I have one: Mafia II.

Now don't get me wrong, I love Mafia II. It's just pretty bad from my point of view.

The gameplay has it's moments, but ultimately leaves much to be desired. I mean, for an open-world game, there is barely anything to do.

But the story makes up for the gameplay by a long shot.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Very rarely. A game that has truly awful gameplay can never be saved.

 

[Agayek]

It depends on precisely how bad the gameplay is, but in the vast majority of cases (for me at least), the answer is a resounding yes.

I'm a story fanatic, and as long as that is good, I can/will put up with almost any deficiency in gameplay. It needs to be almost physically painful for me to give up on a good story because of bad gameplay.

 

[Ron Alphafight]

For me, story is almost everything. I can endure bad mechanics or terrible cameras if the story is good enough. Games already mentioned that are great examples for me are Dragon Age Origins and Mass Effect. Yeah it sucks that those games have pretty cruddy gameplay, but I get used to it and adapt. The same can't be said for games with superb gameplay but a bad story, like most modern shooters. I get bored, turn them off within two hours and never go back to them.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Wasn't that one of the things said about Alpha Protocol: it was a buggy, buggy mess but the story was good?

Speaking about games that have aged terribly (not saying its a bad game) Knights of the Old Republic and Sith Lords have excellent stories, especially compared to the prequel trilogy. Anyway, the games have aged terrible especially when compared to...well, maybe not Dragon Age or Mass Effect but compared to other RPGs but people would still play the two KotOR games because of the story.

Either way, it depends on the game. I hated Heavy Rain in every way, shape and form for example.

 

[CannibalCorpses]

With the exception of The Walking Dead, no, story cannot save a crap game. But on the other hand, no matter how bad a story is it cannot kill a good game.

 

[Teshi]

If you've got a good story but can't make a good game out of it, write a freaking book instead.

 

[TeletubbiesGolfGun]

I dont care about mainly story games because the gameplay tends to be dull.


Prime example: Dragon Age. FUCK YOU.

All of bioware games I imagine. But mass effect at least apparently has some nice music and action here and there, Dragon Age was a big TROLL GAME and I was fooled by it.

i don't care that you don't like the game, but how the hell is it a troll game? the combat is clear as day for the most part on what they were going for, i never once was confused by what they were offering, they don't trick you into anything...

they didn't call it "baldurs gate spiritual successor" for nothing. (that point is arguable, but the relations are still there)

OT: yes, sometimes, there are some games where i just can't get past it but then again, there are some games where i barely remember i'm playing a game because i'm getting so damn into it with the story/characters, so just depends. (bioshock and half life i couldn't care less for, while kotor 2 and witcher and deus ex I could play for days on end)

 

[Fijiman]

It depends on how good the story is and how bad the controls/gameplay/something else is. Although, generally if a game is bad the story is part of the problem a good percentage of the time.

 

[Skin]

Yes. Witcher 2 prime example.

How the hell is The Witcher 2 a bad game? While I must admit I would have preferred a CRPG combat system to an ARPG one, it isn't a particularly bad ARPG in my eyes.

Entertaining combat that turns into a terrible rolling snooze fest and the fetch-questyness of it all was a great undoing for me.

 

[Bocaj2000]

Yes. A video game is more than its controls.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

It will stop me from playing a game but not reading the story on Wikipedia or something.

 

[Johnny Impact]

I think a bad game implies a bad story. It's part of the package.

As to whether good story can save an otherwise bad game, it depends on how otherwise bad it is. Ain't no level of storytelling could save Bad Mother Truckers.