The Greatest Story told by a Videogame

[likalaruku]

*Baldur's Gate 1 & 2.
*Neverwinter Nights.
*American McGee's Alice.
*Sam & Max; seasons 1-3 + S&M Hit the Road.
*Grim Fandango.

 

[fer1wi]

The Halo series had a great story. I'll be that (1)[footnote]see what i did thar? [/footnote] guy and say i liked ODST's story the best.

Half-Life 2 has a really great story. Too bad I couldn't finish it because
1) an update made the game unplayable on my crappy laptop, and
2) my laptop was stolen about two weeks ago (along with my brother's 360 controller, and my copy of GoldenEye).

Call of Duty 4 had an action-packed story. However, I also liked Call of Duty 3's story, even though the game itself executed it badly.

Dead Rising, however, personally had (in my opinion) the best story out of all the games I own. It's execution, plot twists, and characters cemented it in my mind.

 

[Yureina]

Fallout Series, Mafia: City of Lost heaven, and Baldur's Gate.

 

[imaloony]

There are three stories I think have been told very well.

The Fable series is a story told through the ages, watching the world evolve with the game, and is generally a great tale, especially with Theresa looming over everything.

The Mass Effect series shows the desperate struggles as one (wo)man and his/her crew try to prevent the universe from going down the shitter. They almost got a bit sidetracked in Mass Effect 2, but I still think the story is good. Can't wait until the epic conclusion.

Assassin's Creed is awesome. While the story can be confusing at times, jumping between an assassin experiencing an ancient conspiracy with weapons and a person in present day experiencing a sort of parallel to the ancient conspiracy, trying to piece everything together with the limited info he has. Brotherhood, however, I think will serve just to expand the past, but I still think it'll be a great addition to the story.

 

[TheTim]

i liked warcraft 3's story the best

 

[Skorpyo]

Max Payne's story was intense, and it was always at the emotions of the player.

It really is too bad the second game shoved a big fat one up the story's ass.

 

[Blackdoom]

Metal Gear Solid 3 it had a beautifully designed story with an ending which was not expected and changed the entire mood of the game.

Crisis Core again was a great story about a single soldier and his eventual betrayal by the people he worked for. Also if you really wanted to a poem in the game can be interpreted as the entire plot for the game.

Valve's style of story telling where you are given only small bits of information to drive the plot but by exploring you discover so much more information.

 

[CheckD3]

I love the simplicity of the Sly Cooper games, but they had enough depth to be good stories

Another good story was Arkham Asylum. It may have been over the top, but it was a comic book game and masterfully presented.

Geist is a sleep hit game that was just fantastic. Original premise that hasn't been done since, and while it's not as strong overall story wise, the plot and premise is what makes the story well done.

But overall, the best story in my mind is CoD4. The stories of the multiple characters and the conclusions of them were fantasticlly done and shocked me.

 

[Sephychu]

Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Portal, Baldur's Gate, FF VII, and Shadow of the Colossus.

There are plenty of others, but I tire to name them.

youve just named a shitload of good games, but portal and shadow of the colossus for story? wasnt the whole arty appeal of those games their almost complete lack of any narrative elements?

The ability to tell a story through silence is one I implore in every way.
Sure, nobody told you what was going on in Portal, but the player piecing it together was unique. It was one of the few games with a silent and emotionless protagonist that I felt I could actually transplant myself into.
Further more, Shadow of the Collosus' almost complete lack of any talking took the same element I just described way higher. You had to conjure up the idea for what was happening yourself, given only pieces around the gameplay. In my eyes, it had one of the best ending twists in a game.

Yeah, I'm seconding this. These are two games that truly embraced the idea that video games allow us to tell stories in completely new ways to different extents.

Shadow Of The Colossus in particular used almost nothing but gameplay to really convey the narrative. Amazing. I think I'm gonna go replay that now.

But yeah, Shadow and Portal are in my top five, along with Psychonauts, Silent Hill 2 and Earthbound. While those games tended to take a more traditional approach to storytelling, they each in their own way embraced the true strengths of their medium in some ways/shapes/forms.

On a side note (note the intent of this is not to start any shit, but to simply be honest), rarely do I feel that j-rpgs are as great as they're made out to be in terms of storytelling. At one time yes, they were the only games that tried to tell stories and tell interesting stories, and I appreciate that. Hell, FF6, Chrono Trigger, they're two of my favorite games of all time. But I really feel like they lost their torch to other genre's these days, and in comparison most (not all) come off as bloated convoluted versions of essentially the same story with minor differences.

Key words being bloated and convoluted. I'll take stock characters, stock storylines, etc if they can give me enough charm to go along with it. But hardly any of these stories merits their novelesque length.

You got me there, your comment made me think about traditionalist but brilliant story telling and instantly Chrono Trigger came to mind. Wonderful stuff.

 

[Firia]

Spoiler: image contained within.

WHY IS THIS NOT WORKING?

I fixed it for you.

Also, this is really what you consider the greatest game story?

 

[JEBWrench]

That doesn't excuse the fact that you can switch the names of the characters in Dragon Age and it'd be pretty much the same.

I wasn't try to excuse it or anything. Just pointing out that LotR itself isn't all too original. It's just entertaining. As is DA:O's storyline. Not my vote for the greatest. That would be the Myst series in my opinion.

 

[Cody211282]

Where are all the people screaming "warcraft 3!"?

Guess I'll have to be alone in this.

Warcraft 3, bitches!

I loved the story and the lore, but Blizzard had to go and fuck it up with WoW.

OT: I loved Mass Effect and the first KOTOR, also Chrono trigger was fun if not a bit predictable in the end.

 

[Tjebbe]

Both said before, but worth repeating: Planescape: Torment, naturally.

It has been said before, but it was said by someone being a mild Troll, so I basically disreguarded him. However a few others and yourself have said it was story telling gold, but I haven't yet seen anyone explain why. I'm hoping you'll step up to the plate on that one.

I'll give it a shot, but it's probably something you just have to experience (and after this thread you're bound to be underwhelmed )

For starters the setting is awesome, taking place in D&Ds Planescape, you're an immortal that's accompanied by a cynical floating skull (somehow, cynical skulls make everything great).

This was one of the earlier games where your actions had consequences, mostly in the form of your alignment changing, but also, like fallout (another great one, storywise), sometimes with some grave results for NPCs in the game. And choices are nearly always ambiguous.

What got me the best was that you can talk your way out of almost anything if you want to (perhaps even everything, I solved the final boss battle through dialogue instead of fighting), should you choose to. Of course you don't have to.

They did an awful lot of things that were far from the norm back then, and also did quite a few that still are.

I'm probably doing a terrible job here, though I did convince myself i want to replay it now

 

[Beetlejooce]

Bioshock hands down, it's like a book and a game at the same time. And after the 'would you kindly' speech i couldn't put the controller down until i was finished

 

[Firia]

Bioshock hands down, it's like a book and a game at the same time. And after the 'would you kindly' speech i couldn't put the controller down until i was finished

Bioshock is one of those games I probably would never have played were it not for the wonderful story. Although my favorite character died half way through the game.

 

[fletch_talon]

I liked the story in Dragon Age: Origins. Was pretty epic.

Except it was 'Lord of the Rings' without the ring.

A young man from a small village is given an artifact of great and terrible power which he is told he must destroy by taking it into the heart of the kingdom of the dark lord who created it.
He is joined by a band of heroes, charged to protect him and his precious burden. Slowly, but surely, the dark power of the artifact began to corrupt the man and when separated from the heroes, he has only the love of his best friend to save him from himself.

A person from a place do something which gets them noticed by a group whose sole purpose is to protect the land from a powerful force of evil. They join the group, risking their life in the process and then carry on the war against the terrible foe.
When the groups leader is struck down in battle, it falls on the hero to use his skills in magic/combat to lead the armies of the land against the darkness.
But first, they must persuade the long warring factions of the land to work together, to avoid their division causing their downfall.

Totally the same story.
Perhaps you meant style or setting, but even then I don't recall Tolkien's elves being enslaved/racially persecuted/nomadic. I also don't recall magic being that common, nor was society so prejudiced against those who could use it. I don't recall... well let's just say I think your wrong.

 

[Anticitizen_Two]

<img=http://unrealitymag.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/president.gif>

WHY IS THIS NOT WORKING?

You have to use img and /img in tags instead of img=

Oh, now it makes sense. Thanks.

Spoiler: image contained within.

WHY IS THIS NOT WORKING?

I fixed it for you.

Also, this is really what you consider the greatest game story?

Haha, no, it was meant as a joke. And thank you.